Youth soccer club

[TU_BLA]

Weekend update: My son's team went 1-1-1 on the weekend with the loss coming to a Celtic RL team that was probably sand bagging just a bit. The drew their first game against OKC Energy Navy team after conceding a last minute equalizer. My son was not in goal for that one. My son played really well and actually had an assist from his GK spot after knocking a free kick about 60 yds on a diagonal to the left wing who blew by the defender, took the ball and hammered a shot that the keeper couldn't keep out. 1st half was tied 1-1. My son played the field in the 2nd half...probably the 1st time he has done so in a non-scrimmage setting in 4 years. He gets in, makes a run and gets the ball in the box and he gets hammered down by a defender. PK awarded. My son, being the newcomer to the team asked some of the teammates if they had a designated PK taker and they said no and one kid handed him the ball. My son HAMMERS the PK into the top left corner. 2-1 lead. He nearly scores again a couple minutes later and then he sets up a nice combo play that results in a goal but it's brought back as the player went into the space early and called offside.

2nd game vs Celtic. 4-0 loss. My son played the 1st half and conceded 2 on breakaways. He also had about 8 more saves and interventions on over the top ball and 1 v 1s. After the game a parent came up to him and said that's the best keeper play he's seen in a while. He played the 2nd half in the field but not quite as effective although he made one kid lose a shoe on a nice turn and deke. He also nutmegged a kid as well. That kid's teammates gave him the business for getting megged by a keeper.

Yesterday vs MWC...2-1 win. My son had a "secondary assist" after finding a teammate on a long punt who them flicked it on the an overlapping run and that kid hammered a shot from 25 yds into the far post side netting. MWC tied it up on an own goal off a corner. 2nd half, Blitz score off a nice play where the goal scorer tracked down the ball and hit a wicked cross that got touched in by a teammate. My son played in the field the 2nd half. As he was getting ready to come on, one of the parents remarked "our best player is about to come on".

It was a decent weekend. The Blitz 06 EA group won their bracket in PKs yesterday. We didn't stay for the game but it's apparent the boys consider my son a part of that team as well as several came up to him before their game on Saturday evening and asked if he was playing with them. There is a kid on the EA team who has the ability to completely dominate a game if he wants to. Think Daryl Dike man amongst boys in HS ability to dominate. This kid hit a cracker from 40 yds out, hit the upper 90 and had the goalkeeper so stunned, the keeper's knees buckled but he never actually moved from his spot. It was ridiculous.

Next up is an EA game on Saturday vs WSA at Titan's turf. My son has been told he will be part of the EA squad for all home games. I don't know if he'll get any minutes...we'll see. He brings a different set of skills than the other GK (distribution, ability to play the ball back and reset...and an ability to take his own goal kicks).

 

[TU_BLA]

Son played his first game with his EA side yesterday vs WSA. Kept a clean sheet for his half and the team as they won 4-0. He played well and made 2 saves (neither one was super challenging). His distribution was a bright spot again. They've got 2 games next weekend vs EA squads traveling in.

 

[TU_BLA]

@lawpoke87 has your daughter's season started yet? How do they look and are they full on ECNL this season?

 

[lawpoke87]

@lawpoke87 has your daughter's season started yet? How do they look and are they full on ECNL this season?

Yes. We are all in with ECNL. Season starts this weekend at Mohawk against Sting and Classic Elite.

Girls look good. We wrapped up our last preseason friendly yesterday. Preseason scores:

Celtic RL 5-0
Albion 09 RL 7-0
BVB 09. 4-0
Sporting Blue Valley ECNL 5-0.

Girls play out of the back as good as any girls team in the club imo. Pretty to watch. We will see how the girls keep their composure playing like that against the likes of Solar. The club has dictated the ECNL teams play that style so it’s not going to change.

Hoping for a top 5 Texas league finish this year. After Solar and the Texans there are a bunch of teams who could finish anywhere from 3-8. We are definitely in that group. I will post results after every ECNL weekend. The club really needs the 2010 group to perform well. The 2006 and 2010 girls should be TSC’s top girls team this season. We’re about to find out.

 

[TU_BLA]

Yes. We are all in with ECNL. Season starts this weekend at Mohawk against Sting and Classic Elite.

Girls look good. We wrapped up our last preseason friendly yesterday. Preseason scores:

Celtic RL 5-0
Albion 09 RL 7-0
BVB 09. 4-0
Sporting Blue Valley ECNL 5-0.

Girls play out of the back as good as any girls team in the club imo. Pretty to watch. We will see how the girls keep their composure playing like that against the likes of Solar. The club has dictated the ECNL teams play that style so it’s not going to change.

Hoping for a top 5 Texas league finish this year. After Solar and the Texans there are a bunch of teams who could finish anywhere from 3-8. We are definitely in that group. I will post results after every ECNL weekend. The club really needs the 2010 group to perform well. The 2006 and 2010 girls should be TSC’s top girls team this season. We’re about to find out.

I know the 2006s are ridiculous on the girls side. My son's coach from 2 yrs ago has a daughter on that team and she would have easily been the best player on my son's team that year (she routinely trained with the boys). Of course her dad played at NSU and her mom played at TU so she has good blood lines.

 

[lawpoke87]

I know the 2006s are ridiculous on the girls side. My son's coach from 2 yrs ago has a daughter on that team and she would have easily been the best player on my son's team that year (she routinely trained with the boys). Of course her dad played at NSU and her mom played at TU so she has good blood lines.

Yes the 2006s are very good. They got hammered yesterday by Sporting Blue Valley though. It was somewhat shocking to watch. Blue Valley has become a power not only in the KC area but in the Midwest on the girls side. They talent they put in the field was impressive.

The 10s and 07s were the only TSC teams to win up there yesterday. Club needs to do better.

