How’s the 2023-24 season going?

[CharlieMurfee]

I think this group need a fresh thread to talk about the happenings across this 2010 group. Some questions to ponder:
1.) Which teams got better?
2.) which ones took a step back?
3.) @Carlsbad7 is GA actually closing the gap on ECNL?
4.) @Surfer_dad what's truly going on at Surf?
5.) Where is @Luis Andres ?!? I thought he was seen roaming the polo grounds in Del Mar this past weekend…

 

[CharlieMurfee]

@TeamDadJokes who are the main teams for 2010 ECRL Teams this year?

 

[Carlsbad7]

I think this group need a fresh thread to talk about the happenings across this 2010 group. Some questions to ponder:
1.) Which teams got better?
2.) which ones took a step back?
3.) @Carlsbad7 is GA actually closing the gap on ECNL?
4.) @Surfer_dad what's truly going on at Surf?
5.) Where is @Luis Andres ?!? I thought he was seen roaming the polo grounds in Del Mar this past weekend…

Q: Is GA actually closing the gap on ECNL?

A: Yes and No, in ECNL there's 10-15 clubs that are actual contestants for the National Title every year. In GA there's 5"ish" high level teams that play for the National titile every year.

What this means is that there's more ECNL teams fighting for the top spot than there is in GA. But, GA for the highest level teams generates as much interest from scouts as the top ECNL teams.

What's more important to you?

Also, I firmly believe after watching both teams performances this year that Tophat would kill Surf (specifically after watching them at Surf Cup this year)

 

[TeamDadJokes]

@TeamDadJokes who are the main teams for 2010 ECRL Teams this year?

I think Beach is the team with the target. They ended strong in the playoffs locally and won their surf cup bracket.

I didn’t get to see much of Blues this weekend but they loaded up on Koge RL players from last season.I think it’ll be their division to lose.

Slammers RL in the Mojave loaded up with taller players and top talent from the E64 team a couple NL players wanting to play local in HB but with new coach AM taking over for SM I think they’ll over take Beach sooner rather than later as top dog. Their backline remains intact and the field players all stayed who were offered spots to return (approximately 8/9 field players). They did well at Surf Cup losing a match they dominated against Utah Royals ECNL (who won their Surf Cup Super Black) in their first match the new look Slammers RL played together. AM has 40+ 2010s in his farm system now practicing together between the E64 and RL that will push the RL team to perform or be replaced with E64 players. The practices are pretty intense and competition between the girls there. Their main keeper went to Pats ECNL and they now have their taller keeper in for majority of the matches with another pretty qualified back up goalie splitting some time together.

Koge RL turned over a new team taking on the Slammers NL girls who were displaced from the most recent tryouts as well as a few other NL players looking for play time. I believe 4-5 of the previous squad remain. They lost to Beach RL in PKs and will give Blues all they can handle.

I think these 4 teams will run their divisions and battle it out for 1 and 2 spots for their league.

Legends RL will be hit or miss on their performance as I’m sure how they perform will revolve around which of the 23 NL players will play with them for that specific match.

Eagles has been active and will likely make the playoffs but are second tier.

LAFC will likely round out the Mojave division in top 4 between them and eagles.

I really like SD Surf RL and how they play possession out the back. I think they’ll be dangerous by the end of the RL season.

Phoenix Rising and Utah Royals will still be the top RL teams from AZ.

I don’t expect to see much from Pats who are carrying 19 players, Del Mar Sharks, Rebels or Heat.

Sporting California continues to hemorrhage players and discourage interest from local talent. They’re now pulling from their Ventura team to try and complete both their NL and RL rosters. I expect them to have similar results as last year rounding out the lower to middle of the pack now that MS brought his core over and merged with what was left of the SGV team.

LA Breakers will be a mid tier team fighting with LAFC and Sporting for 4th/5th place Mojave.

