TOP 10 2007 teams

Tough to put Allegiance in the top 10 given their results (beating McKinney is a feather in their cap but not enough to warrant that ranking given their losses against top competition). There's a massive gap from the top ten to the top 20. And beating up on the 10-20 group says very little about how a team would fair against the top 10. Rebels are in the same boat though they've played even weaker competition than Allegiance.

Allegiance had their chance two weeks ago to stake a claim in top 10 status and got smoked by two top 10 squads along with a tie against FCD Blue that got a ton of goals scored on them by everyone else they played. They'll get another chance, along with the Rebels, this coming weekend with PST, Rush, and Solar Kennington in the field. I'll be surprised if they manage any wins against those three teams.

So what players would you think out of the teams you have seen need to move to make other teams better?   I know FCD Dallas Premier has the best but what team from the smaller clubs would you put together to go against them?

A few spots are available on FC Dallas Premier Red.  Pool training happening tonight and next Wednesday at FCD Frisco complex:
https://www.fcdallas.com/post/2017/05/09/fc-dallas-youth-announces-boys-academy-and-premier-team-open-trainings-ahead-2017-18

FCD Premier doesn't necessarily have the best players in the age group...they have the best group of players in the age group. They may have some of the best, but so do a lot of the other teams.

Agree, they may not have the #1 kid at *every* position - but they absolutely don't have any weaknesses. And where they don't have the top kid - whoever is there is certainly really, really strong. As you said - other teams may have a single kid (or even a few) who are also really strong - but nobody has a top 9 as strong as them.

Aren't they doing there pool training sessions this week? They might be stronger after this week.

Guess it helps if I read all of the posts.

bueler13 wrote:So what players would you think out of the teams you have seen need to move to make other teams better?   I know FCD Dallas Premier has the best but what team from the smaller clubs would you put together to go against them?

Tough question to answer. I'd assume a possession style. Given that, you really have to start with the teams already playing that style and I'd stick to DT and Solar as aggregators which means DTR, McKinney, and Kennington receive players from elsewhere (I'm assuming no inter-sharing between these three). And I'll caveat all this by saying I don't know Elite/LPOwen, or Rush's teams as well as I know the others in the top 10 so I'm sure I'm missing some potential combinations.

DTR - Give them more size in the midfield and on defense and a bit more speed on the wings without impairing their ability to possess the ball, they improve meaningfully and probably surpass FCD. Need a top keeper. Improving this team would be tough to do given how good they are presently at playing one touch soccer. Integrating one kid at a time could improve them slowly but I don't see them getting meaningfully better by adding two to four kids because I think those kids would have a very difficult time playing DTR's system better than the kids they presently have. Just a top keeper would improve them meaningfully day one.

McKinney - already big and fast, they need to figure out how to integrate their new forward into the mix and get back to their solid possession approach (it was largely ditched in the mid and attacking third in their last tournament). Then if they'd add a bit more size to their defense, I think they challenge FCD. Probably the closest team in some ways to FCD today given their size and athleticism, though they are incredibly inconsistent (something that hasn't plagued FCD as they are consistently on top of their game). Keeper seemed undersized last time I saw him but athleticism means a lot more than size at this age in goal.

Kennington - Needs meaningful help on defense and adding solid holding mid would greatly improve this team Let them play out of the back without pressure and they create a lot of scoring opportunities, though an athletic high press on their defenders and mids gives their outside defenders fits presently which costs them a lot of goals due to turnovers in their defending third. New keeper seems to be a solid addition though only seen one tournament with him, if he is as good as he seemed in that tournament, they'll improve immediately. Be interesting to see how they do against PST and Rush this weekend. Play a good style and seem to stick to it even in the face of losses (not sure if that's a good or bad thing at this point given how bad some of those losses seem to be).

Rush/Elite/LPOwen/Allegiance - teams are already playing possession soccer but I do not consider them aggregators of talent given their lack of DA (though LP does have ECNL, guess it remains to be seen if they start pulling talented players based on that fact).

Volkan/PST - may or may not be able to contribute players, just depends on whether those individual players could quickly and easily learn/integrate into a possession style of play (some likely could, some likely couldn't). They would all invariably struggle a bit to take in the tactical strategies of a more advanced possession game (PST's boys because they're used to winning airballs and attacking almost recklessly versus building out of the back and looking to gradually build up an attack / Volkan's because they are used to attacking 1v1 then looking for teammates versus looking for teammates and using 1v1 skills to maintain possession). Volkan's kids probably have a bit easier transition though this both teams will struggle a bit.
Probably have some of the most potential talent however.

Assuming they could pick up the style of play (and that's a big if), adding one or both of PST's big mid's and Volkan/Allegiances solid centerbacks to Kennington would probably be a winning combination.

PST's mid's and Volkan/Allegiances centerbacks integrated into DTR would also make for an interesting team. I question whether they could play DTR's one touch style better than DTR's currently players however. Any addtion to DTR is likely to take time to gel in my mind given their style of play. I don't see any single player added to their team making an immediate difference honestly.