 

[lawpoke87]

First ECNL weekend in the books. The 2010g defeated Sting Austin 7-0 and Classic Elite 5-0. These are probably the two weakest ECNL clubs so I wouldn’t read much into those scores other than we’re much better than those two teams.

This coming weekend in Houston should give us an idea where we stand in relation to the better clubs. We play Challenge on Saturday and Albion on Sunday. Both games will be a highly competitive.

 

[TU_BLA]

Albion is a top club in the country. Really good program on the girls side and they put together a stellar WPSL side as well every year. Good luck.

my son played in 2 EA games hosted by Blitz this weekend. 1st game against Capitol City (somewhere in TX) was a 3-0 loss. My son played the 2nd half and conceded 1 on a whiffed clearance from a defender in the 6 that went straight to an attacker. His team was down to 10 players after a red card in the 1st half for a hard foul that drew a yellow. Another player on his team got after the ref and drew and earned a yellow for dissent, which then he proceeded to curse out the ref in Spanish. The ref was Hispanic. 2nd yellow and he was gone. Kid was a starting CB too. Things got ugly in the 2nd half too. More cards. And the Blitz team basically checked out of the game at half.

2nd EA game on Sunday vs Aspire FC out of Houston. Blitz won 7-0. They earned another red from the other CB who took down a player from behind on a break. My son was in goal and said the CB absolutely earned that red. Ref told the kid "why would you do that? You're up 6-0". After going down a man my son was called on to make 3 really good saves to keep the clean sheet for the team (Aspire didn't have any shots in the 1st half). They had a lot of speed and individual technical skill but they couldn't put together a coordinated attack. Blitz team played much better than on Saturday. Better movement and energy and crisper passing.

Next Sunday he is supposed to play a game with the Premier team against his old TSC team. The TSC team went to Plano this past weekend and got curb stomped in 3 games managing only 1 goal for and conceding 11. Should be an interesting game.

 

[TU_BLA]

So the TSC team is better than the Blitz 2nd team. My son's team lost 6-0. He conceded 3. One on a 1 v 1 break where he did everything he could to come out and the forward tucked it near post. Last year the kid would have missed the goal. 2nd goal was on a PK where my son both guessed right and got a couple fingers on it but the shot was tucked just inside the left post. 3rd came on another 1 v 1 where my son stopped the initial shot and he wasn't sure if the rebound got tucked in by an opposing player or if it got knocked in as an own goal from one of his defenders. He also made 4-5 stellar saves. And the familiarity with his game was apparent as the defenders dropped much deeper when he would punt knowing he's got 65-75 yd range on his punts.

Next weekend he will be in Fort Worth for a couple of EA games vs Kernow Storm and Dallas Surf. The Kernow team doesn't look to be very good. Can't find any results for the Dallas Surf side.

 

[lawpoke87]

Good weekend in Houston as they 2010 ECNL girls brought home six points. Game 1 on Saturday was against Challenge. The girls dominated the game and came away with a 3-1 win. Gave up a very soft goal late in the game which was a disappointment as it was the first goal the girls have allowed in the last 10 games.

Second game was against a good Albion side who had tied Energy ECNL the day before 2-2. TSC controlled play and came away with a hard fought 1-0 win. Albion had two very talented forwards but struggled with any buildup in the offensive end instead relying on balls over the top and hoping to forward could out athlete the back line which played into our strength.

Always good to come away from that Houston trip 2-0. We are now 4-0 in league. We play the top team in the country (Solar) in two weeks. Hopefully we can be competitive.

 

[TU_BLA]

Good weekend in Houston as they 2010 ECNL girls brought home six points. Game 1 on Saturday was against Challenge. The girls dominated the game and came away with a 3-1 win. Gave up a very soft goal late in the game which was a disappointment as it was the first goal the girls have allowed in the last 10 games.

Second game was against a good Albion side who had tied Energy ECNL the day before 2-2. TSC controlled play and came away with a hard fought 1-0 win. Albion had two very talented forwards but struggled with any buildup in the offensive end instead relying on balls over the top and hoping to forward could out athlete the back line which played into our strength.

Always good to come away from that Houston trip 2-0. We are now 4-0 in league. We play the top team in the country (Solar) in two weeks. Hopefully we can be competitive.

A win against Albion is a great win. They are a very good club on the girls side for sure (don't know much about the boys' side). Good luck vs Solar

 

[TU_BLA]

I refereed 5 games on Saturday. The 1st 3 were rec games in BA. I wanted to gouge my eyes out. So hard to do those games and not want to coach the kids. My last game in the AM was a U10 girls game where 1 team was well coached and knew exactly what to do vs a team with players who were not as experienced and a parent with little understanding about the game as the coach (bless them...that's how I got roped into coaching, you either do it or your kid might not get to play). I was coaching them from the middle, mostly about understanding where to position on corner kicks and goal kicks. The other team's coach was coaching them a lot (he was great with them). My 2nd game was a U14 boys game with a final score of 17-0 that the losing team's coach called with 20 minutes left in the 2nd half. He had 11 players show up and his team was mostly 11 and 12 year olds with maybe 2 players in the U14 age group. And the last game was 15-0.

