4th annual Dallas International Girls Cup 2014 Accepted Teams

4th annual Dallas International Girls Cup 2014 Accepted Teams
U14
'00 Mustangs, FC (TX)
Andromeda 00 G (TX)
Blackburn Rovers LFC (England)
Classics Elite 00g (TX)
D'Feeters U14 ECNL (TX)
Dallas Sting ECNL U14 (TX)
Dallas Texans ECNL U14
Millwall FC (England)
NJ Stallions Stampede
NM Rush 2K (NM)
Ottawa South United 2000 Force Black (Canada)
Rio SC Reign '00 (NM)
Solar Chelsea 00 - Missimo (TX)
Solar Chelsea ECNL U-14 (TX)
Solar Gold '00 (TX)
Sting Central 00 - Parker (TX)
Sting Royal 00 Brown (previously Harr) (TX)
Texas Rush (TX)
Whitby Iroquois 2000A Girls (Canada)
World Class FC U14 ECNL

Are they're going to have separate brackets.  
- ECNL bracket
- Gold/Silver bracket

It's Me, I would be somewhat surprised if the DIGC has leveled brackets. As much of the effort that has been placed on attracting teams, I would think they wouldn't break it down to allow for a gap in competition level. Could be wrong, but would be surprised. Anyone who signs up for this one should have some idea as to the level of competition that DIGC is trying to accomplish.

Its Me wrote:Are they're going to have separate brackets.  
- ECNL bracket
- Gold/Silver bracket

Historically they have not.

I think the brackets are as follows

BRING IT BRACKET
DEFEND YOURSELF BRACKET
YOU ASKED FOR IT BRACKET
YOU GET IT BRACKET

backofthenet wrote:It's Me, I would be somewhat surprised if the DIGC has leveled brackets. As much of the effort that has been placed on attracting teams, I would think they wouldn't break it down to allow for a gap in competition level. Could be wrong, but would be surprised. Anyone who signs up for this one should have some idea as to the level of competition that DIGC is trying to accomplish.

I completely agree. As a matter of fact, as one of the highlighted teams above (not sure why), my dd is hoping to play a variety of teams. Why pay for this tournament if you get stuck in a bracket with none of the teams that make this tournament attractive. I will be seriously disappointed if we wind up playing all local teams.

Never say never, but this Tourney has never broke up the teams in the past. A group from this list above "might" like:

-Texans ECNL
-Millwall FC (England)
-Rio FC Reign (NM)
-Mustangs 00

dadof3 wrote:

backofthenet wrote:It's Me, I would be somewhat surprised if the DIGC has leveled brackets. As much of the effort that has been placed on attracting teams, I would think they wouldn't break it down to allow for a gap in competition level. Could be wrong, but would be surprised. Anyone who signs up for this one should have some idea as to the level of competition that DIGC is trying to accomplish.

I completely agree.  As a matter of fact, as one of the highlighted teams above (not sure why), my dd is hoping to play a variety of teams.  Why pay for this tournament if you get stuck in a bracket with none of the teams that make this tournament attractive.  I will be seriously disappointed if we wind up playing all local teams.

This something the Cup needs to decide and communicate to invitees now. Historically, this tournament is an opportunity to play elite competition, not be protected from it. Unless given a break on the tournament fees or advised at registration, all of the invited teams deserve to play the best participating competition, regardless of their current rank, or they shouldn't have been invited in the first place.

Granted (BIG topic of conversation in '00 group, anyway), the organizers need to do a better job of bracketing the competition than last year to avoid the appearance club-team bias, but why invite LHGCL D1 and D2 teams (most which will probably have guest players), if its believed they would not be competitive?

Good or bad, these teams know what they're signing up for, and it doubtful many would've accepted the invite to give up their Easter weekend to play teams they will see in league play or another local tournament.  Besides, a few of these teams just might surprise some of the "elite" teams.

