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Post by Keeper on Dec 12, 2018 0:00:16 GMT -5
Looks like Ga Soccer is making some changes for this Spring. Mainly making a true 12U bracket at 9v9 that you have to play in to get consideration for Athena A / Classic 1 as 13Us. Below are the changes for the Spring that was emailed out.
“Georgia Soccer will add a Classic IV and Athena D division for the spring 2019 season.
Georgia Soccer will offer a 12U 9v9 spring division as a qualifier for U13 Athena A and Classic 1.
We will offer a playoff for the top teams to pick the top 12 teams for Athena A and Classic 1 at the 13U age group.
We can take up to 24 teams into the playoff, so teams would have to finish in the top 24 in league play to qualify for the playoff.
We will have as many divisions for 12U 9v9 season as needed.
There will be a roster size of 16 for the teams in the 12U division, playing 9v9.
12U teams who currently play in Classic or Athena 13U divisions will have to play in the 12U 9v9 spring division to qualify for 13U Classic 1 or Athena A.
Georgia Soccer will try to offer a playoff for promotion in other age groups with multiple divisions but we will have to be creative with the format.”
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Post by cleansheet on Dec 12, 2018 12:39:54 GMT -5
Looks like Ga Soccer is making some changes for this Spring. Mainly making a true 12U bracket at 9v9 that you have to play in to get consideration for Athena A / Classic 1 as 13Us. Below are the changes for the Spring that was emailed out. “Georgia Soccer will add a Classic IV and Athena D division for the spring 2019 season. Georgia Soccer will offer a 12U 9v9 spring division as a qualifier for U13 Athena A and Classic 1. We will offer a playoff for the top teams to pick the top 12 teams for Athena A and Classic 1 at the 13U age group. We can take up to 24 teams into the playoff, so teams would have to finish in the top 24 in league play to qualify for the playoff. We will have as many divisions for 12U 9v9 season as needed. There will be a roster size of 16 for the teams in the 12U division, playing 9v9. 12U teams who currently play in Classic or Athena 13U divisions will have to play in the 12U 9v9 spring division to qualify for 13U Classic 1 or Athena A. Georgia Soccer will try to offer a playoff for promotion in other age groups with multiple divisions but we will have to be creative with the format.” This is obviously trying to take advantage of the elimination of u12 DA. They want to suck the top teams in from the Big 6 clubs to entice them with a playoff win and a promotion to Classic 1 U13. The problem is many of the good teams from the big 6 will not want to participate knowing they will want better competition at u13 through SCCL or ECNL. Georgia Soccer is making a smart move here trying to take back some control lost to SCCL.
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Post by atlfutboldad on Dec 12, 2018 13:14:57 GMT -5
Yeah, this sucks for the Roswell U12 team that won Athena B in the fall, they should be grandfathered in.
Also, this new division should be 11v11 in the Spring. In order to build a team that will have 8 players retained from Spring to fall for promotion rules.
I wonder if some of this is to save face for U13 teams getting dominated by good U12 teams? They're trying to keep the U12's out of the U13 bracket it seems.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Dec 12, 2018 13:33:55 GMT -5
Should have been implemented years ago vs using academy cup as a proxy where most the teams didn't even attend. The spring u12s historically needed a formal table structure to stop the race to 11v11 at that age.
In hindsight not sure if 9v9 vs 11v11 really matters other than you get into real soccer, and you start to see a high volume of kids that were successful on the smaller field and their skill sets never really equate to success on a full pitch..
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Post by atlfutboldad on Dec 12, 2018 13:45:32 GMT -5
I think the Spring 11v11 transition is important for U12's. Its a much bigger change than the 7v7 to 9v9 is. You're really helping the kids out by preparing them in advance of the following season. They should do a Fall 9v9 U12 for the teams that want to enter Athena/Classic/Select in the Spring. The champion and finalist of the fall and can promote to Athena B/Classic II for the Spring. Then do a Spring 11v11 U12 bracket for automatic promotion to Athena A/Classic I. Every year there's a team or two that are playing above their age group.
