Isn’t the whole purpose really to just put a lot of 8, 9, 10, and 11 year old kids in a high stress environment. That way we can make them cry, all sorts of adults can yell at them, and they can have their self-worth trashed. Maybe the schools should start using tournament-like approaches towards developing our children’s abilities? It must be an effective model, I mean look at all the soccer talent coming from the area...

Or maybe brackets have talent levels that vary and at young ages it hard to really know given the limited history of games. Much depends on the coaches providing honest input as to what level their team is prepared for. Some coaches over inflate their teams capabilities while others play down brackets in order to get easy wins and pad their win/loss with some championships over less teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:maybe the team just isnt that good???

Or maybe the club didn't do a good job playing its own teams...

Maybe the other teams development model is more effective than what your team is using. If these are teams and clubs you’ve played in the past and they are trending more dominant, re-evaluate where your are.

My daughter played Alexandria. The Limerick fields were amazing. They moved the finals to Simpson on grass. Horrible fields ans the game was cut short. I did think competition was fair in the bracket.
Now my son's team was at a different tournament and got destroyed in the top bracket. I understand how tough that can be on morale. But it does show the kids that they need to work harder. Not a bad thing.

Anonymous wrote:maybe the team just isnt that good???

Or maybe the club didn't do a good job playing its own teams...

Anonymous wrote:

My kid (boy) who is an ASA player, did the tournament. I was pretty frustrated with the event as our team was not well-matched against our opponents. I get that the team is going to lose at times, which is fine, but all 3 of our opponents were clearly much more athletic kids that were better at soccer. I'm not sure how this was set up, but it was super discouraging for our kids.


Perfectly normal - Perhaps you are a U9 parent? If so, talk with parents on older teams and they will tell you this is pretty normal in U9 tournaments at the beginning of the year. Things and kids can change a lot in a short period. But you put your finger on something very important - how to keep their chins up at that age and avoid getting down on themselves and others. This can happen to teams in top brackets even when they win most of their games. It’s part of the growth process through supports and requires good parents. You are in a good club environment for that. We have been in other environments that were not.

No, definitely not U9. We have done this particular tournament in several previous years, as well as many other tournaments over the time that DS has been playing. And this is the most disappointed I have ever been in terms of us being completely outmatched by every team we played against.

This is fairly normal for many tourneys to have some momentum that swings for and against. Some teams against whom we were evenly matched or struggled against in the regular season we dominated in a tourney. And vice versa.

maybe the team just isnt that good???

My kid (boy) who is an ASA player, did the tournament. I was pretty frustrated with the event as our team was not well-matched against our opponents. I get that the team is going to lose at times, which is fine, but all 3 of our opponents were clearly much more athletic kids that were better at soccer. I'm not sure how this was set up, but it was super discouraging for our kids.


Perfectly normal - Perhaps you are a U9 parent? If so, talk with parents on older teams and they will tell you this is pretty normal in U9 tournaments at the beginning of the year. Things and kids can change a lot in a short period. But you put your finger on something very important - how to keep their chins up at that age and avoid getting down on themselves and others. This can happen to teams in top brackets even when they win most of their games. It’s part of the growth process through supports and requires good parents. You are in a good club environment for that. We have been in other environments that were not.

No, definitely not U9. We have done this particular tournament in several previous years, as well as many other tournaments over the time that DS has been playing. And this is the most disappointed I have ever been in terms of us being completely outmatched by every team we played against.

Anonymous wrote:My kid (boy) who is an ASA player, did the tournament. I was pretty frustrated with the event as our team was not well-matched against our opponents. I get that the team is going to lose at times, which is fine, but all 3 of our opponents were clearly much more athletic kids that were better at soccer. I'm not sure how this was set up, but it was super discouraging for our kids.