Packrabbit wrote:

This something the Cup needs to decide and communicate to invitees now. Historically, this tournament is an opportunity to play elite competition, not be protected from it. Unless given a break on the tournament fees or advised at registration, all of the invited teams deserve to play the best participating competition, regardless of their current rank, or they shouldn't have been invited in the first place.

Granted (BIG topic of conversation in '00 group, anyway), the organizers need to do a better job of bracketing the competition than last year to avoid the appearance club-team bias, but why invite LHGCL D1 and D2 teams (most which will probably have guest players), if its believed they would not be competitive?

Good or bad, these teams know what they're signing up for, and it doubtful many would've accepted the invite to give up their Easter weekend to play teams they will see in league play or another local tournament.  Besides, a few of these teams just might surprise some of the "elite" teams.

Bracketing has been, IMHO, this tournament's biggest weakness over the years.  While I thought it was a well run tournament overall, sometimes the bracketing defied logic.  I remember a few years back there was a bracket of 4 very high level teams, a bracket of 1 good team and 3 very weak teams, and a bracket of 4 very weak teams.  When I spoke to the TD, he told me that they didn't bracket in the conventional way, they just tried to put brackets together that they thought "made sense".

That was also the year that, due to conflicts with High School playoffs, teams were often short players (we were), so they began allowing some teams to use players that were older than the allowable age range for the group.  Unfortunately, the only people that knew about that were the teams that used these normally ineligible players.  They made no attempt to notify all the teams that they were allowed to use these players, putting some teams at a disadvantage.

Packrabbit wrote:

dadof3 wrote:

backofthenet wrote:It's Me, I would be somewhat surprised if the DIGC has leveled brackets. As much of the effort that has been placed on attracting teams, I would think they wouldn't break it down to allow for a gap in competition level. Could be wrong, but would be surprised. Anyone who signs up for this one should have some idea as to the level of competition that DIGC is trying to accomplish.

I completely agree.  As a matter of fact, as one of the highlighted teams above (not sure why), my dd is hoping to play a variety of teams.  Why pay for this tournament if you get stuck in a bracket with none of the teams that make this tournament attractive.  I will be seriously disappointed if we wind up playing all local teams.

This is something the Cup needs to decide and communicate to invitees now. Historically, this tournament is an opportunity to play elite competition, not be protected from it. Unless given a break on the tournament fees or advised at registration, all of the invited teams deserve to play the best participating competition, regardless of their current rank, or they shouldn't have been invited in the first place.

Granted (BIG topic of conversation in '00 group, anyway), the organizers need to do a better job of bracketing the competition than last year to avoid the appearance club-team bias, but why invite LHGCL D1 and D2 teams (most which will probably have guest players), if its believed they would not be competitive?

Good or bad, these teams know what they're signing up for, and it doubtful many would've accepted the invite to give up their Easter weekend to play teams they will see in league play or another local tournament.  Besides, a few of these teams just might surprise some of the "elite" teams.

Can someone speak to this? Was there a problem before? As I said before, my expectation is variety in the teams we play. If we get an international team, a team from say NM and a local ECNL team...great!

Just read ballhead...so I got at least one answer...

Last year there was at least one team from no where nearby in each flight. In the 99 group there were 4 flights with 4 teams each. Flights A,B,C each had 2 TX teams and 1 international and 1 from out of state. Flight D had 3 Tx teams and Tophat (GA team). I believe Tophat won the whole thing. I'll be very surprised if the tournament doesn't spread the traveling teams as evenly as possible across the age group. Last year, the international teams I saw were overmatched against our ENCL teams, but it was still cool too watch.

Pale Rider wrote:Last year  there was at least one team from no where nearby in each flight.  In the 99 group there were 4 flights with 4 teams each.  Flights A,B,C each had 2 TX teams and 1 international and 1 from out of state.  Flight D had 3 Tx teams and Tophat (GA team).  I believe Tophat won the whole thing.  I'll be very surprised if the tournament doesn't spread the traveling teams as evenly as possible across the age group.  Last year, the international teams I saw were overmatched against our ENCL teams, but it was still cool too watch.

