ECNL Championship Draw

Speaking of which, she just was called up to the another U20 camp. Along with other players, Jones and McKeown. Congrats to them!

I am surprised that she accepted the invite with camp so close. The last couple of camps had a bunch of injuries.
 
I was a huge Laker fan in the 80s and coop was my favorite, no one played d like that guy. Quiet, unassuming and the ultimate team player. I miss the character, rivalries and loyalty of the old days.
I agree Coop was a great defender. Bruce Bowen was another great 1v1 defender.
 
After Magic got sick and quit, I lost my passion for Bball, so anything Bball after 1990 I don't know much about.
If you like the Showtime Lakers. Watch the GoldenState Warriors play, they are a fun team to watch. Jerry West was a consultant for the Warriors and advised how to construct that championship team.
 
If you like the Showtime Lakers. Watch the GoldenState Warriors play, they are a fun team to watch. Jerry West was a consultant for the Warriors and advised how to construct that championship team.
Yes, I have been watching the playoffs since the Warriors have been in the news, what a difference, pulling up for a 3 on a fast break, too funny.
 
Yes, I have been watching the playoffs since the Warriors have been in the news, what a difference, pulling up for a 3 on a fast break, too funny.

Yeah, the modern NBA is more about shooting 3's. I think the reasoning is to spread the floor. Shooting 3's at a 33% clip or greater (GSW ave. almost 40%) gets the team 99 points vs 2 pt shots at a 50% clip to get 100 points.
 
FYI some insight / rumor on Solar Chelsea

- That team has 10 new players handpicked from other clubs (Coming from one of the Solar parents) they have stacked team

Essentially Solar had an all star team - Now I can not confirm nor deny this .....but .....it makes sense why they were so dominant - no excuses here they deserve to win but if true puts things into perspective

Sorry to take this thread back to youth soccer, but I can give you a north Texas perspective on Solar '03. They have been an all star team for 5+ years (SRSA). And I don't mean that in a bad way. They have been the best '03 team in our region since U9 or younger. Often, when a top player from another team was looking for a change, she would check out Solar. So it didn't seem like Solar was going to every team and poaching the top players, it seemed like they were always willing to add another top player or two each year. From the outside (my daughter has never played for them) it made sense to me - top players want to play on the top team and top team wants the top players.

When the '03s reached U12, Solar took a U13 D1 bye in our top league (LHGCL) and gave it to the 03s. So, the entire team was playing up against the best competition north Texas had to offer (this would be before the 02s hit ECNL). They came in 3rd place. The next year they were a U13 team playing up against the U14s and tied for first (granted the ECNL teams were not playing in LHGCL at this point). During this time, the top 03 team still playing in the 03 age group for LHGCL was another Solar team (Solar Hopkins). Also during this time, top girls continue to move there when they have the chance. A local independent team, Cosmos, finished in 4th place in D1 of LHGCL at U12. Their 3 best players moved to Solar the next season. Cosmos goalie eventually landed there as well. Again, moves like this didn't seem unnatural to me - these top quality girls had taken Cosmos as high as they could and earned a chance to play for one of the top teams in the country.

Fast forward to the start of U15 - they did get an influx of players, but with age pure (obviously some of the old '03s were now '02s) and the start of ECNL, it did not seem like Lebron going to Miami. I think 3-5 girls that moved there left Sting Hilton. The Solar parents mentioned above certainly know more than I do, but again it appeared to be a very natural move for those players. They were top players, from a top 5 team in the area that were not going to be able to stay with their coach because Hilton was not the ECNL coach. Sting had 2 top '03 teams Hilton and Gutierrez. So rather than stay at Sting and play for a coach that I assume they didn't want to play for, they took the opportunity to play for one of the top teams in the country.

I don't know if any girls from the Solar Hopkins team ended up on the '03 ECNL team, but what I am basically saying in this post is that Solar has been stacked at the 03 age group for years. Not sure about other parts of the country, but in north Texas, the rich get richer. Maybe the Texans and FC Dallas have not picked up as many of those top girls looking, but both programs have also benefited from top girls moving to top teams. I actually think Texans and FC Dallas have closed the gap on Solar '03 some over the past 2-3 years. But Solar is still the class of our region and congratulations to them for winning the national championship!

And oh yeah, they have two '03 birth year girls that are YNT players that play up with the '02 Solar ECNL team that advanced to the final four (I'm just saying the program is deep!).
 
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