How’s the 2024-2025 season going?

NewbieMama said:
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.
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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.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
I don't think it's that out of line for the most part. In Lime, there is a strong team in each bracket, then a 2nd such team, then the rest are filled in. It's likely going to be City GA or So Cal Blues Harrison taking the final. In Blue, it's pretty similar with a strong team in each bracket, then the rest. The one outlier is that they put So Cal Blues ECNL 2011G in this lower bracket, and even though it is one year younger, it's currently the #1 team in state, and the highest rated team in the entire tournament. I know there is plenty of drama shared publicly here about Blues, but it is still weird for them to put what has been up until this point the #1 team in state in a theoretically lower bracket.

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Agreed, that Rebels ECRL team doesn't have a chance, being more than 5 goals off the top team in bracket. They should really be placed in the Blue section instead.
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They just rearranged the bracket to split the Rebels teams. My prediction to win is City SC or Fram GA.
 
Culer said:
Interesting. Did your child not do well with Blues? Historically, Slammers does not enter Blues cup. Seems like bad blood there with Blues?
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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!
 
Culer said:
They just rearranged the bracket to split the Rebels teams. My prediction to win is City SC or Fram GA.
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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.

blues cup lime 2010 v2.png
 
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.
 
Culer said:
@Noticer How is your roster going? Expecting more coming or are you set?
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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.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
Rebels 2010 ECNL is in the same bracket as Rebels 2010 ECRL.

Kinda weird, I like that all teams involved have an equal opportunity to win it all but Rebels 1st and 2nd teams should have been placed in different brackets.
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I noticed that too; very nice of Blues to do that to the Rebels. Blue Falcon awarded to Blues Cup🍆's.
 
TeamDadJokes said:
Honestly, lots of NL and RL teams played very minimal tournaments this summer in particular. I’m guessing it has to do with being olders, costs, roster changes, and having playoffs in July.

A good number of teams did a memorial tournament and surf cup and then just scrimmaging.

I think some of us are used to our kids being Youngers and doing tournaments every other weekend, myself included.
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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.
 
TeamDadJokes said:
What I found funny was that it was cross bracket play in the “Blue” bracket meaning bracket A plays bracket B and Bracket C plays Bracket D.

They have the Legends RL team matched up against the 2011 Blues NL team in pool play who are both the highest ranked teams in the 2nd division.

And then in the top bracket, they have a bunch of really low ranked teams as cannon fodder for their other teams to make it out of pool play while avoiding the heavy hitters.
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So goes every "xxxxx Cup" that is bracketed. We keep giving these people money.
 
NewbieMama said:
I'm a newbie parent but Blues Cup just doesn't seem quite worth it to play especially with pretty watered-down competition (very few Slammers/Beach/Pats teams to name a few) . It's on Labor Day wkd and they released the schedule super late. Fall league starts next week so a break after summer tournaments seems logical. I mean I'm sure if there are parents willing to play/pay then they'll hold the tournament :-/

Bracketing is hard to get right but even Surf Cup had some questionable top flight teams in some age groups. If you're one of the best teams in your age group then you should play top flight the age group above. Playing flight 2 the year up is not even competition most of the time.
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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.
 
Code said:
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.
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Also keep in mind that summer tournament participation is also dependent on if teams make it to Finals. This is because finals are typically early to mid July.
 
SuperSoccerStar said:
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.
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Pretty much called that one! Times are changing. Never would have thought I would see the day the 2010 Blues NL loosing to a GA team. 16-0 vs GA teams for the past 3 years until today.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
I'm not like that.

Just happy to play quality teams in a fun tournament.
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It's all that real the competitor wants. The Elite parent just wants to win, and they will pay whatever it takes to win. I'm for Quality teams, quality tournaments and quality refs for a fair price. Today you have parents spending over $25,000 a year if your dd happens to be on one of the few quality teams in SoCal that makes the playoffs.
 
Culer said:
Same! Predicted City to win. Game went to PK’s and City got the job done.
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Pk's wow. Just goes to show that these 2 GA teams are the best in CA. Both teams have been very consistent and have shown they can play and compete vs any NL team. Congratulations...
 
Veritas said:
Pk's wow. Just goes to show that these 2 GA teams are the best in CA. Both teams have been very consistent and have shown they can play and compete vs any NL team. Congratulations...
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I’m not confident if it is because they are that good, or Blues is not good. I heard that Blues only had one sub and an injury and City had 6 subs. Either way, great win for City.
 
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