Tudela LA FC G05 white

[KJR]

I would go the other way on this. From the Discovery League's perspective, I would drop Tudela's teams because KJR, who is Tudela's social media voice, suggests it is a crappy league which Tudela is only using until it is accepted into a better platform, and that its event-status with the GA constitutes that better platform.

Likewise, if I were Tudela, I would drop out of the Discovery League, because it views it as a third-class league behind the ECNL and the GA. Despite KJR's protests, Tudela does disdain the league, and that can be verified by his own comments:

• they beat teams 11-0 on crap fields;
• they have to prove their quality despite the league, because the top college programs just want to see ECNL or GA;
• its not a college scout magnet;
• they owe a duty to their players to find a better platform.

KJR says that Tudela strives to always do the right thing. Prove it. Do the right thing and remove all of your teams from the Discovery League. You hate it. You think it is a bad fit. You don't want to follow its rules. And then you complain when the rules are enforced after your non-compliance.

Hi Bob.

I'm the Club President, not its "social media voice." And I think I've been quite candid and balanced re: SOCAL. It's new, it's doing its best, it's a good circuit for most of our teams, it can't provide the competition or exposure that top teams deserve and require. I know you're unfamiliar with what top teams deserve and require.

Don't worry, though. We no longer have any teams in Discovery. We'll survive; so will Discovery. I hope you will, too.

 

[KJR]

I can’t really fault anyone for changing leagues. Just about every single club down there was willing to ditch cal south when the time was right.

It would be worse if Tudela kept the NPL commitment by finding replacements. To read the posts, there is a second place team which deserves the slot. You can’t just pass them over.

We felt the same way. Our 05s and 07s have opportunities that no other club in SOCAL has; that's just a fact. Playing for an NPL title is an incredible honor, but if we can't do it with our own players then we want one of the good teams in our league, who we respect, to go.

 

[lafalafa]

Change the title to " MC does another small club dirty'" in the Socal league. She is one vindictive person that has done this to others also.

No wonder their under legal investigation by at least 2 different law firms for other potential dirty dealings.

She and the league should be audited for potential non profit violations, PPP abuse, and other legal irregularities. Who is taking six figure salaries for there association with entities that participate, Quid pro quo? I dunno let's check those 990 of those tournaments hosts, leagues, etc.

US club Soccer might be interested to find this out since NPL post season is always optional and not forced mandatory, maybe time to look at moving NPL out of the SoCal league to something less partial that doesn't penalizes teams that can't afford to travel.

Shame really as the SoCal league shows promise only to turn against its own smaller members and continue on that destructive cycle that caused them to switch in the first place.

I would go the other way on this. From the Discovery League's perspective, I would drop Tudela's teams because KJR, who is Tudela's social media voice, suggests it is a crappy league which Tudela is only using until it is accepted into a better platform, and that its event-status with the GA constitutes that better platform.

Likewise, if I were Tudela, I would drop out of the Discovery League, because it views it as a third-class league behind the ECNL and the GA. Despite KJR's protests, Tudela does disdain the league, and that can be verified by his own comments:

• they beat teams 11-0 on crap fields;
• they have to prove their quality despite the league, because the top college programs just want to see ECNL or GA;
• its not a college scout magnet;
• they owe a duty to their players to find a better platform.

KJR says that Tudela strives to always do the right thing. Prove it. Do the right thing and remove all of your teams from the Discovery League. You hate it. You think it is a bad fit. You don't want to follow its rules. And then you complain when the rules are enforced after your non-compliance.

No but nice try on spinning your own version of reality.

 

[Carlsbad7]

No skin in this one but wanted to comment that Tudela has done an amazing job representing themselves online.

Also changing games to forfeits seem heavy handed + possibly vindictive. Leagues might want to take a step back and reevaluate what they're doing + why they're doing it. Frustrating clubs to the point where they leave your league then burning any kind of bridge that might bring them back in the future is not good business.

Also for every Tudela making a move there's probably 3-4 watching closely to see how how things turn out. What they're seeing is to expect a nasty breakup which in general will make them go all in on decisions vs negotiating.

 

[michael91208]

KJR gives a good explanation, and I don't believe anybody at Tudela cheated. But let's be clear. When Tudela signed its teams up for the Discovery League, it knew what commitment was expected. It knew that there were travel requirements which could be costly. It knew that some of its players were older or aging out, and perhaps could not conveniently attend all events. It knew it had smaller rosters, which put it at risk for being unable to compete in some events. And it knew the consequences of refusing to participate.

