legit 96's

lafc and fullerton rangers are legit 96's playing in the 97 age bracket, not making excuses but if you look at their website they are listed as U14 must be something with different age starts compared to the north texas age starts. not sure but what's your input and how do you guys feel about that and how they are dominating this age bracket in the dallas cup

From my experience rating the teams, these are both BU13 teams - some U13 california teams say '96', some say '97;' (same as some in South Texas) but these are both U13... the reason they are dominant is because they are better than everyone else.. My prating numbers from summer 09, for the QTR final teams:

LAFC 5.2
FCD 4.5
DTRS 4.4
FRWHITE 4.4
REALSOCAL 4.2
SURFACADEMY 3.4
LAFCBLACK 2.7
(CREW.ALEXANDER > 3.0, this tournament...)
These numbers mean that LAFC was(is) about 1 goal better than FCD/DTRS at the end of last summer... preliminary numbercrunching indicates that LAFC has climbed > 6.0, due to a ridiculously dominant fall season in the CSL Gold bracket, arguably the best league in the entire country.. (just ask those DTRS folks who went to the Surf Cup last July!)
Unfortunately, due to bad bracketing/seeding, the top 2 teams will meet today in the QTRs...Interestingly, LAFC only has a handful of losses in the past year, with 3 of them by 0-1 to Fullerton.!...

treefrog13 wrote:From my experience rating the teams, these are both BU13 teams - some U13 california teams say '96', some say '97;' (same as some in South Texas) but these are both U13... the reason they are dominant is because they are better than everyone else.. My prating numbers from summer 09, for the QTR final teams:

LAFC 5.2
FCD 4.5
DTRS 4.4
FRWHITE 4.4
REALSOCAL 4.2
SURFACADEMY 3.4
LAFCBLACK 2.7
(CREW.ALEXANDER > 3.0, this tournament...)
These numbers mean that LAFC was(is) about 1 goal better than FCD/DTRS at the end of last summer... preliminary numbercrunching indicates that LAFC has climbed > 6.0, due to a ridiculously dominant fall season in the CSL Gold bracket, arguably the best league in the entire country.. (just ask those DTRS folks who went to the Surf Cup last July!)
Unfortunately, due to bad bracketing/seeding, the top 2 teams will meet today in the QTRs...Interestingly, LAFC only has a handful of losses in the past year, with 3 of them by 0-1 to Fullerton.!...

Thanks for the stat's. Should be some exciting games today. I'll go with San Diego Surf over LAFC.

bootit wrote:

treefrog13 wrote:From my experience rating the teams, these are both BU13 teams - some U13 california teams say '96', some say '97;' (same as some in South Texas) but these are both U13... the reason they are dominant is because they are better than everyone else.. My prating numbers from summer 09, for the QTR final teams:

LAFC 5.2
FCD 4.5
DTRS 4.4
FRWHITE 4.4
REALSOCAL 4.2
SURFACADEMY 3.4
LAFCBLACK 2.7
(CREW.ALEXANDER > 3.0, this tournament...)
These numbers mean that LAFC was(is) about 1 goal better than FCD/DTRS at the end of last summer... preliminary numbercrunching indicates that LAFC has climbed > 6.0, due to a ridiculously dominant fall season in the CSL Gold bracket, arguably the best league in the entire country.. (just ask those DTRS folks who went to the Surf Cup last July!)
Unfortunately, due to bad bracketing/seeding, the top 2 teams will meet today in the QTRs...Interestingly, LAFC only has a handful of losses in the past year, with 3 of them by 0-1 to Fullerton.!...

Thanks for the stat's. Should be some exciting games today. I'll go with San Diego Surf over LAFC.

I pick LAFC, too strong for surfer boyz.

