NSC Fall Cup Game #1 vs Dakota Rev

As I began in the last post... :)

It was a beautiful fall morning for our first NSC Fall Cup match.

I hadn't seen Rev play much, but seen enough to know we'd have a tough match. I knew they had at least 1 very fast forward, T, who had played in our club last year, as well as two other talented mids. I had prepped the girls leading up to the event about dealing with a super fast forward, giving them thoughts about pressure and delay to slow the speedster down while other teammates recovered goal-side.

As it turned out, Rev had 3 very good forwards and the MTA defenders had their hands full all game. The midfield talent that I expected wasn't as much of a factor, for whatever reason. Girls develop differently. Talent, or even dominant players one year may be non-dominant the next as teammates and opponents develop.

If I was focused on a result here, knowing the strength of the older Rev girls, I probably would have come out in a 4-5-1, looked to defend and counterattack. However, as much as my ego wanted to win the game, more so I wanted to see how the girls matched up and played. So I went with an attacking 4-3-3.

Also, the girls had other things to focus on this weekend. Each girl was challenged to earn 5 skillzys (A.S.s.P.) this weekend - 3 Individual Technical Development (ITD) skillzys for a Step Over, Fake Shot, and Stop N Go moves, and a 2 Combination Play skillzys for a Give & Go. Girls would earn the ITD skillzys by successfully executing the 3 moves in one of our 4 games this weekend. Girls would earn the Give & Go skillzy for either being the passer or the wall player in a Give & Go, and earn the second Give & Go skillzy for identifying the Give & Go play on the field. I'm trying here to find ways to keep the girls on the bench interested and watching what happens on the field.

The overriding idea here is for the girls to, regardless of the score in a game, continue to be challenged to develop.

What does A.S.s.P stand for? Another Shameless skillzys Plug :)

It wasn't a great start for is. 90 seconds into the match, a Rev midfielder played the ball in to the Rev left forward. Cal (RD) closed well and won the ball as the Rev forward tried to turn towards our goal. Cal pushed the ball outside but was caught off guard by the speed of the Rev forward's recovery. The girls jostled for the ball and a foul was called as the Rev forward appeared to be pushed off balance while also slipping on the grass. Too far away from me to see if it was a good call, but it looked like a slip to me. We always find little excuses, don't we :)

The free kick was served into our box, and Babes (CD) finished it well for the Rev team:) I'm sure Babes wasn't very happy, but it happens to the best of us. Good learning experience about putting serves into the danger area, body positioning while defending free kicks, etc.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 1 - Not a great start from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

Things got worse for us before they got better.

Two minutes later Rev doubled their lead. Mal (CD) intercepted a through pass and played a good one time pass wide to Cal (RD). Cal, now knowing she had to play a bit quicker, took 2 fast touches and played a ball wide to B-Money (RM). B's touch let her down and the ball rebounded back to the pressing Rev left forward. The forward turned Cal quickly and cut in towards goal. Mal tried to help Cal but ended up diving in, allowing the Rev forward a free cross. Our weak side defenders and mids were caught ball watching, leaving 2 Rev players wide open at the far post. It was a great cross, and the Rev forward somehow managed to head into the goal off the side of her head. Great job by her to get her head to it, but I don't know who was more surprised that it went in, me, her, or her coaches (by their reactions). Regardless, you don't see many crosses and headers at these younger girls age groups, so all credit to the Rev players involved. Lots of learning points for us as well.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 2 - Goal against #2 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

We finally began to settle in and look to string passes together. Maybe because the MTA girls felt they had nothing else left to lose, maybe because the chaos of the opening minutes of the opening game of a tournament were passed.

