01/02 girls teams

[Unregistered]

Who is going to have a competitive 01 or 01/02 team next year? Based on summer records, it appears that:

FCP and Oregon Premier (formerly Crossfire) stayed with separate 01 and 02 teams and both look bad.
Westside, Eastside, and Wa Premier stayed with separate 01 and 02 teams. 02 teams look good. 01 teams look bad.
Bend and Medford will likely have multiple year combined teams - did they even play this summer? No idea how they will be.
Eugene had an 02 team up at Crossfire that got roundly spanked. Not sure if they have any 01's left to combine with but either way whether it's an 01/02 or just 02 team looks bad.
CFC continues to be the powerhouse with their strong 01/02 team - did they lose anyone to graduation? And did they play any games after regionals?

[Unregistered]

Who is going to have a competitive 01 or 01/02 team next year? Based on summer records, it appears that:

FCP and Oregon Premier (formerly Crossfire) stayed with separate 01 and 02 teams and both look bad.
Westside, Eastside, and Wa Premier stayed with separate 01 and 02 teams. 02 teams look good. 01 teams look bad.
Bend and Medford will likely have multiple year combined teams - did they even play this summer? No idea how they will be.
Eugene had an 02 team up at Crossfire that got roundly spanked. Not sure if they have any 01's left to combine with but either way whether it's an 01/02 or just 02 team looks bad.
CFC continues to be the powerhouse with their strong 01/02 team - did they lose anyone to graduation? And did they play any games after regionals?

Sounds about right. No competition for Salem again. Not even in the USYS regional league since the top 5 WA teams all went ecnl so they’ll be playing their B teams. But maybe they can win it all and do National League like gps03s did. Gps03s have been in the same no competition boat for years and they have made it work.

[Unregistered]

Sounds about right. No competition for Salem again. Not even in the USYS regional league since the top 5 WA teams all went ecnl so they’ll be playing their B teams. But maybe they can win it all and do National League like gps03s did. Gps03s have been in the same no competition boat for years and they have made it work.

GPS 03’s and Wa Premier 02’s made it work by playing up in league. Salem can’t do that - they will be in oldest bracket. OYSA will have to combine 01 and 02 leagues to make it remotely competitive. Wash Timbers, Eastside and Westside 02’s will give Salem good games. After those four it’s a steep and grim drop.

How was this handled last year, with the 00 and 01 seniors? Did clubs combine the two ages? It looks like some of these clubs are kicking their 01 players to the curb.

[Unregistered]

CFC gets beat by Washington Timbers 02

GPS probably will beat them as well.

[Unregistered]

Who is going to have a competitive 01 or 01/02 team next year? Based on summer records, it appears that:

FCP and Oregon Premier (formerly Crossfire) stayed with separate 01 and 02 teams and both look bad.
Westside, Eastside, and Wa Premier stayed with separate 01 and 02 teams. 02 teams look good. 01 teams look bad.
Bend and Medford will likely have multiple year combined teams - did they even play this summer? No idea how they will be.
Eugene had an 02 team up at Crossfire that got roundly spanked. Not sure if they have any 01's left to combine with but either way whether it's an 01/02 or just 02 team looks bad.
CFC continues to be the powerhouse with their strong 01/02 team - did they lose anyone to graduation? And did they play any games after regionals?

None of the 01 teams are good. The 02 teams are very good across the board except FC Portland ECNL and Thorns. Why does anyone care at this point?

[Unregistered]

None of the 01 teams are good. The 02 teams are very good across the board except FC Portland ECNL and Thorns. Why does anyone care at this point?

Come to think of it, you are actually right. Even FCP ecnl 02 is pretty good. Thorns not so much - too late to the party and not many takers. 02 was always strong compared to 01. Now the clubs that combine them will water them down. Clubs that have enough to have an 01 and an 02 team are the best off and are the best for players.

[Unregistered]

In alphabetical order:

CU ECNL 01 - not good
CU ECNL 02 - good
CFC 01 - good
CFC 02 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 01 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 02 - good
Thorns 01 - not good
Thorns 02 - good
Wash Timbers 01 - not good
Wash Timbers 02 - good

I think a lot of these teams will be forced to combine age levels due to a lack of numbers.

[Unregistered]

In alphabetical order:

CU ECNL 01 - not good
CU ECNL 02 - good
CFC 01 - good
CFC 02 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 01 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 02 - good
Thorns 01 - not good
Thorns 02 - good
Wash Timbers 01 - not good
Wash Timbers 02 - good

I think a lot of these teams will be forced to combine age levels due to a lack of numbers.

***c 02, Eastside 02, Westside 02, FCP 02 Navy and OPFC 02 (both essentially b teams) will keep 02 teams and will remain competitive at 02 with good teams competing against each other. The same club’s 01 teams will continue to be lesser but viable options. CFC will sit alone again as the sole good team in 2001. Although OPFC 01 tied them last year so OPFC 01s can’t be that bad.
The four ECNL teams and two Thorns age group teams will have to combine because ecnl and gda both only have u18/19 leagues. No separate u18 league, playoffs or showcases. Ecnl should have switched their ecnl league to graduation year and added a separate u18 for all the juniors. U19 for seniors and overflow juniors. Now they have to blow apart their good 02 teams to make room for the remaining 01s from the “not good” 01 teams
. Gda on the other hand must stay birth year but has the backing of US Soccer so they can pull it off and have no problem cutting a half a rosters worth of players to downsize to one best of team at u18/19.

Due to birth year, this change up mess up will happen every year to every clubs two oldest teams. What happens to this year’s solid 02 and 03 teams next year when 2/3rds of the 02s graduate?

