Region II Championships

I just can't resist this story.
Regional Semifinal game. Closely contested. At one point ball richochets and hits defender's arm in the box. Shouts of "Hand Ball" go out. A good friend of mine, keeper's father, and a certified referee says calmly to the women who was very vocal... "you know, it's Deliberate Handling and I don't think he intentionally handled the ball.."

She turns to him, and looking him straight in the eye says, "Shut Up." He then says, "wow, are you really getting that upset that you have to say Shut Up to me??" At which point, this women's husband (somewhat hobbled with a cast and support on his leg) comes marching over and says, "If you tell my wife to shut up again, I'm going to punch you in the face."

My buddy then said, "First off, I didn't tell your wife to shut up, she told me that. I was simply telling her that I didn't think that was handling..." At which point, he said to "Go over to your side (meaning, away from what he obviously thought was a well marked area for only their parents).

For a while, I honestly thought that most parents' behavior got better as the kids got older but this was a pretty major setback... If it wasn't true (I know it's hearsay but my buddy is always friendly to others since he's constantly watching his keeper son and knows how it can become a bit strained being close to other parents), I'd be laughing. My buddy was a bit stressed over the incident and asked me directly if he had been over the top. After I stopped laughing, I just suggested that we'd give him an escort off the field....

 

I laugh when I place a chair down near midfield before my son's games and it turns out I'm in "enemy territory". I've had parents make comments to me and glare and this is BEFORE the game kicks off. I stay pretty quiet nowadays and just am amazed at the filth and overall stupidity that comes out of parent's mouths. It's tough not to chime in but I've learned it just isnt worth it. Even an innocent comment like you mentioned turns into WW3 especially if the other parents have been drinking before a game. It's tough because sometimes the worst parents are on your own team and you try to keep your distance from them also so you don't get lumped in with them. And dont suggest having a talk with them because from what I've learned it just doesnt help with the eastern europeans.

 

sorry I relaized how off topic I got- on another note pretty impressed with Michigan teams at boys U16

 

Final scores for regional 2 are posted. Not many surprises, except I would have thought the 15 Eclipse girls would have made it through to nationals.
http://tournaments.usyouthsoccer.org/events/2010-US-Youth-Soccer-Region-II-Championships/

 

except that Sockers u15 boys shouldve been the champion. They played the best soccer out there. They got unlucky against vardar after dominating them the whole game. They defintly deserved it..they knocked out the defending champion Scott gallagher 3-1 pretty comfortbaly. Its a shame to see that there season is over now, instead of them going on to Nationals in kansas

 

It would've been strange for a team that finished 3rd in it's State and 4th in its MRL group to have gone on to represent the Region at Nationals.

So the results seem just.

Hate that Vardar wins though. They are mainly a group of big boys. Not nearly as sophisticated as you would like to see in a top level youth side. They remind me more of the old teams from the early 90s than the sides that play now.

 

In that case wouldn't it better that the Region be represented by a team that at least plays good style of soccer, even though it finished 3rd in State and 4th in MRL?

I, for one, would've liked to see that happen.

 

Only if they give style points.

Nationals are about winning. Take no prisoners. May the best team win. The rest of the season is for development. This the wekk for developing the killer instinct

 

I understand. But it looks like Sockers were the best team at Regionals yet they didn't win it. And from my personal experiences and observations I can say the best team doesn't always win. Do you really think a week is enough to develop a killer instinct?

 

i agree with everything y.o.n.k.o said....he is exactly right

 

Perhaps the Sockers were the best team out there they were "underdogs" they qualified thanks to the success of Lemont in MRL and State Cup. That is why they played to their potential, they had absolutely nothing to lose and everything to win. They wanted they show their skill did they? I think so. But true... you can't win if you miss your chances and even if you dominated the whole game.

As for other Illinois teams Lemont played terrible, I thought it was their B team. I attribute this to the fact simply that they are already in Nationals. Also their extent of their season. But I've got to admit if they were playing at their best like in early MRL they would have been the champs easily (too bad their midfielders weren't playing their game, those guys sure know)

And Eclipse no surprise, they are mainly a physical kickball team. I've heard though their losing some players to Sockers, Fire and other team

 

(whispering) Shhhhh, don't say things like that about Eclipse U14 players leaving! You might start a war of words with a statement like that.