I think the CA "season" actually follows the calendar year...so they are U14 in Jan, vs. North Texas at U-14 in July. No big deal.
LAFC and Fullerton are the two best teams I have seen play at this age group. LAFC Black (ie. Legends), Real So Cal, Surf (with their 2-3 studs that are missing this tourney), etc....are very good, but not in the class of the two I mentioned up front. Granted, not a soccer expert, but Dallas Cup is the 2nd time we have seen these teams...we saw them at Surf Cup last July. For this age bracket, CA is deeper than North Texas in talent. May not be that way next year ot in future years....but it is the case right now. In the US, CA first, North Texas second....then it drops off pretty significantly for 3rd place in talent pools for youth soccer. Just as the Lehigh Valley braggard who spoke to Clueless before they played their first game. Homeboy is hopefully a little more humble at this point than he was early Monday morning. :-)

chriswhit wrote:I think the CA "season" actually follows the calendar year...so they are U14 in Jan, vs. North Texas at U-14 in July. No big deal.
)

While waiting for the LAFC/Crewe game today, had a 10-15 minute conversation with an LAFC parent (manager?). CAS has same Aug 1st birthdate rule as TX, (I guess many clubs/teams label themselves 96 to denote their oldest players, eg; Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec 96... some clubs even say 96-97, 97-08, to make things even clearer...) As for Legends, turns out they have recently merged with LAFC, so LAFC Chelsea is mostly orig LAFC + top 4 older (late 96) Legends, while LAFC Black is mostly orig Legends + younger (97) LAFC... As can be seen, both teams are even more gruesome than before. Imagine the top two NTX clubs merging...Yikes!

As for Lehigh, my pre-tourney numbers have them at 2.7, ie; Top D2, bottom of D1, so I knew they ,along with the FC Delco team, were in deep kimshi!

Thanks for the clarification TF13... Both LAFCs are very good....looking forward to seeing the results of them playing now.

I do not know when those CalSouth kids were born but they were all big, fast and in the case of LAFC very skilled. Fullerton was defintely the sceond best team but I would have loved to see a DTRS v Fullerton game since they play a very similar style and a FCD v LAFC game to see if FCD is able to move the ball as they like with as much pressure LAFC puts on the defense and through the midfield.

I saw part of the LAFC vs Fullerton quarterfinal game and would like to see them play in their natural habitat without the 40 mph wind. It would be a great game between two bitter rivals. I talked to parents from both sides. Fullerton has beaten LAFC before in close games.
All of the goals were scored with the wind. It was definitely a factor in this game.
I saw that LAFC beat LAFC Black 7 - 0 in the finals. Congratulations to the players on both teams and the organization.
Congratulations to Crewe Alexandra. They played their quarterfinal game with lots of heart and beat a good Texans team. They were totally overmatched by LAFC in their semifinal game but still played hard.
All in all a good tournament and I think the best team came out on top. I wish I could have seen more of the games but you end up missing everything moving from one to the other when they are all played at the same time.

Thank you to all who stopped me on the field and were very complimentary about our team. But to be clear, our LAFC boys are all Sept. 96s and younger. They are big boys and though our additions (3 Legends field players) helped, they were not the difference in any of the games. Though our team scores a few goals, it's our defense that wins championships. We loved our visit to Texas and look forward to next year.

Come to Surf Cup in July as it is still been the most competitive tournament we have entered... We have been lucky enough to win the last three finals but bracket play has always been close...

Thanks for the Texas hospitality...

Silver wrote: But to be clear, our LAFC boys are all Sept. 96s and younger.

Stated more accurately: " . . . .our LAFC boys all have birth certificates that contend they are Sept.96s and younger."

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote: But to be clear, our LAFC boys are all Sept. 96s and younger.

Stated more accurately: " . . . .our LAFC boys all have birth certificates that contend they are Sept.96s and younger."

Ahh, now that's not a nice implication...Every boy has their original certified birth certificate, and we have never been questioned or even accused of anything you are implying... We have been at the top of the pile since U10 state championship and have attracted the best boys in the area. Some are committed enough to travel 75 miles one way to practice and have for more than three years...

[quote="Silver"][quote="Crochet"]

Silver wrote: Every boy has their original certified birth certificate . . .

Ahh, now that's an interesting answer. How do you know every boy has their original certified birth certificate? In fact, are you certain everyplace in North America certifies birth certificates?
Here's my point. LAFC and West Coast FC bring teams to Dallas Cup each year with boys that are much larger and significant more maturely developed than our North Texas boys. Just find the difference interesting and I dont have a good explanation for it.
Do you?

[quote="Crochet"][quote="Silver"]

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote: Every boy has their original certified birth certificate . . .

Ahh, now that's an interesting answer. How do you know every boy has their original certified birth certificate? In fact, are you certain everyplace in North America certifies birth certificates?
Here's my point. LAFC and West Coast FC bring teams to Dallas Cup each year with boys that are much larger and significant more maturely developed than our North Texas boys. Just find the difference interesting and I dont have a good explanation for it.
Do you?