I also did 2 U18 FCL games at Mohawk. OSA should be fined by FCL for the crap they had out there. They used the top 4 fields at Mohawk and only 1 field had a full 3 man ref crew. My two games were both 2 man crews and USSF sanctioned events forbid 2 people with whistles, so you have 1 AR and 1 center and the center has to hope the offside line is not tested on the side without an AR. I ran center for the first game and AR1 for the 2nd. Because of the lack of AR, the center typically stays far away from the action on the side of the field that has an AR. The 2nd game was interesting as it was the Blitz Premier FCL team vs a team from Dallas. It was a really well played game. The center was also the assignor for Blitz and I knew many of the boys on the Blitz team (my son occasionally trains with that group on Mondays). A few of them also play with my son at Union. My son actually plays with a brother of one of the players as well and on Sunday when I saw his parents they joked about how the AR on their side of the field wouldn't call anything

It's embarrassing that OSA cannot pull in enough refs for a weekend like this. I got paid $60 for the center and $45 for the AR slot. To compare, I got $50 for my U14 rec center gig in BA and $40 for the U10 girls game as the center. Why would anyone subject themselves to a U18 highly competitive game where the parents, players, and coaches are constantly bitching about every call???

 

[lawpoke87]

Pulling refs is an issue. I don’t know of a single parent who wouldn’t be willing to pitch in say an extra $3 a game (30 kids x $3) for an extra $90 in the official pool in the 11v11 games.

Does ECNL pay officials more than those rates? They always seem to have a full crew and for most cases the officials are competent to very good. Curious as to whose at fault for not getting full crews to work upper level games.

 

[TU_BLA]

Pulling refs is an issue. I don’t know of a single parent who wouldn’t be willing to pitch in say an extra $3 a game (30 kids x $3) for an extra $90 in the official pool in the 11v11 games.

Does ECNL pay officials more than those rates? They always seem to have a full crew and for most cases the officials are competent to very good. Curious as to whose at fault for not getting full crews to work upper level games.

I believe they do pay more. I think a center for U13-U19 gets at least $75/game. I was talking to a ref on Saturday evening who does the gamut of games from EA/ECNL level youth games to college and HS games and I know he's been an AR for FC Tulsa games. He wasn't working the FCL games on Sunday because he had a JUCO game in Wilburton to work. For said JUCO game he got $175 for the game PLUS mileage and per diem. FCL was so desperate for refs on Sunday's games that they offered a bonus of $75/game from OSA in addition to the regular game fees (cash from the host clubs in OK).

 

[lawpoke87]

One of the new rules this year is U13 ECNL games now have 40 minute halves. With the “no re-entry” substation rules each half the games really tests the players fitness. Playing 80 full minutes of very physical soccer is something these 12 year old girls have never experienced. The game tends to slow down during the last 10-15 minutes as fatigue takes over.

 

[TU_BLA]

One of the new rules this year is U13 ECNL games now have 40 minute halves. With the “no re-entry” substation rules each half the games really tests the players fitness. Playing 80 full minutes of very physical soccer is something these 12 year old girls have never experienced. The game tends to slow down during the last 10-15 minutes as fatigue takes over.

The upper level leagues have more stringent substitution rules than HS and college. I think EA limits subs to 3 per half (maybe it's a couple more) and no re-entry in the same half. 2 games in Ft. Worth this past weekend, 95 degrees. My son started the 1st game vs Kernow Storm as his coach said he wanted to use him in the field in the 2nd half. This game wasn't close. My son made 2 easy saves in his half. Team won 6-2 (2 goals came in the 2nd half when his team let up for some reason. My son said the coach WAS NOT HAPPY about that. Yesterday's game was vs Dallas Surf. Much better side with some very talented players. My son got the start again (this is a new development as this wasn't so he could be in the field in the 2nd half but b/c the coach was unhappy with the other GK for being glued to his line the day before). I don't think my son would have been credited with any actual saves in this one but he did make 2 very important interventions beating on the of the Surf forwards to a through ball and cleared it. The 2nd one, he beat a winger to a ball on the side of the box, sliding out to corral it. Distribution was again on point. Blitz was awarded a PK in the 44th minute that they scored the opener on. Blitz was clearly the better of the two teams with more cohesion and better passing. The Surf team was fundamentally sound but they often missed connection on their passes and their attack just broke down in the final 1/3. Their best chance came in the 2nd half on a deep free kick that the 2nd Blitz GK bungled the punch out leaving the ball for a Surf player at about the PK spot...Surf player sent it over the net. Blitz won 3-0 and had 2 goals pulled back for deep offside.

So if you ever go to Ft. Worth for games, Gateway Park is where we played. It's a City of Ft. Worth facility. 3 turf fields and 2 grass. We played on the turf. Weird thing was, the 3 turf fields all had different dimensions. My son's team played on a field that was 56 yds wide (even though the actual turf surface had 10 yds of space on either side that was unused for the field. The 2 other turf fields were approximately 62 yds and 66 yds respectively. Just seemed weird. Also, no actual building facilities. Restrooms were all port a johns.

2nd game was played at Rolling Hills Soccer Complex which is right off of I-20. Reminds me of Mohawk but instead of the landfill backdrop, you had a federal penitentiary in the background. Grass fields, fairly nice but the edges had dropoffs so there was no way to make a pass up the line without the ball rolling off (think Norman). Again, no building facilities...all port a johns. And way less parking than Mohawk. It was like Woodland Hills on the Saturday before Christmas. Had to vulture park.

Refereeing was weird. Lots of offside calls...they seemed to err on the side that the player was offside if it was remotely close. Lots of touch fouls...think the NBA. BUT, the officiating was consistent and that's all you can ask. Next EA game is set for October 1st. Next Premier team game is this Monday vs a Midwest City side at Haikey. It will be interesting to see where they want my son to play the weekend of October 1st b/c the Prem team will be playing in the Sheffield Tournament that weekend.

 

[lawpoke87]

Fort Worth facility sounds a lot like Albion’s home fields. The turf field next to ours (grass) was a good 6 to 7 yards wider than what we were playing on. No real reason as there was lots of room on each sideline of our grass field. Bathrooms there are made from shipping containers welded together. Quite an interesting place.

I assume the Dallas Surf is associated with Surf out of California ?