Maddog (Point) found Mickey (LF) with a great through pass after a nice Blind Sided Run. Some composure and good strength from Mickey and Quicksy (LM) saw us maintain, lose, and regain possession in the corner of the field. A change of field sequence from Payt (CM), to Em (CM), to Cal (RD), to B-Money (RM) for a corner, and we began to play soccer.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 3 - Finally setting in from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

I made changes 10 minutes into the game, and the new girls to the field took up where the others had left off with some nice passing. I always tell the girls who start the game on the bench that they have an advantage over their teammates on the field. They get to watch the game, identify opponent's strengths and weaknesses, scope out the opponents who the girls will match up against once the MTA girls step onto the field (I prep these girls prior to the game so they know the positions that they will be playing when the subs are made).

Without missing a step, we put together some more passing sequences that had our opponents on their heels.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 4 - Good build up from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

With all our pressure, we were susceptible to the counterattack, and Rev should have been up 3-0 after a nice individual effort.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 5 - Rev chance from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

We lacked pressure from one of our center backs on the Rev's point forward, and our wide backs did not recover quickly to help give enough support to the center backs who were in trouble.

10 minutes from time we pulled a goal back. Little Gia (RF) got hammered as she tried to get to a loose ball in midfield and the ball popped back to Em (CM). A couple touches forward and the realization that they was in trouble surrounded by white shirts, and Em turned to look to play back. One of the "Markisms" I say a lot to the girls in training - Sometimes to go forward you need to play backwards. Em looked to play back to Payt (CD) but a Rev defender poke tackled the ball away... right to Payt. Payt found Vivi (CM) and Vivi played a great penetrating split pass into her target Meg (Point). The Rev defender marking Meg fought hard for the ball, won it, and looked to turn up field, but Gia came flying in and made a terrific tackle to dispossess the defender and keep the ball alive in our opponent's danger area. Two quick touches by Meg and a rocket shot cut the Rev lead in half. Great goal for us involving 5 players.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 7 - B$ chance from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

The first half ended 2-1 Rev.

We chatted at halftime about a few key points:

1. What could we learn from the first goal? Body position while defending free kicks, and the importance of playing the ball behind defenses into the danger areas. Anything can happen. I knew Babes felt bad about the first goal, so I tried to make her laugh with a few smiles and jokes, again focusing on what she could learn from it.
2. We talked about how once we settled in we really started to play. I wanted confidence on the ball and didn't care for mistakes. I didn't care about the mistakes. I did care about how the girls reacted to the mistakes.
3. There hadn't been much build up from the Rev team once we settled in the game and got organized defensively. Their threat was the long ball up to their fast forwards and we needed to anticipate that.

Babes got a chance to show what she'd learned about getting the ball behind the defense on free kicks early in the second half. She was a bit too far out to drop the ball in over the defenders, even given her tremendous leg strength for this age group. However, the serve caused trouble as Meg (LF) poked the ball loose to Maddog (Point) who, with a great turn, found B-Money (RF) in space for a shot. B had to set her feet quickly to shoot first time and did well to get the shot off, but it lacked the normal power she is able to put on it.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 7 - B$ chance from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

A few minutes later, T (Rev's fast forward) received a ball in midfield and turned Payt who was too tight on her. T ran at us, but some good recovery by Cal (RD) and Gizmo (LD) limited T's options, and Babes got down low, slowed T's movement forward by retreating, then put a body on T as T pushed the ball past her, forcing T into a tough shot at an acute angle. Nice play on a dangerous player. We need to address the initial breakdown though - when forwards have their back to goal, anticipating what they wants to do (turn) and where they want to go (the space behind you), and being ready to react to that movement.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 8 - Good defense on T from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

Babes got another chance on a dead ball near midfield, this time 5 yards in the Rev half (10 yards closer to goal than her last one a few minutes back). This time, her service sailed over the Rev defenders and dropped in a dangerous position that we had two forwards nearly get to.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 9 - Free kick chance from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

Rev once again made it a two goal cushion midway through the second half.

