Bon_Mot

Henry is a shell of what he was at Arsenal a few years back. He is only effective on a video game now. With only 7 goals this season, his injuries and age have taken a toll on him, and more importantly, he's miserable in Spain. He just went through a divorce and his little 2 year old girl is back in London. So bring him on!

Barca has scored a total of four goals in their last six matches. And that's been against the likes of Getafe, Espanyol, and Schalke. If they couldn't get a goal at Camp Nuo, what makes you think they can get one at Old Trafford? And with Rafa Marquez out, who's going to stop the Man Utd attack? Man U didn't even try to get numbers up-field, and they still could have won the game. Sir Alex's plan will work. Draw on the road, and win at home. Glory, glory, Man United!

Girls 5A SLC - 3 SA Mac - 0 Plano East - 2 Clear Lake - 0 Boys 5A Cinco scored in the second minute, then Marcus scored 4 minutes later. Final... FM Marcus - 2 Katy Cinco Ranch - 1 Klein - 1 SA Churchill - 1 Klein wins shoot out 4-3

I gave you a karma point for that one, setxgal. Alright, just about anyone can find a problem. Now let's solve it. My question is, what can we do? High school coaches, parents, former players, fans, ect. What can we do? Soccer is losing kids to select baseball, junior league football, PS3, and the like every year. Suggestions? Anyone?

The 5A boys and girls semi-finals are today, and the 4A's are tomorrow. The finals for all of them are Saturday. Boys 4A Brenham (22-2-2) v The Colony (16-5-4) 4:00pm EP Del Valle (25-3-2) v Vista Ridge (20-3-2) 6:00pm Girls 4A Rider vs. Dripping Springs @ 11 am Friendswood vs. Boyd @ 1 pm Boys 5A Cinco Ranch #1 seed vs. Defending State Champions Marcus-4 pm Klein #2 seed vs. San Antonio Churchill-6 pm Girls 5A SA MacArthur v. Southlake Carroll Plano East v. Clear Lake

While we're on the subject of clubs, the latest Soccer America has a great article about the flaws of our youth system. It's got some great stuff from John Hackworth who is a director for the US Soccer Development Academy and Sigi Schmid who's been around the block quite a bit: * Clubs are focusing too much on results at too young of an age. We shouldn't worry too much about results or championships until age 11 or 12. The bigger, stronger, and faster teams usually win at these young ages. worry about individual advancement and creativity, not trophies. * Things they hate to see at the youth level - 1) a team's really good player marking the other team's really good player and chasing him all over the field. 2) A team playing with its tallest and fastest kid 20 yards behind his backline. 3) Coaches screaming out what to do every second of the play. Schmid also had a great part in the article about what he looks for from players at a young age. He says when a 6 or 7 year old begins to look up from a ball, that's a sign of advancement. His stages are - "It's me and the ball" "It's me and the ball, where's the opponent?" and finally "It's me and the ball, where's the opponent, and where's my teammate?" Unfortunately I see the early stages of this with players who are 14+ years of age and have played club soccer for a while. When they receive a pass, they either "boot it" down the field or bury their head and dribble straight into whatever is ahead of them. I'm not throwing out accusations at our local clubs, but the area high schools are only as good as the area club systems to an extent.

What clubs will be fielding a competitive team for the local high school kids? I find it really hard telling my players that they have to drive to Houston 2 or 3 times a week and play some unbelievable fees just to play soccer at a high level and get better...but as far as I know, it's the truth. Let's make sure we don't put all of the blame on the clubs, though. I can't tell you how many times I heard some of my kids say, "We'd would've done a lot better if everyone had showed up..." And that is abslolute crap. If you make a commitment to something, and others are relying on you, stick to it. Uphold your end of the deal. And that's aimed at the parents and their children.

They did at one time. (They were this coach's first victory.) They had to drop it when they went down to 2A. You can play up one classification but not two.