 

[TU_BLA]

Fort Worth facility sounds a lot like Albion’s home fields. The turf field next to ours (grass) was a good 6 to 7 yards wider than what we were playing on. No real reason as there was lots of room on each sideline of our grass field. Bathrooms there are made from shipping containers welded together. Quite an interesting place.

I assume the Dallas Surf is associated with Surf out of California ?

I don't know for 100% sure, but someone mentioned they were part of the Surf academy network. Their logo did match that of all the other Surf clubs so I'd assume yes.

 

[lawpoke87]

Tough weekend for the girls.

We lost 1-0 on Saturday to Sting. Sting scored in the first ten minutes on a long free kick. Keeper misjudged they ball and came off her line resulting in the ball going over her head. We outplayed Sting the entire game but couldn’t find the back of the net. Such is soccer.

On Sunday we lost 3-0 to Solar. The girls competed well and had a lot of the play. Solar scored at the 15 minute mark off a rebound when the right back got sucked too far in the middle of the field and allowed the left forward to knock the rebound home. The game remained 1-0 until late in the second half when we moved our CB up into an attacking position and Solar took advantage with a couple of counters where we didn’t get enough players back to properly defend. Solar is really tough to play. They have size and speed all over the field and are technically superior to practically every team they play. They are a very aggressive team who turns you over and quickly attacks off your errors. We continue to have some issues on the attacking end against quality teams. We’re going to need to improve in that area if we want to finish top 5 in league play.

We have an extended break upcoming before league resumes back up in late October. We are scheduled to play the Blitz tourney but nothing has yet been confirmed. Assume we will either play up a couple of years or play in the boys division.

 

[TU_BLA]

Tough weekend for the girls.

We lost 1-0 on Saturday to Sting. Sting scored in the first ten minutes on a long free kick. Keeper misjudged they ball and came off her line resulting in the ball going over her head. We outplayed Sting the entire game but couldn’t find the back of the net. Such is soccer.

On Sunday we lost 3-0 to Solar. The girls competed well and had a lot of the play. Solar scored at the 15 minute mark off a rebound when the right back got sucked too far in the middle of the field and allowed the left forward to knock the rebound home. The game remained 1-0 until late in the second half when we moved our CB up into an attacking position and Solar took advantage with a couple of counters where we didn’t get enough players back to properly defend. Solar is really tough to play. They have size and speed all over the field and are technically superior to practically every team they play. They are a very aggressive team who turns you over and quickly attacks off your errors. We continue to have some issues on the attacking end against quality teams. We’re going to need to improve in that area if we want to finish top 5 in league play.

We have an extended break upcoming before league resumes back up in late October. We are scheduled to play the Blitz tourney but nothing has yet been confirmed. Assume we will either play up a couple of years or play in the boys division.

My son played with the Premier team this weekend. That team is really bad. He gave up 2 in his half...one wasn't a great goal against and he admitted as such. It skipped in an awkward way just before him and a little sideways. I think he committed too early to where he anticipated the ball to be. It was also during the 15 minute stretch of rain on Saturday so the grass was pretty wet. He saved another shot shortly after that and the ball skipped again and got on him quickly so he didn't handle it cleanly as he normally does and the ball came off his chest. He was able to recover on that one. He had a couple nice clean catches off corners, and he made a nice intervention on a cross that was well above where he felt comfortable trying to catch it so he flipped the ball towards the corners with the back of his hand...good thing too since there was an attacker at the back post waiting for it.

He plays with the EA team this weekend at WSA. It will be interesting to see which WSA team they roll out...the one we played a month ago, a bunch of U16s, or the WSA top U17 team. One will be a good game, the other will not be.

 

[TU_BLA]

2 EA games this weekend for my son. Allowed 1 goal vs WSA on a counter where the right full back got caught upfield in the attack. I'm pretty sure the player that scored was at least 2 age groups behind everyone else. Kid was tiny (I think my 11 year old is both taller and outweighs the kid). He turned the CB inside out. Goal actually was officially an own goal as the other CB slid to block it and ended up knocking it in. He did make a couple of really nice saves in this one and his distribution was spot on as always.

Yesterday's game was against a team from Clinton, OK and was listed as an 04B team. 4-0 for Blitz. Not really tested at all although officially credited with 3 saves. The coach had the gall to say they would have won had the referee been better. The ref was bad but he just didn't call anything on either side and he failed to acknowledge his ARs and their flags (I have worked with him in the past and I don't like working with him for this reason). Regardless, the score was still 4-0 and could have been 8-0 if not for the GK who was outstanding at stopping shots. This 04B team later played again at 1pm vs the top 05 team in the state and lost 20-0. Yes TWENTY to NOTHING. I was an AR on this game and the Blitz coach and center ref tried a couple of times to get the other coach to stop the match early and he refused. They drove 2.5 hrs to play these games and they were going to play. As the center ref said, he's not going to stop the game before full time unless both coaches agree because you don't want one coach to protest not playing the full time. Ridiculous.

 

[lawpoke87]

Not sure I’ve ever seen a 20-0 youth soccer match. Feel bad for those kids.

 

[TU_BLA]

Not sure I’ve ever seen a 20-0 youth soccer match. Feel bad for those kids.