Miscommunication between Maddog (CM) and Em (LM) off a GK punt saw the them both miss the header and the ball drop to Rev's RF. She played a long ball up field that Rev's LF cut inside of Cal to get to first. A nice outside of the foot pass found T one on one with Babes (CD). Gizmo had not recognized the danger early enough and was not in a good position to help Babes. T took a great first touch past Babes, Normy (GK) made a play to come out and smother the breakaway, partially blocked the shot, but not enough to stop it from crossing the goal line. A series of breakdowns to eventually address here.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 10 - Goal against #3 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

The goal took some of the wind from our sails, but we pressed on. We started to push girls forward and the game began to open up a bit. Fairly entertaining.

I added the clip below for a few reasons. First, it illustrates how we got stretched a bit on Rev's only othe real threat of the second half. Them kicking the ball up to T, our defenders out of position, and some good individual defense by Babes.  It also shows some good recovery from Payt to help our defense, a good outlet ball to B-Money (RM), combination with Vivi (CM), long ball to a target player Micky (LF) and her good skill on the ball, finishing with B-Money's left foot shot on goal.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 11 - Counterattack from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

More importantly though, if you listen closely to the voices, you will hear at least 3 different girls (two from the bench and one from the field) yell "Give & Go!" when B and Vivi combined!  Awesome!!!!!!  Turn your volume up.

That's what I love about the skillzys idea - girls looking to improve during competition.  I guarantee no one is going to give a crap about the score of our first game at the 2008 NSC Fall Cup in the years to come.  However, continued work on technical and tactical DEVELOPMENT during the "rigors" of youth sports tournament/league competition will produce much greater rewards.  Hopefully the parents trust me on this one.

Also, the girls are able to find success by working on things that are fully (or somewhat fully in the case of Combination Plays) under their control.  The ref isn't under their control, neither are the field conditions, the weather, their opponents, and ultimately the final score.  Give weight to any of these factors and we set the players up for failure due to uncontrollable circumstances.  However, regardless of what happens with these non-controllable factors, the girls have something on the field they can control (their skill and their effort and attitude to work on their skill) which means that success is in their control.  And believe me, some of the girls were more excited to complete a skillzys challenge than they were to see a goal scored this weekend.

Late in the game, Babes once again was given the chance to serve a free kick near midfield.  Another great service nearly saw the ball sneak in untouched.  Again, get the ball in the danger area and anything can happen.

08 NSCFC vs Rev 12 - Free kick from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

All in all, take out the first 4 minutes of the game, and it was a great performance by the MTA girls.  I was very happy, leaving the field armed with the knowledge of the girls' fighting spirit, seeing their joy of succeeding in skills development challenges, and with PLENTY of things to work on this winter.

I watched Edina play this morning prior to our game with the Rev team.  We'll have our hands full this afternoon again, and that's a good thing.

NSC Fall Cup Wrap Up - Finally

A mere three months later I'm finally finding some time to catch up.  Motivated in part by our upcoming trip to Arizona next weekend for the Sereno Soccer Classic :)

You might ask how can anyone now attempt to recap anything that happened in October, after all the Thanksgiving tryptophan and holiday eggnog, but I took a copious amount of notes in my trusty note book, as well as have the benefit of the Hi-Pod and decent video of at least the first two games to look back on. 

It was a beautiful fall morning to kick off the event.  We had registered up to the U13 age group and were matched up against Dakota Rev, who I believe to be the second best team at the U13 age group behind the MTA girls.  I know, I know.... some people in Rosemount might take issue with this statement.  However, it's based on my own experience seeing both teams play.  If I'm proved wrong, so be it.  I'm right on the money in my own world, and most of the time that is all the really matters :)

Regardless, it was sure to be a tough test for the U12s.

