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>>[Hurst66] Chico, did you hit The Flying Fish yet?<<

Not yet. My wimpy excuse: with the temperatures in the upper 90's and so much great soccer and so many recreational opportunities, we've been lucky to find the nearest place to eat before falling into bed each night.

Special Report from Jim Victor at the USYSA Region III Championships.

The U19 Aiken Fire boys team has won their group and has advanced to the semifinals of the USYSA Region 3 Tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The annual tournament for teams that have won their respective state tournaments is being held in Little Rock for the second time in five years. In 2002, the then U15 Aiken Fire won the regional title and advanced to the national championship series, eventually losing in the national U15 championship final 1-0.

The U19 Fire is comprised of players who have played for the team over the years. Included on the roster are:

Eric Baffour (North Augusta HS) - Furman University
William Batson (Richmond Academy) - Colgate University
Rafi Berios (Pope Academy)
Jamal Geathers (South Aiken HS) - Will attend USC
Jordan Gilbert (Aquinas HS) - Clayton State University
Mike Gustavson (South Aiken HS) - USC
Sani Hadziahmetovic (Irmo HS) - Duke University
Gavin Hamilton (Evans HS) - Augusta State
David Hunter (Victory Christian Academy)
Markus Jackson (Richmond Academy) - Yale University
Marquintez Jackson (Richmond Academy) - Will attend Clayton State University
John Odum (Aiken HS) - Presbyterian College
Schuyler Reardon (Aiken HS) - Will attend USC
Parker Rogers (Richmond Academy) - Clemson University
Rob Victor (Aiken HS) - Furman University

The Aiken Fire won their group by defeating the South Texas state champions in the first game by a score of 1-0. Will Batson's direct kick from 20 yards out along the goal line was played low. Eric Baffour "dummied" the ball through is legs and before it reached the far post where Jordan Gilbert touched it in. The South Texan team mounted several attempts to tie the score but was denied by the defense of Gustavson in goal, Odum, Gilbert, Hunter, Rogers and Markus Jackson on defense.

The Fire lost their second game 3-1 to the Brentwood, Tennessee team. Although the Fire dominated play and had numerous chances to score, they could not finish their chances and eventually gave up a late counter attack goal in the final 15 seconds to make the score look worse than it really was. The lone Aiken goal was scored by Jamal Geathers after a throw in by Schuyler Reardon was flicked by Rob Victor and eventually made it's way to Geathers who poked it in.

After two games, all four teams in the group had one win and one tie. An Aiken Fire win in their third game coupled with a South Texas defeat over Tennessee would allow the Aiken Fire to win the group and advance to the semifinals.

Aiken Fire played the Florida state champs from Brandon, Florida in the third game. Brandon had defeated TN (7-0) and had lost (3-2) to South Texas. The game was played end-to-end with both teams knowing that a win was necessary for advancement. With the extremely hot temperatures reaching in the upper 90's the Fire rotated Batson, Hadziahmetovic, Hamilton, Reardon, Rogers, Q. Jackson and even Markus Jackson in the midfield to keep fresh players on the field. Both teams had numerous chances in a game. Some spectators described the match as a "heavy weight fight" with both teams throwing their best offensive weapons only to be denied by missed shots, goalkeeper saves and defensive stops. With 5 minutes to in the Aiken game, the South Texas game was final with South Texas winning 6-2. This set up the perfect scenario for Aiken Fire as a win would get them the top seed in the group based on head to head results with South texas. Aiken Fire had gone to three up top with ten minutes to go to try to get the go-ahead goal. Quality chances by geathers, Baffour and Victor had been either stuffed or deflected by the Florida keeper. As the 90 minutes expired the 4th official announced 5 extra minutes of time would be played. In the 94th minute, Sani Hadziahmetovic stole a pass, layed it off to Reardon who found a streaking Markus Jackson going down the right side. Jackson beat his man and turned into the box where he was knocked to the ground by the defender. The ref called for a penalty kick. Eric Baffour (Iceman) stepped up and promptly placed the PK in the upper right-hand corner to secure the 1-0 victory and put the Aiken Fire into the semifinals of the Southern Regionals for the fourth time in six years.

The Fire will play the U19 Dallas Texans Red in the semifinal at 11:30 on Tuesday, July 4. The Dallas Texans Red are the defending national champions. They are also the team that defeated the Aiken Fire in the U16 Southern Regional final (2003) to deny the Fire back-to-back regional championships. The Aiken Fire had won the Southern Regional at U15.

Aiken Fire will play without Mike Gustavson in goal as "Goose" has been called up to the U20 National Team training camp/games in Canada and had to leave on Monday, July 3 to report to that team.

Since the restructuring of Regionals to add a round (just for money-making), being a quarterfinalist isn't as big as one might seem. Total teams are 12-16 per age group and 8 go through....that's 50% at least....not bad odds. It's not a true measure like the past when only four went through as group winners and your true class was shown.

The State's "elite" club, if correct, has one semifinalist and three others went out in the quarters. Not very good considering there's 12 titles up for grabs and 48 semifinal spots. 1 for 48 isn't a elite club in the region, just in a poor state. What's good for South Carolina still isn't good in the big picture.

