video from U15g nationals

that is absolutely disgusting. how do the rules work to set up the possibility for garbage like that?

 

Disgusting! They earned the right to play like this by winning their first two games. It's going to come back to bite them in their arses. Brazil and Portugal didn't stoop to play like this in a meaningless WC game (for them) vs. Japan and Mexico. But our kids can. Great lessons adults. sarcasm frown

 

I have no dog in this fight, but I was at the game and saw it first hand. First of all, I think that the families of the Texans should be ashamed of themselves (atleast one for sure!). IF you have a beef with how a game is going, don't run onto the field screaming at U15 girls players. Coward! Discuss it with officials, coaches, other parents, whatever.....but not 14/15 yr old girls. I felt as though the parent running on to the field after players was much more disgusting than the "keep away" that was being played. Where is the video of that??!!?? I guess that must've not made the editing before posting?

Secondly, I don't know how I feel about how the game was handled.....but not sure that at the National Championships I wouldn't do the same thing. They had nothing to prove-- Texans had already been beaten by Eclipse. In the end, those of you who are the maddest about it (Texan parents) would not have benefitted by Eclipse winning anyhow-- you lost your last game also. So, say what you will-- but honestly your team didn't perform at a level to win a National Championship anyhow. YOU HAD NO WINS IN THE TOURNAMENT. THE OUTCOME DID NOT EFFECT YOU.

 

Guys,

You wanna play in the championship, win some games. If you don't win a single game, don't complain you aren't in the championship game. For instance, if the 3rd and 4th place teams had defeated PDA, wouldn't they have been in the championship?

How can you say PDA is weaker than the other two teams? The other two teams both tied PDA. So how much effort is a team going to expend to make sure it plays a team that for all intents and purposes looks identical to the other two teams.

What if Eclipse rested its 7 best players, and lost because those players were not in the game? Certainly that would be within their rights. Can the other two teams whine about that, too?

Don't know any of these teams, but when you have the big lead going into your final bracket game, obviously you have earned the right to dictate how you are going to approach that game. The other teams didn't have that same luxury, because they were in a must-win situation. And do I need to point out that neither of the other two teams, despite being in a must-win situation, managed to win?????

Control your destiny, or someone else will. And you may not like how it turns out.

 

The eclipse proved they were the best team in the competition by beating all three opponents. Unfortunately they didn't always play like champions.

Resting their best players would be more sporting than what they actuall did. I think that the stategy that they employed was designed to antagonize the other two teams. Because a lunatic from texas ran onto the field does not excuse this display of poor sportsmanship.

I really hope that the organizers of this event rethink the competition format to avoid the incentive for teams to behave like this.

 

Yes. In the 1982 World Cup it was Germany and Austria. Austria could afford to lose, Germany had to win. If that happened both teams would advance. Any other scenario would have had Algeria, the Cinderella team of the Cup, go through.

Germany scored in the 10th minute and the game came to a stop. in fact, that first goal was a no surprise to anyone. The above video showed more action than Germany and Austria. Both teams would get to the halfline and knock it back to their keeper. I was a huge German fan before that game. Through the game the fans were going crazy and chanting Algeria. It was a true disgrace and Algeria was the one who suffered.

The game helped FIFA decide to play the last 1st round games at the same time. I think, but I could be wrong, it was one of the reasons they went to the 3-1-0 point system for the games.

 

Uh, Eclipse did rest the vast majority of thier starters during this game. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but there was not a single starter (except keeper) on the field at games beginning. There were a couple of starters placed on the field (not in thier normal positions) at half.

 

That would be impossible due to the rules of competition. Team rosters are limited to 18, and therefore at least 4 starters (start the 7 subs and have to start 4 others) would have had to have been on the field to start the game, and some combination of at least 4 at all times.
That's another reason for the tactic. If the roster was 22, you could play your second 11 at normal pace for the entire game, and not risk a starter to be fatigued or injured going into the final. With having to have at least 4 starters on the pitch at all times, slowing the game down is the only way to rest those that have to be played.

 

IA and Menace, since you were there, perhaps you can provide one piece of info, IMHO crucial, missing from every report of this game I have seen so far: at what point did PDA score to go up 1-0, and at what point did Eclipse start playing keepaway? How long did it last? It is impossible to tell that context from the 1-min video clip. There's a huge difference between playing keepaway here for 5 min at the end of a match on a hot day, or for 40 min.

And on another note, few have called out PDA for "not playing the game" as well. PDA was up a goal, so they could sit back, but IMHO sitting in your own half and simply watching Eclipse pass around the back is aiding and abetting.