I had prepped the girls numerous times in the weeks leading up to this event for this first match up, focusing on our overall play rather than getting a final result.  I told the girls it would be very difficult for us to win the game, knowing what I knew of Rev's overall skill level let alone athletic ability as compared with the younger girls, but also that an end result was not my focus here.  As it many times does, my words were lost somewhere in translation or in the brain process of some 11 year old minds and it somehow got back to the parents through the players that I told the girls they had no hope of winning the game.  Again, this misinterpretation (or my lack of communicating effectively) has happened a lot throughout my years coaching young players.  I am constantly amazed that adults believe I would say anything like that, but I can't blame them when I think about it.  After all, it is what the girls heard me say, and what they believe I believe.  Another good reminder that I have to make sure I explain certain things more clearly, important things that I want the girls to really grasp.  And focusing on our play over the end result is key. 

I look at our winter Futsal sessions.  For 4 years my teams have played their very best soccer on Sunday afternoons in the Lake Junior High School gymnasium.  Why?  To me the answer is crystal clear.  Futsal is fun, the girls love playing, there are no parents cheering them on or yelling our instructions, and there is minimal pressure on the girls to perform.  Tournament games are fun, the girls love playing, but there are external pressures from parents and coaches to perform as after all, the girls' performance reflects positively or negatively on us, doesn't it?  Oh, and equal if not more and worse pressure can come from adults away from the soccer field itself; in cars, at home/hotels, etc. 

Pressure to perform leads to tension/stress and fear of making mistakes in the girls, and it is nearly impossible for young players to perform to their abilities under those circumstances. 

Ever been caught off guard at a drive thru window or toll both without the correct change?  Sure, if there were three cars ahead of you and you made the realization that you has $.50 in your hand instead of the needed $.68, you'd leisurely reach down to your passenger side cup holder that doubles as one of your spare change reserves (along with the center console armrest cubby and the pop-up coin slots in your glove box) and calmly and quite dexterously work your nimble fingers to pluck out a dime, a nickel, and three of the hundreds of useless pennies in the stash.  Even though the McDonald's has the drive thru timing down to a science and the cars at the pay window are barely coming to a complete stop before moving on to receive their breakfast reward at the next window, you have time to find what you need and even chuckle at yourself for your obvious daftness.  You even congratulate yourself as you get to whittle down that mound of change in that other cup holder so someday very soon you will be able to fit both your medium Diet Coke AND your Vanilla Latte (that you always get with your #4 McDonald's breakfast combo) in their appropriate places, rather than precariously balancing one or the other on the armrest hoping that you don't make any sudden movements in rush hour traffic between eating your Sausage Biscuit with Egg, dipping your hash brown in the ketchup that you've squirted onto the Sausage Biscuit with Egg wrapper in your lap, and talking on your phone.

Now, imagine that you make the realization of incorrect change as you're handing the money to the women at the drive through window.  "Ah, excuse me sir.  I said that would be $4.68 as you upsized your meal, not $4.50" she haughtily says in her broken English.  Oh.  No problem, I've got that right here you say.  As you begin to turn away from the window and deftly pick out the 5 coins from your hoard of change, two things catch your eye.  the first is the huge green sign in the window that says "Please have your money ready, idiot".  As if that wasn't enough, you also catch a glimpse in your driver's side mirror the bottleneck of merged of cars behind you from the double drive thru lanes.  Uh oh,  you better make this quick.  Blood begins to boil as your normally lithe fingers have all of a sudden turned into 5 Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausages.  You look down to your center console but all the coins look like an MC Escher work, and you can't seem to differentiate one coin from another.  Just a second, I have it here, you say trying to make idle small talk, hoping to distract the drive thru attendee who has already begun to mutter in Spanish.  Got the dime.  Yes!  A nickel!  But somehow you can't seem to find enough pennies.  Where did all the copper go?!?!?!  Ah ha!  There's one!  Nooooo!!!  Somehow the lone penny is stuck fast to a quarter due to the Vanilla Latte that you spilled on the entire middle console last Tuesday morning in an attempt to serve out of the way of minivan's ass that somehow came to a sudden stop behind 100 other stopped cars on the parking lot called I94E.  I've got to call you back man, I just spilled my coffee.  Finally, in desperation, you hand the muttering Latina an additional quarter.  Dang.  Gave up one coin and getting 3 back.  You'll never get rid of all this change...

