National Cup 2002 Pool of Death (Group E)

Victoria Quinn said:
@SocalPapa
Even with record, I truly believed even some of the lower bracket DPL teams would have done just fine in second round. Certainly better than several teams that ended up there this last weekend and could have beat some of the lower level CRL teams. Luck of the draw at NC! In the end however, Semi Finalists are always top level teams usually from a few different leagues. Always has been...always will be!
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I disagree. The other two DPL teams that played in Round 1, were LA Premier FC DPL 2002 (2nd place, no wild card) and LA Galaxy DPL 2002 (3rd place). Like the Pats, both finished with a negative goal differential in the Cup and League (LA Premier = -21, and LA Galaxy =-19). On paper, the Pats DPL, LA Premier DPL and LA Galaxy DPL, should not have survived Round 1 bracket play and none did. And while, some of the lower level CRL teams may have lost to some of the lower level DPL teams, and vice versa, its academic and irrelevant.

The Cal South National Cup tournament is designed to pick teams that Cal South will send to the Far West Regional, and then hopefully those teams will find themselves in Fisco, Texas at the USYS National Cup. Its not a showcase, although it is scouted by many college coaches.

LA Premier DPL won both of its games against a CSL gold team (with a winning record) and a SDDA F1 team (with a losing record) by a margin of 1 point and lost to a strong undefeated SCDSL, Flight 2 team by 3. None of these teams had any business playing in the CRL and arguably the So Cal Blues should not have been in the CRL either (1 win).
 
MWN said:
I disagree. The other two DPL teams that played in Round 1, were LA Premier FC DPL 2002 (2nd place, no wild card) and LA Galaxy DPL 2002 (3rd place). Like the Pats, both finished with a negative goal differential in the Cup and League (LA Premier = -21, and LA Galaxy =-19). On paper, the Pats DPL, LA Premier DPL and LA Galaxy DPL, should not have survived Round 1 bracket play and none did. And while, some of the lower level CRL teams may have lost to some of the lower level DPL teams, and vice versa, its academic and irrelevant.

The Cal South National Cup tournament is designed to pick teams that Cal South will send to the Far West Regional, and then hopefully those teams will find themselves in Fisco, Texas at the USYS National Cup. Its not a showcase, although it is scouted by many college coaches.

LA Premier DPL won both of its games against a CSL gold team (with a winning record) and a SDDA F1 team (with a losing record) by a margin of 1 point and lost to a strong undefeated SCDSL, Flight 2 team by 3. None of these teams had any business playing in the CRL and arguably the So Cal Blues should not have been in the CRL either (1 win).
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I think CRL has been diluted over the last year or 2.
Yes, there were some scouts out there, I believe most of those were from ODP.
 
MWN said:
Since we are talking about Group E, it was unlikely the Pats would have advanced via a wild card, even if they squeaked out a win against one of the other teams. They would have needed 6 points and a goal differential of at least +2 to get a wild card. They finished their bracket with a goal differential of -2. Based on their performance and league record, the team (on paper) does not have the offensive power needed to compete with the higher level teams.

In looking at the 2017 Pats DPL record they finished last in league play with a record of 1-6-2, 7GF and 17GA. See, http://primetimesportz.bonzidev.com/sam/standings/ss/schedule.php?v=3&divisionID=MTU4MTMx. Quite frankly, the National Cup result was not surprising, unless they attempted to bring in some ringers for the National Cup run and they would have likely missed out on a wild card in any of the other brackets.

That said, other than the class of the DPL (Legends, Real So Cal and Eagles) the other DPL teams in National Cup are struggling and not at the top of their brackets. The top DPL team for this age was the Legends FC DPL/Academy II team, which ironically plays Westside this week. So far, Westside is rolling through the competition, which is what you would expect from a strong SCDSL girls team (note, is CSL on the boys side). The Legends DPL/Academy II team tied the Spartans, whereas Westside spanked them 4-1. The other DPL teams that were stronger than the Pats DPL team, LA Premiere Academy II and LA Galaxy Academy II by their slightly better losing records, also didn't make it out of round 1.

All-in-all, it looks like most of the teams that are legitimate contenders remain in the tournament and all of the SCDSL, CSL, SDDA, and DPL teams that entered with losing league records are out.
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That legends team is pretty tough.
 
A few interesting tidbits from the second round for the 2002s:

1) Pool of death survivor Westside Breakers advanced despite a big loss to Legends' DPL team in their third game. Legends is a great team and is rightfully seeded #1 overall in the tournament. They were undefeated in DPL with a +29 goal differential. After their performance Sunday, they are my pick for National Cup champion.