AYSES forward is a big question mark. He's a one man/boy show presently. No clue how he'd intergrate into a more team oriented philosophy. Assuming he could, he's a difference maker on any of the three teams above. I'd really like to see him play some top local teams to see how he performs. Put him on McKinney's team alongside their new forward and you've potentially got the best attacking duo in the age group locally. That duo could potentially outscore anyone they faced making McKinney's somewhat undersized (relatively speaking) defense a non-issue.

TayJ6 wrote:FCD Premier doesn't necessarily have the best players in the age group...they have the best group of players in the age group.  They may have some of the best, but so do a lot of the other teams.

I agree, FCD top to bottom is stronger as a group and that's why they are hard to beat even if they don't have the best at every position. As far as one-offs from smaller teams that would make a difference: Ayses forward is the best, Rush has the best midfielder and Allegiance has a top 3 center back (FCD and McKinney the other two in my opinion). If you put either the Ayses forward or Rush midfielder on DTR or McKinney they could take down FCD.

Rush has two good center mids, the short blonde hair and the holding poofy hair that are the hardest workers i have seen. Ayses forward is the fastest. Allegiance center back and blond hair forward are super solid players. Lp owen has hard working defenders and midfielders. The problem with small teams is keeping the talent and bringing in new talent. In a year or two it will be interesting to see where they go as far as other teams or da.

Is the Ayses forward you guys are talking about, the short left footed kid? If it is the same kid, he is a really good player. Reminds me of Messi.

I personally like DTR forward. He has good size, blazing speed, good finishing going left or right and really great vision.

I also heard that McKinney will be losing one of their forwards to the Texans South. And I believe their huge midfielder is an 08, so he won't be playing for them as well.

KOSoccer92 wrote:I also heard that McKinney will be losing one of their forwards to the Texans South.  And I believe their huge midfielder is an 08, so he won't be playing for them as well.

Keep the rumor mill flowing!
Not sure you got your facts straight about the alleged '08 player. My sources say different.

More compelling is the idea of losing a forward to Texans South. It doesn't make much sense barring a family move to that side of town. We were involved in several great games with TXS pre-split so I hold them in the highest regard, but they are barely a Silver team post split. Seems like there'd be better options for level of play.

McKinney's starting center midfielder is a late 07 bday, he's been on the team since it was formed. He would have been an 08 pre-AP, at that time he was playing up with GSSC. He's an 07 now.

Their new big forward is recently adopted from overseas. His "birth certificate" listed him as an 08 initially. I have been told that's been changed and he's officially an 07 now. True or not, who knows. Either way, the boy/young man should be snagged by the 06DA squad yesterday. He gains nothing developmentally playing with 07's, let alone '08's.

Slow down there a bit DS, 06DA is a bit of a stretch, he didn't dominate the 08 landscape, what makes you think he's making the jump to DA?

And if you think that kid is 9 years old, I have a bridge to sell you.

blues fan wrote:And if you think that kid is 9 years old, I have a bridge to sell you.  

Not arguing this point a bit.

Ayses kid is short blond hair kid that looks like DASH from the Incredibles and runs just as fast.  Yes the DTR forward is probably one of the best finishers at this time.

Does anyone know if once classic rolls around, they will be playing 2 divisions with 20 teams each like they currently do? Or switch to the 3 division 10 teams each setup?

U11 has historically just been d1 and d2. D3 hasn't been added till u12.

Unsure if it will be 20 and 20 or 20 and 10.

According to rule book updated April '17:

U11 has D1 and D2; 20 teams each
U12 has D1 and D2; 20 teams each
U13 has D1, D2, and D3; 10 teams each

I'm sure the addition of 10 teams to U11 and U12 was to give more of our precious children the opportunity to play classic league and had nothing to do with the $92000 increased annual revenue!

Although I don't disagree at all with the increased revenue argument, I think the change was officially made in order to try to cope with the age pure change last year.

DragonStryker wrote:Tough to put Allegiance in the top 10 given their results (beating McKinney is a feather in their cap but not enough to warrant that ranking given their losses against top competition). There's a massive gap from the top ten to the top 20. And beating up on the 10-20 group says very little about how a team would fair against the top 10. Rebels are in the same boat though they've played even weaker competition than Allegiance.  

Allegiance had their chance two weeks ago to stake a claim in top 10 status and got smoked by two top 10 squads along with a tie against FCD Blue that got a ton of goals scored on them by everyone else they played. They'll get another chance, along with the Rebels, this coming weekend with PST, Rush, and Solar Kennington in the field. I'll be surprised if they manage any wins against those three teams.

Hard to say that now seeing Allegiance just took down PST 4-2 in the Dallas Open.  I noticed Rebels lost to Rush 4-2, will be interesting to see how they do against PST.

Dallas Open
Allegiance 4-2 pst
Rush 4-2 dallas rebels
Solar Kennington 3-0 tigres

Just to chime in on Garland Tigres. I know for a fact they don't use older players. Actually, there were quite a few 08 players on their team. Also, I really wouldn't count them quite out yet. They lost some players for a few months, but those players are back. They learned the grass isn't always greener on the other side.  I can say that none of the players went to Texans at all. They were given guest player loans for some tournaments, but that's it on that issue. PSG did steal one of the best players, but he was an 08, so it doesn't really matter at this point I know they are extremely much cheaper than any other club out there. Think I wait and see what happens over the summer before I take any serious guesses at this point.