Stress and tension don't help performance.  Add in fear of making mistakes and you lose needed creativity and risk taking that are essential to top level soccer.  Focus on winning adds pressure, pressure lowers performance.  Moreover, focus on winning, which is ultimately out of the players' control, sets the players up for failure.  This is a big reason for the Controlling the SEAS skillzys that I use.  For all the skillzys as a matter of fact - rewarding kids for controlling what they can control (Sportsmanship, Effort and Energy, Attitude, and Smiles) and for skill demonstration in competition rather than for the end result of any given game.  Focus on these controllable aspects and the pressure to get results is minimized.  Focus on skills in competition and development accelerates.  Moreover, minimizing pressure raises performance level and results come. 

Man, I didn't even get to posting about NSC Fall Cup.  Hopefully I'll get to that by April.

Blogs, Brit's, and Board Rooms

As I was making the 15 to 60 minute commute from Woodbury to the Thunder Offices in St Paul on this historic morning, I had a bit of an epiphany.

Traffic was bumper to bumper from White Bear Ave into the downtown St Paul area as people headed to their jobs in the great rat race. A Lane Expert driving a snazzy newLexus hybrid SUV , sure that the lane I was in was barely moving in would get her to where she was going at least 20 seconds faster than the lane she was currently not moving in, cut in front of me then slammed on her brakes as she realized that my lane was just as jammed as hers. Go figure lady.

I screeched to a stop mere inches from her back bumper and heard the echo of screeches behind me, followed by the gratuitous blaring of at least 3 horns. I myself leaned on my horn for a good 4 seconds (one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four... that's a fun word to type) and shot the women an I Hate You! look. You know, the same look that you give the car behind you in a touchless wash as you start your dryer cycle and they enter immediately on your a$$ and start their wash before you're done, covering your now never to be completely dry carwith water and soap from the jet-powered sprayers. The I Hate You! bounced of her rear view mirror and pierced her soul (hopefully).

I glanced over to my passenger seat that was covered with the usual papers, skillzys, phone and head set chargers, pens, gum, gum wrappers, chewed up gum, suckers, used Caribou coffee cups, a McDonald's bag or two, McDonald's Monopoly game pieces from two years ago, aWendy's Frosty spoon, a Burger King Crown, some Arby's curly fries, a Subway White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookie sleeve, a Jimmy John's #2 sandwich wrapper, an uneaten lunch my wife packed for me last month, and other stuff us soccer coaches seem to hoard, and noticed that everything had apparently been teleported onto the floor. Now how am I going to find anything?!?!?!? Oh, that's what my passenger seat looks like.

I looked back out front, ready to give another I Hate You! look mouth a very pronounced "You bleeping idiot!" with a head shake, but before I could lock on reflected eyes of the fool driver, I saw the Obama or McCain sticker (whichever candidate you would like to think I support) on the back of her car. Oh. You're voting for him? Good for you!!! And the hate evaporated like much of my current stock portfolio.

It then struck me that this little interaction is very representative of the MN soccer scene today. MTA has caused some real anger in the community against the Academy, against the Thunder pro organization, and even against me personally. People believe very strongly one way or another, feelings are perpetuated on blogs, at Brit's, and in board rooms, and walls are built that become increasingly more and more difficult to breakdown as we get further and further away from Ground Zero. There needs to be a search for common ground here on both sides.  Members Read More...

The Triangle of Power

If someone was to ask who the three major players in the Minnesota soccer scene were, I think most in the know would answer the Minnesota Thunder, the National Sports Center (NSC) in Blaine, and the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA) - in no particular order.  It's been an interesting triangle of power for nearly 20 years, one that just saw another major shift in dynamics.

NSC recently sent out this mass email blast regarding the termination of their partnership with MYSA.  

