Just a suggestion, but don't use the words "watered down competition" until after you win Blues Cup.
How’s the 2024-2025 season going?
- Thread starter TeamDadJokes
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NewbieMama
SILVER
Winning it all or not, an observer can look at the Lime brackets and see the level of the teams, as a whole, is not the same as say Surf Cup.
No, using terms like "watered down competition" implies that your team is superior in some form or fashion, and that's OK if you can guarantee a win.
If you can't guarantee a win you look stupid.
NewbieMama
SILVER
Interesting. The idiom "water down" usually just implies diluted or weaker than in the past... But I guess in "socal soccer forum" talk it must mean my team has to be able to beat everyone in order to use the term
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
No - but considering you are talking about young children, even in the abstract, keep in mind that posting in such a way that your kid is clearly superior to anyone else's kid, has a risk of coming across badly. And if one does so and their team isn't capable of winning Blues Cup without breaking a sweat, one might realize that there are other parents here who would think that team must be pretty inferior.
Well maybe you should watch what you say unless you feel comfortable backing it up. Go ahead declare your kids team the winner of a "watered dowm" Blues Cup.Interesting. The idiom "water down" usually just implies diluted or weaker than in the past... But I guess in "socal soccer forum" talk it must mean my team has to be able to beat everyone in order to use the term
Either your team is so amazing they beat everyone or your team is average beating watered down opponents. Either way it doesn't look good after you label opponents as "watered down".
I wish you all the best, but the numbers aren't in your favor.
Agree, and it is not respectful to the teams in the tournament. The blues don’t have control of who enters their tournament. I agree, Surf Cup this year was very very popular and had more teams applying to play than the last few years. I think the blues tournament is a victim of its time on the calendar as well as the continuing evolution of youth soccer leagues and league playoffs. Every game played by a soccer team can be beneficial, against good competition and lesser competition. Just takes a coach to understand that and adapt his game plan to get the most out of the circumstance they find themselves in.
NewbieMama
SILVER
My bad. Struck a nerve. Wrong choice of words...like I said, I'm a newbie.
By no means do my kids play on the "best of the best" but as a curious parent, I like to see what happens in the top flight at the big tournaments. It's always fun to see what happens when the top teams play each other. In my opinion, which obviously means nothing, the lime bracket does not seem to have many heavy-hitters this year (across the age groups, not one in particular). But anyways, at the end of the day, all kids are happy when they hold up a trophy and post that "champions" pic to the insta no matter what flight.
Personally, I would not suggest my team to do Blues Cup again...for many different reasons.
Interesting. Did your child not do well with Blues? Historically, Slammers does not enter Blues cup. Seems like bad blood there with Blues?
You still get some top team matchups at Surf or Cerritos.
Some of them are switching to showcases. Part of this is injuries.
It has also become difficult to gather 16 top teams in the same place. So you get 16 of the top 100 or 200. If you are team #7, that’s a lot of games for not much challenge. #7 would rather just call up #9 and have a scrimmage.
I'm not keen on the term "watered down" when parents use it to describe teams or players because in general it's negative. It also has multiple negative implications. It implies that there's only a limited number of top players. If it's used when describing XYZ league it implies that only the players in XYZ league are any good.
I don't believe that there's only a limited number of top players or teams. I do believe that soccer as a sport is becoming more and more popular with kids. As this happens there's going to be players and teams that make it to the top levels that you'd never expect. Basically the opposite of a "watered down" effect.
They just rearranged the bracket to split the Rebels teams. My prediction to win is City SC or Fram GA.
NewbieMama
SILVER
Not really. Never joined a Blues team but just observed from afar a lot of young talent go there, get really excited about it, but then eventually leave after a few years... Asked in this forum what the reason for this turnover but not really sure what the reason is. Heard a lot of hearsay but I'm sure every family has their own particular reasons.
My observations about their tournament is club-neutral - not as many high-ranking teams in the top brackets, late release of the schedule, holiday wkd right before fall-league.... Hoping my team next season takes a "pass" on it. Good luck to all!
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
Updated spreadsheet below. No change other than the one you shared. It's likely to be either of the ones you listed, or maybe Blues Harrison.
City SC GA is probably the strongest team at Blues Cup this year in 2010 Lime with Blues ECNL and FRAM GA tied for second. City has a pretty good thing going right now. Overall yeah the competition is not what it used to be for the age group at Blues cup but I see that as being an Olders thing and don't see it changing for blues cup for this age group. Surf Cup will continue to be the strongest tournament for the age group.
Noticer
SILVER
Our move to ECRL at lonestar is a step in the right direction. We've picked up a couple that likely wouldnt have come if we stayed GA even in a relatively older age group. Hoping for full ECNL in 2-3 seasons.
Code
GOLD
I noticed that too; very nice of Blues to do that to the Rebels. Blue Falcon awarded to Blues Cup
's.
Code
GOLD
The amount of time the Highschool age kids are playing throughout the year gets relentless. If they play Highschool, they only get a short amount of time for rest and vacations. That is the second half of July and August, a couple weeks near Christmas. Besides that, they are playing League and attending League Events September into early December. Highschool has already started in December, so they immediately start playing 2-3 games a week into February maybe March if they are in CIF Playoffs. Then straight into the League Spring schedule through Late June to July. I don't think most of the higher level teams have any interest in joining summer tournaments. Most of these teams are likely using a couple summer tournaments to try roster changes/movements with any new additions they have, and tune up for the beginning of League.
Code
GOLD
So goes every "xxxxx Cup" that is bracketed. We keep giving these people money.
Code
GOLD
You've learned early. Skip Labor Day tournaments. No soccer recruiters (college or pro) is going to spend their holiday weekend traveling to watch a tournament. Go spend some time with the family. As someone said earlier, lower ranked teams that get matched up with ECNL/GA/Next teams have something to prove, and will play hard, get frustrated, and end up injuring players for a trophy. Meanwhile the top teams are probably playing the attacking line in defense, and have the goalies playing the 9.