Primetime Cup Championship Tournament

Should be an awesome tournament in the U8 bracket, all very solid, top tier Teams. I'm predicting the LFC Barnes Team will be in the finals against either Solar Red Oglesby or Solar Chelsea McDaniels, with a slim victory for the winner. No matter what, there will be some serious competition between all the Teams involved and it'll be a hell of a show. Good luck to all!

Congrats to all the teams that played in the PT tournament. On paper, it looked like one of the tougher tournaments, with several of the more competitive U8 teams in the pool.

Based on the results it was in fact a very competitive tourney.

http://www.primetimefiles.com/pdf/6.6.14.TX.SO.CLTN.U8B.pdf

After an undefeated run through pool play, Solar Red couldn't quite overcome FC Dallas Gomez, err, Left Foot Studio. Whatever you call the combined LFS/FCD team (all is fair in love and academy soccer), I heard they were very technical and they obviously played quite well together.

Congrats to LFS and Solar Red.

It was nice to see the two Solar teams do well without having to play the "guest player" game the other teams play. I actually heard that a few teams will not be invited to certain tournaments because they don't field a consistent team from tournament to tournament. What was interesting to us was that the boys caught on to it and made comments about how those teams have to combine to beat the Solar teams. They may have the hardware (this time), but we have the pride and character.

It is youth academy soccer. The idea is for the kids to play with whoever they want and not be stuck with a team!!! That time is coming. If teams use guest players, who cares. Play what is out there and get better. Pride and character.....Come on. How are you going to question someones pride and character because they use guest players? It is not cheating.

On another note, there is no way teams won't be invited because they don't field a consistent team.....How are you going to track or enforce that? Lol, Ridiculous..

I agree with ShastaTx, don't sully the win on account of the guest players because it sounds like sour grapes on your part and frankly the best part of tournament play is seeing who shows up.

Team X gave us a Wonderful Performance at SuperCopa this year as they Battled DT South in the Championship final and represented NTX and City Futsal Academy.

My Momma always said:
Tournament teams was like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get.

Interesting philosophy: "The team doesn't matter."
Can't say that I agree with that one...

I guess what you both fail to realize is that academy coaches playing with the kids like Lego's isn't about the boys at all.
It's a business to many of them and the best way to get more money is to get their name on hardware.
Since they can't do it as a coach, they do it being a manager.
The real coaches are the ones who make the entire team better by actually coaching.

Thankfully, we play for an awesome coach.

And BTW, we beat the LFS mixed team in pool play so their is no sour grapes on our part. Just unfortunate that another team had fall...

Tournaments are to build individual mental toughness. Playing the toughest team will help build that. You go to a tournament to win the hardware. League play is for development.

From the sound of it you are probably on your first competitive team and are feeling a little proud of yourself by calling out little BB's for having fun and playing with their mates in tournaments, but don't be too critical because at this age it's fun to play and there is not a lot at stake.

On the other hand a lot of members posting on this forum have BB's who have gone from the youth academy to the development academy so please try to contain your enthusiasm when tearing down the reputations of coaches, teams and 06 BB's. By looking at it with your head instead of your heart, you might gain some insight into the process and save yourself some grief.

PremierLeagueFan wrote: By looking at it with your head instead of your heart, you might gain some insight into the process and save yourself some grief.

Great advice PLF.  There are many newbies on here that could use this advice me included.

Let me just say this....Our team does not use guest players and I do not care one bit who our opponents get to play for their team as long as the kids are of the right age. I look at it as the better the team we play, the better my son and his teammates have to play. They will have to pick their game up. Since guest playing is within the rules, there is no reason to worry about it.

There are many academy and for that matter select coaches that could care less about your kid and there are many that do. As long as you are happy with what you are getting with your coach, don't worry about what the others are doing. The good thing about academy soccer is that you are able to get to look at multiple coaches and organizations. Luckily, we have fallen into a great spot and enjoy our coach and the other parents on the team.

Finally, it is nice that my son is still able to legally play with some of his friends that have gone separate ways over the last couple of years. Hell, it is nice to be able to play with kids of different caliber and in different situations sometimes. I know in another year that will not be possible, so enjoy your freedom while you can and not worry so much about the other teams and their guest players. Good luck!!!