Actually, playing against the international teams was the part our girls liked the best about the tournament.  Very different styles of soccer, typically poorly matched against the ECNL teams as you say, but a great experience for the girls to meet and talk to the Canadian and European players.  

There was one team from England, I think, that was having trouble with the heat when we thought it was a beautiful spring day.

They would like to develop this into a Dallas Cup for girls, and to do so they need to cater to the international and out of state teams (to some extent) to get them to come.

I hope it works.

I thought that last year the 00s and 01s had to be Jr. ECNL to participate. So now that the 00s are in ECNL that rule no longer applies?

Armanji wrote:I thought that last year the 00s and 01s had to be Jr. ECNL to participate.  So now that the 00s are in ECNL that rule no longer applies?

It's highly suspect. I think Texans just make the rules up on a per team basis. Last year kicks was denied entry because they said it was a jr. Ecnl tournament and u must wait till next year and play up against 00s (as pulp did last year against 99s and showed very well).

This year they denied kicks entry again to play up against 00s saying it was ECNL only. Yet they accepted non ECNL 00s and accepted non ECNL OFC in 01s.  If they continue cherry picking teams and not allowing the strongest competition, this tournament will end up like texas cup where Sting excluded strong teams a few years back saying their top division was  jr. Ecnl only...resulting in many top teams these days saying why bother.

Fear of the best is a compliment in my books!

4-3-3 wrote:

Armanji wrote:I thought that last year the 00s and 01s had to be Jr. ECNL to participate.  So now that the 00s are in ECNL that rule no longer applies?

It's highly suspect. I think Texans just make the rules up on a per team basis. Last year kicks was denied entry because they said it was a jr. Ecnl tournament and u must wait till next year and play up against 00s (as pulp did last year against 99s and showed very well).

This year they denied kicks entry again to play up against 00s saying it was ECNL only. Yet they accepted non ECNL 00s and accepted non ECNL OFC in 01s.  If they continue cherry picking teams and not allowing the strongest competition, this tournament will end up like texas cup where Sting excluded strong teams a few years back saying their top division was  jr. Ecnl only...resulting in many top teams these days saying why bother.

4-3-3, I have serious doubts about your knowledge of what you talking about.

Dallas Texans DO NOT RUN this tournament.  They just host it. Same thing they do with the Boys Dallas Cup.

The DIGC is run independently by Premier International Tours, the same organization that ran Manchester Nike Cup in Portland, OR for over 20 years.

I also doubt Ballhead's claim about talking to the TD about some 'bracketing' rules.  I have been involved with DIGC for 3 years now and I still don't know how they figure out most of these teams from all over the world, and how do they bracket them, from the comfort of their offices in Colorado.   How the heck then would a TD know about a specific U12/U13 team in DFW, and give Ballhead a run through on what really happened?

Pele98 wrote:

4-3-3 wrote:

Armanji wrote:I thought that last year the 00s and 01s had to be Jr. ECNL to participate.  So now that the 00s are in ECNL that rule no longer applies?

It's highly suspect. I think Texans just make the rules up on a per team basis. Last year kicks was denied entry because they said it was a jr. Ecnl tournament and u must wait till next year and play up against 00s (as pulp did last year against 99s and showed very well).

This year they denied kicks entry again to play up against 00s saying it was ECNL only. Yet they accepted non ECNL 00s and accepted non ECNL OFC in 01s.  If they continue cherry picking teams and not allowing the strongest competition, this tournament will end up like texas cup where Sting excluded strong teams a few years back saying their top division was  jr. Ecnl only...resulting in many top teams these days saying why bother.

4-3-3, I have serious doubts about your knowledge of what you talking about.

Dallas Texans DO NOT RUN this tournament.  They just host it. Same thing they do with the Boys Dallas Cup.

