I found a story somewhere showing that another Lynx player was going to the same club. They said China is starting to court a lot of African players and players of African descent.
article in today's B'ham News says that AJ Robles(ex-UAB GK) is playing professionally. anybody know where? I'd guess A-League but a Google search turned up nada.
Lauren Arnold, GK for Lady Jets 91 Blue, was called in for the U15 Women's National Team camp in May.
Mike, Meant to introduce myself to you at the coaches meeting today. Sure we will have another opportunity. peter
Most likely will be the usual suspects. Haven't really studied the fields of 4A & 6A as I am too concerned with girls 5A at the moment.
Actually it was my responsibility to get the introductions done but we ran out of time. There will be no shortage of opportunities as we go forward. I'm very excited about what we are going to do, I hope that came across yesterday.
It's official - all my 91 players are done with high school for the year after Indian Springs and Prattville went out yesterday. I think we escaped without major injury so we have a chance to go to Regionals with a full roster. (Not that that will make any difference.)
Anyone going to Nashvegas next week for the USMNT match? My nine year and I will be there... fourth cap for both of us. Also, anyone know how the Jets and MB Soccer merger is going. We are looking for a new program for Fall and the idea of driving down 280 several times a week for training is a bit daunting. If you try out on June 2-3 in MB, would they put you on a team that practices at Sports Blast?
The merger is done, up, and rolling, and we're waiting for you to come to tryouts. (What's keeping you?) www.birmingham-united.com As the president of the merged organization, I can categorically state that it is not and has never been our intention to force people to drive one way or the other on 280 to attend practices. Teams for whom tryouts are being held at Brookwood Forest will practice in the Mountain Brook area (BF, MBE, or the new Rathmell Sports Complex). There's an extensive document available on the website that addresses that issue and many more. Of course, I will be happy to answer any questions you have, or refer them to Andrew, Sarah, or John, our technical directors.
pvan4 & myself will be up there with our wives. We also have 2 other friends from B'ham going up as well. It'll be my 13th "cap" if you count the Olympics and youth teams...my 15th if you include the women's team.
Thanks for the feedback. I checked out the website and we will plan on being there for the tryouts. We live in Vestavia but the kids go to school in Homewood and have been playing there for the last couple of seasons. My son will try out for the 96 team and will hopefully make some level of competitive program. Keep an eye out for us. If you see a maroon VW Toureag with Alabama plates, an Ole Miss alum sticker on the back windshield, and an Our Lady of Sorrows School tag on the front tailgating in Nashville, stop by and say hello and have a beer. If not, we will see you the first weekend in June.
Hey folks, I'm moving to the Huntsville area soon. I was wondering if anyone knows of any pickup games. Any skill level. I've already contacted some HASL teams for my league soccer needs, but I like the low key aspect of the pickup game. Any ideas? Thanks, Ryan
League scheduling MD 20/20, I was drafted to be the manager for the Streaks 95B Blue team. (We actually had enough to try out to form 2 teams). When is AYSA planning on having the scheduling free for all?My idea is that the teams ought to get together and do round robins in a day. Say, we go to B'ham and play and also meet and play a Huntsville team. Do the same in Montgomery for Mobile teams> What are your thoughts?
Re: League scheduling The scheduling meeting for Division II is Saturday July 15. Your timeslot is 11:00-12:30. I will be there as one of the moderators for U12 boys. AYSA and US Youth Soccer would prefer that teams only play one game per day in National Championship Series events (which includes the AL state league, because it sets seeding for State Cup), but last year the rules were relaxed to permit Division II teams to schedule two road games on the same day. So what you're proposing is within the rules. A piece of advice: Don't do a double header in August. Wait until later in the season to double up. The combination of heat and early season fitness will ensure that the second game of the day in August will be a really poor performance by your team. If you want a practical example, email Mark Lee, the manager of the Jets 95 Blue team - I'll PM you his email. He did a two game set in Huntsville on the first play date last year. If you want to pursue this, I would suggest that you contact the other managers in your division ahead of time and float the issue with them. If you can pre-arrange some of the dates, you'll be ahead of the game when you get to the scheduling meeting.