Most of the kids on the Blitz 05 EA side had never done it and when it got close they were pushing for it...despite putting in a back up Gk (not a GK) and letting the GK play the field (he scored 2 goals) and the coach demanding extra passes and only 2 touches on the ball. Some may wonder why the EA squad is playing in OPL? It's because they want to play in regionals and nationals and the only way to get there is to play through your state association. Well, they've asked OSA for an auto bid to regionals and they'll bow out of the regular OPL season play and I don't think that request was approved. This 05 team is the best in the state for the age group. The entire back line will start for Union this season. There are several key players from BAHS and Bixby HS on the team as well. If they all played for the same HS they would win state this year and I'm not sure anyone would keep scores close. TSC's 04/05 team would be a good match for them but I'm thinking this Blitz side might win 4 or 5 to nothing. One of the parents told me they scrimmage JBU a couple weeks back and got a 3-3 draw. Anyone who knows, John Brown usually is a top 25 team in NAIA. This year they're 6-0-2 with a draw against the #3 team and a win vs then #12. They're decent for their level.

They've only given up 1 goal in EA competition this season and they've only scored fewer than 6 goals 1 time...and the parent I talk to says they played horribly that game.

 

[lawpoke87]

Most of the kids on the Blitz 05 EA side had never done it and when it got close they were pushing for it...despite putting in a back up Gk (not a GK) and letting the GK play the field (he scored 2 goals) and the coach demanding extra passes and only 2 touches on the ball. Some may wonder why the EA squad is playing in OPL? It's because they want to play in regionals and nationals and the only way to get there is to play through your state association. Well, they've asked OSA for an auto bid to regionals and they'll bow out of the regular OPL season play and I don't think that request was approved. This 05 team is the best in the state for the age group. The entire back line will start for Union this season. There are several key players from BAHS and Bixby HS on the team as well. If they all played for the same HS they would win state this year and I'm not sure anyone would keep scores close. TSC's 04/05 team would be a good match for them but I'm thinking this Blitz side might win 4 or 5 to nothing. One of the parents told me they scrimmage JBU a couple weeks back and got a 3-3 draw. Anyone who knows, John Brown usually is a top 25 team in NAIA. This year they're 6-0-2 with a draw against the #3 team and a win vs then #12. They're decent for their level.

They've only given up 1 goal in EA competition this season and they've only scored fewer than 6 goals 1 time...and the parent I talk to says they played horribly that game.

Have you seen boys move back to EA from ECNL as they get older? Or are high level boys staying on the EA side and not switching to ECNL? I know the boys side is very different than that of the girls. In part due to MLS academies.

 

[TU_BLA]

Have you seen boys move back to EA from ECNL as they get older? Or are high level boys staying on the EA side and not switching to ECNL? I know the boys side is very different than that of the girls. In part due to MLS academies.

I don't know if they move to be at one platform over the other. I think by this age they want to play at a high level and with as many friends as possible. This group obviously loves playing together. I also think they want to be with Coach Larkin. As the AR1 for several of their games, I get to hear him coaching on the side and it's amazing stuff. It's really simple stuff but very effective. It actually reminded me of how Geno Auriemma coaches UCONN where he isn't coaching to beat the other team as much as he's coaching them to execute things as close to perfectly as they can. It's about all coaches can do in games that are blowouts and mismatched like these games. (Larkin is the HC at Rogers State). And some of these kids were at TSC but not given the opportunity to move up to ECNL so they moved on.

 

[HuffyCane]

SIAP but first 300 TSC parents and players get in free tomorrow night against FAU. Beer only $7.

 

[TU_BLA]

SIAP but first 300 TSC parents and players get in free tomorrow night against FAU. Beer only $7.

Saw that. I'd like to go but soccer and swim practice for the kiddos at the same time

 

[lawpoke87]

Saw that. I'd like to go but soccer and swim practice for the kiddos at the same time

Any clue when Blitz tourney brackets will be released ?

 

[TU_BLA]

Any clue when Blitz tourney brackets will be released ?

No idea. My guess is next Tuesday or Wednesday. I am going to refuse to do any U12 or lower games in that tournament, not because I think those games are below me...more because I don't want to be the lone official on a game where offside is expected to be called. It's not very easy at all when you have to follow the ball and play and they play a long ball over the top. It's near impossible to reasonable guess where that player started at the time the ball was played. I have no idea why the club and Matt assign like that.

Let me know which games you're at for the Blitz Tourney and I may try to connect with you if the schedule allows. I have an interesting (and somewhat hilarious) referee story to share (not me, another official).

 

[TU_BLA]

My son and his EA team played an OPL game on Wednesday night vs TSC 04/05s (Blitz 06 EA is playing up an age group in OPL). Son's team won 3-2. My son got the entire game in goal. 1st GA was a one time volley off a cross that hit the underside of the crossbar. (I didn't see it...going off of his description). He said the play was fairly well defended by his team, kid just found a small space and there was a good service in. My son said he didn't move on the shot it happened so quickly. This was like 1.5 minutes into the game (Team Snap live is a great thing). Blitz scored on basically the last action of the 1st half (according the the Team Snap tracker, there were :09 left in the 1st half).

I was able to make the 2nd half. TSC team had a crap ton of speed up top and on the wings. Many of the boys were boys my son played with the last couple of years, but they had some new players I hadn't seen before. The Blitz D were having trouble keeping pace so a lot of the balls over the top were just cleared out. The style TSC was playing left a lot of room between their MF and D and the Blitz kids took advantage of that when they could. Apparently I missed TSC's 2nd goal. My wife got it on video though. Over the top ball brought down by the TSC player just outside the box, but after his 1st touch my son came out to challenge. My son made the initial save (really good one actually) and got a bit unlucky as the rebound popped straight back to the kid who tapped it in. There was a similar play even later in the game that the TSC player was even more open and not much pressure from the D and my son made a really nice save and was able to push the rebound wide and allow for the D to track back and prevent a follow shot. He made a couple more saves to hold TSC at 2. The Blitz kids took advantage of the extra space in the MF and really started putting some nice attacks together eventually knotting the game at 2 and then ultimately scoring the winner with about 5 minutes left.

