2023-24 Season

Soccerfan2011 said:
Surf Cup is around the corner and I finally retrieved info regarding the “Crowlar” FC team. A friend of mind informed me how they got the name “Crowlar FC” and now I can confirm this is indeed a group of Slammers players. Very interesting IMO. My thinking cap is on while trying to figure out why the Slammers are not joining the tournament with their respective club name. I see nothing wrong here, Surf does the same under the Surf Select umbrella from my understanding. Maybe @Surfer_dad can confirm? Is Surf Select an unofficial team who selects players from other Surf chapters?

For those wondering my resources have informed me this Crowlar team is a mixture of Koge, NL and RL players. Although it’s a bit tricky to coach a new set of players I am sure this team will do just fine with the competition. My money is still on the Blues since the last Koge vs Blues game ended on a 0-0. Blues remain unbeaten while Surf NL added an additional player who can put Surf back on the map? Maybe?
But don’t count Pats out! Pats coach is quick to adapt and has a set of gifted scrappy little players who will leave all out on the field!
I can’t wait to see the results
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Your understanding of Crowlar is the same as mine. It will be very interesting how they do against Surf. It is similar to APFC which is essentially mostly Surf players that play in tournaments that their Club teams doesn’t enter into. APFC is a training organization in the Barcelona approach. It is quality. There is a Surf Select program that combines players from the Surf family of affiliates, but only at certain ages.

The Surf College Cup games will be very interesting. Only 4 teams, but 4 really good teams, and the three highest ranked teams in California. I suggested to take Surf seriously and since then they have scored 26 goals and allowed 1. Yes, that player you mentioned is truly an impact player. Now competition makes a difference and so this weekend is going to be interesting. The only down side is that teams may be more concerned with giving playing time to everyone as these games are fun, they don’t count toward the standings in ECNL. That is great for the players, but the true comparisons will come in the spring.
 
It sure looks like Blues should run away with it no matter who is on the Crowlar team, but that's why they play the games to find out.

surf cup 2011G.png
 
Surfer_dad said:
That is definitely what the rankings would suggest.

That is what the rankings would suggest. Blues only beat Surf 1-0 in their last game, and with the addition of a key player, it should be a wonderful battle.
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My first real big youth soccer game I ever watched that my kid was not playing in was between Surf SD 02/03 vs Blues Bakers 02/03. It was a classic. Simone Jackson had a hat trick and Blues prevailed. When these clubs play, it will come down to who wants it more.
 
Surfer_dad said:
Your understanding of Crowlar is the same as mine. It will be very interesting how they do against Surf. It is similar to APFC which is essentially mostly Surf players that play in tournaments that their Club teams doesn’t enter into. APFC is a training organization in the Barcelona approach. It is quality. There is a Surf Select program that combines players from the Surf family of affiliates, but only at certain ages.

The Surf College Cup games will be very interesting. Only 4 teams, but 4 really good teams, and the three highest ranked teams in California. I suggested to take Surf seriously and since then they have scored 26 goals and allowed 1. Yes, that player you mentioned is truly an impact player. Now competition makes a difference and so this weekend is going to be interesting. The only down side is that teams may be more concerned with giving playing time to everyone as these games are fun, they don’t count toward the standings in ECNL. That is great for the players, but the true comparisons will come in the spring.
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Boy was I right suggesting this tournament might not be a good measure of competitiveness, to my consternation. Surf coaches decided to make this more of a scrimmage than trying to win. I believe the teams Surf played took the games far more seriously and congratulations to them. They played well! Hopefully Surf will provide you guys better competition next time.
 
Soccerfan2011 said:
Blues Vs Krowlar final. Get ready for one aggressive game
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Blues have a way of creating chaos that is unmatched in the younger ages. The Pats also were attacking in waves with some very nice field rotations and runs. Very, very impressed with how that team has panned out and kudos to them and what they are doing.

Respect for Surf for putting team culture and/or development over having to win. Crowlar FC was a mix of teams and girls. A parent friend of mine said it was a "fun" team put together for some work during ECNL break. Looks like they managed to put their name on the map as a serious team. If you can have "fun" and win a Surf Cup Championship, I guess "you must know". I guess a few girls may not be on ECNL Teams, but hard to believe that after watching them play.

Very exciting tournament and all of these teams are a threat in this age group!
 
way up said:
Blues have a way of creating chaos that is unmatched in the younger ages. The Pats also were attacking in waves with some very nice field rotations and runs. Very, very impressed with how that team has panned out and kudos to them and what they are doing.