 

I'm posting my comments late, but the best human interest story, IMO, of the Region 2 tournament was the fact that Tyler Pollock of the U-19 Crew Jrs, who plays for my beloved Bulldogs, grew up playing at the Ankeney Soccer Complex in Beavercreek, OH where the U-19 semi-finals and finals were held. He is a 2009 graduate of Beavercreek High School and was the only local kid whose team won and is headed to the National Championship. Pretty cool.

GO BULLDOGS!

 

I think he is talking about the U-15 Eclipse, per the Eclipse website the only team they are showing for next year at U-16 is a team out if the East location, but a lot can change after the high school season and supplimental tryouts in the Fall. They show 3 teams at U-15, Select, East and West. In my experience 10% of any team is unhappy at any given time, and claiming they are leaving after the current season, always thinking that the grass is greener somewhere else. I say to each his own, if you are unhappy with your current club than leave. I like to think I have found a pretty good balance between quality of training and inconvenience to me with the club that my children play at, and no I will not name the club because that would allow all of the trolls to claim that every thing I posted is slanted toward that club. I have zero allegiance to the current or past clubs that my children play at, just as the clubs have zero allegiance to my children.

 

Soccer is a funny game. You can feel like you dominate the field of play, yet lose the game. Happened to my kids every so often. Of course, we as parents on the losing team usually felt that way. That's typcial for passionate parents. However, as previously said, it's hard to say a 3rd in state and 4th in MRL deserves to be in the national finals. Should have taken care of business during the season. I am sure that Vardar feels that they didn't play their best, and still won - the sign of a good team. My kids have played against Vardar many times, and to insult their style of play to help support your loss is unnecessary. I have had coaches use
" we played soccer the right way" to support losses when our kids were little. Vardar is usually a posession and technically strong team, just like you are suggesting your team is. Fact is, they beat your state champion twice this year, including 4-1 at regionals, and also beat the Baltimore Bays, another national finalist, at a tourney out east. This team is a tough team, albeit not always pretty as we saw at regionals. It's always tough to be so close and not get there, but to suggest your team derserves it more than the Vardar team that won is just sour grapes.

 

Thanks bluegrass for the neutral comments. Couldn't have said it better myself. But yes I'm from Michigan as the name says, though not associated with the Vardar the U15s. Some of these other posts sound like a list of excuses.

At my kid's age we didn't achieve what we hoped for at regionals and felt let down by our performance, but we have no one to blame but ourselves. The team simply didn't get the job done. We were also later somewhat buoyed by the fact that Michigan teams won in five divisions, including having Crew and WAZA against each other in the U16 boys final.

What's the point of coming on some anonymous forum to say the best team lost? If the athletic "dog ballers" beat your team then they were better than you on the day that counted.

 

What's the point of coming on these forums and bragging about who won what and who beat who? What's the point of youth soccer if we have people saying "if the athletic "dog ballers" beat your team then they were better than you on the day that counted"?

The comment made about Sockers playing the best soccer but being unlucky not to win is not insulting the style of others nor is attempt to justify a loss. It looks like it was a statement of observation of events. The Lemont team, supposedly the best team in IL, didn't play well. And the comment was because they had already secured a spot in the Nationals. Does that really make them the best? Isn't that bad attempt to justify poor performance? Why do/should they deserve to play in Nationals if they didn't perform well at Regionals?

 

just how it goes you know that. Its probably not that they didnt have enough motivation but more that other teams had much much more to play for.

 

And Lemont didn't? Good teams perform consistently as their motivation is to stay on top and even get better.

 

sometimes it just seems you forget that this isnt Barcelona we're talking about. I'm guessing they have their eyes on the Nationals and maybe had that in the back of their minds...blame them?

 

2010 Eclipse Select Challenge Cup- Brackets?

The accepted teams list is not correct when will the brackets be posted?

 

Oh well, looks like that didn't work out for them.