KJR's comments - largely devoted to maligning the Discovery League - do not address the Club's own failure to take steps to increase its participation at mandatory events. For example, the Club could have increased its rosters for its Discovery League teams at any time before or during the gaming season. And it has about 7 months to find players for the mandatory summer tournament. The Club has a lot of tryout players. Its teams regularly play many of their players up from lower-aged teams. The Club could easily have increased participation by taking additional try-out players and adding them to the roster. Or, it could have added some of their younger players to the NPL rosters.

I sympathize with Tudela's situation. The Club desires to play in the ECNL but cannot gain access, so it is stuck in the Discovery League, which it disdains. But if you are going to play in a league, you need to follow the rules and accept the consequences when you don't.

Here, Tudela gained associate status with the GA at some point after it put teams in the Discovery League. Now it is favoring a GA tournament over a Discovery League tournament. I get it; Tudela believes the GA tournament will give it greater exposure. Still, Tudela made a conscious choice to turn its back on a prior commitment.

Tudela FC LA received event status before the SoCal registration. All Tudela teams were given this status, but not all teams were ready. It’s not about the labels, it’s about the players.

The ‘07 team was the only team allowed to move up in age bracket in a sincere effort to compete, we really wanted it to work. In retrospect, we could have applied for the U19 division, but with 2008 players on the roster it would have been probably too much.

Even if discussed earlier, the agreement all NPL teams were compelled to sign for post season play was sent out seven days before the first game, two months after the brackets locked. I know this because I was the one who had to sign it. Besides, enforcing this last minute “Contract of Adhesion” could be challenging in California . . .

 

[KJR]

In the interest of closure (I hope), the title of this thread is inaccurate. I truly appreciate the support so many of you have shown; I think most people are trying to provide a fun, safe, successful environment for kids to play the game. There are a lot of obstacles, and the real "villain" of the story is a youth sports culture that is often driven more by profit than development.

In SoCal, particularly, it's ridiculous that our U8s drive 3-4 hours for a one-hour game in Bakersfield; and if they can't go the club pays a $500 fine. Not blaming SOCAL, but the way our area has been carved up and walled-off by various leagues makes it incredibly difficult for clubs and families. I've written this here before, but during the Covid shutdown it would have been great for SoCal to do a Das Reboot and make our region an equitable, self-sufficient youth soccer powerhouse. But that would have required too many...special interests to give up too much profit. And that's another thread.

So we navigate as best we can, being as transparent as possible. We didn't disrespect our opponents by tanking games to avoid all of this; we didn't disrespect our league by bailing at the last minute with some made-up emergencies. No one would have blinked at the second-place team showing up to play on Saturday, had this been handled discreetly by SOCAL. Instead, we've been accused of stuff that could critically damage a lot of independent clubs.

I'm glad we've done enough over the years to, I hope, move past this in a morning. I'd still like SOCAL to reconsider their reaction, restore our records, and charge us a fine for dropping out. That would, appropriately, punish the club and not the players. And I'd still like this thread to be deleted; it's an insulting title, and whoever started it should give some thought as to why they did it.

 

[ajaxahi]

Tudela 05 parent here, not an official TFC rep, and looonnnngggg time poster. Man the haters really came out of the woodwork! Hey haters, hey JE1212Y and Toucan (ahem), who obviously have an agenda but hide behind keyboards and screen names, NOPE… no cheating, no non-league players, no college players (except for the ones that will be playing in college next year!). Just 12 amazing field players (no mass substitutions here lol!!!) and two awesome goalies who worked their asses off this Fall (and dealt with missing players due to college trips, illness and injury thanks to the help of our two hero TFC 07s) to WIN the Socal 2005 Discovery NPL North division, playing beautiful, entertaining, distinctive possession soccer, with off the charts levels of skill, IQ, and style.

For the core of this team, this was the culmination of a journey that started at this club when they were silly 8 year olds, when coach Tudela first started teaching them to do skills moves and play possession while other teams racked up wins booting the ball to their big forward. This is what Jacob had in mind when it all started. Hey you incredible 05 TFC young ladies, they can try to take your achievements away in a fit of petty vindictiveness, but as long as this thread, that started with baseless accusations and rumors from jealous grownups (yes grownups!!!), is still up, let everybody see your season for what it was, a beautiful success…

 

[MacDre]

Obviously you did not read my posts carefully. For example, I did not accuse Tudela of cheating. I specifically said I did not believe they cheated at anything. My point is that if you sign up for a league and disregard the rules, then you should expect consequences and accept them when they come. That's all.

