MN Club Scene

With the successful and exciting conclusion of the High School state tournament, we can now turn our attention to club soccer. I’m sure many teams are already training and preparing for holiday tournaments, spring tournaments, Midwest Regional League and even State Cup.

Please refrain from using this post as a place to attack players, coaches and clubs. I know that many are getting tired of seeing threads turn into exchanges between angry people. Try to focus on the positives in youth soccer and the contributions of clubs, coaches, parents and MYSA.

Barker Resigns from MYSA

Thanks to those who forwarded the email about Ian Barker. For those who do not know, Ian Barker has resigned as Coaching Director for MN Youth Soccer. Here is the MYSA communication:

Date: November 14, 2007
To: MYSA Club PresidentsMYSA Club DOCs
From: MYSA President Bob PorettiMYSA Executive Director Candace Daley

Ian Barker is resigning from MYSA effective December 2007. Ian has been MYSA’s Director of Coaching and Player Development for the last ten years and will be missed greatly. Ian’s love of soccer and kids has always been evident by his dedication of time and talent, his energy and his unswerving commitment to youth soccer. We wish Ian well as he takes some time off before pursuing other career opportunities in the future.

Ian has been known in soccer circles as strong advocate for improving soccer in MN and for developing players through ODP. Ian's leadership and commitment will be missed.

2007 MN High School Soccer State Champions!

Congratulations to that champions and all of the players, coaches and fans that qualified for the State Tournament!

* Anoka High School – Boys AA Champion
* Duluth Marshall HS – Boys A Champion
* Lakeville South HS – Girls AA Champion
* Totino-Grace HS – Girls A Champion

Brackets can be view here:
* Boys A bracket
* Boys AA bracket
* Girls A bracket
* Girls AA bracket

2007 Individual Soccer Awards

Congratulations to the 2007 individual award winners. All are excellent choices and deserve the awards for their outstanding efforts and success in high school soccer.

Coaches Association Mr. Soccer

• AA - Colin Monestario (Wayzata High School)
• A - Keido Poure (St. Bernards High School)

Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year

• Keido Poure (St. Bernards High School)

Pioneer Press Player of the Year

• Mike Hutton (Apple Valley)

2007 Boys Sections

Some highlights and predictions for the 2007 Boys Soccer Sections. I don’t know all of the teams and section well, but I’m taking a shot. Best of luck to all the teams, coaches, fans and parents!

Click on the section links below to see the MSHSL brackets and scores!

1AA - #1 Lakeville North – LN is the class of this average section and should win it.
2AA - #1 Eden Prairie – only Edina in the final should make this section tough for EP. EP wins the final though.
3AA - #1 Apple Valley – one of the toughest sections – AV and Burnsville in the final and it should be a barn burner – Eastview could be the surprise in this section
4AA - #1 Hill Murray – this section demonstrates the parity in soccer this year – no great teams here, but the top 5-6 are capable of winning it. Toss up.
5AA - #1 Osseo – surprised Osseo gets the top seed. This is a strong section and any of the top 5 teams could win it. I predict #3 Champlin Park wins it.
6AA - #1 Wayzata – probably the strongest section with any of the top 5 teams capable of winning it and doing well at state. Even though Wayzata has been scoring goals of late, I predict St. Louis Park wins it.
7AA - #1 Anoka – probably the best job of seeding by the coaches. Only Anoka, Coon Rapids and Blaine have a shot to win it. I say the semi-winner between Coon Rapids and Blaine beats Anoka in the final.
8AA - #St. Cloud Apollo – Traditionally out state teams get clobbered at state. Apollo should win the section.

1A - #1 Rochester Lourdes – this is a big section with 16 teams, but I can see anybody putting up much of a fight against Lourdes.
2A - #1 Mankato West – looks like a Mankato West v Mankato East final.
3A - #1 Blake School – I guess this is a good section for Class A, but really not many good teams. Blake and SPA should get to the final.
4A - #1 St. Paul Humboldt – what a great season for the boys from Humboldt! Congrats! This section has 4 good Class A teams in Humboldt, St. Bernards, Mahtomedi and South St. Paul. I say Mahtomedi over South St. Paul in the final.
5A - #1 Totino Grace – has teams that have historically been strong Class A schools, but not this year. This section is tough to figure out. Even #5 Mpls Edison has a chance to win it, although it should be Totino…don’t bet any money on this one.
6A - #1 Benilde – should be Benilde, Orono and Breck are the class of this section. I predict Orono in an upset in the final over Benilde.
7A - #1 Duluth East – hands down Duluth East rolls through the final.
8A - #1 Hillcrest Lutheran – just like AA, the winner of this section probably will not fair well at the state tournament.