 

[EXSD007]

I think this group need a fresh thread to talk about the happenings across this 2010 group. Some questions to ponder:
1.) Which teams got better?
2.) which ones took a step back?
3.) @Carlsbad7 is GA actually closing the gap on ECNL?
4.) @Surfer_dad what's truly going on at Surf?
5.) Where is @Luis Andres ?!? I thought he was seen roaming the polo grounds in Del Mar this past weekend…

You should change the name to include G2010

 

[C.I.S Soccer]

I think Beach is the team with the target. They ended strong in the playoffs locally and won their surf cup bracket.

I didn’t get to see much of Blues this weekend but they loaded up on Koge RL players from last season.I think it’ll be their division to lose.

Slammers RL in the Mojave loaded up with taller players and top talent from the E64 team a couple NL players wanting to play local in HB but with new coach AM taking over for SM I think they’ll over take Beach sooner rather than later as top dog. Their backline remains intact and the field players all stayed who were offered spots to return (approximately 8/9 field players). They did well at Surf Cup losing a match they dominated against Utah Royals ECNL (who won their Surf Cup Super Black) in their first match the new look Slammers RL played together. AM has 40+ 2010s in his farm system now practicing together between the E64 and RL that will push the RL team to perform or be replaced with E64 players. The practices are pretty intense and competition between the girls there. Their main keeper went to Pats ECNL and they now have their taller keeper in for majority of the matches with another pretty qualified back up goalie splitting some time together.

Koge RL turned over a new team taking on the Slammers NL girls who were displaced from the most recent tryouts as well as a few other NL players looking for play time. I believe 4-5 of the previous squad remain. They lost to Beach RL in PKs and will give Blues all they can handle.

I think these 4 teams will run their divisions and battle it out for 1 and 2 spots for their league.

Legends RL will be hit or miss on their performance as I’m sure how they perform will revolve around which of the 23 NL players will play with them for that specific match.

Eagles has been active and will likely make the playoffs but are second tier.

LAFC will likely round out the Mojave division in top 4 between them and eagles.

I really like SD Surf RL and how they play possession out the back. I think they’ll be dangerous by the end of the RL season.

Phoenix Rising and Utah Royals will still be the top RL teams from AZ.

I don’t expect to see much from Pats who are carrying 19 players, Del Mar Sharks, Rebels or Heat.

Sporting California continues to hemorrhage players and discourage interest from local talent. They’re now pulling from their Ventura team to try and complete both their NL and RL rosters. I expect them to have similar results as last year rounding out the lower to middle of the pack now that MS brought his core over and merged with what was left of the SGV team.

LA Breakers will be a mid tier team fighting with LAFC and Sporting for 4th/5th place Mojave.

That shot at Legends got me laughing.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

Also, I firmly believe after watching both teams performances this year that Tophat would kill Surf (specifically after watching them at Surf Cup this year)

Your eyes aren't deceiving you, that 2010G TopHat team is quite strong, showing #2 in the nation - here's the prediction vs. Surf (#3).

 

[TeamDadJokes]

That shot at Legends got me laughing.

It’s an objective assessment. Legends has 20-22 on their NL roster. I know many of the players and parents at Legends and last year 12, 17 (plays with 09s and 10s), 11, 21 midfielder, 21 striker, and #9 were out there for the matches during league and during playoffs.

Id expect that to continue into this season with a roster of 20+ kids, having those kids not dressing for the NL team to cycle through the RL team which may include getting some top players more minutes / touches. The RL team only shows 10 on the roster on TGS so not sure where the other players are at?

 

[Luis Andres]

I think this group need a fresh thread to talk about the happenings across this 2010 group. Some questions to ponder:
1.) Which teams got better?
2.) which ones took a step back?
3.) @Carlsbad7 is GA actually closing the gap on ECNL?
4.) @Surfer_dad what's truly going on at Surf?
5.) Where is @Luis Andres ?!? I thought he was seen roaming the polo grounds in Del Mar this past weekend…

I guess I was at 2 places at once this weekend or there is actually someone out there trying to impersonate me…hmm?

 

[Zeke]

Your eyes aren't deceiving you, that 2010G TopHat team is quite strong, showing #2 in the nation - here's the prediction vs. Surf (#3).

View attachment 17775

The SR ranking just tells you that Top Hat can score a ton against mid level GA teams. But it doesn’t tell you what happens against strong opponents.