Respect for Surf for putting team culture and/or development over having to win. Crowlar FC was a mix of teams and girls. A parent friend of mine said it was a "fun" team put together for some work during ECNL break. Looks like they managed to put their name on the map as a serious team. If you can have "fun" and win a Surf Cup Championship, I guess "you must know". I guess a few girls may not be on ECNL Teams, but hard to believe that after watching them play.

Very exciting tournament and all of these teams are a threat in this age group!
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Sounds a little like the old GOAT FC teams from the past. Congrats to Crowlar FC :)
 
crush said:
Sounds a little like the old GOAT FC teams from the past. Congrats to Crowlar FC :)
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They were probably before my time, but I've seen the goat profile a couple times on here. This age group gets very quiet for some reason and maybe that's a good thing? People get so caught up with winning and self serving opinions I think. Some of us are just fans of the game and watching these teams and players grow. We are all competitive I'm sure, but I truly think we put way too much emphasis on winning. It's great for the parents, but soccer is an all or nothing type of game. For instance, 1 goal is worth 50 basketball points and/or possibly 10 or so in football. One goal missed by an inch or hittting the cross bar is everything and many of these games are decided by 1 goal. I will be honest though and know the drive, the stress, the money, the experience is that much easier/sweet after winning, but I kind of hate myself at times for thinking like that. My daughter's growth should be most important.

What I really liked about This Crowlar Team is it was a mix and it was to get play time during a break. Is it healthy to have a structure where you're married to one team for a full year and/or for many of us years? Shouldn't part of our daughter's experience/growth also revolve around playing with a diversity of player types and styles of soccer where it's fine to fail and learn? My own daughter gets so attached to her team for instance that it takes her some time to adapt for a new team. It's just not the same, but if they are going to be elite level players, they need to learn how to make friends and blend with new teams/girls.

It's a good thing to mix the girls up as they learn about sportsmanship and knowing they may play with an opponent down the line. They also don't get stuck on a team that basically feeds just one or 2 dominant players. While there are outlying leagues like touch n go or latin leagues, I think we need more simple, unorganized games. Sure, we'll all have friendlies in ecnl coming up and maybe other ga or e64, etc. leagues, but I really wish we had more options for our kids to be able to just go play for fun/experience.

I have seen several girls that were brought up in latin leagues really excel with great touch and movement, but I'd love to see some simple fun tournaments with bring 9, 11, or 13 girls for 11 v 11 or smaller sized field games. Game training is more valuable imo than technical training, but sure, you need technical training too. I just see several girls with great technical skills that never reallly get to apply them or make them instinctive due to their position or due to fear of failure. I see girls that can rip a shot practically never shooting at the goal. I see smaller, great carrying skills on girls that don't understand how to contain a player yet. They can dive or tackle if close, but they don't understand defense. Even goalies should be on the field getting comfortable carrying and/or dribbling out of pressure.

I just keep hearing so much about burn out and injuries with the high level play and can't help, but see competitive tryouts, backroom deals with player bundles, full year commitments before high school soccer, so much emphasis on winning, etc. as I see girls that can't shoot or even collect well with their weak foot and/or can't shoot outside the goal box with authority or have never taken a corner kick or set play free kick, etc. I just see a lot of inefficient involvement for club soccer and it's expensive and overwhelming. I mean I can't help, but worry my own daughter is going to want to have a life one day in high school. Of course, work ethic is a virtue that you pray they have, but I find that my own daughter plays best when she is confident and happy. Confidence is the key to effort imo. The only problem is confidence can lead to comfort which is the enemy of progress!

I'm asking for more fun game options I guess with a diversity of players and styles. I mean to think that some extremely talented girls won't experience winning tournaments or big games, because they lack a few dominant players kind of sucks. We all play to win and winning is really damn fun, so if we want the best talent in the usa, I think more girls need to experience that. Rant over! LOL!

If any young player parents are reading this, I highly advise to make friends and have your daughter play games in multiple places with different girls. Force them out of their shells. I know I would do several things differently if I could even though I'm extremely blessed and happy with where my daughter is. She is happy, confident, and COMFORTABLE! My only complaint is the comfortable, because she should never be comfortable imo!
 
way up said:
They were probably before my time, but I've seen the goat profile a couple times on here. This age group gets very quiet for some reason and maybe that's a good thing? People get so caught up with winning and self serving opinions I think. Some of us are just fans of the game and watching these teams and players grow. We are all competitive I'm sure, but I truly think we put way too much emphasis on winning. It's great for the parents, but soccer is an all or nothing type of game. For instance, 1 goal is worth 50 basketball points and/or possibly 10 or so in football. One goal missed by an inch or hittting the cross bar is everything and many of these games are decided by 1 goal. I will be honest though and know the drive, the stress, the money, the experience is that much easier/sweet after winning, but I kind of hate myself at times for thinking like that. My daughter's growth should be most important.