Open Letter to Minnesota Soccer Community

October 3, 2008

I regret to report to you that the partnership agreement between the National Sports Center Foundation and the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association, which has been in place since 1985, has ended.  (See letter below)

The lack of an agreement and cooperation will likely be a great inconvenience for Minnesota youth soccer players, coaches, teams and families.  When the NSC and the MYSA do not coordinate the dates for Districts, the State Tournament and the USA Cup, Minnesota teams will have to choose between these two great soccer opportunities.

The conflict between these events can be solved through cooperative scheduling if the parties are committed to do so.

We at the NSC have communicated with the 1) MYSA President, 2) the Vice-President of Leagues, 3)the Youth Council, and 4) the MYSA Executive Director ; all four have stated it is not their responsibility or within their authority to resolve scheduling conflicts. 

Historically MYSA Presidents and Boards had chosen to cooperate on making the dates of the USA Cup and the State Tournament work for all teams in Minnesota. It is a great disappointment for me that this cooperation does not continue as I know the conflict is avoidable having served as MYSA Executive Director from 1995 to 2000.

The purpose of this letter is to ask your help in encouraging the soccer leadership of Minnesota to resolve the problem. Please feel free to write me and let me know your suggestions. If you would like to receive e-mail updates on this subject please visit this link here and select to receive items from the "NSC/MYSA Partnership Agreement Information" list.

Steve Olson, COO
National Sports Center Foundation

October 2, 2008
Bob Poretti, President
Candace Daley, Executive Director
Minnesota Youth Soccer Association
11577 Encore Circle
Minnetonka MN 55343
 
Over the past nine months the National Sports Center Foundation and MYSA have exchanged letters and held numerous meetings regarding our Partnership Agreement.  The MYSA interpretation of the agreement has significantly changed and now is unacceptable to the National Sports Center Foundation.   The basic purpose of the agreement was to cooperate on USA Cup dates and in return the NSC would offer the MYSA a substantial discount for the MYSA State Tournament and all other MYSA use of the NSC.  The NSC has upheld its part of the agreement by discounting the state tournament and other event rental rates, but the MYSA has chosen not to cooperate in scheduling the District Tournaments in harmony with the USA Cup. 
 
Therefore, the NSC has no reason to continue in a partnership agreement with MYSA.  This letter serves as official notice, on the part of the National Sports Center Foundation, that we are exercising our options under Section II of the agreement to end the contract effective the date of this letter, October 2, 2008.  As of this date the MYSA and NSC will no longer have any agreements in place regarding scheduling priority or discounts for the use of NSC facilities.
 
However, we still believe that a cooperation agreement between our two organizations is in the best interests of soccer in Minnesota.  To that end, we propose crafting a new partnership agreement which is clear to both parties, addresses the scheduling of major events and serves the best interests of the entire soccer community.  We propose meetings to begin immediately in order to have the document ready for your AGM.
 
The ultimate goal of cooperation is for a youth soccer team in Minnesota to be able to play in both the USA Cup and the MYSA District/State Tournament.  An agreement between the NSC and the MYSA would guarantee this.  Non-cooperation will result in less opportunity for youth soccer in Minnesota and teams will be limited to choose one event.
 
We look forward to your response.  As a former executive director of MYSA I know that it is possible to solve this problem with a modest effort.
 
Steve Olson, COO
National Sports Center Foundation
 
Please note: The MYSA is distributing, via its website, reasons for an amendment to its rules governing the State Tournament indicating the NSC will be seeking "significant concessions" from MYSA to keep the event at the NSC.  This is incorrect. The NSC has made no such requests and is only seeking the same scheduling cooperation that is in the original agreement has largely been in place between the MYSA and the NSC from 1985 to 2007, but did not happen in 2008.

MYSA's response hit our inboxes yesterday.

