With the U17s advancing, they now will face the U19 Newcastle FC team Friday night. I saw Newcastle tonight at the Lakelands Stadium play Unam Pumas U19s in first game of a doubleheader tonight, Wednesday the 16th. Here is the score...take a deep breath...are you ready?? Newcastle 6 -- Pumas 0. Thats right, 6-0. I don't know whether they are THAT good, but let me tell you, they are good. In the second half, they brought in a sub, #10, who played on the left side. This guy was UNBELIEVABLY fast. I mean he would jet. This guy is going to give Spector a real challenge. Meanwhile Newcastle moved the ball extremely well, and clearly had speed as well as some skill. Should be interesting!!!
Those of you who have been following the tournament and know how the brackets work, should be aware that the semifinals were "fixed". The winner of bracket A (US U-17) was supposed to play the wildcard team (Chivas) in the semis. Instead, they are facing off against Newcastle FC. How did that happen? The winner of bracket B (Tigres) should have played the winner of bracket C (Newcastle FC), but this is not the case. Chivas officials are at the Dallas Cup office at this moment to place an official protest for such an obvious fix. The organizers obviously want the US U-17 to advance to the final and perhaps they think Newcastle is a weaker oponent than Chivas (which is not). They also don't want two Mexican teams in the finals again. And I thought this sh.it didn't happen in the US...
The official reasoning is that the two teams had already played each other. Now I agree it would have been smoother to have made this contingency before the tournament started (to have the wildcard assured of playing a team that wasn't in its own division) but the logic you provide for your conspiracy doesn't hold water. The U.S. won the group, not Chivas. The teamsplayed to a draw. To say Newcastle is an easier opponent after what they did to Pumas last night is ridiculous. If anything, you guys are afraid to play Tigres, who looked pretty good against Benfica. Bottom line is there are four good teams in the semis and it really doesn't matter who plays who and when. The organizers clearly wanted to avoid a repeat game in the semis, and that was thereason. They are not "fixing" the competition.
dear buddy. we aren't afraid of anybody! sincerely, freddy adu <ps. what gersman said is the correct reasoning>
According to the (pooled) standings ... 1. NUFC 3 W, 9 GF - 1 GA 2. Tigres 2 W, 1 D, 10 GF - 3 GA 3. US U-17 2 W, 1 D, 9 GF - 2 GA 4. Chivas 2 W, 1 D, 9 GF - 4 GA Seemingly, the logical pairing would put Newcastle w/ Chivas and Tigres w/ the US.
It's funny how you are so desperate to have an American soccer superstar... and even if he is the next best thing since sliced bread he can't carry the whole team.
While The Dallas Cup might not have had this in its rule book, it is pretty much standard operating procedure for tournaments that feature a "wild-card" out of group play to specify that the the wild card team will not play its own group's winner in the semis.
Can you please tell me how your claim is "official"? Perhaps you are involved with the Dallas Cup and you can provide the rule book for the tournament or at least a link to back-up your claim... It would have been smoother? IT HAD TO BE STATED BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT BEGAN!!! If the tournament is to be taken seriously, they can't change their own rules on the fly. If this was a legal issue the lawers would be having a field day... I never said Newcastle was easy, read my post again. I went to both games yesterday and saw that Newcastle is very strong. Tigres didn't look too sharp and we are not afraid to play them, heck, we play them in the Dallas Cup finals all the time... check the stats for the previous three years in U19,U16. Perhaps the organizers are afraid of another all Mexican final and want to make sure that at least one team doesn't advance. I agree that all four teams are good and that the organizers want to keep it interesting, but please PUT IT IN WRITING BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT BEGINS!!! With that said, I hope the USA and Freddy Adu advance to the finals so we can face them again... our first meeting was the best one in the cup!
Guess what man, this is a youth tournament...for kids. Stop taking things so seriously, this isn't the world cup we are talking about. There's a fairly common precedent in place that generally wildcard teams do not play the groupwinner of the group they were in. It's happened many times before. Any good lawyer would quash any case Chivas had by simply pointing out the hundreds of times this has happened before, and has been solved by doing the same thing that the Dallas Cup organizer's did.
As you should know, at this level it's all about developing talent, not necessarily getting results. I'd be more than happy to lose Newcastle if it gets us into the finals in Finland.
Now that I think about it, You're right, its a total conspiracy. First only one mexican team gets to the final of the Dallas cup then the entire Mexican football federation falls apart. The Dallas cup organizers have been planning this for years. I can't believe I didn't think of this. I think it was a good decision to move Chivas to the other side of the semifinal that way if the US and Chivas were the two best teams, they could meet again in the final. I don't understand why we would play Newcastle though. Just going by points we should play Tigres and Chivas should play Newcastle. But whatever. Oh and by the way if you don't like US soccer and the way we do things here, feel free to go back to Mexico.
Easy masterchiva. As previously stated, it is customary tournament procedure to ensure bracket winner and wild card form same vbracket do not rplay one another in first round of playoff. Your consistent and shrill complaining sounds like the complaining heard after a certain World Cup game between teams of the same nationality. Relax. Watch your team succeed, or not, on the field. The Newcastle winger discussed earlier has speed not seen often at any level. Very impressive.
WE are novices at putting in the fix. We don't even know how to get the refs to grant the usual pk gift to the home team -- pretty standard fare in CONCACAF tournement play south of the Rio Grand.
Not me, I don't really care about the national team... is all about Chivas, that's where the real passion is.
I'm a US homer for sure but I can't understand why no one even acknoledges the beef masterchivas has? The bracket was set before the tournament and, if they had followed the rules, it would have been Chivas vs US in this game. Yes, they changed it. Maybe it is "customary" as some have said but be honest, Dallas Cup changed the rules midway thru the tournament; that shouldn't happen. There should be, for next year, something in the books about this exact scenario.
probably a good idea considering their recent successes, err, should i say unsuccesses anyone know the name of the winger for newcastle? i so wish i was heading to dallas tomorrow. i had planned on it to visit my sister <and of course, really to see the dallas cup> but forgot it was easter weekend and the plane flights down there were just rediculous in price. oh well, too bad b/c it sounds like there will be some great games the next few days.
A different point of view The people that organize this event want a emotional final with a lot of fans and a lot of MONEY$$ so next year they can organize another DALLAS CUP.....well I hope this is the situation....
Re: A different point of view I'm thinking they'll probalby hold the Dallas Cup again next year. It's one of the biggest youth tournaments in the world. Seriously, is it the biggest in the US? I seem to remember there being something out in the midwest somewhere that was a big deal back when I was in school. The US Cup, maybe?
What's up with the headline at the Dallascup.com site reading: "Super Group Matches Highlight Lake Highlands Stadium Schedule Tigres vs. Benfica at 6 p.m. USA U-17 vs. Newcastle United at 8 p.m. " A typo or did Chivas go home? The bracket listing still shows Chivas vs. Tigres...
OK - big misconception and I've contributed to it. I spoke with the tournament executive director and he explained to me that the tournament rules state the wildcard winner will play the Group A winner UNLESS the wildcard is in Group A also, in which case it automatically switches to the Group C winner. This IS in the tournament bylaws. The only "error" is that the tournament publicity stated that the wildcard team would play the Group A winner as if it was fait accompli, which is why I reported what I did, and only upon investigating the "official protest" report (which never happened by the way) did I learn that the change was not done manually, but automatically per tournament rules. Not to render a thread totally useless, but them's the facts.