LA is three times larger than Dallas. Our '97 FCD team was of similar size to those teams. I do find the birth certificate issue to be universal (every state I've been in has had similar accusations when playing other areas).
Basketball and Football get this argument way more than soccer...IMO.

[quote="Crochet"][quote="Silver"]

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote: Every boy has their original certified birth certificate . . .

Ahh, now that's an interesting answer. How do you know every boy has their original certified birth certificate? In fact, are you certain everyplace in North America certifies birth certificates?
Here's my point. LAFC and West Coast FC bring teams to Dallas Cup each year with boys that are much larger and significant more maturely developed than our North Texas boys. Just find the difference interesting and I dont have a good explanation for it.
Do you?

Well, to begin with I am the Team Manager and Assistant Coach. I carry the original certified documents as a requirement of our State Cup that just finished a month ago. Certified copies have an embossed stamp on the form, it's funny that some of these boys who have played for me and my coach since before U9 have never been questioned about their age. My son born Sept. 96 is almost 5'9"...I suppose your going to accuse me of forging his BC. Someone else has noted the difference in population between Dallas and SoCal, more kids some maybe be bigger. Can't you just lose graciously or does your cynical mind believe just because you lose to these teams there has to be something wrong. Our players (WC and LAFC) have been playing against each other for 5 years, don't you think someone would have do brought this up if we thought these kids were older? I suppose you believe there was more than one shooter at the depository as well?

Aswan wrote:

Just because they are bigger doesn’t mean they are older. On the other hand, Barcelona 95s from LA dominated the Dallas and Surf Cups for a while. Their run ended when they were found to be older than the boys they were playing, were stripped of their cups, and banned. While I am not in favor of witch hunts and abhor rumor mongering, vigilance is the price of fairness.

When did this happen? The team broke up because they couldn't agree on the coach as well as the financial backer for the team stepping away. Do you know when they were banned from playing ? It news to me...

[quote="clueless"][quote="Crochet"]

Silver wrote:

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote: Every boy has their original certified birth certificate . . .

Ahh, now that's an interesting answer. How do you know every boy has their original certified birth certificate? In fact, are you certain everyplace in North America certifies birth certificates?
Here's my point. LAFC and West Coast FC bring teams to Dallas Cup each year with boys that are much larger and significant more maturely developed than our North Texas boys. Just find the difference interesting and I dont have a good explanation for it.
Do you?

LA is three times larger than Dallas. Our '97 FCD team was of similar size to those teams. I do find the birth certificate issue to be universal (every state I've been in has had similar accusations when playing other areas).
Basketball and Football get this argument way more than soccer...IMO.

Clue seems to have gotten the right idea. A larger pool to pull from does sway the odds in LAs favor(see Plano footbal in the 80s,2000+ kids per class and a couple of state titles), also NTx could easily field teams of that size but those kids mostly play football and basketball. So I will give the edge to So Cal in soccer for now but NTx would kick their butts in football and basketball.

[quote="True10"][quote="clueless"]

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote:

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote: Every boy has their original certified birth certificate . . .

Ahh, now that's an interesting answer. How do you know every boy has their original certified birth certificate? In fact, are you certain everyplace in North America certifies birth certificates?
Here's my point. LAFC and West Coast FC bring teams to Dallas Cup each year with boys that are much larger and significant more maturely developed than our North Texas boys. Just find the difference interesting and I dont have a good explanation for it.
Do you?

LA is three times larger than Dallas. Our '97 FCD team was of similar size to those teams. I do find the birth certificate issue to be universal (every state I've been in has had similar accusations when playing other areas).
Basketball and Football get this argument way more than soccer...IMO.

Clue seems to have gotten the right idea. A larger pool to pull from does sway the odds in LAs favor(see Plano footbal in the 80s,2000+ kids per class and a couple of state titles), also NTx could easily field teams of that size but those kids mostly play football and basketball. So I will give the edge to So Cal in soccer for now but NTx would kick their butts in football and basketball.

And things will even out when these boys are 16- 18 years old... Right now heights are all over the page.