What I really liked about This Crowlar Team is it was a mix and it was to get play time during a break. Is it healthy to have a structure where you're married to one team for a full year and/or for many of us years? Shouldn't part of our daughter's experience/growth also revolve around playing with a diversity of player types and styles of soccer where it's fine to fail and learn? My own daughter gets so attached to her team for instance that it takes her some time to adapt for a new team. It's just not the same, but if they are going to be elite level players, they need to learn how to make friends and blend with new teams/girls.

It's a good thing to mix the girls up as they learn about sportsmanship and knowing they may play with an opponent down the line. They also don't get stuck on a team that basically feeds just one or 2 dominant players. While there are outlying leagues like touch n go or latin leagues, I think we need more simple, unorganized games. Sure, we'll all have friendlies in ecnl coming up and maybe other ga or e64, etc. leagues, but I really wish we had more options for our kids to be able to just go play for fun/experience.

I have seen several girls that were brought up in latin leagues really excel with great touch and movement, but I'd love to see some simple fun tournaments with bring 9, 11, or 13 girls for 11 v 11 or smaller sized field games. Game training is more valuable imo than technical training, but sure, you need technical training too. I just see several girls with great technical skills that never reallly get to apply them or make them instinctive due to their position or due to fear of failure. I see girls that can rip a shot practically never shooting at the goal. I see smaller, great carrying skills on girls that don't understand how to contain a player yet. They can dive or tackle if close, but they don't understand defense. Even goalies should be on the field getting comfortable carrying and/or dribbling out of pressure.

I just keep hearing so much about burn out and injuries with the high level play and can't help, but see competitive tryouts, backroom deals with player bundles, full year commitments before high school soccer, so much emphasis on winning, etc. as I see girls that can't shoot or even collect well with their weak foot and/or can't shoot outside the goal box with authority or have never taken a corner kick or set play free kick, etc. I just see a lot of inefficient involvement for club soccer and it's expensive and overwhelming. I mean I can't help, but worry my own daughter is going to want to have a life one day in high school. Of course, work ethic is a virtue that you pray they have, but I find that my own daughter plays best when she is confident and happy. Confidence is the key to effort imo. The only problem is confidence can lead to comfort which is the enemy of progress!

I'm asking for more fun game options I guess with a diversity of players and styles. I mean to think that some extremely talented girls won't experience winning tournaments or big games, because they lack a few dominant players kind of sucks. We all play to win and winning is really damn fun, so if we want the best talent in the usa, I think more girls need to experience that. Rant over! LOL!

If any young player parents are reading this, I highly advise to make friends and have your daughter play games in multiple places with different girls. Force them out of their shells. I know I would do several things differently if I could even though I'm extremely blessed and happy with where my daughter is. She is happy, confident, and COMFORTABLE! My only complaint is the comfortable, because she should never be comfortable imo!
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Great stuff Way Up. "Fun" is the key word....
 
crush said:
Great stuff Way Up. "Fun" is the key word....
Click to expand...

So, you have experience with this Crush. I just see The Blues for instance having very intense training and constant pressure to produce. Not judging or anything, but those girls play hard and fast the whole game and give it everything they have every minute. It's admirable. Other clubs have a similar culture and it's effective. They have an edge in games if I'm being honest, because in their minds, they already won, because they train to dominate and win. I'm actually impressed if this is the case.

However, I don't see the best soccer on the field and, sure, there is no subjective score in soccer. I'm considering all this as someone who wants my girl to give 100% effort, but I want her to want to give 100% effort and enjoy the hell out of it, because she sees the fruits of her labor and adapts to enjoying the feeling of hard work/muscle growth/etc.

I want my daughter to learn and know different styles from possession to direct to defensive with counter attacking. I want her to read the game too. These girls are only 12 and many say that they should already be developed before ecnl, but they are not. Maybe my kid is just a little slow AND SHE IS SOMETIMES AS SHE LOVES PLAYING MORE THAN LISTENING, but she has so much to learn in skills, iq, and style.

I know she will over time, but just pointing out how ridiculous it is to think 12 year olds are past development. They are far from developed. There is nothing wrong with that unless of course, your expectations are unrealistic especially as a coach.

