Post-Plano Labor Day DI Thoughts:

FC Dallas--Grubb: Started out slow, but showed its class down the stretch. 7-0 drubbing of Solar Red was particularly impressive. You know you're good when people claim that a 4-1 loss constitutes a close game.

Liverpool Elite: Did what they needed to do to get to the finals and deserve credit for that, even if the overall performance was less than awe-inspiring.

Dfeeters: The steady decline continues. May have been an early indication that they are indeed closer to the bottom half of DI than the top half. It ain't easy bein' green, and it ain't getting any easier...

Solar Red: Good weekend, notwithstanding the Grubb debacle. Not an elite team, but should stay above the relegation pack.

DFW Tornadoes: Will be a long year. If they get healthy, they may be able to snag the last bye into DI. Whether that would be a good thing or bad thing for this team is another topic altogether.

Solar Gold: DII's waitin' for ya.

Future DI thoughts:

Good weekend for TFC. Offseason additions (including additions by subtraction) have really improved this group. Should be the class of DII.

Not so much for Solar. Maybe the loss to Liverpool opening weekend was not a fluke.

Speaking of, would have been nice to see Liverpool play this weekend in Plano instead of ducking the competition in favor of fattening up on quasi-rec teams in Lewisville.

Post-Plano Labor Day DI Thoughts:

FC Dallas--Grubb: After hearing about FCD 7-0 win over SR I thought that they had signed Marta!. But after watching the game against TFC & Liverpool it looks like FCD is still human. No kryponite needed.

Liverpool Elite: Not very strong up front, not very Elite. Can't compete with the big girls. Should change their name to Liverpoo.

Dfeeters: Don't be fooled, they are better than they looked. Several girls missing. Will be better when they all get back.

Solar Red: It seems that rumors of Solar Red's demise was some what exaggerated. They played most of the games down one player. Their 7-0 loss does make me wonder.

DFW Tornadoes: Could surprise some teams in D1.

Solar Gold: Needs a forward or two,three. Will be a tough year.

Future DI thoughts:

Would be nice to see the Texans in a local tournament.

Liverpool was suppose to be going to Tulsa OK to play in a tournament. We found out Friday the 27th at 5pm that the tournament only had 2 teams in the 98 age group. Had been told all along that they have had 10 teams and most of them must have backed out. Liverpool was not ducking the competition. Wanted to play and this was the only tournament that would get them in. Called Plano first trying to get in but no luck.

Thanks

Speaking of, would have been nice to see Liverpool play this weekend in Plano instead of ducking the competition in favor of fattening up on quasi-rec teams in Lewisville.

disturbed wrote:Post-Plano Labor Day DI Thoughts:


Speaking of, would have been nice to see Liverpool play this weekend in Plano instead of ducking the competition in favor of fattening up on quasi-rec teams in Lewisville.

Same for Odyssey. What are these teams doing messing with teams that aren't ready for that brand of soccer? Tyler Azzuri, too. I'm sure the others weren't real happy to see that kind of competition entering a tournament like this either. Nice traditional tournament, but not really intentioned to be a Lake Highlands type event.

EDIT: Heard Odyssey was missing starters on vacation and injured, but still. You're competition was in Plano.

Erod wrote:

disturbed wrote:Post-Plano Labor Day DI Thoughts:


Speaking of, would have been nice to see Liverpool play this weekend in Plano instead of ducking the competition in favor of fattening up on quasi-rec teams in Lewisville.

Same for Odyssey. What are these teams doing messing with teams that aren't ready for that brand of soccer? Tyler Azzuri, too. I'm sure the others weren't real happy to see that kind of competition entering a tournament like this either. Nice traditional tournament, but not really intentioned to be a Lake Highlands type event.

EDIT: Heard Odyssey was missing starters on vacation and injured, but still. You're competition was in Plano.

Odyssey coach's other boys team played in the same tourney. He was just trying to get the girls some work since they have 3 weeks of no games and thought it would be easier with both in the same tourney. I did hear he thought he should've just played both in PLD though. Hindsight ...

Post-Plano Labor Day DI Thoughts:

FC Dallas--Grubb: A team to beat going back to LH.

PLD exposed some interesting observations on this team and MG's strategy. For every game which was called tight by refs, FCDP struggled on the offensive front and defensive back. For the games which the refs "let them play---ref" per MG, FCDP piled up on scores.