KJR feels differently. He admits that the club knew what its obligations were, but its could get more exposure elsewhere. And this, in KJR's mind, justifies its decision to violate the league's rules.

In KJR's opinion the League was too harsh in forfeiting games previously played by the Tudela squads. Personally, I agree with him. But a Club which intentionally violates the league's rules doesn't get to select its punishment. I don't doubt that Tudela's decision was correct in terms of its own self-interest. I just think that Tudela ought to accept consequences without complaint. And also, because KJR - the President of the Club - expressed such disdain for the league, I suggested that the best thing for the Club to do was to leave the league. It turns out that he agreed on the last point.

KJR then lashed out by identifying me and criticizing my own teams. That responds to no argument presented by me. It was juvenile and spiteful.

You suggest I am hiding my identity behind a keyboard. You are wrong. I have identified myself many times on this Board, which might be how KJR knows my identity. My name is Robert Woodbury. Do you have the same courage? What is your name?

Finally, I am very familiar with Tudela's teams and many of its players. I respect them and have nothing negative to say about any one of them. I wish them the best.

FYI, none of your post have been compelling. You’re coming off as a toxic narrow-minded HATER because your analysis ignores the fact that there was only good will and no evil intent here!

 

[Kicker4Life]

Thank you for this, and as someone your age may I just add: "word up."

I believe you and the club has more Fans than Haters! Just that the Haters tend to be the loudest.
Keep up the good work!

 

[ajaxahi]

Obviously you did not read my posts carefully. For example, I did not accuse Tudela of cheating. I specifically said I did not believe they cheated at anything. My point is that if you sign up for a league and disregard the rules, then you should expect consequences and accept them when they come. That's all.

KJR feels differently. He admits that the club knew what its obligations were, but its could get more exposure elsewhere. And this, in KJR's mind, justifies its decision to violate the league's rules.

In KJR's opinion the League was too harsh in forfeiting games previously played by the Tudela squads. Personally, I agree with him. But a Club which intentionally violates the league's rules doesn't get to select its punishment. I don't doubt that Tudela's decision correct was in terms of its own self-interest. I just think that Tudela ought to accept consequences without complaint. And also, because KJR - the President of the Club - expressed such disdain for the league, I suggested that the best thing for the Club to do was to leave the league. It turns out that he agreed on the last point.

KJR then lashed out by identifying me and criticizing my own teams. That responds to no argument presented by me. It was juvenile and spiteful.

You suggest I am hiding my identity behind a keyboard. You are wrong. I have identified myself many times on this Board, which might be how KJR knows my identity. My name is Robert Woodbury. Do you have the same courage? What is your name?

Finally, I am very familiar with Tudela's teams and many of its players. I respect them and have nothing negative to say about any one of them. I wish them the best.

Thanks for your courage Bob. I already identified myself as an 05 TFC parent, that should suffice as I have a daughter on the team. I’m sure you understand. You, however, have yet to identify who you are affiliated with. Might shed some light on things, hm?

I never said you in particular accused TFC of cheating (that was JE1212Y who started this thread), but you were all too happy to pile on and criticize the club and mischaracterize KJR’s explanations as disdain for the league, rather than just the plain facts they are.

 

[chipmonk]

I would go the other way on this. From the Discovery League's perspective, I would drop Tudela's teams because KJR, who is Tudela's social media voice, suggests it is a crappy league which Tudela is only using until it is accepted into a better platform, and that its event-status with the GA constitutes that better platform.

Likewise, if I were Tudela, I would drop out of the Discovery League, because it views it as a third-class league behind the ECNL and the GA. Despite KJR's protests, Tudela does disdain the league, and that can be verified by his own comments:

• they beat teams 11-0 on crap fields;
• they have to prove their quality despite the league, because the top college programs just want to see ECNL or GA;
• its not a college scout magnet;
• they owe a duty to their players to find a better platform.

KJR says that Tudela strives to always do the right thing. Prove it. Do the right thing and remove all of your teams from the Discovery League. You hate it. You think it is a bad fit. You don't want to follow its rules. And then you complain when the rules are enforced after your non-compliance.

I am not affiliated with Tudela, we have just played their 07 team many times over the years.

This year, 07 Discovery has been pretty awful. Most games have had a single ref. A couple games have had 2 refs. 0 games have had the full 3. That’s not OK at this age and this competitive level. And yes, some of the fields have been bad.

