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Aiken is through to the semis -

Tuesday, July 04, 2006
11:30 AM
Game: 0510
Semi Final -
South Carolina
North Texas Under 19 Boys Division
#02

11:30 AM
Game: 0511
Semi Final -
Florida WC
Louisiana Under 19 Boys Division
#03

17 and 15 girls are also in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

This is what I have figured out so far.

2006 US Youth Soccer Southern Regionals

BOYS (7-12-2, .381)

U14 CESA 91 Premier (0-3-0)
lost 1-2 Georgia, lost PL West 0-1, lost 0-1 North Carolina

U15 CESA 90 Premier (1-2-0)
lost 2-4 North Texas, won 1-0 PL North, lost 1-2 PL East

U15 DSC 90 -- PL North (0-2-1)
lost 0-3 PL East, lost 0-1 South Carolina, tied 3-3 North Texas

U16 Bridge FA 89 Gold (2-1-0)
won 2-0 Arkansas, won 2-0 Alabama, lost 0-2 Louisiana, vs. Georgia (Quarterfinals)

U17 Bridge FA 88 Gold (1-1-1)
lost 1-3 Alabama, won 4-3 PL South, tied 1-1 PL North, vs. Georgia (Quarterfinals)

U18 NECSA Ambush (1-2-0)
lost 0-2 Tennessee, lost 0-3 North Carolina WC, won 6-1 Mississippi

U19 Aiken Fire (2-1-0)
won 1-0 South Texas, lost 1-3 Tennessee, won 1-0 Florida, vs. North Texas (Semifinals)

GIRLS (4-7-4, .400)

U14 CESA 91 Premier (0-3-0)
lost 0-2 Georgia, lost 0-3 PL South, lost 2-5 Tennessee

U15 CESA 90 Premier (1-0-2)
tied 1-1 South Texas, won 1-0 Tennessee, tied 0-0 Louisiana, vs. North Texas (Quarterfinals)

U16 CESA 89 Premier (1-1-1)
tied 2-2 PL South, lost 0-2 North Texas, won 3-1 Alabama, vs. Oklahoma (Quarterfinals)

U17 CESA 88 Premier (1-1-1)
won 1-0 Tennessee, lost 1-3 Oklahoma, tied 1-1 North Carolina, vs. North Texas (Quarterfinals)

U18 CESA 87 Premier (1-2-0)
lost 0-1 Louisiana WC, won 2-1 Louisiana, lost 0-1 Oklahoma

no U19 team

11-19-6 (.389) through the Group stage of action.

Just heard that the 16 girls are going through to the quarterfinals too.

Kyle,
Thats semis for Aiken Fire. No quarters for U19.

Alright, a little more on how South Carolina is doing...lets compare all the states success thus far:

Through to the quarters (including u19s):

1. NTX (22)
2. GA (14)
3. NC (9)
4. OK (9)
5. STX (8)
6. SC (6)
7. FL (6)
8. LA (5)
9. TN (4)
10. MS (4)
11. AL (1)
12 Ark (0)

Through to the semis:

1. NTX (2)
2. LA (2)
3. GA (1)
4. NC (1)
5. SC (1)
6. FL (1)

One big issue with the success South Carolina has had, is that the Aiken Fire is the only top seed in their group, and they had to be in order to advance. That leaves quarterfinal matchups at:

U16 Boys:
Bridge FA vs. Concorde Fire Elite (8-0-1 in the premier league)
U17 Boys:
Bridge FA vs. Atlanta Fire United (6-1-2 in premier, last meeting 4-1 AFU)
U15 Girls:
Cesa vs. FC Texas (4-1-2 in premier league west)
U16 Girls:
Cesa vs. Edmund Soccer Club (5-0-0 in premier league north)
U17 Girls:
Cesa vs. Dallas Texans (6-0-1 in premier league west)

benp: Great numbers and insight -- thanks. When you look at the results and denominate by population on an ad hoc basis, it appears to me that the surprises are OK and SC -- although OK has had enough success in the last few years that they really aren't a surprise any more.

The thing that's difficult to show quantitatively is how much the "luck of the draw" figures into reaching the quarterfinals. For example, the CESA U15B Premier team had an incredibly tough draw -- just as the DSC U14B team last year was in a "group of death."

What I find wonderful is how we've gone from in the past simply counting won/lost records, or counting which teams reached quarterfinals, to doing deeper analysis of things like seeding coming out of the bracket. It seems like our expectations for highly competitive soccer in SC are slowly going up as the clubs are providing the opportunities for our most highly ambitious players.

The most surprising thing to me so far isn't how good some NTX or OK teams are, it's how much better the traditional underdogs are getting. SC has undergone wrenching change in the youth soccer environment in the last two years -- and yet it seems clear to me that SC needs to accelerate that progress in order continue to show relative improvement in Region III and nationally.

Every team I've seen so far from SC has shown well. I sat by several Georgia team coaches at the CESA versus DSC U15B game who kept arguing about whether the teams playing were from SC -- they thought they were too good to come from SC. So congratulations to DSC and NECSA for coming out and doing well in their brackets.

Good luck to the teams from Aiken, Bridge, and CESA today in the quarterfinals [and semifinals.]