KidsGotGame
BRONZE
Hello- I cannot locate info on Copa America youth tournament, does anyone have this years? And is there a good site for me to see all CA tournaments?
TY!
TY!
Summer Cali Tournaments 2025
- Thread starter KidsGotGame
- Start date
This is probably where you want to keep an eye on...
soccerdadlight
BRONZE
GotSoccer - Upcoming Events
KidsGotGame
BRONZE
Thank you!This is probably where you want to keep an eye on...
Between Cal South, GotSport, and US Club Soccer tournament pages, you could probably find tourneys you want to attend in CA.
Cal South - https://calsouth.com/sanctioned-tournaments/
GotSport (someone shared it already)
US Club Soccer - https://usclubsoccer.org/list-of-sanctioned-tournaments/
Related question, maybe someone could link a primer for this or something:
What is the significance of sanctioned tournaments, and is there any general reference for which tournaments are well attended/regarded/etc.?
Example case: My son's club is going to play in the Vegas Cup in a few weeks (https://www.vegascup.org/), which I'd led to understand is fairly prestigious generally (my son's team is playing in the lowest bracket, but the club's NPL team in the same age group is also attending, and playing in a higher bracket). I know the tournament has been worth a lot of points in the GotSport team rankings (for whatever that's worth), and there are teams flying in from various parts of the country for it. Yet, it's not listed as a sanctioned tournament, as far as I can tell, nor on the GotSport list (although the brackets and schedule are hosted in GotSport; see: https://system.gotsport.com/org_event/events/35419). Aside from the club attending, I probably wouldn't be aware of it.
Are these extra tournaments all ad hoc sites and word-of-mouth within clubs, or is there a general reference somewhere?
What is the significance of sanctioned tournaments, and is there any general reference for which tournaments are well attended/regarded/etc.?
Example case: My son's club is going to play in the Vegas Cup in a few weeks (https://www.vegascup.org/), which I'd led to understand is fairly prestigious generally (my son's team is playing in the lowest bracket, but the club's NPL team in the same age group is also attending, and playing in a higher bracket). I know the tournament has been worth a lot of points in the GotSport team rankings (for whatever that's worth), and there are teams flying in from various parts of the country for it. Yet, it's not listed as a sanctioned tournament, as far as I can tell, nor on the GotSport list (although the brackets and schedule are hosted in GotSport; see: https://system.gotsport.com/org_event/events/35419). Aside from the club attending, I probably wouldn't be aware of it.
Are these extra tournaments all ad hoc sites and word-of-mouth within clubs, or is there a general reference somewhere?
From a parent and player perspective the best tournaments are the ones that are in a fun place to be and either the team or your family does things together not related to soccer.
During covid CA stopped all tournaments but AZ kept playing. One of my favorite tournaments was at laughlin/bullhead + all the teams stayed at a casino. In the mornings it was sureal watching hundreds of youth soccer players taking over a casino + the pools and restaurants. Another fun tournament was in Northern CA because we got to play teams Socal doesn't see that much. (At the littles level). Norcal futsal tournamets were also very well run and exciting to play in.
From a club perspective there's all kinds of politics involved in which tournament they participate in. Smaller clubs generally choose whatever tournament sounds fun and is local. Larger clubs often have handshake, wink wink agreements with other clubs along the lines of if you attend our tournament we'll attend yours. Clubs that participate in different leagues tend to attend other clubs in that's leagues tournaments. This also happens because where teams get seeded is important.
On the West Coast the big tournament is Surf Cup. On the East Coast the big tournament is Jefferson Cup.
To answer your questions more directly the soccer rankings app is what most people use these days to define a team or clubs level in the overall youth soccer pecking order.
Because of this it doesn't really matter which tournament you attend as long as that tournaments results are being fed into the rankings apps data. I don't think the rankings app cares about sanctioned or not. It just needs a way to injest the results.
If you're looking to go up in the rankings first you need to win. Second you need to win against teams that are higher ranked than you currently are. This is the rub with tournaments they're going to run several levels of ability (gold silver bronze) if there's enough teams. If you're seeded into the gold level you'll get a chance to beat other highly ranked teams. If you get seeded into the bronze level the only way you'll go up in ranking is by beating teams by 10+ goals.
rainbow_unicorn
PREMIER
There is no significance with sanctioned tournaments. And definitely no significance with GotSport rankings.
I'm less interested in how to rank up teams, personally. Notably, as mentioned before, my son isn't on the highest level team in his club, and the best player from his club tend to get moved up to the higher teams (and/or move on to higher level clubs, like LAFC and Galaxy). I feel like his team is accurately ranked, more or less, and generally plays against teams which are around their level. His team isn't likely to ever be a top-tier team, and that's not my concern; I was just curious about where the various tournaments landed, in terms of overall participation and "level".
Fwiw (and tangentially), I'm not chasing "top tier" for my son either. There are many more players with significantly more commitment to soccer than my son has, and he has other (and probably more promising) developmental paths. Soccer is for fun, team building, and socialization, and perhaps some competition and winning on the side where possible.
Also, 100% agree on the "fun tournaments" observation. Probably the best tournament I've personally attended was a Coronado Holiday Cup, and only because of the parents hanging out while the kids had fun running around the hotel grounds. I don't recall how the team did on the field, but that wasn't very material to the experience.
Code
GOLD
Do you have to apply for the tournament, and then wait to find out if your team is selected?
If so, it is likely a high level tournament.
Do you pay the required fee, and you are accepted to the tournament? Anything could happen, but most likely the teams are going to be mismatched in the brackets with whatever teams showed up.