Man City Cup 2019

Here is what the FA says on ages for players over there:

The relevant age for each Player is determined by his or her age as at midnight on 31 August of the relevant Playing Season i.e. children who are aged 6 as at midnight on 31 August in a Playing Season (together with those who attain the age of 6 during the Playing Season) will be classed as Under 7 Players for that Playing Season. Children who are aged 7 as at midnight on 31 August in a Playing Season will be classed as Under 8 Players for that Playing Season, and so on.

So when they say 05’s it likely means Sept-Dec 05.
 
Lambchop said:
Or maybe their general population is smaller. Skills and IQ can be taught and improved with more training and time on the pitch but speed can be only slightly improved with training.
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Huge difference between being taught and learning, unfortunately most youth soccer coaches don't understand that difference. Personally, I think its easier to improve speed than it is soccer IQ. I see kids on high level teams, including DA, that have atrocious running form. Some simple corrections could improve their speed by at least half a step which can make a huge difference in soccer. This can be "taught" easily and its malpractice that more coaches don't recognize and correct these running form issues. Most kids could use a tweak to their running form.

Soccer, unlike many other sports, is primarily an individual decision making sport. Every time you touch the ball your faced with a multitude of interrelated options. Soccer IQ is a "learned" behavior that develops based on individual mental ability and experience. You can have all the physical abilities in the world but if your dumb as shit you won't succeed in soccer no matter how well your "taught". IMHO the US, particularly at the youth level, seems to value size/speed or fancy dribbling over soccer IQ...value flash over effectiveness.

I'm saying this while watching the U20's lose to a less athletic Ukraine and after the U17's should have smoked Mexico but lost because the US players chose to finish with power instead of accuracy while well within the box.
 
Lambchop said:
Or maybe their general population is smaller. Skills and IQ can be taught and improved with more training and time on the pitch but speed can be only slightly improved with training.
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Right now in Manchester they are abiding by FIFA rules. Basically they have a giant (I think 30 or 50 mile radius) all kids have to be inside of.
At 16 in the European Union kids can move freely. Thus, that radius bubble pops like a cheap balloon and its game on for recruiting. In two years if they came back I doubt most of these teams even score a goal against them. MC is a Tier 1 academy in the world with unlimited money.
This is kiddie soccer right now, however, it appears the US has at least caught up to this age group. Thats a good thing.
 
And....on the other hand the Sounders team is quite big. Played well too.

Incredible difference between Seattle and Man City
 
numero15 said:
And....on the other hand the Sounders team is quite big. Played well too.

Incredible difference between Seattle and Man City
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Of all the games televised so far, Man City have been most fun to watch. Their ability constantly rondo out from their own third against physically superior opponents is impressive.
 
Some great games in 05 & 06 age. LAFC 05 & 06 both out after pks. Not a surprise In 06 TFA and xolos in semi finals, surprisingly galaxy and De Anza Force also in semi finals, alot of mls teams out, Seattle, nycfc, sporting. Real salt lake
 
Carl said:
Some great games in 05 & 06 age. LAFC 05 & 06 both out after pks. Not a surprise In 06 TFA and xolos in semi finals, surprisingly galaxy and De Anza Force also in semi finals, alot of mls teams out, Seattle, nycfc, sporting. Real salt lake
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Seattle 05 beat lafc, website may be wrong
 
did anyone have a chance to see any of the LA Galaxy matches? if yes, thoughts/comments?

don't take this the wrong way but after the 1-5 loss to lafc, was surprised to see them in the semi's.
 
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Kante said:
did anyone have a chance to see any of the LA Galaxy matches? if yes, thoughts/comments?

don't take this the wrong way but after the 1-5 loss to lafc, was surprised to see them in the semi's.
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Galaxy has picked up 3-4 new players and seems like they've helped improve so far.
 
Galaxy picked up 5 physically mature (bigger, faster, stronger) players about a month ago, also played in the LAFC game. They went scoreless in the first two games but was able to get pull this win out with a pk in their favor in the last minutes.
 
YaYaTorres said:
This is kiddie soccer right now, however, it appears the US has at least caught up to this age group. Thats a good thing.
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Caught up at this age? Huh? US teams beat European teams quite regularly at this age. Here, and when we travel abroad to participate in tournaments. Not indicative of anything for the US. At this age, we field teams that are big, fast, strong, athletic and coached to win. European academy teams train and play for development and they stay the course, winning or losing. They play the long game.
 
El Clasico said:
Caught up at this age? Huh? US teams beat European teams quite regularly at this age. Here, and when we travel abroad to participate in tournaments. Not indicative of anything for the US. At this age, we field teams that are big, fast, strong, athletic and coached to win. European academy teams train and play for development and they stay the course, winning or losing. They play the long game.
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Even in Socal, without naming names, you see certain clubs super dominant at U8 - U14 with the fastest and strongest teams, and then, well without having everything else that is necessary for true development, it catches up to them. By U16 the biggest and strongest have been caught by the leveling that comes with age and the lack of talent and players with soccer IQ is totally exposed.

Even though Man City showed up with a much smaller squad that got overrrun by huge physical teams, they were fun to watch as you could tell they knew what they were doing
 
I liked that Melbourne team. Relentless and smart, utterly overran Surf. Thought Xolos was poor against a discombobulated FCGS.
 
Manchester City showed up with the 2006 squad, confirmed. Their # 4 center back is Jlloyd Samuel son, has been with the club for sometime. It probably wasn't worth it for them to bring the 2005 squad, maybe they have some 05 sprinkled in.
 
All 4 quarterfinal games ended 1-0, with I believe 3 of the games ending 0-0 and went to PKs. So the semi finals today are:

Atlanta United vs Seattle Sounders
and
LA Galaxy vs CF Monterrey

Other Showcase games are
FC Dallas vs FCGS
Sporting KC vs LAFC
Strikers vs New York City FC
De Anza Force vs SJ Earthquakes
 
RedCard said:
All 4 quarterfinal games ended 1-0, with I believe 3 of the games ending 0-0 and went to PKs. So the semi finals today are:

Atlanta United vs Seattle Sounders
and
LA Galaxy vs CF Monterrey

Other Showcase games are
FC Dallas vs FCGS
Sporting KC vs LAFC
Strikers vs New York City FC
De Anza Force vs SJ Earthquakes
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Good luck today. Go SoCal!
 
tough one in PKs for LAG but their backline didn't have answers for Monterrey during regular time. would also argue that #29 should have gone in much earlier.

anyone know why JH wasn't coaching? Also, what happened to LAG's guest players?
 
Kante said:
tough one in PKs for LAG but their backline didn't have answers for Monterrey during regular time. would also argue that #29 should have gone in much earlier.

anyone know why JH wasn't coaching? Also, what happened to LAG's guest players?
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LAG was outplayed in last 20 min. or so. Their D seemed overmatched against a team that seemed to want it more. Monterrey was flying all over the place. And they are not huge kids. Just fast and determined, not in any particular order.
 
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