Just by 'coincidence' it also happened to be the only team which 'took out' a player or two on every team they played against, and had a number of yellows to match......

FCDP will do alright, but the question will be for how long.

Liverpool Elite: May lack killer fire-power in the front, but surely they can run you dizzy with accurate passing and openings. Plays wonderful soccer, but not certain if the purpose is to win or just to play the game. Mind you, if you sleep they can put a couple on you easily.

Dfeeters: Great team which can't catch a break. I don't remember when was the last time Feet had it's full roster healthy. I guess all that runnings by SS are catching up at an improbable time. Throw-in multiple sports for most of dds, less recovery time, and all of a sudden you have a good coach with a good roster which can't play.

Solar Red: The 7-0 mauling by FCDP was either a wake-up call or the nightmare which would not end. Based on recovery the day after, including a win over Feet in OT, I would say this team still has got some kickings left in it's life cycle. A work here or there can transform this team to be a challenger for any of the top 5 spots.

DFW Tornadoes: Didn't see much which would surprise anyone in D1. Reminds me of Solar tie vs DT, or Solar win v FCDP which didn't help Solar from the inevitable slide to D2. Consistency week-in, week-out is all that counts. DFW will need to bring more than what they showed v Solar and TFC; a win and a loss to D2 teams.

Solar Gold: Talk about having all the good pieces except the right pieces you need. CD have his work cut for him.

Future DI thoughts:

Not sure if TFC is ready for D1 showing yet, but surely it can keep up with the big dogs. Need that push to stay the course.
Solar is in a dump......and it doesn't look pretty down there.

After a 48 hour cooling-off period, some "Silver Flight" thoughts on the PLD:

1. Out of state teams must feel they have something to prove when they play in NTX tournaments -- unfortunately, they chose to "prove it" in the Silver Flight this weekend. We had a terrible experience playing OKC NYSA Fury Green (two grab-from-behind WWF throw-downs, one flying elbow to the side of the head, one player who kept screaming "What the freak, ref?" at the top of her lungs, and one threat to a parent), Arkansas Comets (one take-down from behind followed by a punch to the throat, three or four steamrollings from behind, several loud comments by players and parents to "foul them harder" once the game was out of reach for them, and one threat made to a parent) , and Tulsa Blitz Black (the worst of them all -- flat out dirty play with several cleats-up tackles after the ball was gone, running through players backs after the ball was gone, purposely stepping on ankles, feet and knees after the ball was gone, open and loud questioning by the coach of whether our players were really hurt (we had to have four girls helped off the field) and insults from the coach towards our coach when he went on the field to help these players off -- all of this obviously taught by their Lilliputian coach and encouraged by the parents based on their yelling and cheering). I'm sure I'm forgetting many of the cheap shots, but my ears are still ringing from the rude and obnoxious parents (and I thought NTX parents were a bit over-the-top -- geez). And before anyone gets on here and says that "soccer is a physical sport", I've played/reffed/coached/watched soccer for 35 years and I know the difference between physical play (which is and should be part of the game) and flat-out dirty play. This was the latter...

2. The officiating in this tourney, at least in Silver, was subpar at best. Most of the transgressions in our games took place after the ball had been passed/cleared -- lots of cheap shots that the refs AND ARs missed, resulting in injuries. Lots of bad calls both ways, including many that left everyone wondering if it was "opposite weekend." I don't expect refs to be perfect, but I do expect them to know the laws of the game and enforce them. I also expect the ARs to keep an eye on what happens "behind" the play of the ball and to let the ref know when something illegal happens. Finally, I expect them to keep the game under control and not start making calls and issuing cards only after tournament and ref officials have been called to the field to observe because things were getting out of hand. For goodness sake, twice during the championship game the ref blew his whistle, the girls didn't hear him and kept playing, so he just let play continue. I won't even get into the language barrier that many coaches and players faced this weekend. Maybe things were better in the Gold Flight...

3. With 24 teams of varying talent levels, they should have split the teams into a 12 team Silver Flight and a 12 team Bronze Flight. Probably would have resulted in more competitive match-ups and made for a better weekend for a lot of girls.