I totally agree. And there will be if more 3A school around the state start up soccer programs. Right now there aren't enough, so all of the 3A schools play up in 4A. It may seem like it sends a poor message to you, but as a coach, your top proiority as far as field maintenance is concerned is that you want to have a good playing surface for your varsity games. If a field is not allowed to rest, it will never recover from general wear and tear. Just cut a corner on a sidewalk for a week or so and you can see a difference in that grass compared to the grass around it. Now imagine if you had sprinted or made cuts on that grass while it was wet. Pretty soon it's not grass - it's mud. If anyone and everyone in the area is allowed to get on that field, it will be a bare dirt and mud patch pretty soon. Just take a look at Bulldog Stadium and you can see the effects of overuse. It was pathetic at the end of the season. And if you think that the girls and boys soccer teams caused that, you're crazy. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be allowed to play pick-up football or soccer games. I'm saying these people have a choice of where they can play. At Nederland we have one place we are supposed to play (Bulldog Stadium) and a back-up or emergency place (Prather Field).

The window I'm looking at has you with 22 points for Beckham and 2 for Christman. So you might be OK. And I can't leave this alone... it also says that you have 10 points on your bench with Sean Franklin... a DEFENDER with the Galaxy... Dude, if you're looking for sympathy in this league, make sure you don't have any defenders on your bench from the Galaxy. That's like being Darth Vader's yoga instructor. What purpose does that guy really serve?

:-\ **checking my watch** Just waiting for you guys to start slamming the girls coaches for essentially doing the same thing... Like I said earlier: My least favorite time of the year.

You can have The Spawn of Bon Mot any time you want! Just know that they get paid in Wiggles videos, Doughnuts, and big trucks.

You're right. It's karma. I can't stand El Pescadito, and TT with his smedium shirts and his bulbous cranium has always gotten on my nerves. It serves me right. That's why I decided to overhaul everyone in management and have now chosen to lean more on new and innovative thinkers. I can't rely on last year's way of thinking (which won me the title if you didn't know, btw) to be successful. We're going in a new direction with fresh ideas...which means I'll now be consulting my 1 and 2 year olds as well as my wife.

So...this morning I get my coffee...sit at the computer...pull up espnsoccernet..and two of the top stories are "Ruiz out 4-6 weeks" and Twellman out 4-6 weeks"... :-[ Guess who's got Twellman and Ruiz as their 2 forwards?! And guess who's already made their 3 transfers for the week?! I've got over $900,000 sitting on their tookus this week! And I get to start Franco Caraccio from the Dynamo since I only had 1 forward on the bench! > After an emergency meeting of the owners of our franchise was called to evaluate the situation (and clean up the coffee that I spit all over the computer desk), we have decided to sack the current administration and go in a new direction. The franchise will no longer be called "Last Year's Champion!". We are now "Manchumpster Untied". And look for sweeping changes next week...at least at two of my forwards. GOREY, GOREY, MAN UNTIED!

wednesday night

It's according to what your definition of by far is. They finished their district campaign one point short of perfection while staying 8 points clear of second. That's pretty dominating. They had the top goals for / goals against average in our district. That's pretty good. The "almost beat them" and "out played them but couldn't finish" excuses don't float in soccer. Moral victories are for losers, not champions. I think you should judge a team by how they finish, not how they began. I think I know where I'd put my money if PAM and the Lumberheads played at the end of their seasons. I would have loved to have seen a full strength Kelly team play Lumberton mid-season. I think that would have been the "Area Championship".

WOW! I'm not good. :-[ I had three guys with -5 points each and three others who didn't score at all!! I'm glad it's a long season... I think.