FWIW, anyone recall the ITA-MEX game in WC '02? Final group game, tied late in the match. The other group match finished a few minutes earlier with a result that meant the draw had both ITA and MEX go through. Through the miracle of modern communications, the result got to the teams, and any semblance of soccer on the pitch immediately stopped. I think Mexico had possession at that point, and for the final few minutes they just knocked the ball aimlessly around midfield with no Italians bothering to pressure. The disgusted look on the referee's face when he finally blew the whistle for time said it all!

 

I concur with IASoc-- the goal happened just before half (as I recall) and the keepaway began shortly after that. Neither team was really pressuring too much from the beginning. The PDA goal WAS an honest goal, no one stepped out of the way or did anything questionable to let them score. At the point of the game where PDA scored, Texans were behind (again that is my recollection) up and would NOT have advanced even with an Eclipse/PDA tie.

Thus, when the goal was scored there was no real effort on the part of Eclipse to get the equalizer. It got really slow paced late in the second half, up to that point it was fairly obvious what was going on but once PDA stopped chasing it became very obvious. I still don't see any problem here, the Texans would not have advanced regardless of the outcome of this game. I don't want to offend anyone, but these kids approach training as professionals, they are tactical like professionals, the only difference is that they don't get paid like professionals. To compare what they do and the high level of thier play to professionals is absolutely correct and appropriate.

Let's move on and let these kids enjoy thier National Championship-- there should be no *asterisk* placed next to thier title. They earned it. Again, even if Friday's game had been played the way some of you "think it should have been" Sunday's game would have been the same. Regardless. Niether Crossfire Premier or the Texans showed the ability to qualify for the Championship. The two best teams ended up in the Finals-- PERIOD>

 

Very interesting what Iowa and MF say they saw, because I understand the PDA goal was scored in the 53rd minute. There must be an actual game report indicating when the goals were scored. This appears to be like those times people witness a crime and the police get a wide variety of descriptions of the perpetrator.

A third witness in another forum indicated that Dallas scored on Crossfire to take a 2-1 lead about the same time PDA scored on Eclipse, so who would advance to play Eclipse in the finals was not a foregone conclusion.

At the youth level the emphasis should be on effort, not results. If we were actually developing youth players for professional careers in soccer, this is what a professional coach would be looking for in a player, not whether the team employed gamesmanship to win a title. The talk of professionalism has come up more than once regarding this discussion. Two years ago I watched an exhibition game between Liverpool and Celtic. Liverpool beat Celtic 5-0. One might consider this a rout, but it was an exciting game because Celtic played their guts out in a meaningless game to the final whistle. That is the example of what professionals do that should be held up for children to see.

 

Disgusting! No respect for the game or anyone else in the tournament, and I mean both teams. Asking 14 year olds to lose a game to avoid a tougher opponent teaches what? If I'm the PDA coach I'd be embarrassed to "advance" to final in that manner.

 

This is not the first time something like this has happened at nationals. We can argue all day about whether what Eclipse did was wrong. What is really needed is a format change to remove the possibility of a situation arising in which a team has the opportunity/temptation to play this way.

 

"At the youth level the emphasis should be on effort, not results."

Agreed 100%. What bothers me the most about this is that I'm sure PDA would have rather worked their tails off to get to this point in the competition to be slaughtered by a hard-working Chicago team than to sit back and watch a team do what was in that video. Secondly, while the Chicago team should rightfully enjoy their championship forever, those girls are going to have to remember that game and how they acted unethically at the request of their coach, and that's going to cheapen it for them. Competing for a national championship is part of the excitement of playing youth soccer, and is not the reason for playing youth soccer. If that's the reason you play (or have your kid play), and if you base your worth as a player or a team on trophies and rankings, no matter what you do or how many games you win, you'll never be a success. If you don't get that, I feel really bad for you.

"This is not the first time something like this has happened at nationals. We can argue all day about whether what Eclipse did was wrong. What is really needed is a format change to remove the possibility of a situation arising in which a team has the opportunity/temptation to play this way."

This is EXACTLY why there is no accountability in sports on any level. It's the fault of the tournament format, not of the adult who instructed kids to play this way. You know what? They also don't do random drug testing at the youth level, maybe the girls should call BALCO, right?

 

I guess not to many college scouts in attendence.....eh ?

Real nice way to show respect for an opponent.

Taking the beauty out of The Game ...... Should there be PK ? ?

The U-Tube video showed no pressure from the other team at all. Which.... if there wasn't any ....... is egg on both those teams faces.

 

Ah, this was 2 years ago. And no, there was NO college scouts/coaches there. Most tournaments Iv been to (Showcase included), by the finals there are no coaches around. They dont care who wins or not.