Perfectly normal - Perhaps you are a U9 parent? If so, talk with parents on older teams and they will tell you this is pretty normal in U9 tournaments at the beginning of the year. Things and kids can change a lot in a short period. But you put your finger on something very important - how to keep their chins up at that age and avoid getting down on themselves and others. This can happen to teams in top brackets even when they win most of their games. It’s part of the growth process through supports and requires good parents. You are in a good club environment for that. We have been in other environments that were not.

My kid (boy) who is an ASA player, did the tournament. I was pretty frustrated with the event as our team was not well-matched against our opponents. I get that the team is going to lose at times, which is fine, but all 3 of our opponents were clearly much more athletic kids that were better at soccer. I'm not sure how this was set up, but it was super discouraging for our kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With wags in the same weekend, doesn’t make sense so not have Alexandria girls participate in one of the biggest tournaments for girls.

Have to keep the money in house. Why spend it on a large respected tournament? As far as going to the ASA tourney, you physically couldn’t park with that disaster a Witter.

So let me get this straight...

You pay Alexandria to do tournaments and learn soccer but the only tournaments you can do is the Columbus day tournament (Inhouse) and in the spring the ASK Spring kickoff (Inhouse) how are we not pissed off why are we letting Alexandria get away with this? no wonder so much money is being saved and kept.

The ASA bashing is getting ridiculous, are you an ASA parent?

Most teams charge extra over the club fees to pay for tournament costs. Do your teams not participate in non-club tournaments?

It seems like ASA is more concerned about who their critics are rather than addressing the concerns raised - other clubs don’t seem to spend so much time here. Most of the tournaments are not about teaching your kids soccer. It’s usually about charging an extra $70-$80 fee per kid either in your annual club fees or separately. For that price kids get to play on fields that are either too big or too small, games are usually rushed and short, there is no space or time for proper warm-ups and cool downs, and the emphasis is all about winning the plastic junk handed out at the end. None of these traits are about soccer development they are all about maximizing revenue. You are probably better off insisting on a lower club fee so you can choose where to spend your tournament money. That way you can look for tournaments that emphasize proper games and environment over money. If you can’t find a tournament that offers a worthwhile venue, it is a lot cheaper to just have some friendlies on the weekend. Most teams get a lot more out of scrimmages with neighboring clubs and the money teams save -about $800+ per team is significant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With wags in the same weekend, doesn’t make sense so not have Alexandria girls participate in one of the biggest tournaments for girls.

Have to keep the money in house. Why spend it on a large respected tournament? As far as going to the ASA tourney, you physically couldn’t park with that disaster a Witter.

So let me get this straight...

You pay Alexandria to do tournaments and learn soccer but the only tournaments you can do is the Columbus day tournament (Inhouse) and in the spring the ASK Spring kickoff (Inhouse) how are we not pissed off why are we letting Alexandria get away with this? no wonder so much money is being saved and kept.

The ASA bashing is getting ridiculous, are you an ASA parent?

Most teams charge extra over the club fees to pay for tournament costs. Do your teams not participate in non-club tournaments?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With wags in the same weekend, doesn’t make sense so not have Alexandria girls participate in one of the biggest tournaments for girls.

Have to keep the money in house. Why spend it on a large respected tournament? As far as going to the ASA tourney, you physically couldn’t park with that disaster a Witter.

So let me get this straight...

You pay Alexandria to do tournaments and learn soccer but the only tournaments you can do is the Columbus day tournament (Inhouse) and in the spring the ASK Spring kickoff (Inhouse) how are we not pissed off why are we letting Alexandria get away with this? no wonder so much money is being saved and kept.

Anonymous wrote:With wags in the same weekend, doesn’t make sense so not have Alexandria girls participate in one of the biggest tournaments for girls.

Have to keep the money in house. Why spend it on a large respected tournament? As far as going to the ASA tourney, you physically couldn’t park with that disaster a Witter.

With wags in the same weekend, doesn’t make sense so not have Alexandria girls participate in one of the biggest tournaments for girls.