SuperLiga Goal Differential Policy

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Thanks.

What's up with Barrington U12s.. 9 teams and 5 in Rhody..not 1 girls team capable of playing anchor?

Could be. Maybe, like many some other towns, their better players end up playing on premier teams. I could see an affluent community like Barrington being in that group. So the kids playing Superliga really are more their Rec kids.

I don't remember Barrington crushing in Superliga. How did they do in the Spring?

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Once again we have in the U12 group a few clubs that manage to put in multiple anchor teams..and the towns that want to stack multiple teams in the classic so one will be at the top. Coventry with 2 teams at the top of U12 classic..you couldn't put together an anchor team?

Tiverton (2 teams in boys classic), Chariho/Pawtucket (per standard practice)..all sitting in classic.. not doing your players any favors by sandbagging your placement..

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Once again we have in the U12 group a few clubs that manage to put in multiple anchor teams..and the towns that want to stack multiple teams in the classic so one will be at the top. Coventry with 2 teams at the top of U12 classic..you couldn't put together an anchor team?

Tiverton (2 teams in boys classic), Chariho/Pawtucket (per standard practice)..all sitting in classic.. not doing your players any favors by sandbagging your placement..

The Fall "tournament" is the time to test the waters and place the teams in Anchor if you feel you are close. The fall season is usually easier as some towns don't participate. If you don't succeed in the fall (finish under .500), then reevaluate for the Spring.

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The Fall "tournament" is the time to test the waters and place the teams in Anchor if you feel you are close. The fall season is usually easier as some towns don't participate. If you don't succeed in the fall (finish under .500), then reevaluate for the Spring.

This is pretty good advice. I would like to see a bit more effort by all the town teams to have an anchor team. I think that they play it too safe most of the time.

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My guess, and only a guess, is that they're using it as a substitute for a fall rec league with many players that you might not ordinarily see doing travel playing. Perhaps teams formed through a blind draft of eligible players.

I saw this two years ago with Ocean State - Absolute Travesty. Ocean State Girls had 6 U12 girls teams, 2 of them in Anchor. Just as this poster mentioned ... obviously using Superiga as an alternative to REC. The problem was that the teams were terrible. Youi would drive 45 minutes to Stony Lane, your girls are excitied to play. Five minutes into the game your team is up 5-0 and the REF is threatning to red card you midway thru the first half.

Two nights of practice, 45 minutes drive time and my daughter and her teammates aren't allowed to strike the ball anymore, not to mention the Ocean State coaches pleading with you to understand that his team 'is a little green and probably doesn't belong in Anchor but there were already four other U12 teams in Classic Blue so he had to play up."

Beginning of the end for me with Superliga. Thank you Oscar.... you allowed Ocean State to completely undermine your already weak 'tournament'

[Unregistered]

Well, increasingly Ocean State is fielding fewer teams, and even fewer of anchor quality.

But don't blame one club for a the quality of fall SL.

Is it any surprise that the primary driver for OD is to put in as many teams as possible, regardless of the resulting quality of the play? When you have 3 capital teams in boys U12 anchor, will you be surprised that one will be at the bottom and probably lose most games by more than 4 goals? When you allow the Coventry, that won U12G classic last year, to have two teams again in classic and none in anchor, will it be a surprise that a Coventry team will be at the top and win most games handily? When you allow Portsmouth and Barrington to have 3 (!) Rhody teams, do you expect the play to be any better than what the town house league could have provided?

Since it's a tournament, another organization could in theory offer a competing one -- of course that would have to be approved by SRI..and SRI essentially ensures a monopoly for OD in terms of fall/spring league play.

And you are right, the inclusion of so many teams is at the expense of recreational play -- but check out SRI/Programs/Rec -- nothing is posted, which equals essentially the value added by SRI for recreational play. (for comparison, check out NH Soccer Association -- at least they have an outreach program to strengthen town rec programs.)

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Anyone attend the council meeting?

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And do the Rays still get to vote or has SRI given them notice?

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And do the Rays still get to vote or has SRI given them notice?

There are no more Rays teams, but Jk might not know this.

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There are no more Rays teams, but Jk might not know this.

He's in charge of Top Soccer, so he may get a vote for that. Not really sure though.

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Could be. Maybe, like many some other towns, their better players end up playing on premier teams. I could see an affluent community like Barrington being in that group. So the kids playing Superliga really are more their Rec kids.

I don't remember Barrington crushing in Superliga. How did they do in the Spring?

