Things we learned from Labor Day tournaments

06G
Kepley seems to still be top of class here, but still haven't seen much of others to compare.  
S. Lakes looks like they may have a team to challenge.  Lost in championship game in Plano silver division.
OK Arsenal play some 07s and claim championship at WSA

05G
NOKC is only OK team in Plano.  Didn't fare too well in Silver division.
Carreno playing up in weak WSA tournament gets championship.  But not any real impressive scores.
Blitz playing up at KC goes 1-1-1 in pool play.  Not a real solid showing.  

04G
Kitterman has decent showing vs very good competition in Plano, and without any guest players .  Still look like team to beat.
OFC wins silver division at Plano with impressive 14-2 margin over 6 games.
Winters plays in gold division of Plano, probably better suited for silver.  
S. Lakes Cosmos has good showing in Plano going 3-2 and losing in semis of silver division.  Maybe sleeper team in 04s.
Blitz???  Takes weekend off.

Amos, Clinton and NYSA struggle in Plano playing 11v11 in silver.
TSC Harding loses in silver championship in KC to a Metro Tulsa Soccer Club team.  

Thoughts?

06g Kepley hands down best relative to others in age bracket. There may be other great players out there, but not on same team like this one. 06g SLSC MAY be closing the gap, but it's still a huge gap.

05g is a muddle at the top...need to see some competition vs one another after all the changes in this age group.

04g has Kitterman at top (so long as they stay at a healthy 13), then OFC/Blitz. Winters & Cosmos good teams that can win on any given day, but over the grind of a long season will fight it out for 4th. Amos & NYSA demonstrated in Plano why they are playing 8v8 this year...may be long season ahead for Harding & Clinton based on results.

To be fair to Harding, that MTSC team has some talented girls that includes some girls who were formerly on Kitterman's team. Only need a few difference makers in 8v8.

What you learn from weekends like Plano is if you played gold in Plano your team tested themselves against the best of the best. If you won games in silver and bronze brackets in Plano it can give you a false sense of how good you are. If you won games this weekend at Tsc and Wsa you probably beat kids wearing crocks and jean shorts so you really don't know how good you are. Lol

Agree with 05s being toss up at this point. Will probably have to wait until Blitz tournament to get another comparison of teams. Hopefully all of the states top competitive 05s and 06s show up for this tournament.

04s get to start OPL this weekend! Should be fun.

Can agree MTSC team is very competitive '04 8v8 team.

I agree that playing gold in Plano is best of best, but making semis or finals in silver is still very nice accomplishment.

That was the NOKC "White" team that played in Plano. Seemed it was a tough transition to 11 V 11 for them. I heard the NOKC Red has a friendly with 05 Carreno this Sat.

What time and where is friendly being played?

Last I heard it was at ISSC (Broken Arrow) at 4pm.

I show game at 11 on my schedule...the game @ 4 is vs the tsc navy team (assume this is a combination of 1s & 2s).

I know that some nokc players wont make the trip in each age group this time, and some of the 06 boys are playing up with the 05's this weekend. 05 girls Nokc won the majority of the games against everybody last year but it was never by very much, advantage here goes to OFC with ESC girls being equally as good. Not much competition in Oklahoma in 06 girls for TSC. I think many at different clubs still play up. WIll have to travel to test themselves. I know nothing about 07 and 08s. Does anybody else have friendlies with other clubs TSC/Blitz norman/southlakes NOKC/edm?

In the past, Blitz has done friendlies with the club out of Arkansas. Not sure if they still do that.

TSC, WSA and Norman used to do friendlies in years past; however it was one-sided as Norman would never come east.

Not understanding east side soccer that much, why doesn't TSC and Blitz do friendlies with each other? Seems like most age groups would be good matches. I know they are probably not the best of friends but at least on west side at least most coaches and clubs put aside their pride for quality games against other clubs.

Quite a few of the teams do so on their own "under the table".

In my view as a parent of two TSCH players, neither club wants to be seen as helping the other out.

004tulsa wrote:Quite a few of the teams do so on their own "under the table".

In my view as a parent of two TSCH players, neither club wants to be seen as helping the other out.

That sounds about right and another reason is the teams think they will lose players to one another!!!

oksoccer wrote:TSC Harding loses in silver championship in KC to a Metro Tulsa Soccer Club team.

Do rec teams get USYSA cards? I am curious how this rec team played in a competitive tournament? Maybe Kansas has different rules? Anybody know?

uplaylikeagirl wrote:

oksoccer wrote:06G
TSC Harding loses in silver championship in KC to a Metro Tulsa Soccer Club team.  
Thoughts?

Do rec teams get USYSA cards? I am curious how this rec team played in a competitive tournament? Maybe Kansas has different rules? Anybody know?

Yes.. it is my understanding that rec teams are registered through USYS. Also, I think most Club academy teams are registered under US Club, which allows kids to play both academy and rec at the same time.

Here's OSA's info on rec teams requesting to play in competitive leagues.  Interesting.

http://www.oksoccer.com/assets/pdfs/Guidelines_for_Rec_Select_in_Competitive_Leagues.pdf

Rec teams playing in competitive leagues but keeping rec status. That is a new one to me. Good info, thanks. Any examples of teams doing this?

So we need to find ourselves a good coach who will work for free. Then we can have the best of both worlds. But better hope the "committee" is not made up of Club officials. Doubt they would vote a rec team up to a competivie league.