The Blitz coach did holler at my kid saying he needed to hear him more. My kid talks a lot back in goal but he's not necessarily loud about it...coach wants to hear him directing traffic a bit more.

Next games: Saturday at 3pm vs Cosmos (who hasn't submitted the game score and red card from last week to EA yet so I'm wondering if they're going to try and sneak the kid into the game tomorrow, and Sunday @ 3pm vs Arkansas Comets.

 

[TU_BLA]

@lawpoke87 No Blitz tourney schedule yet. Will be interesting.

2 games this weekend, my son saw time in neither which sort of pissed us off. Instead the other GK gets all the minutes and essentially cost them 4 pts as they drew both games but some of the goals conceded were iffy. And don't get me started on the lack of quality distribution.

Good news is they somehow managed a draw on Saturday against the team that beat them 4-0 the previous week and they came back from 3-1 down. On Sunday they played an Arkansas Comets team who was at the top of the table for EA. Blitz went up 2-0 and absolutely dominated the first half. Then they fell asleep in the 2nd half and started playing kickball. 1st Comets goal was one of those iffy goals that I think the difference in the way my son plays vs the kid in there and there's a good likelihood my son keeps it out of the net (he's made saves on similar shots in the past). The 2nd goal was just poor defending in the box...get the damn ball out. Blitz never mustered any decent chances in the 2nd half.

 

[lawpoke87]

We play:

6pm Friday F6
11am Saturday F28
8am Sunday F28
Champ 12:30pm Sunday F28

 

[TU_BLA]

We play:

6pm Friday F6
11am Saturday F28
8am Sunday F28
Champ 12:30pm Sunday F28

My son's team(s) play at 6pm on Thursday, 7:15pm on Thursday, an undetermined time on Saturday, 2pm Saturday, 9:30am Saturday, 3:30pm Saturday, 2pm on Sunday, and a TBD time on Sunday. Blitz released the schedules to the managers but not on their website so I can't even see how many divisions in their age group. I think the EA side is playing in the U19 group though and the Premier side is playing in the U17 group (the U17s will get stomped by most of these teams). He's not happy about playing with that group...and it's definitely not what he was told when he decided to come over.

I don't have my referee assignments yet so we'll see what happens. I suspect I'll get a bunch of U12 center slots and maybe a few U13-U19 AR slots.

 

[lawpoke87]

Boys side jumps from U15 to U19….weird.

GotSport

system.gotsport.com

 

[TU_BLA]

Boys side jumps from U15 to U19….weird.

GotSport

system.gotsport.com

Means they don't have enough teams and they combined them all. I'm shocked no one at Blitz checked the calendar to realize their tournament is in the middle of all the Tulsa metro school districts' fall break. I'll be shocked if either of the U17 teams have enough players to play on their own and they end up combining and playing 8 games under 2 different team names. For the TSC Showcase in November, all the kids on the 2nd team want to play but most of the players on the EA team don't want to play either because of the timing before Thanksgiving or the managers are asking for $85 extra dollars for it since it wasn't in their initial budget and it's the most expensive tournament most of these teams will play in ($1200 U15-U19....TSC will tout game video and stat breakdown for those groups and crews of 4 officials working every game to justify the cost...I can tell you with certainty they will be lucky to have 3 officials on all of their games. Last Spring they touted 4 officials and I didn't work a single game in the tournament where we had a 4th official...and I'm not sure our team got any stat breakdowns..we did get 2 videos of our 3 games).

I've been checking my Arbiter for game assignments...none yet. I did work a U12 girls game the other day between Blitz and Sporting OK. The Sporting OK team was tiny and really shied away from contact. The Blitz team had some big and physical players. It was a fine line between using their size to their advantage and flat out fouling with their arms. One girl kept getting her elbows up into the face of a smaller player and using her forearm to create space...she didn't understand that once she gets that arm away from her body she is now committing a foul. Almost had to toss a parent who threw a water bottle onto the field in disgust after I called his daughter for a forearm shiver to the neck of an opponent. Coach bitched about not calling it both ways. I can tell you if a team is bigger, stronger, more aggressive and more physical, they are typically going to be called for more fouls. Of course at the time he said that, I had called 4 fouls, 2 against each team and I had played advantage on a 3rd foul by Sporting OK which I believe Blitz went in and got a cross into the box off. What gets me is most of the bitching happened when the score was 4-0 in favor of Blitz and their parents were just constantly griping. My son was one AR and a guy that has been a referee for about 30 years was another. And both said I was spot on for a majority of the fouls. The older ref said he would have invited the guy who threw the water bottle on the field to enjoy the rest of the game from the parking lot.

I did an EA game on Sunday too as an AR (U14s). According to my tracker, I ran 7.5 miles...I'm still feeling it today. I ran a whole f*cking lot!

 

[TU_BLA]

So Blitz Invitiational recap. I reffed 6 games...pretty much done reffing any and all Blitz teams as their parents are so f*cking insane (ironic since I am one now).

My son played primarily with the premier team this weekend although he did get time with the EA team in Thursday's game vs the 05 FCL team (3-0 loss) and then a half on Sunday vs Northwest Optimist 04 (1-1 draw). The goal for Northwest Optimist came in the 1st half against the other keeper who was at the top of his 18 and a kid scored from 60 yards away aided by the 35mph wind. Larkin was coaching the group and yelled at him and questioned why he would be off his line knowing the wind conditions. My son had the benefit of the wind in the 2nd half and he uncorked some extreme punts (70-80 yds). I asked why he didn't play simple and he said Larkin wanted to get the fast forwards into space over the top...it nearly worked a couple of times. He started taking a little off the punts. I know Larkin likes him as a keeper and I'm hoping Larkin says something to the other coaches who like him as a keeper but they like the other kid's height.