The DIGC is run independently by Premier International Tours, the same organization that ran Manchester Nike Cup in Portland, OR for over 20 years.

I also doubt Ballhead's claim about talking to the TD about some 'bracketing' rules.  I have been involved with DIGC for 3 years now and I still don't know how they figure out most of these teams from all over the world, and how do they bracket them, from the comfort of their offices in Colorado.   How the heck then would a TD know about a specific U12/U13 team in DFW, and give Ballhead a run through on what really happened?

Dizam! Pele!

Why did you just have to embarrass them in front of everybody like that!!

Another one of the best post EVER....

Best post ever? The DIGC website lists Tyler Schwab as tournament director...Dallas Texans.

Pele98 wrote:

4-3-3 wrote:

Armanji wrote:I thought that last year the 00s and 01s had to be Jr. ECNL to participate.  So now that the 00s are in ECNL that rule no longer applies?

It's highly suspect. I think Texans just make the rules up on a per team basis. Last year kicks was denied entry because they said it was a jr. Ecnl tournament and u must wait till next year and play up against 00s (as pulp did last year against 99s and showed very well).

This year they denied kicks entry again to play up against 00s saying it was ECNL only. Yet they accepted non ECNL 00s and accepted non ECNL OFC in 01s.  If they continue cherry picking teams and not allowing the strongest competition, this tournament will end up like texas cup where Sting excluded strong teams a few years back saying their top division was  jr. Ecnl only...resulting in many top teams these days saying why bother.

4-3-3, I have serious doubts about your knowledge of what you talking about.

Dallas Texans DO NOT RUN this tournament.  They just host it. Same thing they do with the Boys Dallas Cup.

The DIGC is run independently by Premier International Tours, the same organization that ran Manchester Nike Cup in Portland, OR for over 20 years.

I also doubt Ballhead's claim about talking to the TD about some 'bracketing' rules.  I have been involved with DIGC for 3 years now and I still don't know how they figure out most of these teams from all over the world, and how do they bracket them, from the comfort of their offices in Colorado.   How the heck then would a TD know about a specific U12/U13 team in DFW, and give Ballhead a run through on what really happened?

Perhaps you should check with LvZ, or MS in Denver.  I spoke with both of them about the fiasco with ineligible players being allowed for some teams, while other teams knew nothing about it.  During that conversation, and several emails, MS was asked how they bracketed the teams because it didn't seem very balanced, and I was told that they don't bracket in the conventional way, they try to make up brackets that made sense.

I don't know, or care, what you've done or are doing with DIGC, but I do know what I was told.  How much do you think they would need to know in Denver in order to tell me that they don't bracket conventionally?  I would think someone with even a basic knowledge of how their organization runs their tournament (I think either LvZ or MS would qualify in that regard, even if they didn't do it themselves) could sit in Paris and make that statement.

As I say, be sure to check with them before calling me a liar.  It's been a couple of years, but I suspect they may remember the conversations.  That was the year a team was allowed to use overage players, but was disqualified in the playoffs when they "inadvertently" used a player that was outside of even the expanded age range.

Who cares. Just go play and enjoy the opportunity. That's really what this is about; especially in regards to this tournament.

Pele98 wrote:

4-3-3 wrote:

Armanji wrote:I thought that last year the 00s and 01s had to be Jr. ECNL to participate.  So now that the 00s are in ECNL that rule no longer applies?

It's highly suspect. I think Texans just make the rules up on a per team basis. Last year kicks was denied entry because they said it was a jr. Ecnl tournament and u must wait till next year and play up against 00s (as pulp did last year against 99s and showed very well).

This year they denied kicks entry again to play up against 00s saying it was ECNL only. Yet they accepted non ECNL 00s and accepted non ECNL OFC in 01s.  If they continue cherry picking teams and not allowing the strongest competition, this tournament will end up like texas cup where Sting excluded strong teams a few years back saying their top division was  jr. Ecnl only...resulting in many top teams these days saying why bother.