You all bring up interesting points but fail to realize the detrimental psychology behind them.
The boys understand what is going on far more than you may realize.
Changing out players doesn't motivate them to work harder, it teaches them that it is someone else's fault.
It teaches them not to help their teammates, just switch them out.

The real principle that should be taught is how can the players help others on the team so that they win without needing guest players.
That will get them very far in life.

League play is where you try out new things, new alignments, new teammates.
Tournaments are where you test your team against others to check progress.
It is very hard to check real progress when the team you bring to a tournament is different.
So, why bring a different team at all?

Ozymandias.EBON wrote:You all bring up interesting points but fail to realize the detrimental psychology behind them.
The boys understand what is going on far more than you may realize.
Changing out players doesn't motivate them to work harder, it teaches them that it is someone else's fault.
It teaches them not to help their teammates, just switch them out.

The real principle that should be taught is how can the players help others on the team so that they win without needing guest players.
That will get them very far in life.

League play is where you try out new things, new alignments, new teammates.
Tournaments are where you test your team against others to check progress.
It is very hard to check real progress when the team you bring to a tournament is different.
So, why bring a different team at all?

Amen!!!

PremierLeagueFan wrote:From the sound of it you are probably on your first competitive team and are feeling a little proud of yourself by calling out little BB's for having fun and playing with their mates in tournaments, but don't be too critical because at this age it's fun to play and there is not a lot at stake.

On the other hand a lot of members posting on this forum have BB's who have gone from the youth academy to the development academy so please try to contain your enthusiasm when tearing down the reputations of coaches, teams and 06 BB's. By looking at it with your head instead of your heart, you might gain some insight into the process and save yourself some grief.

I was guilty of this.  Took so much pride in my son's former Team until he was cut for reasons that have become obvious, had nothing to do with him.  It was devastating, not only for my son, but for the entire family.  My first, natural instinct was to get him on the "rival" team in our area so that my son could exact his "revenge" and show his former coaches that they had made a huge mistake.  However, it was my 8 year old son who ended up being the voice of reason.

He told me that soccer had not been fun for him in a long while, and that between the coaches and us (parents), it felt more like a job for him.  With that came the realization that we had been pushing him hard and that his prior coaches did seem to be more focused on recruiting than on development, which seems to be the norm as you start to approach select, but not for 8 year old Academy Teams.

We decided that it would be a good move to get him on a new team that is more focused on development, rather than status, wins and trophies.  They do not play at the same level as his prior team and some of the players have a ways to go to reach the caliber of that of his prior teammates, but right now, that is no longer what is important to us.  My son is HAVING FUN and actually smiles during practice.  He is forming bonds with his new teammates on and off the pitch and is learning new skills instead of just running drills.

My point here is that when all is said and done, we are still talking about 8/9 year old boys who are playing a game!  Will I want my son to get back to the level he was playing with his last team?  ABSOLUTELY!  But it doesn't have to be tomorrow.  At this point I'd much rather foster his re-kindled love of the game so that he can truly develop to his full potential.

In the next two years on the road to select your team will change many times. Trust me...the most loyal kid, the best kid, the managers kid who would NEVER leave, will all leave. Been there, done that with my DD and other BB.

Guest playing? Get used to it - it will never go away and is a part of the development. My main beef is gold kids who play in a gold team then leave to play in the silver version of that team in the same tournament on the same day . That us not allowed but it done all the time. Hard to catch but it happens more oft than not.

The best thing you can do for your kid at this age no matter how good they are is to make sure they love playing, to get them with a coach who is actually developing them (many times this means you may not be winning as much) and to make sure they are getting the most playing time you can get them ( better to play 85% if a strong silver team than riding the bench on a gold team). Mark that down....bookmark it. Because already right now some if you are ignoring it.

Trust me....many if the gold kids you see getting screamed at by their coach today won't be playing in two years and several won't be playing two years from then. North Texas soccer is very aggressive in their push of youth soccer.

Relax and enjoy the ride. They are 8. They have only been walking 7 years, only talking 6 and only diaper trained 5. They have a long way to go before they sign up for the World Cup (but when they do I will be cheering them on since they came form north texas!).

Where is the "like" button!!!