In my perfect world, we would have two leagues. One structured, organized league for competitive results, because they need to be comfortable playing competitively. One other league with mandatory position changes including goalies and based on fun not standings, but of course, there would be scores and standings just the goal is to gain versatile skills and play different styles against unpredictable teams. Variety of coaches too so the girls learn to adapt to different styles of coaching too. Almost like an ecnl ayso league but also focused on where you live. It's designed for competitive, but fun games with as little drive time as possible.

Some clubs have spring leagues like this, but whenever you do it with your club team, the old rules always come back to play. Postions won't rotate, girls will try to stay together, and it becomes a mini ecnl league vs. what I'm desiring. You sign up for the league who then places you on your local team with the guidelines I discussed. It would be cheap, fun, diverse, and provide a competitive break from competitive ecnl.

How awesome would this be? Even if just during the breaks in ecnl. I guess High School Soccer would be comparable to this, but this age group has another 2 years before high school. I truly think it would break down the stress on parents and provide more fun for the girls on top of more versatile development and extension of iq/skill.
 
way up said:
So, you have experience with this Crush. I just see The Blues for instance having very intense training and constant pressure to produce. Not judging or anything, but those girls play hard and fast the whole game and give it everything they have every minute. It's admirable. Other clubs have a similar culture and it's effective. They have an edge in games if I'm being honest, because in their minds, they already won, because they train to dominate and win. I'm actually impressed if this is the case.

However, I don't see the best soccer on the field and, sure, there is no subjective score in soccer. I'm considering all this as someone who wants my girl to give 100% effort, but I want her to want to give 100% effort and enjoy the hell out of it, because she sees the fruits of her labor and adapts to enjoying the feeling of hard work/muscle growth/etc.

I want my daughter to learn and know different styles from possession to direct to defensive with counter attacking. I want her to read the game too. These girls are only 12 and many say that they should already be developed before ecnl, but they are not. Maybe my kid is just a little slow AND SHE IS SOMETIMES AS SHE LOVES PLAYING MORE THAN LISTENING, but she has so much to learn in skills, iq, and style.

I know she will over time, but just pointing out how ridiculous it is to think 12 year olds are past development. They are far from developed. There is nothing wrong with that unless of course, your expectations are unrealistic especially as a coach.

In my perfect world, we would have two leagues. One structured, organized league for competitive results, because they need to be comfortable playing competitively. One other league with mandatory position changes including goalies and based on fun not standings, but of course, there would be scores and standings just the goal is to gain versatile skills and play different styles against unpredictable teams. Variety of coaches too so the girls learn to adapt to different styles of coaching too. Almost like an ecnl ayso league but also focused on where you live. It's designed for competitive, but fun games with as little drive time as possible.

Some clubs have spring leagues like this, but whenever you do it with your club team, the old rules always come back to play. Postions won't rotate, girls will try to stay together, and it becomes a mini ecnl league vs. what I'm desiring. You sign up for the league who then places you on your local team with the guidelines I discussed. It would be cheap, fun, diverse, and provide a competitive break from competitive ecnl.

How awesome would this be? Even if just during the breaks in ecnl. I guess High School Soccer would be comparable to this, but this age group has another 2 years before high school. I truly think it would break down the stress on parents and provide more fun for the girls on top of more versatile development and extension of iq/skill.
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"Fun" with the desire to compete to win or lose fair & square is my motto. I add "fun" because sports should be fun first and then look to battle for the win or learn the lesson in a loss or dumb tie.
 
Blues still on top going into 2024 w/Koge, Surf, Legends, Eagles & Slammers rounding out the top 6 and those are the playoff teams as it stands. Pateadores is just outside the top 6 and had a good showing at Surf cup. Kudos to pats coach she has done great things with the team
 
imperious said:
Blues still on top going into 2024 w/Koge, Surf, Legends, Eagles & Slammers rounding out the top 6 and those are the playoff teams as it stands. Pateadores is just outside the top 6 and had a good showing at Surf cup. Kudos to pats coach she has done great things with the team
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What are your thoughts for the #7-10 teams? Is it too early for that prediction?
 
Vegas Cup schedule is out! Fun competitive competition for the clubs while the SoCal teams have a huge showing. I predict Beach ECNL vs Legends ECNL with Legends taking the cup.
See you in Vegas!
 
imperious said:
Pateadores, Blues RL, Arsenal & LAFC finish it off for me
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I would remove LAFC on my top 10.

It's a toss up between the top 6 teams for sure. Koge and Blues will battle for the #1 spot. Legends & Eagles will battle for the #3-4 spot. The #5 spot also a toss up between Beach NL, Slammers NL, Surf & Pats. Trailing with Sporting CA, Arsenal.
 
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