2) 9 of the 16 remaining teams had received a bye. The only 2 teams with byes that failed to advance were Beach DPL and the Blues SCDSL Champions team. Interestingly, while the Blues Champions team failed to advance, TP's Europa Strikers team (which is moving to Blues next season) did.

3) Maybe Group B in the first round was the real pool of death. Eagles DPL managed to advance this weekend with two wins and +6 goal differential. Yet, for the first round Eagles DPL was given the #4 seed in Group B (#65 seed overall). By comparison, Real So Cal, which tied for 2nd in DPL with Eagles, was given a bye and the #5 overall seed. BYSC Corona surprisingly failed to advance out of Group B in the first round. Perhaps not so surprising now that I look at it more closely.

4) Leagues Represented in Sweet 16: SCDSL (9), DPL (5), CSL Premier (2). (SCDSL teams: 4 Champions, 4 Europa and 1 Flight 2).

Here are the 16 remaining teams:

Team..National Cup Seeding (1st round group seeding)..League
Albion SC G2002 DPL Academy..#8 overall (bye)..DPL
CDA FC Slammers - HB G02 EGSL Larsen..#21 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..SCDSL Flight 2 (but mis-flighted - finished undefeated with a +34 goal differential)
CDA FC Slammers HB G02 Oberle..#11 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions Division
CDA FC Slammers Orange-G02 Young..#26 overall (#2 seed in rd 1) Group M..Europa East
CDA FC Slammers Whittier G02 Flores..#29 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..Europa East (former Strikers team)
Eagles Soccer Club Academy II - G2002..#65 overall (#4 seed in rd 1) Group B..DPL
FRAM G02-Gidney..#9 overall (bye)..CSL Premier
Fullerton Rangers G02 White..#3 overall (bye)..CSL Premier
LAGSD G02 Academy II-Drummond..#2 overall (bye)..DPL
Legends FC G02 Academy II...#1 overall (bye)..DPL
Legends FC West G02..#4 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions
Pateadores IRV G2002..#23 overall (#1 seed in rd 1) Group M..Europa South
Real So Cal G02 DPL..#5 overall (bye)..DPL
Real So Cal- SCV G 2002 W..#7 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions
Strikers FC-OC EGSL 2002..#19 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..Europa South (moving to Blues next season)
Westside Breakers 02 Elite..#48 overall (#3 seed in rd 1)..SCDSL Champions
 
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SocalPapa said:
A few interesting tidbits from the second round for the 2002s:

1) Pool of death survivor Westside Breakers advanced despite a big loss to Legends' DPL team in their third game. Legends is a great team and are rightfully seeded #1 overall in the tournament. They were undefeated in DPL with a +29 goal differential. After their performance Sunday, they are my pick for National Cup champion.

2) 9 of the 16 remaining teams had received a bye. The only 2 teams with byes that failed to advance were Beach DPL and the Blues SCDSL Champions team. Interestingly, while the Blues Champions team failed to advance, TP's Europa Strikers team (which is moving to Blues next season) did.

3) Maybe Group B in the first round was the real pool of death. Eagles DPL managed to advance this weekend with two wins and +6 goal differential. Yet, for the first round Eagles DPL was given the #4 seed in Group B (#65 seed overall). By comparison, Real So Cal, which tied for 2nd in DPL with Eagles, was given a bye and the #5 overall seed. BYSC Corona surprisingly failed to advance out of Group B in the first round. Perhaps not so surprising now that I look at it more closely.

4) Teams Represented in Sweet 16: SCDSL (9), DPL (5), CSL Premier (2). (SCDSL teams: 4 Champions, 4 Europa and 1 Flight 2).

Here are the 16 remaining teams:

