U-11 Classic D2 Predictions

Style of play

Solar5555 wrote:Style of play

Volkan better fix their style of play because they’re clearly struggling at this point.

I am basing this only on remaining schedule and results as I have only seen one team play every week.  
Rush is not an issue.  
Legends still have Rush (1), Carragher (3), Rayos (4) and tied (5) & (6).  
Carragher has already played top 6 ranked teams, excepting only Legends(2).
Rayos still has Rush and Legends and lost to the next ranking teams (3) & (5).  
Solar Martinez has already played top 3 with good results, 1-1-1.
Volkan has no wins below (8th) rank, and still have Rush(1), Martinez(5), DI Stars (7) to go.  

I think Legends & Rayos have toughest remaining schedule.  Carragher arguably easiest. Legends could fall out but don't think there is anyone to take over that spot.
They have not played ranked (1-4) and have one win ranks (5-7),  

Top 4, in order prediction:

1. Rush
2. Carragher
3. Solar Martinez
4. Legends

MUFC wrote:I am basing this only on remaining schedule and results as I have only seen one team play every week.  
Rush is not an issue.  
Legends still have Rush (1), Carragher (3), Rayos (4) and tied (5) & (6).  
Carragher has already played top 6 ranked teams, excepting only Legends(2).
Rayos still has Rush and Legends and lost to the next ranking teams (3) & (5).  
Solar Martinez has already played top 3 with good results, 1-1-1.
Volkan has no wins below (8th) rank, and still have Rush(1), Martinez(5), DI Stars (7) to go.  

I think Legends & Rayos have toughest remaining schedule.  Carragher arguably easiest. Legends could fall out but don't think there is anyone to take over that spot.
They have not played ranked (1-4) and have one win ranks (5-7),  

Top 4, in order prediction:

1. Rush
2. Carragher
3. Solar Martinez
4. Legends

Nice summary.

Why is lp carragher playing silver in texan tourny

Solar5555 wrote:Why is lp carragher playing silver in texan tourny

You think they're good enough to play gold?

Solar5555 wrote:Why is lp carragher playing silver in texan tourny

Why are you so worried about that team? You must be really upset that they beat Solar Volkan twice.

If a team wants to play Gold, Silver, Bronze that is their own decision. Obviously that coach knows what he is doing if he got that team into a tie for 2nd place in CL 2nd division. And if I recall, they have never played a tournament in gold division before.

Schedules are out for the LIVERPOOL RED WHITE BLUE  

Looks like allegiance is team to beat.

Don't sleep on Albion. That club is typically very competitive.

Socceropath wrote:Don't sleep on Albion.  That club is typically very competitive.

Would you classify them as a D1 or D2 type team?
When I say D2 I don’t mean Rush.

Solar5555 wrote:Looks like allegiance is team to beat.

probably because owen is playing u12

KOSoccer92 wrote:

Solar5555 wrote:Why is lp carragher playing silver in texan tourny

Why are you so worried about that team? You must be really upset that they beat Solar Volkan twice.

If a team wants to play Gold, Silver, Bronze that is their own decision.  Obviously that coach knows what he is doing if he got that team into a tie for 2nd place in CL 2nd division.  And if I recall, they have never played a tournament in gold division before.

They didn’t even make it out of the semis in silver so I think they chose correct.

They would have been stomped like St. John and Martinez and Dallas Texans South if they went to the gold tier

Week 2:

FC Dallas Black | AAOS 4-1
Dallas TNT | FC Dallas West 4-1
FC Premier | Solar M/L 1-3
Liverpool Carragher | Triumph 3-1
Dallas Rush | FC Legends 2-3 (game of the week)
Solar Martinez | Sporting United 3-1
Tigres | Texas Lightning 2-1
Rayos | FC Fast 3-1
Solar Volkan | Liverpool Heighway 4-0
DI Stars | Juventud 3-1

Just noticed that your game of the week score was right on. Anyone have any insight or feedback to the game? I assume it lived up to the "game of the week" hype.