This is by far my least favorite time of year and my least favorite aspect of coaching. Soccer is such a team sport and to single out individuals... I don't know, I just don't like to do it. No matter who is named, there's going to be a handful of kids left off. Case in point: The list above by namen5 is a very good list, but where is Scott Poole? That kid is a beast anywhere you put him. Brakin could have scored 50 goals had he been on another team, too. Little Greenway might have scored a billion goals in another system. Big Zim at PNG is as good as anyone on my squad. There were guys on my bench and on my JV who could have led other teams in scoring had they played for someone else. I know it's gotta be done, but I hate it.

I don't think your sub's points will count toward your weekly totaly. I thnk they are there for when your starters are injured or off, but you still don't want to sell that starter away. I was wondering the same thing. It looks like you would have to enter two teams, which I hate doing. I did it with pointy football a few years back, and it got very confusing on who to cheer for. I'll probably just stick with one team, although the thought of humbling Coach H in that stxsoccer league is tempting...

WOW! This is soooo not true! It was 5, and three of them were PK's. :-\

That's AWESOME!!!

Just heard LCM lsot 2-1 with all three goals scored in the last 15 minutes or so. Congrats on a great season, and good luck to all you seniors.

I copied and pasted that from the mlsnet site. This first part just says that salaries can go up or down, but you'll always have at least a 5 Mil budget no matter how bad you are, I think. The next part was the scoring break down. I'll see if I can make it a little easier to read... Scoring is awarded based on the scoring system below: Scoring Breakdown Forward/Midfielder Goal 10 Assist 5 Match Winning Goal 5 Shot on target 2 Hat Trick 15 Blocked Shot 2 Penalty Kick Saved/Missed -5 Own Goal -5 Yellow Card -5 Red Card -10 Defender Goal 15 Assist 10 Match Winning Goal 10 Hat Trick 25 Blocked Shot 2 Clean Sheet 10 Own Goal -5 Yellow Card -5 Red Card -10 Goalkeeper Goal 25 Assist 15 Match Winning Goal 15 Win 10 Loss 0 Tie 5 Save 2 Penalty Kick Save 15 Clean Sheet 20 Yellow Card -5 Red Card -10 Coach Win 20 Loss 0 Tie 10 Yellow Card (*) -1 Red Card(*) -2 (*) - Yellow cards/Red cards are on a per player basis

"Player Salaries Initial player salaries are based on a combination of the prior season's performance and expected 2008 performance. During the season, player salaries will be updated on a weekly basis based on performance. Every Monday, player salaries will be announced just prior to the weekly transfer window opening for that week. If you have any player on your roster that receives an increase in salary, your team value will increase by that amount for each player. (e.g., if your team value is $5,000,000 and after Week 3 you have 2 players on your roster that each receive a $30,000 upgrade, then from Week 4 forward, your team value is $5,060,000). Player values may decrease as well, however, your team value will never drop below the initial $5,000,000 budget. All salary increases go into effect on Monday during the appropriate week. In order to receive credit for the salary increase, you must have that player on your current roster at the time the raises are announced. For example, to take advantage of the salary increases that occur after Week 3, you must have those players on your Week 3 roster by the trading deadline for that week. " And the scoring rules changed, too: Scoring Scoring is awarded based on the scoring system below: Scoring Breakdown Forward/Midfielder Goal 10 Assist 5 Match Winning Goal 5 Shot on target 2 Hat Trick 15 Blocked Shot 2 Penalty Kick Saved/Missed -5 Own Goal -5 Yellow Card -5 Red Card -10 Defender Goal 15 Assist 10 Match Winning Goal 10 Hat Trick 25 Blocked Shot 2 Clean Sheet 10 Own Goal -5 Yellow Card -5 Red Card -10 Goalkeeper Goal 25 Assist 15 Match Winning Goal 15 Win 10 Loss 0 Tie 5 Save 2 Penalty Kick Save 15 Clean Sheet 20 Yellow Card -5 Red Card -10 Coach Win 20 Loss 0 Tie 10 Yellow Card (*) -1 Red Card(*) -2 (*) - Yellow cards/Red cards are on a per player basis