I'd love to hear about any other "interesting" encounters that NTX teams/parents had with our out-of-state friends...

That is all. I feel better now.

Spinal Tap wrote:After a 48 hour cooling-off period, some "Silver Flight" thoughts on the PLD:

1. Out of state teams must feel they have something to prove when they play in NTX tournaments -- unfortunately, they chose to "prove it" in the Silver Flight this weekend. We had a terrible experience playing OKC NYSA Fury Green (two grab-from-behind WWF throw-downs, one flying elbow to the side of the head, one player who kept screaming "What the freak, ref?" at the top of her lungs, and one threat to a parent), Arkansas Comets (one take-down from behind followed by a punch to the throat, three or four steamrollings from behind, several loud comments by players and parents to "foul them harder" once the game was out of reach for them, and one threat made to a parent) , and Tulsa Blitz Black (the worst of them all -- flat out dirty play with several cleats-up tackles after the ball was gone, running through players backs after the ball was gone, purposely stepping on ankles, feet and knees after the ball was gone, open and loud questioning by the coach of whether our players were really hurt (we had to have four girls helped off the field) and insults from the coach towards our coach when he went on the field to help these players off -- all of this obviously taught by their Lilliputian coach and encouraged by the parents based on their yelling and cheering). I'm sure I'm forgetting many of the cheap shots, but my ears are still ringing from the rude and obnoxious parents (and I thought NTX parents were a bit over-the-top -- geez). And before anyone gets on here and says that "soccer is a physical sport", I've played/reffed/coached/watched soccer for 35 years and I know the difference between physical play (which is and should be part of the game) and flat-out dirty play. This was the latter...

2. The officiating in this tourney, at least in Silver, was subpar at best. Most of the transgressions in our games took place after the ball had been passed/cleared -- lots of cheap shots that the refs AND ARs missed, resulting in injuries. Lots of bad calls both ways, including many that left everyone wondering if it was "opposite weekend." I don't expect refs to be perfect, but I do expect them to know the laws of the game and enforce them. I also expect the ARs to keep an eye on what happens "behind" the play of the ball and to let the ref know when something illegal happens. Finally, I expect them to keep the game under control and not start making calls and issuing cards only after tournament and ref officials have been called to the field to observe because things were getting out of hand. For goodness sake, twice during the championship game the ref blew his whistle, the girls didn't hear him and kept playing, so he just let play continue. I won't even get into the language barrier that many coaches and players faced this weekend. Maybe things were better in the Gold Flight...

3. With 24 teams of varying talent levels, they should have split the teams into a 12 team Silver Flight and a 12 team Bronze Flight. Probably would have resulted in more competitive match-ups and made for a better weekend for a lot of girls.

I'd love to hear about any other "interesting" encounters that NTX teams/parents had with our out-of-state friends...

That is all. I feel better now.

Well said!!! you forgot the constant of the ball

I think I need to stand between the teams, as it seems when those comment are made to me, I'm sitting down, as soon as I stand they go away and are quiet.

Spinal Tap wrote:After a 48 hour cooling-off period, some "Silver Flight" thoughts on the PLD:


2. The officiating in this tourney, at least in Silver, was subpar at best. Most of the transgressions in our games took place after the ball had been passed/cleared -- lots of cheap shots that the refs AND ARs missed, resulting in injuries. Lots of bad calls both ways, including many that left everyone wondering if it was "opposite weekend." I don't expect refs to be perfect, but I do expect them to know the laws of the game and enforce them. I also expect the ARs to keep an eye on what happens "behind" the play of the ball and to let the ref know when something illegal happens. Finally, I expect them to keep the game under control and not start making calls and issuing cards only after tournament and ref officials have been called to the field to observe because things were getting out of hand. For goodness sake, twice during the championship game the ref blew his whistle, the girls didn't hear him and kept playing, so he just let play continue. I won't even get into the language barrier that many coaches and players faced this weekend. Maybe things were better in the Gold Flight...

Spinal,
On point number 2 I have to agree with you the refs for PLD Tournament were some of the worst refs I have seen. I don't know where they found them but they were horrible. If this is what PPL have for refs then it is no wonder why PPL teams have a hard time adjusting to LHGCL.
Things were not better in Gold Flight...

