Good points all around...I think the big lesson is that it takes a combination of factors for a team to be at its best, not just one element. Sometimes we fall into the trap of arguing about what "the" deciding factor is, when the truth is, there are many factors that work together (or against one another) to determine how well a team performs.
The key, I think, lies in Hurst's "all other things equal" question. All other things equal, yes, one element can be the deciding factor. All other things equal, yes, the team with the better athletes will win. All other things including athletic ability equal, the team with better tactics will win. Tactics, athletic ability, individual skill, and all other things equal, the team with better motivation and desire will win. It's hard to find a situation, though, where "all other things are equal"...little differences in all of those elements are cumulative. Some build on each other, some cancel each other out.
One of the "beautiful" things about soccer is that it's a team sport; there is plenty of room for individual achievement, but it takes a combination of players to create winning situations that take full advantage of individual skills. Knowing how to send and receive a pass at top game speed is crucial; it's next to impossible to succeed without this. Knowing how to ANTICIPATE the pass because you know what your teammates are going to do before they do it and you're in position before the ball is even in play...that takes the game to another level, and it takes enough experience and practice with the players around you to know exactly what to expect from them. Accurate anticipation will create a higher effective game speed than pure reaction every time, but it requires time spent with the people you need to anticipate so that knowing their actions as well as your own is just second nature. Players aren't like high-performance auto parts that you can just "drop in" and expect them to be at peak performance. It takes a bit of time for even the best players to acclimate to a position, a playing style, the speed and tactics of their teammates, etc. There are plenty of times when you watch an all-star game (not just soccer) and see amazingly talented players looking awkward and even downright foolish because they don't correctly anticipate what their unfamiliar (yet equally talented) teammates are going to do. Sometimes if you want to create results on the field, the key lies not always in the best individual players, but in the players who work best together.
So...I think the original question was whether coming back from a separated high school season affects the play of a club team who hasn't been together in months. Would a team who has practiced and played together for the months prior to region playoffs be able to beat a team with better athletes who hasn't? Not necessarily...all other things aren't equal. Would a team who has practiced together in the prior months enough to work seamlessly stand a better CHANCE than one who hasn't? All other things equal, yes.
