Blues and Surf
- Thread starter Dominic
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RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
(ranked by avg strength of top team, U11-U17)
Wow, Surf is now top dog. When my dd played for the great Tad Bobak, Blues was #1 and Surf was second. Blues played direct, attack, recruit Socals best from other teams, score and then win. Surf played the passing game and was a little soft back then. Gee, I wonder what happened in 2016?
OC Weekly put this article out in 2016. Then all hell broke loose with age change and the Girls Development Academy, US Soccer Training Centers and insane Pay For Play games, kickbacks and fathers paying more to receive more prizes for their children. No parent in SoCal ever experienced before. No one listened to Tad about the age change consequences and the reason girls play soccer. Why? This man has done so much for girls' soccer. He cared for the girl's wellbeing. He understands the female psyche more than anyone in soccer. Yet, NO ONE WOULD LISTEN and what they did to him and his brand was evil. Now, the competitor down South is top club. How did they take out Blues?
2015 Cal South U11 Champions
Blues are still very strong at the younger ages, but at the ECNL age groups, especially the older ones, Surf & Slammers are a step above. Surf is the defending ECNL overall club national champs, and Slammers has won 3 of the last 5. So not only are those two the top in SoCal, they're 2 of the top 5 in the country.
davidnunez
BRONZE
Slammers Koge is making a solid argument for top dog
Surf is soft for a longer period of time than Koge or Blues.
Blues still plays direct. Arguably, one of the dominant teams until second half of ECNL age groups
Lots of talent in SoCal, not enough on the girls side to have much competition to the dominance of these three clubs though (between the 3 clubs, that's about 60 of the top players in each age group)
Surf is soft for a longer period of time than Koge or Blues.
Blues still plays direct. Arguably, one of the dominant teams until second half of ECNL age groups
Lots of talent in SoCal, not enough on the girls side to have much competition to the dominance of these three clubs though (between the 3 clubs, that's about 60 of the top players in each age group)
East County Soccer Dad
SILVER
How do City and Rebels stack up?
RedCard
GOLD
As a referee, I have officiated a few So Cal Blues games (usually I tournaments since I'm from the L.A. area) and I really enjoy running those games cause they play pure and flawless. It's a lot better to officiate games like that cause it's all smooth with no problems at all. Players are great, coaches are great and so are the parents.
I agree 100%. I watched the best team of all time (BTOAT) for two years bro. They played attack with skill and scored goals. Plus, the league was way tougher back then. Plus, my dd scored my second favorite goal of her youth career in a scrimmage against the BTOAT. Scrimmages against Baker vs Bobak were legendary and intense. Blues recruited ganas back then. I'm not up to speed these days. They still have the best uniforms. Love the lime. We lost 11-1 by the way, but my little bundle of joy snuck up on the defensive of line and she scored to go up 1-0 early in this match at the Ranch. Bruh, dad pride, come on now. Who wouldn't be blown away, right? I saw Baker coach after that and then saw Jackson, Turner and Rodman score one goal after another. It was fun to watch......
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
City SC show as 10th in state, 36th nationally; Rebels show as 15th in state, 73rd nationally.
Here's why Blues is now only good at the youngers. They don't offer full rides. I just spoke to someone who says maybe one or two do now but not like the other top programs. Free or pay for play for the top goats is a no brainer.
Sokrplayer75
SILVER ELITE
I would throw in Legends and Beach too
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
Blues 2011G is #1 in the country. They'd straight up beat the Blues 2010G, 2009G, and 07/06G, while only the 2008G would be expected to beat them. There is a sharp dropoff once at the older ECNL age groups. They are quite strong at the youngers, but don't sleep on Surf - who has the #1 team in the country for both 2015G and 2014G. But also keep in mind that 2016G Blues is so strong, that they'd be expected to beat Surf 2016G by 3 goals - the #8 ranked team in the country.
yeah 2011 and down for the Blues. Should of been 2009 and down but we all know how that one played out. Interested to see how the 9/1 age change will effect these teams. Based on birthdays they could move pieces if they want to make better teams or keep things the way they are.
You really think the 2011 team would be the 07/06 team?!? I know that team is not strong, but HS juniors & seniors vs. 8th graders...seriously??
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
It's nothing more than a bar bet that can't be proven either way - but yes, in a hypothetical world where the two teams faced off and both played as predicted - the 2011 team would be expected to win by a slight margin. It shows how good the 2011 team is, and how comparatively weaker the 07/06 team is. SR rating is age agnostic, along with everything else agnostic. You can compare one team's rating directly with another team's rating. It's how the rating system is set up. It doesn't matter at all what age/gender/state/etc. it is, all that matters is that it is a team entity and it has results assigned to it; that team entity is then assigned an age/gender/location.
SR calculates predictivity results for all types of matchups, from peer to peer, to teams across gender, to teams +1/-1 in age, to teams across state, to see how effective the predictions are for each. It is less predictive for matchups where teams aren't the same age, but not by much - and it is still highly predictive. There aren't matches occurring where a 2011 team is playing a 07/06 team to actually verify whether the predictions are on track or not, so there's not an easy (or hard) way to confirm that they are reasonable. But you can do so for teams that are playing a year up (or down), as there are enough real games in the db being played to calculate predictivity.
Oh boy. I'm sure they're fantastic and have everything to be proud of, but unless they are playing up 3-4 years in tournaments, this type of extrapolation of the soccer rankings app is a fool's errand.
yeah totally agree with that one.