Team..National Cup Seeding (1st round seeding)..League
Albion SC G2002 DPL Academy..#8 overall (bye)..DPL
CDA FC Slammers - HB G02 EGSL Larsen..#21 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..SCDSL Flight 2 (but mis-flighted - finished undefeated with a +34 goal differential)
CDA FC Slammers HB G02 Oberle..#11 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions Division
CDA FC Slammers Orange-G02 Young..#26 overall (#2 seed in rd 1) Group M..Europa East
CDA FC Slammers Whittier G02 Flores..#29 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..Europa East (former Strikers team)
Eagles Soccer Club Academy II - G2002..#65 overall (#4 seed in rd 1) Group B..DPL
FRAM G02-Gidney..#9 overall (bye)..CSL Premier
Fullerton Rangers G02 White..#3 overall (bye)..CSL Premier
LAGSD G02 Academy II-Drummond..#2 overall (bye)..DPL
Legends FC G02 Academy II...#1 overall (bye)..DPL
Legends FC West G02..#4 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions
Pateadores IRV G2002..#23 overall (#1 seed in rd 1) Group M..Europa South
Real So Cal G02 DPL..#5 overall (bye)..DPL
Real So Cal- SCV G 2002 W..#7 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions
Strikers FC-OC EGSL 2002..#19 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..Europa South (moving to Blues next season)
Westside Breakers 02 Elite..#48 overall (#3 seed in rd 1)..SCDSL Champions
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I agree with your analysis and got to catch parts of many of the games for these teams mentioned this past weekend. Fram plays a pretty brand of soccer and assuming they and Legends DPL both advance on Saturday, I would recommend anyone nearby to check that game out on Sunday. That Legends DPL team looked pissed off that they had tied a weaker team the previous week. Athletic, fast, skilled, and big. They curb-stomped a good Breakers side in the second half. Real So Cal's DPL team will be facing their sister club's team from Santa Clarita. I expect that to be a heated game. You know those inter-club match ups are always street fights. RSC SCV doesn't give up many goals, but they also don't score much, so I'm really curious to see that result. I haven't seen any of the National Cup games of LAGSD, but I saw them in a tournament last year, and I think they or Rangers may be the only teams with the horses to challenge Legends DPL. At this stage of the tournament, any upsets will be unlikely. If I were a betting man (and I'm not) I'd "take chalk" all the way, and bet on the top 4 seeds to move on to the final 4.
 
Mystery Train said:
I agree with your analysis and got to catch parts of many of the games for these teams mentioned this past weekend. Fram plays a pretty brand of soccer and assuming they and Legends DPL both advance on Saturday, I would recommend anyone nearby to check that game out on Sunday. That Legends DPL team looked pissed off that they had tied a weaker team the previous week. Athletic, fast, skilled, and big. They curb-stomped a good Breakers side in the second half. Real So Cal's DPL team will be facing their sister club's team from Santa Clarita. I expect that to be a heated game. You know those inter-club match ups are always street fights. RSC SCV doesn't give up many goals, but they also don't score much, so I'm really curious to see that result. I haven't seen any of the National Cup games of LAGSD, but I saw them in a tournament last year, and I think they or Rangers may be the only teams with the horses to challenge Legends DPL. At this stage of the tournament, any upsets will be unlikely. If I were a betting man (and I'm not) I'd "take chalk" all the way, and bet on the top 4 seeds to move on to the final 4.
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Hit me up, I will be there Saturday and hopefully Sunday.
 
DPL is just another name added on toour team name to make ppl think they are something. When it comes down to it many DPL teams cant play with the top teams. There are good teams in every league but obviously we just keep creating leagues and watering down the sport because now this team can’t play here and there etc. Putting DA2, ECNL 2, EGSL or DPL just means your still just another team with the rest of them..
 
soccermama213 said:
DPL is just another name added on toour team name to make ppl think they are something. When it comes down to it many DPL teams cant play with the top teams. There are good teams in every league but obviously we just keep creating leagues and watering down the sport because now this team can’t play here and there etc. Putting DA2, ECNL 2, EGSL or DPL just means your still just another team with the rest of them..
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SocalPapa said:
4) Leagues Represented in Sweet 16: SCDSL (9), DPL (5), CSL Premier (2). (SCDSL teams: 4 Champions, 4 Europa and 1 Flight 2).

Here are the 16 remaining teams:

Team..National Cup Seeding (1st round group seeding)..League
Albion SC G2002 DPL Academy..#8 overall (bye)..DPL
CDA FC Slammers - HB G02 EGSL Larsen..#21 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..SCDSL Flight 2 (but mis-flighted - finished undefeated with a +34 goal differential)
CDA FC Slammers HB G02 Oberle..#11 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions Division
CDA FC Slammers Orange-G02 Young..#26 overall (#2 seed in rd 1) Group M..Europa East
CDA FC Slammers Whittier G02 Flores..#29 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..Europa East (former Strikers team)
Eagles Soccer Club Academy II - G2002..#65 overall (#4 seed in rd 1) Group B..DPL
FRAM G02-Gidney..#9 overall (bye)..CSL Premier
Fullerton Rangers G02 White..#3 overall (bye)..CSL Premier
LAGSD G02 Academy II-Drummond..#2 overall (bye)..DPL
Legends FC G02 Academy II...#1 overall (bye)..DPL
Legends FC West G02..#4 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions
Pateadores IRV G2002..#23 overall (#1 seed in rd 1) Group M..Europa South
Real So Cal G02 DPL..#5 overall (bye)..DPL
Real So Cal- SCV G 2002 W..#7 overall (bye)..SCDSL Champions
Strikers FC-OC EGSL 2002..#19 overall (#1 seed in rd 1)..Europa South (moving to Blues next season)
Westside Breakers 02 Elite..#48 overall (#3 seed in rd 1)..SCDSL Champions
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Two DPL teams and two SCDSL Champions League teams in the semi's. This tournament is my first look at the DPL teams playing against outside competition and it's about what I expected. The only real surprise to me has been the variation in performance in National Cup vs. performance in the DPL regular season for a couple of the clubs. Some of the better DPL teams fell a bit flat and a couple of the weaker DPL teams (at least by their results) have done very well since. It's hard to figure how Galaxy SD did so poorly against the other DPL teams in league play, but have done so much better in other games. Without any published rosters for these teams, I have no idea if that's just a case of the team taking a while to gel, or if they added players, brought some down from Academy, etc. Legends Academy II is still clearly ahead of everyone in this tournament, but in checking out the rosters on the DA websites, it looks like they had quite a few of the DPL players listed (and got playing time) with the DA team. Seems like a smart strategy that only Legends seemed to take much advantage of.

