Georgia HS Soccer 2023

For the girls side it will be hard to beat the couple of the schools from North Fulton coming down (Chattahoochee and Cambridge) to 5A as both made the final 4 in 6A and they both kept a number of key players.

Denmark High should make a good run at it in 7A girls.

From Forsyth County, Demark or West could make a run in girls 7A.

Denmark had a great team last year, but I do not think they were battle tested much in the regular season, which I think came back to bite them once they reached the playoffs. They certainly have the players to pull it off though.

Not sure how much West lost from a team that repeated as State Champs, but from what I saw last year they have some young up and coming talent.

Good stuff. Full disclosure - I’m a Riverwood parent. If there was ever a year Riverwood could challenge for state this is it - 10 returning staters are seniors and 4 more spot started last year, quality backups also. That first game against Lassiter will be fun to find out if Lassiter reloaded after a great win vs Dalton in the title game last year.
BT does look to be strong. Don’t know who Pope and Roswell has returning aside from a handful of quality players.
Johns Creek looks loaded as does St Pius.

Dunwoody is a question mark. They didn’t allow freshmen or sophomores to even tryout for varsity and there are some very good 10th graders there so we’ll see how that turns out.

Re: Dunwoody - girls or boys?

I saw on MaxPreps that Riverwood lost to Lassiter, did you go to the game and how did both teams look?

"Riverwood had a corner goal disallowed for a foul that happened in the jostling before the kick was made and I’d never seen that before"

The penalty area has turned into a WWE arena during corner kicks now. I was surprised by the amount and openness of contact during a game earlier this week (as the ref). There are going to be a lot of controversial calls required to regain control - including PKs. Holding is a DFK and if it prevents the attacker from a chance to play the ball - PK. Same with attackers moving defenders out of the way to clear lanes or impeding the keeper.
It's going to be ugly.

If the foul continues after the kick is taken, can absolutely make the call.

Look, not saying I want to go that route.  The amount of sh&t I'd take is painful and would continue for some time.  So yes, there will be verbal warnings, lots of demonstrative pointing and arm waving, and a bunch of kids giving me the 'who me' look, and then 10 seconds later it will look like a mosh pit.

The worst grabbing seems to take place as the ball is served.  Hands out pre-kick, grabbing on the kick.  No attempt to hide.

Problem is the kids see it at the pro level and think it's ok at the club / HS level.  

If I recall correctly, the ref already cautioned someone before the corner kick was taken. I didn’t see what the foul was but I’m guessing whatever jostling was going on continued, leading to the foul call.

"Yes, that’s pretty much how it happened. I would add the CR knew it wasn’t card worthy but couldn’t call a foul at that moment either so he was whistle ready for when the kick took place. Not a big deal in first game of the season but a little more situational awareness would be appreciated since that ended up being the difference in the result."

The more I learn about this situation the more I think the CR handled it correctly. Tried to stop the jostling, issued a card, but the players continued after the kick. How about some situational awareness from the players?

That's one of the more frustrating aspects of officiating - players not responding to obvious cues and continuing to do stupid things after been warned, foul called, card issued. And then the fans yell that we're losing control... Bruh, what else can we do? Stupid is as stupid does and we can only penalize after the fact if they don't stop.

No card given. Bad officiating. It is never “correct” to delay a foul call until the ball is put in play. It’s a very regular occurrence that happens all the time and is never called the way it was this particular time, at least in the literally thousands of games I’ve seen. And the players have participated in thousands of corner kicks by this point and they have the situational awareness to know a dead ball issue is not called 30 seconds later so they were shocked by the whistle. There are enough parents in the stands that don’t know what soccer looks like and this was inexcusable from a ref that should know better. What you should be “thinking about” is how to hold incompetent officials more accountable as they don’t at all seem to be concerned that their petulant behavior is always captured on video these days. Is there a published roster of refs working games? Is there a submission procedure for clips showing inane decisions that directly affect results? Are there even supervisors making random appearances in the stands? No. And I’m not saying there should be - just pointing out the power that’s entrusted to these folks and they should at least be reviewing video of every game they officiate to get better at their job. Refs are human and miss possession calls and are subjective on foul calls all the time - no big deal and those usually even out. Where they need to improve is keeping the game safe and not affecting results. That’s all anyone really cares about.

I do not understand the rules to know if there was a foul. But as an observer, it was not straightforward.

It seemed as if Riverwood had set plays for corners. They ran one play for corner kicks multiple times where the majority of their players stand around the goalie in the six yard box, many had their hands up may be to show they are not pushing or making it more difficult for the goalie to see. This wasn't one kid like you sometimes see, but 5+ kids. t was a unique and interesting play, something I can't remember seeing in a long time. The reason it seemed like a play was later they lined up more at the edge of the penalty box like you would typically see on a corner. Riverwood seemed very organized and purposeful to how they ran corners. Most likely to take advantage of the really tall, talented center back to who they played the ball to on in/direct kicks. 

On the play the ref called the goal back, prior to the corner he stopped play for a second and talked to the kids near and around the goalie. Then came back out and so play could start and Riverwood took the corner. Watching the game my assumption is he told them to stop doing something and the moment the ball was kicked they went back to doing it. 

Other than it resulting in the goal being called back, I think any impartial observer would say something was going on. Did Riverwood record the game? Maybe you could post the clip for people to see. 

If the ref talked to them before the corner kick and they persisted with some d***ery while/after the ball was kicked.. Easy foul to call. I would also like to see video. Saying the ref took the goal away for something before the kick seems like pure victim fiction.

Is this in response to them tying Marist yesterday?