I would like to give thanks to LAFC and Fullerton as they provided a better venue for gracious losses by making the scores so lopsided.
Personally, I saw 4 of LAFC's games and was very impressed, as was our coach. If we pulled off a miracle and defeated Fullerton, we would face LAFC - which would have been fun to watch (if you sold goal netting, that is). Never seen so many goals from 30 yard throw-ins before. We just didn't have anyone who could catch Fullerton's fast fwd, if they did catch him, it was about a 50lb differential.
Having managed/coached teams for 10 years - there is no way I would even know if a birth certificate were doctored or valid unless I did the forging (anyone seeing our team's relative height would know that's unlikely). My next door neighbor is younger than my 13 year old and is 200+, 5'10". He was always bigger - that just happens when your parents are giants or you mature quicker than the norm. Personally, I just think it's the easiest accusation as there isn't an easy way to manipulate games (LLWS has 12 year olds that are all close to 6-ft tall with facial hair - I'd imagine they have their birth certs tatooed on their backs).

clueless wrote:I would like to give thanks to LAFC and Fullerton as they provided a better venue for gracious losses by making the scores so lopsided.
Personally, I saw 4 of LAFC's games and was very impressed, as was our coach. If we pulled off a miracle and defeated Fullerton, we would face LAFC - which would have been fun to watch (if you sold goal netting, that is). Never seen so many goals from 30 yard throw-ins before. We just didn't have anyone who could catch Fullerton's fast fwd, if they did catch him, it was about a 50lb differential.
Having managed/coached teams for 10 years - there is no way I would even know if a birth certificate were doctored or valid unless I did the forging (anyone seeing our team's relative height would know that's unlikely). My next door neighbor is younger than my 13 year old and is 200+, 5'10". He was always bigger - that just happens when your parents are giants or you mature quicker than the norm. Personally, I just think it's the easiest accusation as there isn't an easy way to manipulate games (LLWS has 12 year olds that are all close to 6-ft tall with facial hair - I'd imagine they have their birth certs tatooed on their backs).

Maybe the fees make a difference as well. LAFC top teams have basically a free ride and attract top players from the region while here not so much.

I sat right behind the bench during the U13 LAFC final and chatted with the coach. I was impressed with their use of the 3-5-2 formation. It was played mostly as a 3-3-4, which applies pressure to the back of a 4-4-2. The middle group swept the errant ball and played chase to switch. The defensive triangle was anchored by a BFS and surrounded by speed, size and agility. His team was able to execute well and transitioned seamlessly. Smart play with the feet and the head.

[quote="True10"][quote="clueless"]

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote:

Crochet wrote:

Silver wrote: Every boy has their original certified birth certificate . . .

Ahh, now that's an interesting answer. How do you know every boy has their original certified birth certificate? In fact, are you certain everyplace in North America certifies birth certificates?
Here's my point. LAFC and West Coast FC bring teams to Dallas Cup each year with boys that are much larger and significant more maturely developed than our North Texas boys. Just find the difference interesting and I dont have a good explanation for it.
Do you?

LA is three times larger than Dallas. Our '97 FCD team was of similar size to those teams. I do find the birth certificate issue to be universal (every state I've been in has had similar accusations when playing other areas).
Basketball and Football get this argument way more than soccer...IMO.

Clue seems to have gotten the right idea. A larger pool to pull from does sway the odds in LAs favor(see Plano footbal in the 80s,2000+ kids per class and a couple of state titles), also NTx could easily field teams of that size but those kids mostly play football and basketball. So I will give the edge to So Cal in soccer for now but NTx would kick their butts in football and basketball.

You said the magic words...my bb is 50 percentile height for his age, but his Jr high is full of much bigger kids in both 7th & 8th grade, they just don't play soccer...
Note that the English Crew team had some giants as well, for all the good it did... Watched the year-older semi-finals at the same time, believe the LAFC 96/97 would have beaten EITHER of the 2 teams (ie; DT or WCFC..)

finish1 wrote:I sat right behind the bench during the U13 LAFC final and chatted with the coach. I was impressed with their use of the 3-5-2 formation. It was played mostly as a 3-3-4, which applies pressure to the back of a 4-4-2. The middle group swept the errant ball and played chase to switch. The defensive triangle was anchored by a BFS and surrounded by speed, size and agility. His team was able to execute well and transitioned seamlessly. Smart play with the feet and the head.

We actually run a 4-4-2 but have two defenders who attack the wings so it may look like a 3-5-2. Truth is when #2 the left back makes his run it's more like a 3-3-4, lol...

Were we able to confirm he benches two plates?