Don’t take that as an insult. SR just overrates teams with weaker opposition. They do the same for my kid‘s team, because Norcal is weaker than Southwest.

It’s very hard to know where Top Hat would fit in, because they have so few games against strong ECNL teams. Tied Charlotte and PDA. Strong wins over the Atlanta Fire and Concorde Fire back in February. Put the beat down on GSA last August. That’s it.

It would be nice to see how they do against Surf, Koge, or MVLA. We probably don’t get to.

 

[DCSoccerDad]

Charlotte is the only team worth talking about and they couldn't get out of group play in San Diego this year after winning the Mid-Atlantic conference. PDA Blue is historically better club and plays in North Atlantic a far stronger conference than the Mid-atlantic or Southeast, but 2010's are their weakest team...for now. So I still don't think TopHat has beaten anyone worth discussing, or really even played anyone of note. They did beat Bethesda at 9v9 in Spring 2022 but that was 9v9 so only mentioning becuase they only nearly beat them and that same Bethesda team was a final 4 ECNL team this summer 2023. They unfortunately have zero incentive to try and play SoCal teams since they rarely test themselves against the best ECNL teams on the East coast, especially now at the U14 level, so it may be just a what if? scenario for the forseeable future. Koge is king right now but not by much, surprised but not really by Surf's struggles, and I stand by the opinion that MVLA is really the team to beat.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

The SR ranking just tells you that Top Hat can score a ton against mid level GA teams. But it doesn’t tell you what happens against strong opponents.

Don’t take that as an insult. SR just overrates teams with weaker opposition. They do the same for my kid‘s team, because Norcal is weaker than Southwest.

It’s very hard to know where Top Hat would fit in, because they have so few games against strong ECNL teams. Tied Charlotte and PDA. Strong wins over the Atlanta Fire and Concorde Fire back in February. Put the beat down on GSA last August. That’s it.

It would be nice to see how they do against Surf, Koge, or MVLA. We probably don’t get to.

I believe that even if this criticism was once completely accurate - it has become much less so over the years. Testing the current algorithms against teams that rarely see each other shows slightly higher predictive value compared to the overall data set. You can see it for yourself. You're right, though - to a certain extent, nobody will ever believe conclusively one way or the other, until TopHat decides to play harder teams more frequently. The TopHat 2010G team has shown to be incredibly good - even compared against the other TopHat 1st teams of different years. They would straight up beat the 2009G TopHat team, and would even give the 2007G team a run for their money. It's why TopHat as a club shows 19th, while that specific 2010G team shows 2nd in the country.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

SR is always going to do a better job in aggregate by accounting for all games rather than any of us looking at individual games and trying to deduce what they mean in context. But even with that caveat, just look at how this team embarrassed Fram. 8-0 drubbing two months ago on 6/21. That same Fram team just tied Surf (#3) 1-1, and was within a goal of Beach (#18), just 6 weeks later. If Fram/Surf/Beach are in the same discussion and TH dispatched them 8-0, that seems like it could be relevant info.

 

[TeamDadJokes]

SR is always going to do a better job in aggregate by accounting for all games rather than any of us looking at individual games and trying to deduce what they mean in context. But even with that caveat, just look at how this team embarrassed Fram. 8-0 drubbing two months ago on 6/21. That same Fram team just tied Surf (#3) 1-1, and was within a goal of Beach (#18), just 6 weeks later. If Fram/Surf/Beach are in the same discussion and TH dispatched them 8-0, that seems like it could be relevant info.

That FRAM team is a composite team with multiple players coming in from ecnl teams to my understanding. That team had to forfeit some games (due to scheduling or getting caught, not sure which story is true). So you don’t know who FRAM had out there that weekend for playoffs but I doubt 8-0 is accurate given their results this last weekend against Surf, Beach and Eastside ECNL. It’s very possible players didn’t make the cross country trip when they played.