Regionals 2006 Here are some observations after the first day of competition at the 2006 Southern Regionals in Little Rock, AR. The soccer complex at Burns Park is gorgeous. The turf is great and the environment is great. Imagine having 17 fields in Oak Mountain State Park - lots of tall trees surrounding the fields providing shade, slow moving traffic on the park roads, and the only sounds you hear are the sounds of soccer. Each field has a scoreboard with a clock which is manned and operating for each match. The timer counts down, but the clock stops at 2 minutes remaining so that the referee controls the end of each half like normal. Burns Park would be a great model for a Birmingham-area municipality to use when planning the complex we need to host Regionals one day. The only thing that would improve upon what they have is a stadium field. It takes longer to get from the entrance of Burns Park to the fields than it does to get to Burns Park from our hotel. The Alabama contingent is in two separate hotels because of the number of rooms we needed. The U14 through U17 teams are in the Comfort Inn Downtown, and the U18 teams are in the Comfort Inn at the airport. It's only about 5-10 minutes between the two of them. The hotel is nice - not as swanky as last year's hotel (The Richardson Hotel in Richardson, TX) but a lot roomier. Unfortunately the elevators are not so great, but that's becoming a tradition. The breakfast is good, and the kids seem to be having a good time while they are here. The weather is cooperating so far - no rain and the heat index, while high, isn't overbearing. We are having running-clock 60 second water breaks each half. Of course, my team played at 10:00 AM yesterday so those who played at 2:00 might have a different opinion. Now to the soccer: the Jets 91 played probably the best game of the spring season in their opener yesterday, but they still lost 4-1 to CASL Elite from Raleigh. USA Rank lists them as the #11 team nationally, if you put any stock in those sorts of things. We played CASL last year in our opening game, and lost 5-1, so on one level we have improved by 20%, but the actual improvement was much greater. Last year, CASL more or less named the score on us, and they took their foot off the gas when they went up 5-1. This year, they only scored one goal from the run of play, and we pressed them the entire game. The other three goals were off a direct free kick from a dubious hand ball 22 yards from goal and off two corners that came from counterattacks as we pushed forward. The score was 2-0 at the half, we closed the gap to 2-1 about 10 minutes into the second half, and we had our chances as the game wore on but couldn't convert. Once again, I was impressed with the sportsmanship from the CASL players, and I hope that we are moving Birmingham United in a direction that will allow us to field teams as classy as they were. Results: U14B Jets 92 Blue lost 0-1 to NTX (Andromeda Titans) U14G Lady Kicks 92 lost 1-5 to FL (First Coast Kyx) U15B Jets 91 Blue lost 1-4 to NC (CASL Elite) U15G Angels 91 Red lost 0-4 to PL West (NTX-Dallas Texans) U16B CC Streaks 90 lost 2-3 to LA (Lakeview) U16G Angels 90 lost 0-3 to NTX (Dallas Texans) U17B Steamers 89 won 3-1 over SC (Bridge FA) U17G Attack 89 won 3-0 over PL South (MS-Jackson FC) U18B Jets 88 lost 0-2 to PL West (GA-Forsyth Fusion) U18G Attack 88 lost 1-5 to NTX (Dallas Texans) The scoring system for the tournament changed this year to 4 points for a win and allowable 4 net goal differential. Someone who is less mathematically challenged than me needs to explain how that extra point is an improvement - I sat with Excel last night and tried to sketch out different scenarios that would illustrate the differences between the two systems but I couldn't find a situation where the standings order would differ given the same combination of wins and draws.
Think you're surprised now, wait till you go to Atlanta Cup for the first time. This is pretty typical performance for Alabama teams. (It's that large numbers thing again.) Besides, look at the draw: U14G - North Texas U14B - North Texas U15G - North Texas U15B - North Carolina U16G - North Texas U16B - Louisiana U17G - Mississippi U17B - South Carolina U18B - Georgia U18G - North Texas History indicates that the U14, U15, U16G, and U18G games were probable losses for Alabama when the ping pong balls were drawn. Of the remaining four games, the U16B and U17G had the easiest-looking opponents (both being from the South subregion), and the U17G converted. The best result in my opinion is the U17B Steamers 89 over South Carolina, but historically South Carolina is a bottom-half East subregion state just as Alabama is a bottom-half South state. (These are just my opinions of course, based on games my team has played over the years.) Today's matchups are a little better in some cases and worse in others: U14G vs NTX (same) U14B vs MS (better) U15G vs PL South (better) U15B vs PL South (better) U16G vs PL South (better) U16B vs SC (worse) U17G vs STX (worse) U17B vs PL North (better) U18G vs PL East (same) U18B vs NTX (worse) Some of these games are winnable. The U15B game is winnable for sure, hopefully the kids will play with the same focus they showed yesterday and make it happen.
Re: Regionals 2006 If you had to pick one word to describe Saturday's results, it might be "Ouch." Alabama was winless yesterday, with only the U18G Attack 88 managing a point in their match with the PL East representative, CASL Elite. The U18B Jets 88 Blue did a credible job against Bill Dworsky's Dallas Texans with two early scoring chances, but still only managed a 1-3 loss. The U15G Angels 91 lost in the late stages 0-1 to Pensacola FC. The U15B Jets 91 Blue needed a win to have a hope to advance. They worked the ball early and had some chances, but when they dropped a goal just before the half, their heads went down and they never recovered, eventually losing 0-4 to CSC Fire from Louisiana. The scoreline is a little unflattering, because after the half the Jets, knowing they had to win, threw everything forward and became vulnerable to counterattacks, especially with the midday heat sapping their ability to get back after turnovers. To say that result was a disappointment would be an understatement, because as I mentioned that was a winnable game, and the kids just didn't have the mental fortitude to make it happen. The good news for me is that we play at 8:00 this morning, and with checkout time at noon, we can be home for supper. Pardon me if I seem less than enthused by that prospect.