SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Final Four State Cup

Ok. I have to chime in. My daugter plays on the CESA 96 team. First let me say I am melowing out in my old age. But I thought this whole club thing was about getting your kid better. Anybody that knows me will testify that I HATE TO LOSE. But after this past weekend I sat down and asked myself is my daughter better now than at the beginning of the season and the asnwer is YES. Is the CESA 96 girls better and the asnwer is YES. Even with 4 starters not returning. Our record this season shows that. Did we choke this past weekend, YES. But I don't think anybody from our team will argure that we are not better this year compared to last. Sure there is a couple of teams in SC that is good competition for us. But who wants to play the same 2 teams,see the same players, lineups, and so forth all season long. Face it we are in Greenville, SC not Dallas, TX. We have to go outside the state. I even heard the SC United 96 coach mention they had to arrange games with ECNL teams out of state to get better competition. (BUSA) I have had daughters play for CESA and SC United. I think they both have the same goal in mind. Will my daughter be able to play at the next level and compete and play? That is when you will really find out if it was worth it and I think both clubs have proved well in doing just that. Both clubs I think have this same goal. So this I'm #1 and your #2 is really for the parents. And I'm not stupid, I know the girls hate to lose. But that is good. They want to get better. I personally like the CESA-SC United rivalery.

Oh. one more thing. I think I know both Delta Dog and Harry. I think you both need to dress out. Get on the pitch and go 1 v 1. I got a field lined up. Me and MAV Soccer Dad can charge at least $10.00 person to see this and sale beer for $5.00 a cup. I figure this would draw people from all over the state, and maybe some from all the way from Miami, FL. MAV and I will donate the funds to a local charity, well maybe.

Not a bad idea, but I'm too old and too out of shape. And if MAV is who I think you're referring to, I think he's pretty happy in Miami right where he is.

round one goes to the dog

Using scores in two games to say that a club like CSA should rethink their selection process (what you did) is a bit different than using records over 9 and 15 games to make an observation of the overall level of a league (what I did) I would have expected the latter from you.

I didn't see the GA state cup, but I have seen the GA teams play on more than one instance. So my opinion on their level was based on more than their scores against one CESA team or how they did in one weekend event.

I went to the "more here than scores" because going back to your comments about which CASL teams or which CSA team was better and calling CESA the 4th team seemed to be based on the scores of a small handful of games that you didn't witness. Thus, it seemed that you were relying only on scores when watching the games may have helped you form a different opinion.

It's hard to put into words what I think your agenda is. But it seems odd to me that 6 months after your youngest was done with club soccer (unless she plays one event at U-19) you continue to post in a club soccer thread and you continue the pattern of sounding like a guy in a Man Utd jersey pulling for Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City or anybody other than Man U.

Sorry, I guess I consider 6 months a long time. I don't think that you don't recognize the club's role, you just always sound to me like you don't appreciate it. I know there have been other organizations involved in the development of your players. You and I have PMed about how much you credit ODP. I certainly don't think that CESA is solely responsible for the soccer players your kids have turned out to be. I don't remember saying anything like that. I believe that I said "helped prepare" as you quoted above.

And finally, while I've been called Andrew (and even Pearse) before. I still have to say that I doubt either Andrew (and certainly not Pearse) would spend this amount of time on the forum in differences of opinions such as these. Furthermore, after seeing both Andrews this weekend, I doubt either of them would turn down an invitation to play 1 vs 1 or 11 vs 11 or any chance to play anything at all. Not to mention that if it were possible to make a fund raiser out of it, I don't think that opportunity would be turned down either.

I'm going to end here by stating that I'm going to try to stay away from club soccer for a little while and do all other things Christmas. I will, however, be extremely tempted to check back and see if you can do the same. Either way, I actually do enjoy these 'debates' or whatever we want to call them (with ot without someone keeping score) and I wish you a wonderful Christmas season as well.

where are the Coast FA 96 kids from? what schools?

Glad to see you boys stirring it up a bit. This board has been dead since gbdawgs and I retired. And Harry, really, Mavs in Florida, pleeeeease!!!!

Harry,
For someone that doesn't work for Cesa, you sure have loads of time to watch many of their games all across the age groups. I wouldn't really put that much praise toward the GA teams either in the division play. Although GSA is in a league of its own and probably top 3 in the country, Concorde and Afu are average at best, BUSA, CSA, and CASL are pretty good teams but not any better than top 5 teams in R3, and VA rush probably wouldn't even be in the top 4 of SC state cup. But since apparently you have seen all those teams play and not just their scores, we can just agree to disagree about it...