03 DT Fall Festival

Good group of teams for the 03 Red Bracket.

http://events.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?EventID=68129&GroupID=765038&Gender=Boys&Age=16

Interesting FCD Premiere and Solar U16 ECNL (a lot of DA kids on both teams) were put in the same bracket. Both of these teams had a good chance to win it and one will now knock out the other in group play.

Hope the rain stays away and they get to play.

Schedule was taken down earlier today for adjustments. They must have seen your post.

Considering that ECNL has a National event in Oklahoma this weekend I am surprised the Solar U16 team is even in this Tournament; allure of Dallas Cup couldn't be resisted.

Unlucky timing for the ECNL teams but there are only a few more chances to play in Dallas Cup for this age group.

Schedule is back up. Not sure if any adjustments were made for the 03 boys. Anybody want to take a stab at predictions for group winners and then tourney champs?

Interesting who is not in the Red group and who made it. Moving down the #4 FCD team in classic D1 seems strange. Even having Evolution play in the lower bracket while lower teams play for the cup bid seems to show how sadly political these tournaments are and the people that run them. Heard some teams tried to pull out and they would not refund the money. Its all about the money it seems.

Javaguy wrote:Interesting who is not in the Red group and who made it. Moving down the #4 FCD team in classic D1 seems strange. Even having Evolution play in the lower bracket while lower teams play for the cup bid seems to show how sadly political these tournaments are and the people that run them. Heard some teams tried to pull out and they would not refund the money. Its all about the money it seems.

Wow. What's the criteria for teams getting in the Red Division? Is it state ranking? League ranking? Or, who you know?

[quote="Ant_Knee"]Schedule is back up.  Not sure if any adjustments were made for the 03 boys.  Anybody want to take a stab at predictions for group winners and then tourney champs?[/quote]

Group winners:

A: Deleon
B. Premiere
C. Premiere
D. Oklahoma

Semis: Deleon over Oklahoma
Semis: Premiere over Premiere

Final: Premiere over Deleon.

I foresee a Solar Deleon and Solar ECNL showdown in the finals.

The only thing in question for me was FCD Premier vs. Solar ECNL and Adrian showed up last night to coach the ECNL team to a victory. I heard FCD was up 1-0 at half but Solar came back and scored 3 to win.

Good luck to all teams.

Looks like Ant_knee your prediction was right with both Solar DeLeon v Solar ECNL/DA met in the finals. It was a game that both teams had waited for awhile to play.

Solar ECNL struggled in the semifinals against Falls-D2. Falls tied it up 3-3 but the goal was called back on offside. Making it 3-2. Solar ECNL got another goal to put it away 4-2

Solar DeLeon had a tight game in the semifinals against OK Energy Central. Heading into PKs Solar DeLeon keeper made two great pk saves taking the team into the finals

Solar DeLeon v Solar ECNL was worth watching. Solar ECNL scoring on a corner kick. Which is all they needed to win the game. It went back and forth but Solar ECNL controlled the game and set the tempo with their fast high pressure. Solar ECNL didn’t back down and showed they could keep up with their own fast counters attacks. Solar ECNL defense limited the Solar Deleon offense to getting off any threatening shots.

Dramafree wrote:

Javaguy wrote:Interesting who is not in the Red group and who made it. Moving down the #4 FCD team in classic D1 seems strange. Even having Evolution play in the lower bracket while lower teams play for the cup bid seems to show how sadly political these tournaments are and the people that run them. Heard some teams tried to pull out and they would not refund the money. Its all about the money it seems.

Wow. What's the criteria for teams getting in the Red Division? Is it state ranking? League ranking? Or, who you know?

NO CRITERIA....as with everything in NTX it matters who you know. Gotsoccer rankings are meaningless to directors unless they use it to justify putting someone in. Example during Summer Festival the director said two teams that have been in D3 for at least 3 seasons deserve to be in silver division even though they ranked in the top ten on Gotsoccer but then this same dirtector puts a recently promoted team to D3 in gold bracket.....I mean what justification could he have for that? Last season they were playing in Plano and did well in Challenge tourny and they get gold division? hmmmmm

Javaguy wrote:Interesting who is not in the Red group and who made it. Moving down the #4 FCD team in classic D1 seems strange. Even having Evolution play in the lower bracket while lower teams play for the cup bid seems to show how sadly political these tournaments are and the people that run them. Heard some teams tried to pull out and they would not refund the money. Its all about the money it seems.

I think they looked at the power rankings and recent head-to-heads. My only issue with DTSC scheduling was that Sporting United was put in White (which they won).

Evo drew with OKC E's second team and got beaten by three by Sporting. They were in the right division. That #4 team went 1-2 in the DTSC and played it off a bit like they didn't care since they had been wrongly put in the white division. So they make up for that the next weekend, right? No. This weekend in the Bobby Rhine, despite JM's typical attempts to put FCD teams through, Group C saw that same D1 #4 team edged Solar Sawyer, tied a struggling D2 Azzurri, and lost to D3 Real GP. At least Group B was respectable, with Che's top FCD team falling by goal diff to Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Group A saw FC Premier, Falls Town, and Sporting fight it out for the right to meet and Solar ECNL (out of D). The A vs D semi was effectively the final.

definitely not a good weekend for D1 Teams.  Asking around, I found some of the teams were riddled with missing players, with guest players subbing in (never liked that idea - so hard for teams to gel).  Sawyer had a number of guest players and players playing in different positions than what I remember.  I looks like it took them to the last game to gel together.  Waters had injuries down the middle (lead scorer, a center mid and their center back) all were either playing injured or were out.  I saw their last game and they dominated, hitting the post 2-3 times and a tough off-sides call. They just looked like they had been spent.  Another strong weekend by Solar ECNL though.  They too looked a little spent from last weekends victory, but showed well for ECNL.  Looks like the first half of D1 will end with the healthiest teams having the edge.

It’s funny to see how some teams struggle against other teams. Solar ECNL team is stacked with the Solar 03 players and struggle against other teams some teams were D3-D1. Now solar has 2 DC spots and with Solar Deleon on the verge of winning a third spot, it may just be the year for Solar to represent in DC this year