Last season was fine with all games at silverlakes/oceanside.

Socal has also been vindictive against the clubs that took their NPL teams to E64 so it doesn’t surprise me that they chose the vindictive route with Tudela instead of thanking them for making the league stronger.

The discovery league is worse off without them and the second/third place teams are worse off without stronger competition to play against.

 

[RedCard]

I think most people are trying to provide a fun, safe, successful environment for kids to play the game. There are a lot of obstacles, and the real "villain" of the story is a youth sports culture that is often driven more by profit than development.

This is the most honest statement ever. Youth soccer is driven more by profit than development, especially with the stupid "stay and play" policies that most tournaments have now (looking at you Surf Sports). I'm just glad this is my last season in which my kids are involved in youth soccer.

One other statement involving how this topic started. It's easy to say that a team cheated when the league takes all the wins and draws away and changes them all to a 0-1 lost. Most everyone who's been in youth soccer for a long time knows right a way that this is a "forfeit score". The problem I have is that most of the teams we played this season (and last season) used ineligible players all season long and SoCal did nothing about it. Last game, we played a mega club team that brought in players from one of their sister clubs which played that day also. The week before that, the team brought in players from their E64 team. Had a team earlier that brought a couple ECNL players to play the game. Almost every game had write ins on the roster. I'm sure every knows that a coach got suspended for the rest of the season for bring players down to lower level teams then claim that "he didn't know this was against the rules". Hell, the very last game last season (in Silverlakes) that same coach was pulling players (same club) off of the next field to play against us (during the game). And I'm sure Tudela delt with this problem also during the season with other teams.
Tudela was the only team we played this season (and last season) that we knew for a fact this was a team with a legit roster.

SoCal League needs to do a much better job at enforcing the rosters.

 

[Brav520]

We felt the same way. Our 05s and 07s have opportunities that no other club in SOCAL has; that's just a fact. Playing for an NPL title is an incredible honor, but if we can't do it with our own players then we want one of the good teams in our league, who we respect, to go.

Ask Simmons to fund the travel expenses , it’s worth a shot

 

[michael91208]

My 15 year old daughter (Tudela FCLA 2007W) was approached by another player at school today who plays for another club, asking about the 05W team. This girl plays for a club that appears to be where a lot of the speculation is coming from. Had my daughter not heard me talking about this on the phone, she would have been blindsided and potentially humiliated.

It’s bad enough for thoughtless adults to speculate on the lies and rumors, but when it filters down to our kids it’s a whole new level of slime and slander. If we can’t find the source of this crap and snuff it out, we may need a statement from the league and at the very least some kind of public correction. It’s hard to unring this bell. The title of this thread doesn’t help.

 

[KJR]

This is the most honest statement ever. Youth soccer is driven more by profit than development, especially with the stupid "stay and play" policies that most tournaments have now (looking at you Surf Sports). I'm just glad this is my last season in which my kids are involved in youth soccer.

One other statement involving how this topic started. It's easy to say that a team cheated when the league takes all the wins and draws away and changes them all to a 0-1 lost. Most everyone who's been in youth soccer for a long time knows right a way that this is a "forfeit score". The problem I have is that most of the teams we played this season (and last season) used ineligible players all season long and SoCal did nothing about it. Last game, we played a mega club team that brought in players from one of their sister clubs which played that day also. The week before that, the team brought in players from their E64 team. Had a team earlier that brought a couple ECNL players to play the game. Almost every game had write ins on the roster. I'm sure every knows that a coach got suspended for the rest of the season for bring players down to lower level teams then claim that "he didn't know this was against the rules". Hell, the very last game last season (in Silverlakes) that same coach was pulling players (same club) off of the next field to play against us (during the game). And I'm sure Tudela delt with this problem also during the season with other teams.
Tudela was the only team we played this season (and last season) that we knew for a fact this was a team with a legit roster.

SoCal League needs to do a much better job at enforcing the rosters.

We ran into this in SOCAL's State Cup last year. A team we were playing in an elimination game brought in a few subs at 20' who seemed... better than the starters. They were from the club's ECNL team. Our girls won anyway, the ECNL girls were frustrated that they couldn't dominate a Discovery game, and the other team's regular players were frustrated that they'd been benched for some "ringers" in a big game.

That team was from the same club that started this thread. But big clubs around here have gotten used to playing by different rules.

Given the questions our kids are now getting about this, I'll be circling back to Michelle and SOCAL tomorrow. @Dominic -- a little help would be appreciated.