Spinal Tap wrote:After a 48 hour cooling-off period, some "Silver Flight" thoughts on the PLD:

1. Out of state teams must feel they have something to prove when they play in NTX tournaments -- unfortunately, they chose to "prove it" in the Silver Flight this weekend. We had a terrible experience playing OKC NYSA Fury Green (two grab-from-behind WWF throw-downs, one flying elbow to the side of the head, one player who kept screaming "What the freak, ref?" at the top of her lungs, and one threat to a parent), Arkansas Comets (one take-down from behind followed by a punch to the throat, three or four steamrollings from behind, several loud comments by players and parents to "foul them harder" once the game was out of reach for them, and one threat made to a parent) , and Tulsa Blitz Black (the worst of them all -- flat out dirty play with several cleats-up tackles after the ball was gone, running through players backs after the ball was gone, purposely stepping on ankles, feet and knees after the ball was gone, open and loud questioning by the coach of whether our players were really hurt (we had to have four girls helped off the field) and insults from the coach towards our coach when he went on the field to help these players off -- all of this obviously taught by their Lilliputian coach and encouraged by the parents based on their yelling and cheering). I'm sure I'm forgetting many of the cheap shots, but my ears are still ringing from the rude and obnoxious parents (and I thought NTX parents were a bit over-the-top -- geez). And before anyone gets on here and says that "soccer is a physical sport", I've played/reffed/coached/watched soccer for 35 years and I know the difference between physical play (which is and should be part of the game) and flat-out dirty play. This was the latter...

2. The officiating in this tourney, at least in Silver, was subpar at best. Most of the transgressions in our games took place after the ball had been passed/cleared -- lots of cheap shots that the refs AND ARs missed, resulting in injuries. Lots of bad calls both ways, including many that left everyone wondering if it was "opposite weekend." I don't expect refs to be perfect, but I do expect them to know the laws of the game and enforce them. I also expect the ARs to keep an eye on what happens "behind" the play of the ball and to let the ref know when something illegal happens. Finally, I expect them to keep the game under control and not start making calls and issuing cards only after tournament and ref officials have been called to the field to observe because things were getting out of hand. For goodness sake, twice during the championship game the ref blew his whistle, the girls didn't hear him and kept playing, so he just let play continue. I won't even get into the language barrier that many coaches and players faced this weekend. Maybe things were better in the Gold Flight...

3. With 24 teams of varying talent levels, they should have split the teams into a 12 team Silver Flight and a 12 team Bronze Flight. Probably would have resulted in more competitive match-ups and made for a better weekend for a lot of girls.

I'd love to hear about any other "interesting" encounters that NTX teams/parents had with our out-of-state friends...

That is all. I feel better now.

Pretty impressive name calling there. I suppose your coach and girls were perfect little angels. Really nice display of sportsmanship at the medal ceremony as well. First time I have ever heard a North Texas team whine about the game being too rough.

And yes, the refereeing was awful pretty much all weekend.

Spinal Tap wrote:After a 48 hour cooling-off period, some "Silver Flight" thoughts on the PLD:

1. Out of state teams must feel they have something to prove when they play in NTX tournaments -- unfortunately, they chose to "prove it" in the Silver Flight this weekend. We had a terrible experience playing OKC NYSA Fury Green (two grab-from-behind WWF throw-downs, one flying elbow to the side of the head, one player who kept screaming "What the freak, ref?" at the top of her lungs, and one threat to a parent), Arkansas Comets (one take-down from behind followed by a punch to the throat, three or four steamrollings from behind, several loud comments by players and parents to "foul them harder" once the game was out of reach for them, and one threat made to a parent) , and Tulsa Blitz Black (the worst of them all -- flat out dirty play with several cleats-up tackles after the ball was gone, running through players backs after the ball was gone, purposely stepping on ankles, feet and knees after the ball was gone, open and loud questioning by the coach of whether our players were really hurt (we had to have four girls helped off the field) and insults from the coach towards our coach when he went on the field to help these players off -- all of this obviously taught by their Lilliputian coach and encouraged by the parents based on their yelling and cheering). I'm sure I'm forgetting many of the cheap shots, but my ears are still ringing from the rude and obnoxious parents (and I thought NTX parents were a bit over-the-top -- geez). And before anyone gets on here and says that "soccer is a physical sport", I've played/reffed/coached/watched soccer for 35 years and I know the difference between physical play (which is and should be part of the game) and flat-out dirty play. This was the latter...