In Premier, they played in a lower division against appropriate competition. They beat a BA Express (formerly Sheffield team) 4-2 on Thursday. My son had 1 GA in that one that came off a 1 v 1 break. On Saturday afternoon they beat a NEOFC team 2-0. My son got the entire game in that one while the other GK played the field a bit. That put them in the knockout round. They played a NW OKC Crew team yesterday at 12:30pm. My son got 3/4 of the game in goal up until his team got a 2-0 lead. He had one really good save that came off a set piece where he had to tip the ball over the bar. Somehow the ref and AR missed the touch and ruled a goal kick to the dismay of the players and parents of the Crew side. I asked my son after the game and he said he most definitely got a touch to push it over. 2-0 win put his team in the final against the BA Express team they had played earlier. THAT GAME WAS CRAZY. Express score about 2 minutes in on an over the top ball that one of their players just outran everyone and the goal was a 1 v 1. Nice shot to the far post. Express scored a 2nd on a long ball over the top that my son came out to intercept on the first bounce at the top of the box and the ball bounced about 15 feet in the air (wind-aided). Sort of a fluke goal and my son was pissed about it. He was pretty authoritative in his area for the rest of the game. Aggressive off the line, going up to take crosses strong. He got fouled 3 times for his effort. His team pulled a goal back with about 1 minute left in the 1st half on a nice play up the right side and a cross to the front to an unmarked wing who tapped the ball in. This seemed to re-energize the team. My son played the entire 2nd half as well and now with the 35 mph wind at his back. He hammered one punt about 80 yards in the air that 1 hopped to the opposing keeper ( just a turnover I know...but the Express defense, instead of playing a high line knowing most punts would blow to the keeper, sagged way back whenever my son had the ball in his hands). The lack of coaching on this led to several chances for Blitz in the 2nd half. Blitz finally equalized off a corner and a scrum in the box. And Blitz probably could have scored 2-3 more missing the target on several shots. The reason I say this game was crazy...There were probably 6 yellow cards (one to the Express coach for being a stark raving lunatic). By the end of regulation we were playing 10 v 9 (Blitz had the 9). First Blitz player picked up a 2nd yellow about 10 minutes from the end of the game. With about 3-4 minutes left, Blitz won a throw-in and an Express player went down and some of the Blitz players felt he was stalling and wasting time and said something. Ref goes to check on the player and while he's not watching, an Express player runs up behind the Blitz player who said something and kicks him in the calf and gives him a forearm to the back, Blitz player retaliates and absolutely blows the kid up with a shove. Straight red to the Blitz player (100% warranted). Bunch of Blitz parents run on the field screaming about the 1st hit and knock. I am trying to get the parents off the field. LUCKILY, the AR2 saw the initial incident and they gave the Express player a straight red as well. Ref ended regulation right there and cleared the field. I think they gave the boys the final few minutes off the field to cool off and then an extra 5 minutes between the 1st extra time period. Blitz sat back and focused on defense through the extra time periods but still had a fantastic chance to score on a shot from the top right of the box that looked destined for the upper corner, far post and the ball was just high. (And Express was now playing with a backup keeper as the primary keeper went out with what looked like a wrenched back/hip). Really nothing doing in the extra time...went to PKs.

My son, in addition to being the goalkeeper, volunteered to take a PK as well. 1st shooter for Blitz scored easily with a nice hard shot into the lower left part of the net. 1st Express shooter scored on a high shot that actually hit the underside of the bar and had enough spin to put it over the line. My son shot second and actually pinged the inside of the post and the ball came out. He was a little upset. 2nd Express shooter...my son was in his head from the start you could tell. This kid sent the ball about 10 feet over the bar, except it was so wide of the net even if it was low it still would have ended up 10 feet wide. Ball ended up in the parking lot. 3rd Blitz shooter scored easily. Express 3rd shooter scored on an upper 90 shot that had it been a foot lower, my son probably saves it as he had "guessed" right. 4th Blitz shooter scores (now 3-2 Blitz). My son STONES the next kid. 5th Blitz shooter scores...Blitz wins the shootout 4-2. My son said afterward whoever coached Express on PKs did a terrible job as they all stared down a spot trying to steer him in a certain direction and he always went the opposite which is also where the shooter went. He said only the 1st shooter didn't do that but he went more high and down the middle.

This week is an OPL game with the EA team vs the top 04/05 team in the state (Larkin's EA side) on Wednesday at Rogers State. I'm pretty sure my son will get thrown to the wolves as a sacrificial lamb in that one. Then next weekend his Premier side plays in the Sporting Arkansas tournament in Bentonville/Rogers. I loathe the complex they'll be playing in (Sugar Creek). Grass is a fescue that is usually kept around 3" and the ball just doesn't roll at all.

 

[lawpoke87]

We beat NEO in the finals 4-0 to win U14. Nice to win a tourney but not sure how the competition prepares us for next weekends ECNL games. We had ARs in 3 of the 4 games so I came away pretty satisfied about the officiating. My one complaint was playing a night game at Alsuma. They have 4 light towers and the tower on the south end had 7 of the 10 bulbs not operating. Lighting was atrocious. Not sure why they didn’t get those lights replaced knowing they’re playing night games out there.

As an ex Blitz parent the issue is with the club imo. The club will not discipline parents who act crazy at games. Coach will tell them not to do it but there are never consequences. So the bad behavior continues.

We play Albion on Saturday. Really need the 3 points.

 

[TU_BLA]

We beat NEO in the finals 4-0 to win U14. Nice to win a tourney but not sure how the competition prepares us for next weekends ECNL games. We had ARs in 3 of the 4 games so I came away pretty satisfied about the officiating. My one complaint was playing a night game at Alsuma. They have 4 light towers and the tower on the south end had 7 of the 10 bulbs not operating. Lighting was atrocious. Not sure why they didn’t get those lights replaced knowing they’re playing night games out there.