The Barrington Girls U12 "A" team switched coaches this year and was placed in Classic to adjust for the Fall season, and will probably be moved up to Anchor come Spring. They are a second year U12 team as is the "B" team also in Classic. The U11 "A" team was orignially put in Rhody because they are a true U11 team and small in size. However it became clear pretty quickly that they are better than the Rhody division and actually attempted to move up. It was about to happen in week 3 when the team that was going to switch with them from Classic changed their mind ... much to the shagrin of the coach and the parents. So the argument that all towns "play down" to make coaches and parents happy doesn't apply here. They too will move up in the Spring. The other two teams in Rhody are the U11 "B" team (more like a "C" team) and a Fall Only U11/U12 "C" team made up of Rec type players.

So no, the best players aren't going to Premier, but are on the A teams. The U12 "A" team will be Anchor in the spring, and the U11 "A" team will be Classic. The U11 A team actually also just made the Semi-Finals in the Natick Tournament in MA this weekend in the D1 bracket filled with D1 BAYS teams, and will be in the D1 Bracket at the BIT. Definitely not made of Rec Level players.

There is a lot of assumptions made here, and other stuff that is just made up, but I really do enjoy the enlightening soccer talk here when i can wade through all the name calling and club on club trash-talking. That stuff is ridiculous IMO.

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If the U11A team is doing that well, they should put themselves in classic gold. Rhody should be only for towns that don't offer a spring rec program or can't field sufficient numbers to field a couple of rec teams. It's really a mindset in your club -- if you use fall as a gauge for spring placement, you should err on playing up a level. You learn a lot more going 1-6 and seeing how competitive the players remain as opposed to going 6-1 and having to play a part of the game with the SL goal differential policy in effect.

The reason some programs get "trashed" is looking objectively at the numbers, clubs like Barrington, that have solid programs and have more than 3 teams in an age group, don't put a team in anchor. Last year I believe Barrington had 9 teams in U12 (Boys/Girls) and only 1 in anchor. So when your classic teams win their divisions and coaches see 2d year players on the rosters, you can expect some blowback about sandbagging.

As you say, maybe there's more behind the scenes and certainly SL values quantity over quality control, but you can see a trend over time with some clubs.

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I don't know which Classic Division the coach and the DOC will end up putting the Girls (or Boys for that matter) U11A team in the Spring, but as I said, they are a small-sized team which is why they didn't want them in Classic right out of the gate in Fall in fear that they would just be completely outsized. If there was Classic Blue in the Fall, they would have opted for that, but there is not. But having seen that they can hold their own with some larger U12 and mixed-age teams makes me think they will be in Gold in the Spring. I know its been the thinking of the club that overall, they feel a team is placed in the right division if they go about .500. Of course this doesn't count for Anchor where they would love to win the division undefeated everytime ;)

As for the other teams in Rhody, Barrington does not have a Spring Rec program but they do have Spring only travel teams which basically amounts to the same level as Rec and those teams usually always play in Rhody.

Here's really what I think the issue is in Barrington ... its not so much that the parents are taking the best kids to premier, because actually with the high level of coaching the town provides (all professional, licensed coaches with no parent coaches allowed in travel), many do stay, and end up making the HS teams down the road. However, it is that there are so many other kids playing on the lower levels that use travel like a rec program. They can afford it and so the overall number of players in the travel league (especially in Spring) is very big. There are just a lot of C teams. There is usually only 1 year-round A & and 1 year-round B team in each age level from U10-U13. (U14 may even only have just 1 year-round team total because many make the HS team and stop playing travel as incoming Freshmen.

So the rest of the teams in SuperLiga are made-up of primarily Fall and Spring only C teams filled with rec and soccer-as-2nd sport type players. This is why you won't see multiple Barrington teams in the same Anchor division in one season. Its still a small town, and although a HUGE percentage of kids play soccer, overall, the pool of A players to choose from is still pretty small. There just isn't more than one A team per age group. And since they never do mixed-age A teams at U12, you will never see a U11A team playing in Anchor because they are simply too young and too small. So every season you will only ever have one Boys and Girls U12A team and usually only one Boys and Girls U13/U14 A Team. We're just a bottom heavy town because of the huge percentage of casual players playing travel.

However as I said before, they like to see teams average about .500 in a division to feel that they are properly placed, and being properly challenged and developing. Now they don't always hit the mark with placement especially with such a wide mix of kids on the lower levels, but its definitely not about sandbagging, and they will always adjust in the next season.