Week 3 (Saturday):

Juventud | Rayos 2-4
AAOS | FC Fast 0-4
FC Dallas West | FC Legends 1-6
Solar M/L | FC Dallas Black 1-2
Texas Lightning | DI Stars 0-3
Tigres | Solar Martinez 1-3
Triumph | FC Premier 4-0
Liverpool Heighway | Dallas Rush 1-7
Sporting United | Solar Volkan 2-3
Liverpool Carragher | Dallas TNT 3-2

Week 3 (Sunday):

DI Stars | Tigres 3-1
FC Fast | FC Dallas West 1-3
FC Legends | Solar M/L 5-0
FC Dallas Black | Liverpool Carragher 3-2
Dallas TNT | FC Premier 3-1
Dallas Rush | Juventud 5-0
Rayos | Sporting United 3-1
Liverpool Heighway | AAOS 2-2
Solar Volkan | Texas Lightning 3-1
Solar Martinez | Triumph 4-2

Upset of the week goes to Solar M/L for pulling out a gutsy win over a fast athletic Legends squad. Tale of two halves and wind negating the speed for Legends led to the upset. No 5-0 prediction points for ABCD!

Saturday:
Solar Martinez | DI Stars 2-1
Texas Lightning | Rayos 1-4
Sporting United | Dallas Rush 1-5
Tigres | Solar Volkan 1-3
FC Dallas West | Liverpool Heighway 2-1
AAOS | Juventud 3-2
Solar M/L | FC Fast 2-1
Liverpool Carragher | FC Legends 2-4
FC Premier | FC Dallas Black 0-4
Triumph | Dallas TNT 3-2

Sunday:
FC Fast | FC Dallas West 3-1
Dallas Rush| Juventud 5-0
DI Stars | Tigres 3-1
Dallas TNT | FC Premier 3-1
Rayos | Sporting United 3-1
Liverpool Heighway | AAOS 1-3
Solar Volkan | Texas Lightning 4-1
Solar Martinez | Triumph 3-2

Juventud | FC Dallas West 3-1
Solar Volkan | Solar Martinez 2-1 (game of the week?)
Sporting United | AAOS 3-2
DI Stars | Triumph 2-1
Liverpool Heighway | Solar M/L 2-3
FC Fast | Liverpool Carragher 3-2
FC Legends | FC Premier 6-0
FC Dallas Black | Dallas TNT 2-1
Dallas Rush | Texas Lightning 7-1
Rayos | Tigres 4-1

Just noticed the scores on some of the D2 games last weekend.

Solar Martinez 6 x 5 Solar Volkan? Wow. very high scoring game.

Volkan doesn't typically give up that many goals. Anyone has any insight here?
This was a bad result for Volkan. Look at the standings, it looks like they might need help in order to make it into the top 4.

Great result for Martinez. Are they solidifying themselves as Solar's #3 team?

I caught the last 15 minutes of this game and it was a wide open scramble until the end. Martinez actually missed two gimmie goals during that stretch. It was like hot potato at the end for the Martinez D...clearing the ball out and let their kids up front control and spread the ball out. Volkan was pressing hard....maybe too hard at the end of didn't have a lot of quality shots. I think the Volkan kids were a bit shell-shocked at what was going on as I think the belief on their side was they would blow the doors off the Martinez team. It was entertaining to watch and maybe 3 goals were scored by both teams from the time I parked and walked up to the field. For the record I do not have a BB on either team and think they both played their hearts out at the end.

I think I saw the same stretch of the game...crazy wide open back and forth. As soon as Martinez finally took the lead he moved his forward(and by far best player) to center back and then sat back and tried to hold out the win. When I got there he was yelling to his team “a tie does us no good, we have to win!”
The end of the game had no midfield on either side, it was just blast the ball up the field for both teams. Exciting game, though. Wish I had seen more of it.