As an ex Blitz parent the issue is with the club imo. The club will not discipline parents who act crazy at games. Coach will tell them not to do it but there are never consequences. So the bad behavior continues.

We play Albion on Saturday. Really need the 3 points.

I knew there were games at Alsuma, not sure why they felt they needed to play them then. They played all sorts of games at Indian Springs on Thursday but I'm not sure there were any games played at Keas on Thursday which are infinitely better than Alsuma...(IMO they should not play games at Alsuma).

I sent a Blitz mom to the parking lot on Saturday (I was AR2 in this game). It was a good game between the 08 AFC team and an 08 NWO team. Ended in a 3-3 tie. And the Blitz parents were on the other side of the MF line from where I was. This mom chased me down the line to bitch about one of the NWO kids trash talking parents. I told her she needed to go back and sit down and she persisted on dogging me down the line while I am trying to watch the line and offside. Ball goes out, I make the call and call the center to stop for a moment. She decided not to go back to her seat so we sent her to the parking lot. A referee mentor once told me let them bitch and moan about every call. If it doesn't affect play on the field, just ignore it. Well, this definitely crossed the line and affected the way we could do our jobs. She didn't say anything offensive but she refused to step back.

I've also noticed the Blitz coaches do like to teach their kids to play physically which is fine...they don't like it when they other team is able to fend it off or give it back. I had a player who liked to throw her body around and crack people yesterday, most of it was he legal shoulder to shoulder leveraging and getting position. She tried it late in yesterday's game and the person she was trying to leverage off the ball was both bigger and stronger and the Blitz player went flying. Parents screaming (coach did not)...there is no way I'm calling a foul on the player when the Blitz player initiated the contact. But the Blitz parents were happy when I called probably the softest PK I've ever awarded. The foul is called a foul pretty much anywhere on the field as the defender tried to cut across the Blitz player to get goal side and she clipped her foot. Pretty harmless, no intent but it did send the Blitz player down while trying to get to the ball. I didn't realize until I got closer to where the player had gone down that she was in the box (the faded white lines at Indian Springs on the dormant bermuda were practically impossible to see unless you were on top of them...I struggled with it as a center all weekend and I did 2 games without an AR2, this was one). I then pointed to the spot. Of course the Blitz parents were unhappy I didn't award a 2nd PK with about 3 minutes left when one of their players went down in the box...tbh it was a dive and I would have been justified showing yellow for simulation. Come to find out the girl who went down was the coach's daughter and the sister of one of my son's 06 teammates. She also fired the ball at the opposing goalkeeper from about 5 yards away earlier in the match out of frustration after a goal kick was awarded. AR ruled the ball out before a Blitz player was able to save it.

I need to ask coaches before each game how they'd like me to call the inside hand fighting. If you want me to call it like the NBA, we'll just have 50 restarts in the midfield and there will be no flow and no one will ever score a goal. I will say though, being a referee, I have mellowed my sideline behavior. 1) because I know it's not as easy as it appears from the parents perspective, and 2) I now know most of the people refereeing our games on a first name basis (and they know me).

 

[TU_BLA]

Game vs the 05 EA team scheduled for tonight has been axed.

 

[TU_BLA]

Son played 3 in the Sporting Arkansas Invitational in Bentonville this weekend. I don't know why coaches like going to this tournament. The complex is terrible and the competition is meh. 7 teams in his "bracket" ranging from 07s to 04s. You played a 2 game set and then total points awarded on some weird scoring system determined bracket placement. Top 4 teams played in the knockout rounds. The others had the chance of playing 2 pretty meaningless games. 1st game on Saturday was at 12:30 against a Sporting AR team. My son''s team played like they had just ridden in cars for 2 hours leading into the gameThey possessed the ball like mad but had 0 effective attack in the final 1/3. My son's involvement in that game was coming off his line to scoop up long balls that didn't connect (which were all of them). He did have to intervene a couple of times on some crosses. They maybe had 3 shots on goal but were all directly at him. His team won 2-0. 2nd game was against Bentonville Prodigy 06. That team was solid. My son actually had a really good game despite what the final score says. 3-4 really good highlight reel types of saves. Goals came on 1 v 1's (2 were really really late in the game). 4-1 loss. BUT, because of the shutout in the first game, the team earned enough points to finish 3rd in the group and play in the semi's....against the same Bentonville Prodigy team (this is where the tournament organizers need to have a clause about not playing the same team in the 1st round of knockout play if they can manage it). 9:30am Sunday...wet, cold in Hillbillyville. This game started late (about 15 minutes) because the game before it went long AND they had to pull a ref from another field. About 20 minutes in, still 0-0, one of my son's teammates went in for a slide tackle, it was a hard tackle, it was a clean tackle from the standpoint that he got the ball and didn't appear to make contact with the other player. Bentonville player had gone to clear the ball as the tackle is coming in, foot connects with the ball and gets stuck in the field. Kid goes down, ref doesn't call a foul (it really was a clean tackle). Kid broke his leg. Need to call an ambulance because the AT didn't have a splint. Ambulance couldn't get to the field because...well this complex is terrible. About a 35 minute delay in all. The 2nd half of this game kicked about when the game should have been over. Only goal comes about 10 minutes from the final whistle on a shot that hits a defender in the back and takes it the opposite of where my son was moving to handle the initial angle. Really fluky goal. My son's team had played much better in this game overall, more energy, more movement but still couldn't find an open shot. My son made another 2-3 really good saves in this one including one on a deflected cross.

Best part of the trip may have been going to AQ Chicken House for lunch on Sunday. Unfortunately we need to go back to Arkansas for an EA game this weekend 🤮