Its probably about time to scale the brackets horizontally. 7 teams per bracket, play each team twice (home/away). 12 games is a nice season. North/South...so you're also limiting travel.
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Post by slickdaddy96 on Dec 12, 2018 14:27:58 GMT -5
There are several U12 teams in the Classic II U13 bracket my son's team plays in right now. They are already playing 11v11 and the Dalton U12 team placed 2nd in that division and might be in the running to be promoted to U13 Classic I this season anyway. No U12 team that is already playing in Classic II or Classic III U13 divisions is going to want to go back and play 9v9 versus 11v11 when they were already playing 11v11 in the Fall anyway.
These U12 divisions should be 11v11 for the spring not 9v9.
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Post by atlfutboldad on Dec 12, 2018 15:06:20 GMT -5
Kids are TOO BIG for the U12 field...at U12. Its too compact. Once they get to the big field the kids with speed and big legs start to take over. Its a different game.
Concorde U12 Girls finished 1st or 2nd in Athena A last Spring. Not only could they compete, they dominated it.
Great futsal players don't always make great soccer players.
EDIT: As another example, Roswell U12 girls have owned Athena B this fall. One game to play and all wins thus far. They deserve promotion.
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Post by slickdaddy96 on Dec 12, 2018 15:21:31 GMT -5
Kids are TOO BIG for the U12 field...at U12. Its too compact. Once they get to the big field the kids with speed and big legs start to take over. Its a different game. Concorde U12 Girls finished 1st or 2nd in Athena A last Spring. Not only could they compete, they dominated it. Great futsal players don't always make great soccer players. I agree with the last sentence. My son is a better futsal player than 11v11. He is pretty good in 11v11 but I can see he isn't as good there as he is in futsal. He is a defender, and in futsal it is a lot easier to defend a player because they can not get to full speed in futsal versus outdoors they can. It is always tougher to defend in 11v11 vs futsal or indoor soccer.
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Post by atlfutboldad on Dec 12, 2018 15:33:46 GMT -5
This part:
"12U teams who currently play in Classic or Athena 13U divisions will have to play in the 12U 9v9 spring division to qualify for 13U Classic 1 or Athena A."
Could the Roswell U12 team that will win Athena B really need to play down? They could risk playing Athena A in the Spring, and so long as they aren't relegated...would they really be placed BELOW A for the fall???
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Post by atlfutboldad on Dec 12, 2018 17:54:03 GMT -5
I wouldn't mind seeing a 3/4 size pitch for U13/U14. If you watch the closing speed of older players vs the younger players on the "full sized" pitch, it changes the nature of the game completely.
In terms of training, from my experience, very few teams practice and internally scrimmage on a full field (which is at least 3/4 of their soccer time), so they are usually getting lots of small sided experience.
There is no doubt the larger field disguises the lack of skill. The problem is the outliers/game-breakers with a strong leg or super speed. They completely disrupt the game on the smaller field.
When my daughter played U11 we had a player who could score somewhat reliably from midfield on the U12 pitch. Saw similar games in U12 also, even somewhat more magnified (the team with the player with the bigger leg could change the nature of the game would almost always win). Also very quick players can shut down half the width of the U12 pitch in a couple seconds. On the big field you HAVE TO be able to pass the ball, a game-breaker in the midfield becomes less valuable on both offense and defense. They have a much harder time carrying from 18 to 18. IMO the bigger field gives less experienced players more time to handle the ball and make better decisions with the ball.
In youth soccer (on the girls side, up to U14 from my experience), except for tournaments, you rarely have Barcelona against Real Madrid. Its often Barcelona against, I dunno, Aberdeen. On the small field you often had double-digit score differentials in these kinds of games. On the bigger field, its a bit more equalized (3-0, 5-1).