Date:    October 7, 2008

To:       MYSA Club Presidents

            MYSA Club Coaching Directors

From:   Bob Poretti, MYSA President

            Candace Daley, MYSA Executive Director

cc:        MYSA Youth Council Members

            MYSA Staff Members

The Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA), at its Executive Committee Meeting on September 22, 2008, voted to not renew the current Partnership Agreement with the National Sports Center Foundation (NCSF), which is set to expire on December 31, 2008.  MYSA focuses on providing quality services to its members and therefore must make decisions that seek to accomplish this goal and are in the best interests of the organization’s members.  Recently, NSCF sent out a notification that the Partnership Agreement was being terminated.  However, that notification was not only misleading, but it failed to provide accurate information.  More specifically:

1)      MYSA and NSCF have not had an agreement in place since 1985.

2)      MYSA has complied with all aspects of its agreement with NSCF.

3)      In April 2008, the Youth Council (MYSA’s board of directors) approved the sanctioning of five of NSCF’s six events for 2009, even though it was not obligated to do so because the Partnership Agreement between the two entities was due to expire on December 31, 2008, prior to any 2009 events.  The Youth Council approved the sanctioning of the NSC Cup, NSC Fall Cup, Wal-Mart All American Cup, Herman’s Cup and USA Cup Weekend.  The Youth Council did not approve the sanctioning of the USA Cup Week because the 2009 dates chosen by NSCF directly conflict with MYSA’s 2009 District and State Tournaments.

4)      In the past, when the USA Cup Week overlapped with MYSA District Tournaments only, MYSA District Directors worked with teams that were interested in participating in both the District Tournament and USA Cup Week.  In most cases, the schedules were worked out so the team could do both.  

5)      MYSA representatives have met repeatedly with NSCF representatives to try to avoid the scheduling conflicts but there is a lot of soccer being played during the month of July by our members and only so many days to get it in.  When the NSCF unilaterally chose dates in 2009 that overlapped with both MYSA’s District and State Tournaments, MYSA was once again put in a very difficult situation by the NSCF.

6)      The NSCF unilaterally sets its USA Cup dates well in advance and historically has not been open to changing those dates, so a truly cooperative effort could not be achieved unless the NSCF was willing to consider rescheduling the USA Cup dates.  Instead, the NSCF refused to do so and now attempts to shift the blame on MYSA for the parties’ inability to reach an amicable resolution.

MYSA hopes that a more cooperative effort can be achieved in 2010 and beyond.

A number of people have called/emailed/talked to me since, sure that MYSA is acting out against NSC due to NSC's new partnership with the Thunder.  Members read more...

NSC Fall Cup Schedules Posted

Schedules came out yesterday for the 2008 NSC Fall Cup.  We will be playing up to the U13 top flight and I'm excited for the weekend test.  We'll face off against Dakota Rev Rampage, North Metro Lightning, and the Edina Swarm.  Not sure what happened in the NSC scheduling office, but I think the groups are a bit skewed as the three current fall league leaders were put in the same group. 

The other group has White Bear Lake, Dakota Rev's second team, Prior Lake Splash (a U12 team like us), and Woodbury.

The only bummer about the weekend is that it is unlikely that we'll get 4 games in as it will be very difficult to advance out of this group.  Maybe I'll try and call the Prior Lake team and see if they want to play a 4th game in the event that neither of us win our group.

The great thing about the weekend is that we're going to be facing terrific competition here in our backyard.  I had considered taking the group to the Chicago Sockers Nike Classic Cup this weekend in Illinois, or to the Metro United Girls Fall Classic (also in Illinois) the first weekend in November.  The Sockers event turned out to be 9v9 and the Metro event conflicted with a family vacation to Disneyland that I kinda forgot about, much to my wife's chagrin.  Moreover, I heard the fields at the Metro United event weren't that great, so we bailed on the idea. 

We're fortunate to find a challenging test here at home this week.  We'll be out muscled in every match up for sure, needing to rely heavily on technique and brains to stay competitive.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate so I can get some good video from the games.