To me, the results underscore why the DPL league was completely unnecessary. All those DPL teams would have competed fared just about the same against Flight 1 Champions or CSL Premier teams. A few of the weaker teams might have been even more well served in Gold or Flight 2. I mean, I get all the reasons for creating it. They wouldn't be able to tell the DPL players that they had the option of playing up for the DA team otherwise. But as far as actual development, college exposure, opportunities for competition etc., it would have been no different to compete in the existing leagues as the club's #2 team, the way that the EGSL/ECNL II teams did in previous years. All the watering down of the leagues makes for interesting discussions and results in tournaments like this, but I don't think it's good for SoCal soccer in general.
 
Mystery Train said:
Real So Cal's DPL team will be facing their sister club's team from Santa Clarita. I expect that to be a heated game. You know those inter-club match ups are always street fights.
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Btw, totally called this one. Not surprised that the SCV team pulled this one out. Gritty team.
 
Mystery Train said:
It's hard to figure how Galaxy SD did so poorly against the other DPL teams in league play, but have done so much better in other games.
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Not that hard. LAGSD DPL has had the most favorable schedule of any 02 team:
- a 1st round bye
- 2nd round games vs 1) a 1st place, but injury-depleted, Europa team, 2) a 4th place Europa team and 3) a good champions team that wasn't itself the whole tournament (injuries/loss of key players?) and that had finished 2nd in a weak pool in round 1
- a round of 16 game vs a Flight 2 (but Europa-level) team
- a round of 8 game vs a 2nd place Europa team

Westside Breakers (the #3 seed from the pool of death) should easily defeat LAGSD this weekend. I predict a 2 goal deficit. I then expect Westside Breakers and Legends DPL to meet in the final with Legends winning the championship in a close match.
 
SocalPapa said:
Not that hard. LAGSD DPL has had the most favorable schedule of any 02 team:
- a 1st round bye
- 2nd round games vs 1) a 1st place, but injury-depleted, Europa team, 2) a 4th place Europa team and 3) a good champions team that wasn't itself the whole tournament (injuries/loss of key players?) and that had finished 2nd in a weak pool in round 1
- a round of 16 game vs a Flight 2 (but Europa-level) team
- a round of 8 game vs a 2nd place Europa team

Westside Breakers (the #3 seed from the pool of death) should easily defeat LAGSD this weekend. I predict a 2 goal deficit. I then expect Westside Breakers and Legends DPL to meet in the final with Legends winning the championship in a close match.
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You've been pretty spot on so far. I appoint you the official '02 guru on this site.

I didn't know the details of the teams LAGSD faced, but upon further inspection, I see what you're saying. I will say that according to YouthSoccer rankings, they did beat Legends DPL in CRL this spring, so they're on a good trend even before NC started. And at this stage, no team can be dismissed.
 
To close the loop on this thread, Westside Breakers G02 won National Cup yesterday. Which one of these is not like the others?

Age..Champion (overall seed, rd 1 seed)..Finalist (overall seed, rd 1 seed)
G03..Hawks G2003 Academy (#2, bye)..San Diego SC G2003 Academy Navy..(#5, bye)
G02..Westside Breakers (#48, #3 in group E)..Real So Cal- SCV G 2002 W (#7, bye)
G01..South Slammers FC Elite G01 (#6, bye)..Rebels Soccer Club - G01 Elite (#1, bye)
G00..Legends FC South G00 FC (#1, bye)..SoCal Academy G2000 Chavez (#11, #1 in Group A)
 
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