2. The officiating in this tourney, at least in Silver, was subpar at best. Most of the transgressions in our games took place after the ball had been passed/cleared -- lots of cheap shots that the refs AND ARs missed, resulting in injuries. Lots of bad calls both ways, including many that left everyone wondering if it was "opposite weekend." I don't expect refs to be perfect, but I do expect them to know the laws of the game and enforce them. I also expect the ARs to keep an eye on what happens "behind" the play of the ball and to let the ref know when something illegal happens. Finally, I expect them to keep the game under control and not start making calls and issuing cards only after tournament and ref officials have been called to the field to observe because things were getting out of hand. For goodness sake, twice during the championship game the ref blew his whistle, the girls didn't hear him and kept playing, so he just let play continue. I won't even get into the language barrier that many coaches and players faced this weekend. Maybe things were better in the Gold Flight...

3. With 24 teams of varying talent levels, they should have split the teams into a 12 team Silver Flight and a 12 team Bronze Flight. Probably would have resulted in more competitive match-ups and made for a better weekend for a lot of girls.

I'd love to hear about any other "interesting" encounters that NTX teams/parents had with our out-of-state friends...

That is all. I feel better now.

There is plenty of Ref bashing on General girls soccer discussion / English SPEAKING PLEASE forum and for good reason. Other posters had same experiance with agressive play and refs that let it go on right in front of their eye's not just this past weekend but during regular past season play as well. It is clear that the Ref’s see the fouls as they indicate play on with their hands. This agreesive style play and Ref's not controling/calling a safe game is getting to be a very serious problem. This is clearly criminal negligence at a minimum but most likley it is gross negligence. I don't know who Plano's General Liability insurance is with but I am guessing if thier insurance company was aware of what is going on they would cancle Plano insurance in a heart beat due to the growing liabialty. The more people that video the games the more evidance of negligence there is. I am guessing all the video evidance needed to win a negligence law suite against Plano is already in existance! Start posting your video clips on Youtube and post the links on txsoccer and lets get Plano to finaly act on this issue.

If Plano does nothing to address this growing problem and make some changes then it is only a a matter of time before someone files a negligence law suite against Plano. So Plano you should consider yourself on notice!

The King has no clothes! Finally someone said what we have all be thinking!

And just for the record, you can't sign a waiver giving up your rights when it comes to negligence!

-----------------------------
Criminal negligence is defined as: careless, inattentive, neglectful, willfully blind, or in the case of gross negligence what would have been reckless in any other defendant.
-----------------------------
Gross negligence is a legal concept which means serious carelessness. Negligence is the opposite of diligence, or being careful. The standard of ordinary negligence is what conduct one expects from the proverbial "reasonable person". By analogy, if somebody has been grossly negligent, that means they have fallen so far below the ordinary standard of care that one can expect, to warrant the label of being "gross".

Last year officials were getting two or three sets of games but this year refs received at most, one set of three games (some got one set of two). My understanding was that more than a thousand officials were being employed and therefore, one set of games was the most you could get.
There are some good officials out there, not all of them are bad but I do hear you and share in your concern. Ref's are damned if they do and damned if they don't but the number one priority is to keep players safe.

To me the real shame lies in the fact that not one of the "out of area" teams lived up to their mighty gotsoccer rankings, and demanded to play in the gold group.

Would have been interesting to see their "style" of play match up against the teams my dd faced...

Liverpool Pulp
DFW Tornadoes
Solar 98

Txfutboldad wrote:

Erod wrote:

disturbed wrote:Post-Plano Labor Day DI Thoughts:


Speaking of, would have been nice to see Liverpool play this weekend in Plano instead of ducking the competition in favor of fattening up on quasi-rec teams in Lewisville.

Same for Odyssey. What are these teams doing messing with teams that aren't ready for that brand of soccer? Tyler Azzuri, too. I'm sure the others weren't real happy to see that kind of competition entering a tournament like this either. Nice traditional tournament, but not really intentioned to be a Lake Highlands type event.

EDIT: Heard Odyssey was missing starters on vacation and injured, but still. You're competition was in Plano.

