Jump to content

SpeedyGonzo

Members
  • Posts

    65
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by SpeedyGonzo

  1. I have heard him say this ten times over the last two years, "Find a school that is a good fit first, then pick the soccer program." Not sure what your experience is. Perhaps you will enlighten me. Richard is demanding, as is playing soccer in college and performing in the classroom.
  2. Could be some D1 prospects, but the MFC players (7 or 8 at Houston alone) are not pushed to D1. Simple fact these days is that there are D1 level players at schools at lower levels. We push acedemics fit first, then soccer.
  3. In D1, Houston returns a lot of talent. Several kids will play in college. They should be fun to watch, and will make a run at state if they have a good keeper to step in. Collierville has some good players, but they won't be able to stay with Houston. In D2, Briarcrest and ECS should be better, but only because they are coming off very weak years. CBHS will walk to its eighth straight regional title, but with its weakest team in those eight years. MUS is in a talent rut, and it may take a while for them to be relevant at the state level again. They may continue to qualify, mind you, but D2 west is that bad. CBHS and Houston would help each other if they would schedule. Twice, even. Both teams are starving for competitive games.
  4. Not sure if he is still using the "American kids can't learn Brazilian soccer," excuse any more. The top players know what Brazilan soccer is, but Rogerio isn't teaching it. Before the Baylor game, Rog told the players, "We are going to win today because you guys have worked your tails off and made the right decisions all year long." After the game, "We lost this game because you guys never worked hard and made the wrong decisions all year long." Exact same speech as two years ago. I'll leave the guy alone after this post. But I do have to cite the best quote I have read from him, spoken last year after the BGA loss and printed in the Memphis newspaper. "People don't understand. It's hard to coach when you have talent."
  5. Regionals website is down. What's happening? How are the TN teams doing?
  6. CBHS has five returning seniors. Three have said they are not coming back. They are fed up with the coach. CBHS will still have talent, but the players say, "If we couldn't win state with the players we had over the last four years, we aren't going to win." The bulk of the team was 89 Kickers (2007 club state champs) 89 Fury (2007 club state runner-up) and 90 MFC (2007 club state runner up in a shootout). At CBHS, excellent club players can't get minutes. Good club players get cut at tryouts. That is how deep the talent pool has been. They have been 50 deep for 5 years or more. Lima used to just alienate the juniors and seniors, but now even the sophomores and freshmen have no respect for him. Lima is proud to win the region every year and brags about dominating games against teams like Briarcrest (tied 1-1) Dominating Baylor in the final got him another little runner-up medal, and he blamed the players afterwards. CBHS will make the playoffs and get a high seed because of the weakness of west TN soccer, but the players have lost faith. First round loser.
  7. At home games, Dudek dares the officials to cite him for leaving his line. He taunts them, "I will do nothing, but you will not make it out of the staduim alive." He is terrific to watch.
  8. What are the circumstances of allowing only 5 goals? There is more to playing keeper than saves. And if the Baylor defenders are as good as advertised, Baylor keepers sound like they may not have been challenged much during the season. How many shots did he face? How many shots on goal? Did he run the team? I saw a kid play two years ago for Germantown. Jonathan Alter I think his name was. The team only won about half of their games, but he was unbelievable. He got shelled every game. At some point, when keepers get 15-18 shots on goal per game, some are going in. That kid never quit on any ball regardless of how helpless his defenders were. Statistically? Because of the team he played for, not good. Realistically, the best keeper in west Tennessee two years ago.
  9. How were the Louisiana teams in U-17 boys Premier League? The Arkansas teams are usually weak, but I did see LRFC and they have improved a lot. The Mississippi and Alabama teams have never beaten MFC, but MFC had never beaten TNFC until last weekend, so that doesn't mean didley. The Tennessee teams should do well. And while it is early to speculate, with the state tournament switching to next November, it will really be interesting to see how the teams do coming off club seasons as opposed to high school.
  10. Not sure about the situation, but TNFC 91s had to sue to get in? Why was the 91 bracket expanded to 7 teams? Re: the TNFC 89s pulling out--I hope there wasn't an accident or something to cause it. Rumors are there just weren't enough players. I did see that they used Zander during state league. Hopefully the state will learn from this. Fury 89 loses its first game 0-3, is awarded a forfeit for the Sunday game (so they didn't play an early game) and play MFC in the semi with fresh legs. It was MFC's second Sunday game. Everybody knew the bracket was down to 5 teams. Should have gone round-robin to make it fair.
