# Lame Duck Cup Season is here!!!!!



## timbuck (Jan 3, 2019)

It's that time of year again.
Coaches secretly making deals to leave.  Possibly even taking some players (or an entire team) with them.
Players with one foot out the door.
Parents conspiring to try and move the "best" kids to a new club together.

Who will win Vegas Cup and State Cup?  Who would rather have saved the money and stayed home since you are leaving the team as soon as you get knocked out?  How many ECNL patches will we see at President's and Governors Cup?

As soon as Lame Duck Cup Season ends, then we will have the "New Tryouts for Impact Players Season" begin.  A team gets blindsided by their ringer or goalkeeper leaving for greener pastures will now have to find (poach) someone to fill the role.

And then you'll have the "Oh Crap It's June and we only have 8 players Season" when your team isn't able to fill those 8 open spots and everyone scrambles to see where they can find a spot on a team.


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## Woodwork (Jan 3, 2019)

I actually had one coach recently comment to me that he didn't like "club hoppers" - meaning players who changed teams a lot.  That was from a coach who had changed clubs about every two years.  We'd still be with the same team since 2014 if not for the age-group change, then a new win-at-all-costs-at-U9 coach forced on us, then another coach leaving, along with most of a team leaving (good riddance anyway), then another coach leaving.  This is the first year we left first.  Heck if we are going to wait for state cup to look for a new team.


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## Overlap (Jan 3, 2019)

timbuck said:


> It's that time of year again.
> Coaches secretly making deals to leave.  Possibly even taking some players (or an entire team) with them.
> Players with one foot out the door.
> Parents conspiring to try and move the "best" kids to a new club together.
> ...


you forgot the older ages - who will decide to skip it all together due to Coachella, Prom and Graduation because they play late and _someone_ still hasn't figured out why so few teams are playing Lame Duck Cup Season or why so many older teams are playing with less than 10 player's


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## timbuck (Jan 3, 2019)

Don't forget about Spring Break!!!  Ours falls during the opening and 2nd weekend of President's.


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## Josep (Jan 3, 2019)

They don’t have this problem in DA.  Everyone is under contract through July.  They get to sit back and chill eating popcorn watching grown men freak out about their little kid’s soccer league.


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## timbuck (Jan 3, 2019)

For the most part.  I know of a few DA players that are planning their next move.  Especially as they are hearing about coaching changes.


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## Josep (Jan 3, 2019)

timbuck said:


> For the most part.  I know of a few DA players that are planning their next move.  Especially as they are hearing about coaching changes.


Aren’t you at Pats?  It wouldn’t surprise me.  They had quite a few flee after last season.  Did they announce coaching assignments next year?  Or are you referring to another club?


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## timbuck (Jan 3, 2019)

I am not at Pats. 
But I have heard they are making a DA coaching change on the girls side. 
I think Pats has a good program for DA. Since they are fully funded, they added some strong players this past year.  I’ve also heard they are trying to bring players up from DPL before they will look at outside players.  I like this philosophy. 
OC Surf has some changes too. On the DPL side. Not sure how that impacts their DA teams/coaches.


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## Josep (Jan 3, 2019)

I don’t think any programs DPL teams or coaches affect their DA program.  

I thought you were 04 pats.  

Pats two oldest teams are 10-12-8 and scraping the bottom of the standings.  Their u15s are 6-10-1.  

Not quite lighting it up.  Of course last year the probably didn’t even with that many games in a whole season I don’t think (I could be wrong).  

I guess they had nowhere to go but up.  

As for OC surf, which ages had changes.  I don’t think coach Pilifovic leaving will cause ripples in any program much less the DA program there.


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## Kicker4Life (Jan 3, 2019)

To be fair, Pats are building a program from the ground up. Their Teams prior to DA weren’t powerhouses and usually lost talent to one of the ECNL options.  So once they got DA, they had to begin building.  They are putting the pieces together.