Odyssey coach's other boys team played in the same tourney. He was just trying to get the girls some work since they have 3 weeks of no games and thought it would be easier with both in the same tourney. I did hear he thought he should've just played both in PLD though. Hindsight ...

OK, well it sounds like it was acknowledged, so good for them. Did they play in it last year, too?

hardyharhar wrote:

Spinal Tap wrote:After a 48 hour cooling-off period, some "Silver Flight" thoughts on the PLD:

1. Out of state teams must feel they have something to prove when they play in NTX tournaments -- unfortunately, they chose to "prove it" in the Silver Flight this weekend. We had a terrible experience playing OKC NYSA Fury Green (two grab-from-behind WWF throw-downs, one flying elbow to the side of the head, one player who kept screaming "What the freak, ref?" at the top of her lungs, and one threat to a parent), Arkansas Comets (one take-down from behind followed by a punch to the throat, three or four steamrollings from behind, several loud comments by players and parents to "foul them harder" once the game was out of reach for them, and one threat made to a parent) , and Tulsa Blitz Black (the worst of them all -- flat out dirty play with several cleats-up tackles after the ball was gone, running through players backs after the ball was gone, purposely stepping on ankles, feet and knees after the ball was gone, open and loud questioning by the coach of whether our players were really hurt (we had to have four girls helped off the field) and insults from the coach towards our coach when he went on the field to help these players off -- all of this obviously taught by their Lilliputian coach and encouraged by the parents based on their yelling and cheering). I'm sure I'm forgetting many of the cheap shots, but my ears are still ringing from the rude and obnoxious parents (and I thought NTX parents were a bit over-the-top -- geez). And before anyone gets on here and says that "soccer is a physical sport", I've played/reffed/coached/watched soccer for 35 years and I know the difference between physical play (which is and should be part of the game) and flat-out dirty play. This was the latter...

2. The officiating in this tourney, at least in Silver, was subpar at best. Most of the transgressions in our games took place after the ball had been passed/cleared -- lots of cheap shots that the refs AND ARs missed, resulting in injuries. Lots of bad calls both ways, including many that left everyone wondering if it was "opposite weekend." I don't expect refs to be perfect, but I do expect them to know the laws of the game and enforce them. I also expect the ARs to keep an eye on what happens "behind" the play of the ball and to let the ref know when something illegal happens. Finally, I expect them to keep the game under control and not start making calls and issuing cards only after tournament and ref officials have been called to the field to observe because things were getting out of hand. For goodness sake, twice during the championship game the ref blew his whistle, the girls didn't hear him and kept playing, so he just let play continue. I won't even get into the language barrier that many coaches and players faced this weekend. Maybe things were better in the Gold Flight...

3. With 24 teams of varying talent levels, they should have split the teams into a 12 team Silver Flight and a 12 team Bronze Flight. Probably would have resulted in more competitive match-ups and made for a better weekend for a lot of girls.

I'd love to hear about any other "interesting" encounters that NTX teams/parents had with our out-of-state friends...

That is all. I feel better now.

Pretty impressive name calling there. I suppose your coach and girls were perfect little angels. Really nice display of sportsmanship at the medal ceremony as well. First time I have ever heard a North Texas team whine about the game being too rough.

And yes, the refereeing was awful pretty much all weekend.

Looks like someone has been lurking -- perhaps expecting this post? Wonder why?

Thanks. I actually toned it down quite a bit from my original draft.

I've never seen a post about our girls playing dirty or trying to hurt anyone. If you've seen or heard otherwise, or have specific examples from the game, by all means share it with us. They did, however, get called out on this forum for running a trick corner kick play at last year's PLD -- so I guess you're right.

If your coach and players had displayed an ounce of sportsmanship during the game, ours certainly would have reciprocated during the medal ceremony. After what happened during the game, we thought it would be best -- and the PLD officials agreed -- for each team to do their own thing. Besides, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all...

I wasn't whining about the game being too rough. I was complaining about the dirty play. Big difference. We play "rough" teams all of the time here in NTX. It's one thing for a girl to get pushed off the ball by a strong shoulder challenge, or get taken down by a clean slide tackle. It's another for a girl to get taken off of her feet by a cleats-up slide two seconds after the ball has left her foot, or run over from behind after she has already cleared a ball.

You're right about the reffing!