Bobby Rhine Tournament Predictions

PremierLeagueFan wrote: BTW, the FCD El Paso team cannot hold a candle to the FCD Academy team by a wide margin.

I assume the FCD U18 DA team would beat both. Though, to be fair, its entirely possible that the FCD U13PA team is not actually older than that El Paso team.

When we played El Paso last year in the qualifier they were much larger and faster than we were and a few of the boys played at a level that we weren't used to seeing in our age group.

The most incredible player on that team is now playing for the academy team and frankly he is an amazing talent and not someone that you see very often (he plays like a 16 year old).

I think the El Paso team gets access to a large player pool that wants to make the journey to Frisco so maybe that is why they are so competitive.

Either way, when you pressure our top tier teams in NTX it really shows how excellent we are and how important it is that our top tier teams train consistently at an early age because the competition over the long haul gets stronger and bigger and faster to the point that skill is essential to remain competitive.

PremierLeagueFan wrote:When we played El Paso last year in the qualifier they were much larger and faster than we were and a few of the boys played at a level that we weren't used to seeing in our age group.

The most incredible player on that team is now playing for the academy team and frankly he is an amazing talent and not someone that you see very often (he plays like a 16 year old).

I think the El Paso team gets access to a large player pool that wants to make the journey to Frisco so maybe that is why they are so competitive.

Either way, when you pressure our top tier teams in NTX it really shows how excellent we are and how important it is that our top tier teams train consistently at an early age because the competition over the long haul gets stronger and bigger and faster to the point that skill is essential to remain competitive.

Oh, puleeze! Just because you are now playing with FCD, please don't start drinking the koolaid. Those boys (not all, only about 5) are larger and faster because they are OLDER, period. Yeah, yeah, but, but... they have proof, blah, blah, blah. Every team that played them this weekend was pretty much disgusted, then (if number13 is not joking) they get invited to the DC anyway, despite losing the qualifier. We play U14 in Plano. They're bigger than those players, go figure! How old is your academy kid that played u12 last year? There aren't that many players that can suddenly crawl out from under a rock, even from a large player pool like El Paso!

The DC applied teams at U13 had that EP team listed.  It has FCDP also.  Quite sure that list was posted prior to Bobby Rhine. Did not yet show Castro for winning this weekend, so assume invite had nothing to do with past weekend.

It's an FCD thing they brought Fcd teams.  Seems fair.

I remember when we played EP, our Gks father was giving their parents static about the kids being too old.  No clue where that guy went from there.  

Ibstander I would never drink the koolaid and if you think that I am going to make age related excuses for players who drive themselves to a game then you don't know me. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to watch our kids have to endure games with bad ref's and over age players and I would be the first to agree if it walks, flies, and quacks like a duck then it's a duck.

My point was NOT to challenge the veracity of the earlier post, but to commend our players for continuing to overcome everything that is thrown at them. Nobody has given a hoot about age in tournaments for so long that I finally just told my BB to channel his frustration into the game.

Watching our elite players get unnecessarily thumped physically so someone's older sibling can play in their spot is not something that I will ever accept so don't confuse my statement about one player as a blanket acceptance of all the rest.

FCD academy isn't going to masquerade an over age player and even though I am very skeptical in general I can see that the Academy system in Frisco has integrity and would not be willing to sully its reputation to roster an over age player. Ironically it is the younger players who they seem to favor at this early stage of their development process which is why I think top tier teams like Ody and Solar are successful and will continue to win with younger players.

You have to give credit to Solar for being the youngest, most competitive team in TEPAL this year and to Ody for being the top team in both CL and SCPL. That is what I chose to focus my post on instead of bemoaning the unfairness that we have to wade through.

At least we have the forum where we can air out our concerns and maybe call a few injustices out or at least raise a few questions here and there.