In my experience, on the small field its almost about how well you recruit vs how well you train. On the big field a team that is not as talented or skill but can connect passes well can compete better against teams with better players.
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Post by soccergurl on Dec 12, 2018 18:29:34 GMT -5
How will all this impact the teams in the SCCL league? Have they been forgiven by GA Soccer?
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Post by atlfutboldad on Dec 12, 2018 18:36:40 GMT -5
GA Soccer has no bearing on SCCL teams. The only thing they did was preclude the clubs with teams in SCCL from having teams in the NL Piedmont. It appears that will change this Spring.
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Post by rifle on Dec 12, 2018 20:27:33 GMT -5
I’m pleased to see GA Soccer following the team size regulations rather than cave once again.
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Post by Keeper on Dec 13, 2018 1:45:52 GMT -5
I’m guessing everyone that is complaining that this 12U Spring season should be 11v11 instead of 9v9 are parents and not coaches. Well these new rules came straight from nearly 300 current Select coaches and DOCs so this is what a huge majority of coaches want.
Anyone that thinks it’s best for 12Us to play 11v11 overall doesn’t know anything about big picture development. Remember, if 9v9 was good enough for Messi until he played U15 then its good enough for everyone else.
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Post by soccergurl on Dec 13, 2018 3:42:23 GMT -5
GA Soccer has no bearing on SCCL teams. The only thing they did was preclude the clubs with teams in SCCL from having teams in the NL Piedmont. It appears that will change this Spring. So SCCL teams will now be able to play in NL and state cup games?
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Post by ga3v3 on Dec 13, 2018 6:29:51 GMT -5
GA Soccer has no bearing on SCCL teams. The only thing they did was preclude the clubs with teams in SCCL from having teams in the NL Piedmont. It appears that will change this Spring. So SCCL teams will now be able to play in NL and state cup games? Please remember that the NL is a pro/rel league which is very different than the SCCL or any other USCS league- you have to earn your spot. And the only way to earn your spot is to compete in GA Soccers USYS league or to finish 1st in State Cup. A team would have to compete in the SCCL and USYS league at the same time and finish high enough to earn promotion. There are many teams from NC and SC that play in both the NL and NPL at the same time so it is possible though the level of the majority of the SCCL teams are way too low to be able to compete like some of the NPL teams do
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Post by girlsoccer on Dec 13, 2018 8:38:19 GMT -5
GA Soccer has no bearing on SCCL teams. The only thing they did was preclude the clubs with teams in SCCL from having teams in the NL Piedmont. It appears that will change this Spring. So SCCL teams will now be able to play in NL and state cup games? It’s not the SCCL teams specifically but the sccl clubs that had previously been told they could not participate in NL. But, in a reversal of previous policy, GA soccer invited some Athena A teams from those clubs to join NL Piedmont for the Spring.
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Post by atlfutboldad on Dec 14, 2018 12:50:45 GMT -5
There's nothing that PREVENTS SCCL teams from playing in Athena/Classic...aside from the SCCL schedule. AFC plays their gold team in NPL and Athena (and some play NPL and NL), though it looks like their U13G didn't play many NPL games in the fall.
I like this idea of NPL being a bonus league for extra games TREMENDOUSLY. I wish ECNL and SCCL were similar. ECNL for GA has SO MUCH travel in the fall though (because there's too many Florida teams).
It would be cool if USYS could reserve the 2nd weekend of each month for alternate travel leagues. Similar to how FIFA and countries pro leagues blocks out some time from champions leagues and international competition. Then ECNL/NPL teams could more easily play in Athena/Classic leagues. And maybe have National League games on the same weekend, so a club would have to choose between NL/ECNL/NPL/SCCL.
Failing this, I'd like to see GA Soccer have a mandatory number of games per season (lets say 12) and build their brackets accordingly. So each bracket needs 13 teams OR 7 teams (play home and away). If you're short a team or 2 in the smaller brackets, play a team or two 3 times.
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