SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP CUFC Tryout Analysis

>>[USMNT2014] scdad - I am more in agreement that CESA may still win it's share of state cups but do not believe that your supporting reason makes sense. I beleive CESA will continue to win state cups do to their quality service not their player pool. I thought the success of teams has alot to do with the building of that team. CESA appears to have that figured out. Do you really improve a team through subtraction? It may very well be that they will not win the state cup because it is a totally new team. It takes alot of players knowing their roles to win championships. By stating that "many" of the encumbant players did not make the new team makes it sounds as if a mojority of the team did not return. Is that true? Where did the new (supposedly better skilled) kids come from? If this model works I would expect CESA to dominate for years to come because the skill level at the other clubs must be dropping in order for CESA to improve the quality of players. The players must have come from other clubs. The only other possiblity is that the newbies are coming from recreation or are realtively unknown players. I highly douby that, so do they come from another club? Again, I am not sure this is taking CESA to this new level or not. Only time will tell!<<

I continue to be amazed at the lack of understanding of what CESA really does at tryouts. One of the reasons that CESA attracts players from all over the state of South Carolina and adjacent states is that there is no concept of the team the year before "continuing" to the next year. If a team selected through the tryout process misses RIIIPL participation because it doesn't keep enough players from the original team, that is considered a sacrifice that has to be made due to the value system of the club. The best players are attempted to be selected...period.

In terms of where these kids come from, I know of players from Spartanburg, Charleston, Columbia, Charlotte, Rock Hill, Asheville, Augusta, etc. that are playing for CESA this year that weren't playing for CESA last year. It seemed to me that CESA threw out some pretty big hints before tryouts when they announced training not only in Columbia but in Rock Hill and Asheville that they were going to get a particular influx from those areas.

Major John Reisman: You've seen a general inspecting troops before haven't you? Just walk slow, act dumb and look stupid!

Major John Reisman: Oh, the gentleman from the South had a question about the dining arrangements. He and his comrades are discussing place settings now.(If you remember the text of this quote you will realize how funny it is)

Pinkley: [impersonating a General] Where are you from, son?
Soldier: Madison City, Missouri, sir!
Pinkley: Never heard of it.

What I was discussing about CESA's selection process was to support the reasoning concerning CESA winning even more titles. Yes I know that CESA is offering services to kids from all over. This is the model they are going with and it is working. However, these new kids come from other clubs thus the other clubs are weakening at the same time CESA is improving. In my mind CESA is offering better services and thus has the pick of what players they want for all practical purposes. People want to play for the best club whether it is wins and losses or true services.I have no problem with CESA branching out.

In regards to the CUFC discussion I did not review the post prior to writing, thus I most likely attributed comments to you that were more perceptions from this thread. My previous message was to generate discussion more than anything. I thought you were contrasting the 1st year CESA (I thought they swept that year?) to CUFC but you are contrasting next year. My mistake!

To answer your question CESA probably has a larger area which they draw from due to their aggressive branching out. In addition, they now have a couple years experience under their belts. CUFC more likely than not draws from only the Columbia area. To think that CUFC would draw from CESA territory or Bridge territory is unlikely due to their infancy. If anything they might get a few players who were not selected by CESA or Bridge. Thus, I think comparing a first year club with CESA has too many variables for my feable mind to figure out. I believe that club soccer will improve due to CUFC as a whole and we will see some parity amongst all the larger clubs.

USMNT2014: Thanks...I thought I was just being misleading in my writing and apologize for any confusion due to a lack of clarity. The only thing I've tried to argue is (1) there are high fan expectations for CUFC I've heard both verbally and seen on this message board and (2) those high expectations seem to be translating to parity with CESA in terms of 2006-2007 state championships. I tried to put myself in the shoes of those fans and argue why it was possible. I do think your point concerning a more competitive environment is also valid -- and I think anyone counting Bridge out isn't paying attention to how serious and competitive that club is. In addition, there are strong "one-off" teams (the NECSA U18B team this year and the Lexington U17B team next year spring to mind) that might also be very strong contenders.

Once you put together the best players you can, regardless of the club, it comes down to execution. Issues such as how much training is offered, how well the coach gets the players to work together, how much the players and coaches are willing to sacrifice their social time to go to the best events possible, and the like seem to me to then be paramount to the success of the team. Hopefully we'll see CUFC dive in and really nail these types of issues so that increasing numbers of kids have an opportunity to receive some great services regarding youth soccer.

I agree with your statement that CUFC will hopefully dive in and nail these issues. I am not overly encouraged yet as CUFC has been realtively quite during this "inactive" time. Some information would be nice. Perhaps listing the team's players by name rather than a number would be a good start. As long as they provided these services all will be forgotten. If they do not follow through with the organization of these services the better clubs will then start cherry picking the quality players. And if they expect players to be loyal to inferior clubs they will be sadly mistaken.

Add to the above listed mix the need for chemistry on any team. I think of all the things a coach looks for, this is the hardest to pick up on in a few hours of tryouts. A player may have great skills but does he make the team better?

I made a comment regarding CUFC much earlier in this thread related to Pinasco's U18 team and the things I had been hearing. I remember this as a very strong team last year, and I had heard that they lost only a few key players while picking up some 'A' players. Based on some other posts here it sounds like they have the tools to be very good if they get and keep their act together,but who knows what is going to happen? They could blow up completely in a cloud of self interest. It will be intersting to see how this and the rest of the off season jockeying by all of the clubs plays out between now and the state cup.

Just for the heck of it, I'll predict that Bridge and Lexington each win at least one title.

As for the CUFC 18 boys team i am pretty sure the invitations offered are as follows.

Goalkeepers:
Jason McCabe, John Jenkins

Defenders:
Jess Maki, Jason Yonge, Stephen Shuford, Danny Cates, Garret Lay

Midfielders:
Jonathan Zurcher, Eamon Penland, Kevin Orzech, Robert Birnie, David
Allen, Mark Crabb, Ryan Martin

Forwards:

Ryan Kropp, Brian Wedell, Carey Hite, Michael Sullivan

as for who accepted the invitations i am not sure except for danny cates opting to play for the lexington u-17 team

Is Maki a defender or midfield?

My guess is as good as yours, but i wouldn't be supprised to see him play at a defensive center mid infront of the marking backs but behind most attacking players, he seemed to fit into that role well threw the highschool season.