 

[outside!]

This entire situation was caused by the creation of ECNL and all the closed leagues that followed. US Soccer allowed this to happen. The old days of USYS and "Earn Your Place" should have continued and been expanded.

 

[RedCard]

We ran into this in SOCAL's State Cup last year. A team we were playing in an elimination game brought in a few subs at 20' who seemed... better than the starters. They were from the club's ECNL team. Our girls won anyway, the ECNL girls were frustrated that they couldn't dominate a Discovery game, and the other team's regular players were frustrated that they'd been benched for some "ringers" in a big game.

That team was from the same club that started this thread. But big clubs around here have gotten used to playing by different rules.

Given the questions our kids are now getting about this, I'll be circling back to Michelle and SOCAL tomorrow. @Dominic -- a little help would be appreciated.

I hope this all gets cleared up for both your 05 and 07 teams. I'll admit that for a couple of hours, I thought (and surprised/shocked) that something "naughty" happened. Again, I was more surprised by this allegation than anything else. I'll glad you came onto the topic and cleared up this wrongful allegation. I for one would like to apologize to you, your parents, and especially to your players for thinking this was true for a couple of hours. A parent from another team within our bracket (who you most likely know) reached out to me to explain what happened with the 05 team before you posted your statement. That's how much respect you and your club have when parents from other clubs come to your defense. Unfortunately, a lot of "hatred and jealousy" do come from others because of your success. Our team gets it also and my daughter's old SoCal Academy team really got it also back in the days. It's just like people hating on the Lakers, Patriots, and Dodgers cause they are/were so successful (Houston Astros do deserve the hate though...).
My daughter has played against your 05 team a total of 6 times, twice with SoCal Academy back a few seasons ago and 4 times with her current team/coach since the comeback from the Covid shutdown. And she always looked forward to these games cause as a keeper, she knew she would get tested all game long by facing many good, hard shots on goal. Games against your team are always learning lessons for all our players cause the game is always 90 minutes of hard play and all players giving 100% on the field.

 

[Woodwork]

This entire situation was caused by the creation of ECNL and all the closed leagues that followed. US Soccer allowed this to happen. The old days of USYS and "Earn Your Place" should have continued and been expanded.

I don't see a problem with SoCal forfeiting games for a team that effectively drops from NPL participation. They aren't standing in the way of Tudela participating in the GA event. I don't believe SoCal folks would be upset about a club taking the opportunity for its top teams to participate in closed leagues when the opportunity knocks. The clubs that created SCL/SCDSL are the same ones that disinvest in it by placing their top teams in closed leagues. Disinvestment is implicitly one of the founding principles of the league.

In my opinion, the issue is opacity. Without clarity on the reasons for forfeits, there is opportunity for speculation to become rumor and for that rumor to become widespread misinformation. Socal League could footnote the reason for the drop somewhere on the site.

 

[focomoso]

It's just like people hating on the Lakers, Patriots, and Dodgers cause they are/were so successful...

"Lakers, Patriots, and Yankees..." Fixed that for ya.

Complete side note, but I saw a truck in the late 90s with a Chicago Bulls, NY Yankees and Dallas Cowboys sticker. That's a guy I don't want to hang out with...

 

[KJR]

I don't see a problem with SoCal forfeiting games for a team that effectively drops from NPL participation. They aren't standing in the way of Tudela participating in the GA event. I don't believe SoCal folks would be upset about a club taking the opportunity for its top teams to participate in closed leagues when the opportunity knocks. The clubs that created SCL/SCDSL are the same ones that disinvest in it by placing their top teams in closed leagues. Disinvestment is implicitly one of the founding principles of the league.

In my opinion, the issue is opacity. Without clarity on the reasons for forfeits, there is opportunity for speculation to become rumor and for that rumor to become widespread misinformation. Socal League could footnote the reason for the drop somewhere on the site.

According to the SOCAL contract, the sanction for not participating in all the NPL events is supposed to be losing NPL status the following year. Which, fine. We would have taken that hit. Forfeiting the entire season we'd just played was a choice--and, to me, a dangerously short-sighted one because (as you say) it opened the door to speculation.

Our club appreciates the opportunities SOCAL has given us; at the same time, we feel like we've been a pretty good ambassador for the SOCAL brand. We'll have girls playing in top college programs next year; we have girls in national team pools. I don't think the league wants to cast doubt on the integrity of our club, but that's what they've done. We're discussing a remedy.