  11. That is true. The program hasn't changed, though. The Memphis talent is now spread out between so many clubs it is tougher to compete. Not enough talent to stock MFC, Fury, Lobos, Dragons, Rush, Kickers, Falcons, GT United--and that is just on the boy's side.
  12. This is interesting: MFC Qualifies All Boys Teams For D1 State Cup Plus Two of Three D1 Girls Teams Will Also Vie for Title In the first year of Tennessee State Soccer's State League Format, Memphis FC has placed all of its D1 Boys Teams into the State Cup. The '93, '92, '91', '90 and '89's will compete in Memphis June 9-11 for the State D1 Championships. MFC is the only club in Tennessee to qualify a boys' team in each eligible age bracket through the league competition. Also, the club had three girls teams competing in the State League this Spring. The '93 and '89 Girls both qualified to compete in the State Cup in Memphis. The Tennessee State Cup is part of the US Youth Soccer National Championship Series and will be held at Mike Rose Soccer Complex.
  13. Just one game. Long way to go. TNFC will beat Lions tonight, and Lions will be motivated Sunday vs. MFC.
  14. Forgot about that one. MFC has no reason or cause to be over-confident. They better hush and play. The six team format will impact the tournament this year. Last, year, if I am not mistaken, one team advanced to the semi's after beating Murfreesboro Strikers, whoever they were. They played one game against a weak team, and were in. There aren't any Murfreesboro type teams this year to affect the tournament. Good luck to everybody. Travel safely. Should be some fun drama.
  15. No one has said MFC is going to beat TNFC. All that is being said is that the last two games between these two teams have been one goal games, so it is premature to automatically assume Crush and TNFC are in the finals. Probably will be, but that is why the games are played. The MFC 89s used to be a great team, winning three straight state championships. But, many players left. The last time MFC 90 played MFC 89, the 90 team beat them 5-1, I think. Blaze beat MFC Friday night in Smyrna to win state league and claim the 3 seed and play Crush in round play. MFC will be the 4 seed and play TNFC in round play. We will all know by next Saturday night if MFC can compete.
  16. MFC plays Blaze tonight at 8:00. MFC plays a 10:00 game Saturday before playing Crush. Three games in a short period of time. The coach has no ego, so the TNFC tournament games will mean little. He will coach to prepare, not to win. To win state, you have to beat everybody. He isn't looking for a good draw, he would rather play TNFC and Crush both on Saturday. If you can't beat them, you have no claim to be the best. Eastern European. I love the guy. Not many do.
  17. Zander is playing for ERSA 89? Is this the TNFC Zander? Some of the img teams are struggling to live up to expectations, from what I hear.
  18. Did Sandy have TNFC 90 last fall or Ajit?
  19. Ultra Lions are the sixth team in the U-17 group. Fury pulled out.
  20. That was three years ago? Since then there have been two games, each decided by 1 goal. Sandy had TNFC incredibly fit that year. Not only that, but MFC was up a goal in round play that year with 6 minutes to play and TNFC scored twice to beat them. That is the mark of a great team. The simple truth is that MFC has never beaten TNFC, but the games are a lot closer than they used to be. The last two time Crush and MFC played, one game was a tie, one an MFC victory. High school factor will play a big part.
  21. Memphis FC U-17 Boys just won the Memphis Invitational Tournament U-18 bracket. They beat a very solid Springfield, IL 90 and 89 club in doing so. They don't play U-17 tournaments any more. Fury and MFC (two semi-finalists last year) came together. All due respect to TNFC and Crush, but they haven't beaten MFC by more than one goal for two years. Crush and MFC tied at state last year. Clearly, TNFC and Crush are better teams. But, as our CBHS boys know, the better team does not always win. Good luck to all of the teams.
  22. I am hearing that Ultimate Frisbee is growing fast in Memphis. What about the rest of the state?
  23. I stand corrected. When one of mine transferred, it was explained to me in terms of "the rules will allow him to be eligible for the playoffs." I didn't realize the coach had factored in the number of days. Thanks.
  24. Hopefully, CBHS can find a way to play tougher regular season games. Easy to say, not so easy to do without burdening parents financially. When DII west soccer is down, as it is now, CBHS can't find enough quality minutes to challenge the players. Houston has refused to play for eight or nine years or so, and now Collierville won't play. With so few states playing spring soccer, the only option is to play tournaments like Palmetto Cup, but how many weekends can parents be expected to spend that kind of money? Fall soccer in Tennessee anyone? Rising waters raise all ships.
×
  • Create New...