Kind of like England in the World Cup. Everyone thinks they are good domestically because foreigners make the top clubs somewhat competitive in Europe. Until, they (just Englishmen) step into the World Cup and are poor.

Kind of like the U.S. in the World Cup. Everyone think they are good in CONCACAF and meaningless friendlies until they step into the World Cup and are, yes, poor.

American soccer people need to be 1) more honest and demanding in expectations and evaluation and 2) more knowledgeable to do this.

South Carolina(and don't count college all-star teams at U19), England and the U.S. weren't good enough in June.

Beezer: I think that your overall point is that South Carolina's "elite" club [I love your use of "scare" quotes!] isn't sufficiently regionally or nationally competitive to win many/any regional finalists positions. No offense -- but you could have looked at RIIIPL-East results and discovered this quite a few number of months ago -- we don't tend to place in the top two in RIIIPL-East. Or you could look at the history of regional champions from SC -- the list is two deep -- and deduced this.

It might be interesting to tackle a more interesting question -- what is the current course, speed, and acceleration of SC soccer with respect to the rest of the region. Are we moving toward achieving more regional finalists and champions faster than the other states or are we falling further and further behind?

What I saw yesterday before I left Little Rock was a SC team that played the #1 ranked nationally ranked team [NTX - Dallas Texans] and lost 1-0 in a heartbreaker that many thought was actually a 1-1 game [literally, the video is being reviewed concerning whether a ball crossed a line.] The Dallas players/parents were estatic and quite poor sports about it all -- I'm pretty sure that they didn't expect an SC team to be quite that competitive.

I read your post and on one hand I'm actually kind of pleased that people's expectations are starting to rise to the point where getting out of bracket with #2 ranked Oklahoma [but not CASL] is considered "not a big deal." I think this is the kind of expectations we should have regarding SC soccer and our "elite" clubs [hey...I used the quotes as well!].

On the other hand, I read your post and wonder what your agenda must be to disregard the improvement that SC appears to be making [ask the NASA/Silverback parents who didn't get out of bracket in another age group against SC, for example].

So, taking your "argument" at face value -- and I agree with your premise that SC wasn't good enough in June to be in the national pool and has never been with only a few incredibly rare exceptions -- what is your prescription for improving the performance of SC in future "June's"?

Beezer,
I think the quarterfinal was set up after Premier league teams were entered. There were never 4 group winners. There were three group winners and 1 wild card. This is still done with the 19's as there are no PL teams.

Who is making the money?

x: I swear -- I walked away from the computer after I posted and then realized I had missed this point entirely and came back just now to discuss the same point and ask the same question!

Beezer: One other point -- that "all-star" team from Aiken -- my kid used to practice with them two years ago before any of them went to college and when we watched them in two of their games in Little Rock it seems to be pretty much the same excellent Aiken Fire players -- why are they not to be considered a regular team -- what are we missing?

Chico: I've numbered some of your dialog for response.

1) Are we moving toward achieving more regional finalists and champions faster than the other states or are we falling further and further behind?

Response: Very slowly forward but with a limit. Individual clubs are doing great, like CESA and in time Bridge FA. However, they need competition from the entire state not just every fourth match every two weeks. Even Premier League is 10-12 matches, over months, which in the development picture isn't enough.

2) What I saw yesterday before I left Little Rock was a SC team that played the #1 ranked nationally ranked team.

Response: Soccer is soccer. A SC will play well here and there against the best. We need day in and day out teams and, more importantly, players competing like this.

3) On the other hand, I read your post and wonder what your agenda must be to disregard the improvement that SC appears to be making.

Response: By no means am I disregarding SC soccer, I live here, coach here, recognize attempts (like CESA, Bridge) and want to help as much as anyone get kids the opportunities some kids are getting in top states/regions.

4) So, taking your "argument" at face value -- and I agree with your premise that SC wasn't good enough in June to be in the national pool and has never been with only a few incredibly rare exceptions -- what is your prescription for improving the performance of SC in future "June's"?

Response: My prescription is to have 1) a committee of top soccer coaches (club, college) to 2) appoint a full-time DOC and then 3) serve as his technical group and work closely in making all soccer/development decisions like league formation, training environments/curriculum and, of course ODP restructuring.

In addition, I believe the ODP pools, in this state, should be year round teams that play under a club (or maybe a SCYSA-formed Columbia club just for that matter) and play Premier League and/or US Club. Does the mean seperating and catering to the elite? YES. Decisions for the majority doesn't develop the minority, the best! You can still have SCYSA leagues for the other clubs/teams and they'll only play one another in State Cup. If the elite teams win, then it should (CESA is now almost doing that). If the elite teams don't win then things are advancing maybe. But this way the best players are guaranteed to play and train together with top coaches.

The most important thing is the top players train, at least, 3 times a week in Columbia (central location) and move around on weekends when there's not matches. With so few top, top players, they need to be in the same environment constantly.

I know this all seems drastic and different, and there's probably a better chance of seeing SCYSA brass (like Mary Bynum) juggling 3 times, but it's needed. Get rid of administrators making soccer decisions and allow that to the best soccer people. South Carolina needs thorough and wholesale change!

Beezer: Great post...I'm going to read it and think about it and respond after a bit...some really thought-provoking ideas!