4-3-3, I have serious doubts about your knowledge of what you talking about.

Dallas Texans DO NOT RUN this tournament.  They just host it. Same thing they do with the Boys Dallas Cup.

The DIGC is run independently by Premier International Tours, the same organization that ran Manchester Nike Cup in Portland, OR for over 20 years.

I also doubt Ballhead's claim about talking to the TD about some 'bracketing' rules.  I have been involved with DIGC for 3 years now and I still don't know how they figure out most of these teams from all over the world, and how do they bracket them, from the comfort of their offices in Colorado.   How the heck then would a TD know about a specific U12/U13 team in DFW, and give Ballhead a run through on what really happened?

Pele,
I have read your enough of your comments to know that you are a straight-shooter, so I respect your opinion when you have one. I am sure it has to be difficult ranking some of these teams. To clarify, after looking at some of last year's tournament brackets, are you saying the Texans, the tournament host and presumedly Premier International's client, doesn't have ANY input when forming its tournament brackets?

If indeed, Premier is solely responsible for the past tournament brackets, they need to be more transparent in demonstrating their independence for their client's sake. Whether factual or not, it's widely believed past tournament rankings have favored the host's schedule.

To 4-3-3's point, I think he was referring the wide-ranging scuttle-butt (accepted as fact?) that some (pulp and others) teams were denied access to last year's event because of the their ECNL status (or lack thereof) into U-13;  hence, the appearance of cherry picking this year.

True or not, appearances do matter, and I'd hate to see this event tarnished.

Last year the big txsoccer complaint was about the length of games in the Quarters and Semis. This year, I guess it will be the integrity of the Tournament organizers. We will always have something to talk/complain about.

But our younger age parents need to realize that this is the single best non-ECNL event in DFW on the girls side when it comes to drawing College Coaches... Win? Loss?? Who cares.... Just do your best to have your DD ready to show out that week..

soccersounder wrote:Last year the big txsoccer complaint was about the length of games in the Quarters and Semis. This year, I guess it will be the integrity of the Tournament organizers. We will always have something to talk/complain about.

But our younger age parents need to realize that this is the single best non-ECNL event in DFW on the girls side when it comes to drawing College Coaches... Win? Loss?? Who cares.... Just do your best to have your DD ready to show out that week..

So if its the best, why not grant acceptance to some of the top teams in the area.. ? Wouldnt more top competition just draw more and more top competition yearly?

Pack - I was not referring to scuttlebutt...not talking rumors and conjecture here. I have no reason to lie about the reasons Kicks were given for being denied entry. They were not told there were better teams going to be admitted ahead of them, which is the only criteria
that should prevent any team from playing according to DIGC published format.


For the record I don't know anything about LP Pulp's situation. I watched some of their games playing up last year against 99s. I assume they were told same thing Kicks was told last year, but I didn't speculate on that. Anyone can look at the accepted teams this year and see this jr. ecnl / ecnl stuff is selectively applied, and anyone can look at the DIGC published tournament format and see such criteria IS NOT listed on their website.


The only "opinion" I offered was that Texans appear to be making up their rules on a per team basis, and if they keep it up eventually they will diminish this tournament. If Pele is saying I don't know what i'm talking about regarding that...he's entitled to his opinion. But Surf Cup doesn't remain one of the top tourneys in the country by excluding local talent like legends and beach every year, and using some hodgepodge of perenially changing jr. ecnl/ECNL justification to do it.

I'm interested Pele's response since he apparently work(ed) for DIGC, and was so quick to cast doubt. Especially interested in how he justifies the idea PIT runs DIGC from denver, entirely without input from Texans, while a Texans general manager and u14 ECNL assistant coach is listed on DIGC website as one of the tournament directors.

I believe state cup starts about three weeks after this tournament. This tournament should showcase all the local talent.