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## LASTMAN14 (Jan 3, 2019)

Kicker4Life said:


> To be fair, Pats are building a program from the ground up. Their Teams prior to DA weren’t powerhouses and usually lost talent to one of the ECNL options.  So once they got DA, they had to begin building.  They are putting the pieces together.


Hearing they are trying to do it right. Putting the blocks in the right places just going to take a bit of time to find them.


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## Speed (Jan 3, 2019)

Woodwork said:


> I actually had one coach recently comment to me that he didn't like "club hoppers" - meaning players who changed teams a lot.  That was from a coach who had changed clubs about every two years.  We'd still be with the same team since 2014 if not for the age-group change, then a new win-at-all-costs-at-U9 coach forced on us, then another coach leaving, along with most of a team leaving (good riddance anyway), then another coach leaving.  This is the first year we left first.  Heck if we are going to wait for state cup to look for a new team.


Ditto. Got caught up in age group change, then 2 clubs dropped coaches we would have stayed with.


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## Speed (Jan 3, 2019)

timbuck said:


> I am not at Pats.
> But I have heard they are making a DA coaching change on the girls side.
> I think Pats has a good program for DA. Since they are fully funded, they added some strong players this past year.  I’ve also heard they are trying to bring players up from DPL before they will look at outside players.  I like this philosophy.
> OC Surf has some changes too. On the DPL side. Not sure how that impacts their DA teams/coaches.


What changes on the DPL side at surf?


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## Soccermom21 (Jan 4, 2019)

Anyone hear anything about previous GPS San Diego teams being absorbed by Atlante? Or any Atlante "North" teams forming in Ramona?


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## outside! (Jan 4, 2019)

Soccermom21 said:


> Anyone hear anything about previous GPS San Diego teams being absorbed by Atlante? Or any Atlante "North" teams forming in Ramona?


Haven't heard anything about that, but I feel for the families that went the GPS route.


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## timbuck (Jan 4, 2019)

What happened to GPS OC?  Formerly United, right?  Will this still exist next year?  I think I saw an email or a social media posting for their tryout.


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## gkrent (Jan 4, 2019)

timbuck said:


> I’ve also heard they are trying to bring players up from DPL before they will look at outside players.  I like this philosophy.


I can confirm this.  Also, I think the coaches rotate almost every year but I think its always the same team of coaches for all the age groups.


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## jpeter (Jan 4, 2019)

Starts the day tryouts are announced or the fall season ends for some...

Players and parents conspiring and dreaming where they can jump to next... especially acute when players preannounce they are going to the xyz league next and thus the team starts to breaKup before the winter  Tournaments or springs ones are even over.


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## MyDaughtersAKeeper (Jan 4, 2019)

jpeter said:


> Starts the day tryouts are announced or the fall season ends for some...
> 
> Players and parents conspiring and dreaming where they can jump to next... especially acute when players preannounce they are going to the xyz league next and thus the team starts to breaKup before the winter  Tournaments or springs ones are even over.


Since you mentioned "jump"


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## LASTMAN14 (Jan 4, 2019)

MyDaughtersAKeeper said:


> Since you mentioned "jump"


Love that song.


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## Sheriff Joe (Jan 4, 2019)

LASTMAN14 said:


> Love that song.


How old are you guys?


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## Josep (Jan 4, 2019)




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## LASTMAN14 (Jan 4, 2019)

Sheriff Joe said:


> How old are you guys?


Ha! Thats personal! Let’s say I was in high school during the late 80’s.


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## outside! (Jan 4, 2019)

From when DLR hired a better band (but not really showcased in this song).


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## MyDaughtersAKeeper (Jan 4, 2019)

outside! said:


> From when DLR hired a better band (but not really showcased in this song).


You get your money's worth with Steve Vai - dude loves to play a lot of notes.


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## MyDaughtersAKeeper (Jan 4, 2019)

Sheriff Joe said:


> How old are you guys?


Old enough to know better than to answer.


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## Sheriff Joe (Jan 4, 2019)

LASTMAN14 said:


> Ha! Thats personal! Let’s say I was in high school during the late 80’s.