[Unregistered]

In alphabetical order:

CU ECNL 01 - not good
CU ECNL 02 - good
CFC 01 - good
CFC 02 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 01 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 02 - good
Thorns 01 - not good
Thorns 02 - good
Wash Timbers 01 - not good
Wash Timbers 02 - good

I think a lot of these teams will be forced to combine age levels due to a lack of numbers.

There’s a pattern here.

[Unregistered]

GPS 03’s and Wa Premier 02’s made it work by playing up in league. Salem can’t do that - they will be in oldest bracket. OYSA will have to combine 01 and 02 leagues to make it remotely competitive. Wash Timbers, Eastside and Westside 02’s will give Salem good games. After those four it’s a steep and grim drop.

How was this handled last year, with the 00 and 01 seniors? Did clubs combine the two ages? It looks like some of these clubs are kicking their 01 players to the curb.

Yes. Some combined age groups. Saw it with the competition at Regionals.

[Unregistered]

GPS 03’s and Wa Premier 02’s made it work by playing up in league. Salem can’t do that - they will be in oldest bracket. OYSA will have to combine 01 and 02 leagues to make it remotely competitive. Wash Timbers, Eastside and Westside 02’s will give Salem good games. After those four it’s a steep and grim drop.

How was this handled last year, with the 00 and 01 seniors? Did clubs combine the two ages? It looks like some of these clubs are kicking their 01 players to the curb.

Better to kick the 01s to the curb and keep a stronger 02 team together at u18....or kick 02s from the stronger team to the curb to make room for the 01s and have to play up in u19?

[Unregistered]

Better to kick the 01s to the curb and keep a stronger 02 team together at u18....or kick 02s from the stronger team to the curb to make room for the 01s and have to play up in u19?

If a player isn’t good enough to be on a team she shouldn’t be on the team regardless of age. The issue at smaller clubs is players who are good enough and who stayed because the club promises them there would be a team their senior year - and now there’s suddenly a reluctance to play “up,” leaving a few players with next to no options their senior year. (Yes in Portland there are plenty of options - but as was said earlier on this page there’s more to OYSA than Portland)

Personally I blame the players and parents for being gullible enough to think a coach or DOC would keep their promises. Either way it’s a terrible way to finish out with a club and the whole birth year fiasco is a failure.

[Unregistered]

If a player isn’t good enough to be on a team she shouldn’t be on the team regardless of age. The issue at smaller clubs is players who are good enough and who stayed because the club promises them there would be a team their senior year - and now there’s suddenly a reluctance to play “up,” leaving a few players with next to no options their senior year. (Yes in Portland there are plenty of options - but as was said earlier on this page there’s more to OYSA than Portland)

Personally I blame the players and parents for being gullible enough to think a coach or DOC would keep their promises. Either way it’s a terrible way to finish out with a club and the whole birth year fiasco is a failure.

Agree that birth year was and is a total fiasco. With birth year, every club every single year will have to somehow take a team and a half of A team players who have likely been at the club for years and make them into one team by cutting a half a teams worth. Every single year. Every single club. These are players that have probably been A team players in the club for years getting dumped because “birth year will help the national team”! Stupid and maddening. Even if you’re not one of the ones getting cut it sucks. A great u17 team gets ripped apart and also has to play u19 right when recruiting is getting going strong. If they keep the u17 team together and play u18, the dozen seniors get the shaft (many of whom are also still in the recruiting process and have played for the club for years. Sucks either way. Go by grade and then everyone has a team and teams stay together and build chemistry.

[Unregistered]

Agree that birth year was and is a total fiasco. With birth year, every club every single year will have to somehow take a team and a half of A team players who have likely been at the club for years and make them into one team by cutting a half a teams worth. Every single year. Every single club. These are players that have probably been A team players in the club for years getting dumped because “birth year will help the national team”! Stupid and maddening. Even if you’re not one of the ones getting cut it sucks. A great u17 team gets ripped apart and also has to play u19 right when recruiting is getting going strong. If they keep the u17 team together and play u18, the dozen seniors get the shaft (many of whom are also still in the recruiting process and have played for the club for years. Sucks either way. Go by grade and then everyone has a team and teams stay together and build chemistry.

There are so many unintended consequences to the idiotic birth year switch. One you didn't mention is that we get mixed grade teams during the peak of recruiting season. So you get a team that's half seniors (who have already made their college decisions) and half juniors (who are still looking to be recruited). The seniors are good enough to earn a roster spot but aren't interested in spending the time and money to travel to showcase tournaments to help their junior teammates get recruited. So the team either travels with only juniors (pulling from a B or younger team) or doesn't do showcase events. Either way that hurts the juniors trying to be recruited.

That being said, there IS a solution at least on the micro level. The OYSA teams could agree to all play as combined birth year teams their final year. There's no rule preventing teams from doing that. So in reality the problem is less about the admittedly stupid birth year rule and more about the outlier teams like Wa Timbers 02's, Eastside 02's, and Westside 02's - who stay as a birth year team and hang their 01 players out to dry. If those three clubs formed combined teams, and brought in their stronger 01 players on those combined teams, we would have a highly competitive league and state cup adding them to the (already combined) CFC team.

[Unregistered]

In alphabetical order:

CU ECNL 01 - not good
CU ECNL 02 - good
CFC 01 - good
CFC 02 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 01 - not good
FC Portland ECNL 02 - good
Thorns 01 - not good
Thorns 02 - good
Wash Timbers 01 - not good
Wash Timbers 02 - good

I think a lot of these teams will be forced to combine age levels due to a lack of numbers.

The birth year change will go down as one of the dumbest things ever.