 

[Carlsbad7]

That FRAM team is a composite team with multiple players coming in from ecnl teams to my understanding. That team had to forfeit some games (due to scheduling or getting caught, not sure which story is true). So you don’t know who FRAM had out there that weekend for playoffs but I doubt 8-0 is accurate given their results this last weekend against Surf, Beach and Eastside ECNL. It’s very possible players didn’t make the cross country trip when they played.

The game where TH beat FRAM 8-0 was GA Finals.

This means FRAM wouldn't have had guest players. They would have needed to be GA rostered by a certain date.

Surf Cup would have allowed FRAM to roster whoever they want.

I get what you're trying to say but FRAM was playing by the rules Surf Cup provided you can't ding them for that. Multiple ECNL teams had guests which ideally would have made them stronger teams at Surf Cup. Seems like nitpicking to me + Surf tied FRAM 1-1 + both teams played by the same rules.

If anything it shows that FRAM is recruiting from ECNL teams ;-)

 

[TeamDadJokes]

The game where TH beat FRAM 8-0 was GA Finals.

This means FRAM wouldn't have had guest players. They would have needed to be GA rostered by a certain date.

Surf Cup would have allowed FRAM to roster whoever they want.

I get what you're trying to say but FRAM was playing by the rules Surf Cup provided you can't ding them for that. Multiple ECNL teams had guests which ideally would have made them stronger teams at Surf Cup. Seems like nitpicking to me + Surf tied FRAM 1-1 + both teams played by the same rules.

What I’m speculating is, FRAM played league games with these players (and got in trouble) who also go to tournaments with them but didn’t bring them to playoff finals (because they got in trouble). That’s my speculation why you see 2 different FRAM team results. I’m not knocking GA or FRAM. I’m giving you context since you’re from South County and don’t know about the FRAM rumblings I’ve heard from FRAM parents.

 

[Carlsbad7]

What I’m speculating is, FRAM played league games with these players (and got in trouble) who also go to tournaments with them but didn’t bring them to playoff finals (because they got in trouble). That’s my speculation why you see 2 different FRAM team results. I’m not knocking GA or FRAM. I’m giving you context since you’re from South County and don’t know about the FRAM rumblings I’ve heard from FRAM parents.

What happened was FRAM had players that as you said "were guesting" with the team in the first part of the season. GA allows this to occur (like ECNL does with Discovery) but at some point (X number of games into the GA season) they have to become full time GA players.

Becoming full time GA players didn't occur + the club pushed forward business as usual that's why FRAM got into trouble with GA.

GA punished FRAM by giving them 0-3 loses for 4 or 5 games. FRAM took the losses and proceeded to continue beating teams left and right in GA southwest. So much so that they ended up 2nd in league even with the forced losses from GA.

This was talk of the day detail in GA when it happened.

The "two different teams" concept that you're proposing is meaningless. All the top teams in Socal recruit. The ones that recruit the best tend to win.

 

[EXSD007]

SR is always going to do a better job in aggregate by accounting for all games rather than any of us looking at individual games and trying to deduce what they mean in context. But even with that caveat, just look at how this team embarrassed Fram. 8-0 drubbing two months ago on 6/21. That same Fram team just tied Surf (#3) 1-1, and was within a goal of Beach (#18), just 6 weeks later. If Fram/Surf/Beach are in the same discussion and TH dispatched them 8-0, that seems like it could be relevant info.

FRAM borrowed players from other strong clubs.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

FRAM borrowed players from other strong clubs.

That may very well be the case. But the results strongly imply they didn't borrow 8 goals worth of players. Just look at the game history - all of the other games for that weekend aren't even shown as an overperform (or an underperform); the game results were close enough to the predicted outcome for Fram's existing rating that they are neither green or red.

 

[Zeke]

That may very well be the case. But the results strongly imply they didn't borrow 8 goals worth of players. Just look at the game history - all of the other games for that weekend aren't even shown as an overperform (or an underperform); the game results were close enough to the predicted outcome for Fram's existing rating that they are neither green or red.

View attachment 17784

I think the argument is that local games like Surf Cup got Fram with guests, but the out of town showcase got Fram without guests.

Recruiting is one thing, but ringers is another. GA games should be for the GA kids, not just a chance for ECNL players to get extra minutes.