Late 70's for me, one of my favorite bands.


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## timbuck (Jan 4, 2019)

jpeter said:


> Starts the day tryouts are announced or the fall season ends for some...
> 
> Players and parents conspiring and dreaming where they can jump to next... especially acute when players preannounce they are going to the xyz league next and thus the team starts to breaKup before the winter  Tournaments or springs ones are even over.


"We are moving to a flight 1 team"

Pick one of the following responses:
1.  You mean that team that didn't win a game in flight 1 last year and scored 3 goals all season?  I heard their 4 best players are leaving.
2.  You mean your kid that plays center striker that hasn't scored a goal in the last 8 games is going to play better in a higher flight?
3.  You mean that team with the coach that is leaving to coach at XYZ Community College in Wyoming next month?
4.  You mean your kid who misses 1/4 of the scheduled practices because her tummy hurts or she has musical theater practice?
5.  You mean your kid who only touches a soccer ball during practice and can't juggle more than 6 times?


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## SoccerManager5 (Jan 4, 2019)

outside! said:


> Haven't heard anything about that, but I feel for the families that went the GPS route.


Could you please share any information, good or bad, about GPS and mergers/takeovers?


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## SoccerManager5 (Jan 4, 2019)

timbuck said:


> What happened to GPS OC?  Formerly United, right?  Will this still exist next year?  I think I saw an email or a social media posting for their tryout.


Could you please share any info Good or Bad about GPS and merger/takeovers?


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## outside! (Jan 7, 2019)

SoccerManager5 said:


> Could you please share any information, good or bad, about GPS and mergers/takeovers?


RT's SD Fusion merged (fused?) with NFFC in 2016/17?. RT had a good girls 2003 team. After a year at NFFC, RT took his teams to GPS. When that failed to materialize he seems to have formed SD Strikers. The girls 2003 team seems to still be doing well, so good luck to them. I hope for the players sake that the turmoil is behind them.


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## javiecua03 (Jan 8, 2019)

Just joined idk how I discovered this forum but am learning a lot from these post. Someone give me their honest feed back.  
My son 2011 we started in oc galaxy awsome PCA program afordable great development for the first  2 yrs. we left the club only reason the drive was heavy for him,  It was just bad coming from Long Beach area.  Then we found about southbay galaxy figured hey same development program but wrong n wasn’t worth every penny. My son was challenge enough , only reason he stayed in good form because i worked on the side with him. Not to mention my son was practicing with 2011 team and 2010  flight 2 team Monday thru Friday. Wasn’t asked to participate in flight 2 games(even tought they played scdsl in flight 1 bracket)or tournaments they had. But we did participate in outside tournent guest playing with other 2010 teams. Season was over November cdsl which was a joke , but now what to do. I saw how this coach managed he’s 2010 n ofcourse my sons age group. I hate jumping teams, but out the 12 kids 4 are leaving for the same reason. 
We were asked to come back to OC which now the drive is not as bad. They are offering some discount on team fee.
 But at the same time we participated in tournament wit Arsenal I don’t know much about that club but that it’s DA and was offer by the coach who invited us to the tournament wants my son to come play with Arsenal offered a “ scholarship “ to cover the cost of gas.  So what to do ? I felt like this year was a waste he had fun but in own words why practice so much if he can’t play?


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## Not_that_Serious (Jan 8, 2019)

SoccerManager5 said:


> Could you please share any information, good or bad, about GPS and mergers/takeovers?


Stay away. They were hooked up with UFC and that didn’t work out well. That merger was due to a Ton of issues UFC has over the years. Don’t know any good coaches that would sign up to coach in that environment. Go around to actual training sessions - it’s okay to go to all the different clubs. A good club won’t try to hard sell. Stick with a place Your child likes, think the training is good (for your child’s skill set) and isn’t trying to sell you. Make sure you ask were they he team will be training/fields. A lot of teams end up with training inconsistency due to things like field space. Will only irritate you and can end up feeling like wasting time and money - plus child can start to dislike playing


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