DblDown wrote:I think I saw the same stretch of the game...crazy wide open back and forth. As soon as Martinez finally took the lead he moved his forward(and by far best player) to center back and then sat back and tried to hold out the win. When I got there he was yelling to his team “a tie does us no good, we have to win!”
The end of the game had no midfield on either side, it was just blast the ball up the field for both teams. Exciting game, though. Wish I had seen more of it.

Thank you two for the insight.

While it was probably a fun game to watch, is this part of the problem we have here with Youth Soccer?

If any of these coaches were really worried about development instead of winning at all cost with a bunch of 10 year olds, the coaches would not push their kids to play kickball like they probably were in the last 10 minutes of the game...

Does it really matter that your BB's team won something when they were 10? Obviously it is good for these coaches to make it to D1...I get that ......but isn't this all about the Coach's EGO, ranks within their club and paycheck and NOT about development? If you were really worried about development, you would not move your forward to center back and take your center back out of the game.

Not picking on any particular coach in here, just using this as one more example of things that are wrong with the system...

Socceroo wrote:
Thank you two for the insight.

While it was probably a fun game to watch, is this part of the problem we have here with Youth Soccer?

If any of these coaches were really worried about development instead of winning at all cost with a bunch of 10 year olds, the coaches would not push their kids to play kickball like they probably were in the last 10 minutes of the game...

Does it really matter that your BB's team won something when they were 10? Obviously it is good for these coaches to make it to D1...I get that ......but isn't this all about the Coach's EGO, ranks within their club and paycheck and NOT about development? If you were really worried about development, you would not move your forward to center back and take your center back out of the game.

Not picking on any particular coach in here, just using this as one more example of things that are wrong with the system...

I couldn't agree more with you Socceroo. I'm a very competitive person, so I completely understand the urgency the coaches likely brought to the game. Both groups were fighting for a promotion into D1 Classic next year (not to mention inner club rivalries and bragging rights). Yet, I draw the line when you start moving kids around and making weird substitutions. I will say that Martinez is not a lone wolf in this sense. We've seen McKinney do the same to secure wins by having "the Man-Child" mark a kid over the entire pitch 1v1 style. It's a thin line to tote for coaches, because as parents we mostly judge coaches on the quality of their teams and the resulting success (Wins/Losses, etc.). Aren't we as much a part of the problem as the coaches? In my opinion, it always in some way goes back to the parents.

I don’t know if this really defends Volkan, but his team (while pushing HARD for a goal late) was probably playing their normal style to be honest. The standout to me was the effort from the kids, not so much a change in their style.

I’m not familiar enough with Martinez to know what his “normal” style is. But, I agree, the comment on winning and the odd substitution is walking a very fine line for 10 yr olds!

I also agree 100% on the importance of development, however and unfortunately Classic League is not the venue for development and I think to some degree we all understand that...maybe.  It's the venue for showcasing that development.  Otherwise why would this league keep score and have promotions and relegations from one division to the next.  It 100% promotes the actions of winning or winning at all cost.  I'm not saying that is right.  I'm just saying that's how it is set up for this age in this league.

We could look at the DA model which promotes more practice time and less games with the focus on development during practice, development during the first year or so during games with no scores published at u12, and no standings published until u15.  However the number one complaint from parents about DA...not enough games or game time for my kid to develop.  It's like we want this for our kids, or maybe like others have said for ourselves.

Until we change the venue or have a desire to change the venue it will remain the same.  However, I really don't think it's much different around the world, even at this age.  If you look at the youth teams that come here to play you can see where the difference is between our youth and their youth.  We lack a true soccer culture.  Our bigger problem in this country is the lack of a soccer culture that our kids can learn from each other vs. just from their coach and in league games.  Our kids don't get home from practice or school and go play soccer in the streets for hours learning things that can't be taught by a parent or a coach or sibling because we just don't know them yet.  Much like other countries look to the US for the sports culture of football, baseball, and basketball, we do our best to emulate others and their soccer culture.  Even just watching games of my boys playing against teams from other countries, those kids know how to win...at all cost, and we can't be naive to think that they should all come out and play pretty touch touch soccer.