2007 D1, D2 and D3 Players and Teams

Use this post for chat about non-MIAC college players, teams and scores.

2007 HS Soccer

Hard to believe that captains practice is starting in the next week or so. Time for some high school soccer talk. With the relative parity last year, will this year provide one or two dominant teams? Who are your favorites to win State for AA and A? Who will be the surprise teams? Who are the favorites for Mr. Soccer? Note the links for getting to the coach's site, schedules and stats and the State high school league.

2007 MIAC Men

The MIAC was very competitive last year and the talk is that a number of teams will be much improved over last year. For anyone who had a chance to see any games, you know that the MIAC is very entertaining soccer. With St. Johns and Gustavus finishing 5 points ahead of the the 3rd place team, can anyone else rise to their class?

That said 3rd - 8th place were also very good teams and capable of beating #1 and #2 on any given day. I will predict that 2 of the top 4 teams will change this year. Even though Augsburg may have snuck up on a few teams last year, with their young team, transfers and coaching, I will go out a on a limb and say they will finish even higher in the conference this year. Look for MAC and Carleton to also be improved. Should be a great season.

U20 World Cup; Men's National Team; Copa America; American's Overseas

A place to talk about non-MN youth soccer. Lets talk about the U20 World Cup, the Men's National team, the Copa America and Americans overseas (mostly Europe).

What happened? Where are we going?

Even 3 years ago, Wings SC were poised to be MN's top soccer club. With the recent updates to the gotsoccer.com club rankings, the Wings have officially slipped to #3 and have been surpassed by their next door neighbors PSA.

OK, gotsoccer.com may not be the best team ranking, but it does reflect relative club strength. Before anyone jumps on PSA being a 1 trick pony with 15 Boys, 3 years ago, Bangu was reliant on the original Tsunami Sota girls for club ranking points. Congrats to PSA.

If I recall previous rankings point totals, Wings have accumulated about 1/2 of the points they had just 2 years ago. I think most would agree that the former DOC Steve Bellis was instrumental in building the club to notoriety. Has his departure led to their slide? Can they recover?

I think most would agree that having a number of top clubs, focused on developing elite players and teams, is probably the best scenario for MN youth soccer. This post is not meant to dig at the Wings, or their current DOC or board, but to create a spot for discussion around what is next for MN club soccer. How will clubs continue to attract and develop top players and teams?

Regional Scores

A spot for USYSA Regional scores and comments.

MYSA Rules Proposal Deadline

The deadline for suggestions/ideas for rule changes is fast approaching. All rules change proposals are due to MYSA by August 6th at 5:00 PM. Make sure you dot your "i's" and cross your "t's" or is that "cross your eyes" and "grit your teeth?" To quote the topic suggester:

" I smell a bumper crop of bloviated bureaucratic bulls*** coming to an AGM near you this fall..."

Here is a link to the form: http://www.mnyouthsoccer.org/forms/rulessubmittal.pdf

Thank you to the topic suggester, for suggesting the topic! I wasn't sure if "bloviated" was an actual word but I looked it up. According to a free dictionary online it means:

To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner: "the rural Babbitt who bloviates about 'progress' and 'growth'" George Rebeck.

Regional Draw

The Regional draws are out. Here is a boys list by age group, a relative strength of group and my opinion of the MN team's chance of getting out of their group. Overall a pretty good draw for MN teams with 2 teams that should win their groups and 2 others that have a reasonable chance if they can overachieve in 1 game.

U13 Boys MN United
* Draw is MO, ND and NE
* Average to weak group
* If they get by MO they should coast out of their group although 13s is a tough age group to predict.

U14 Boys Bangu
* Draw is IL, SD and NE
* Strong only because IL is in the group
* IL will keep Bangu from advancing

U15 Boys PSA
* Draw is MRL2 (MI), OS, ON
* Strong group with with all respectable teams
* If PSA is at the top of their game, they will win the group

U16 Boys Bangu
* Draw is MRL2, SD and KS
* Strong group with MRL2 and a good Bangu 16s team
* MRL2 is not identified yet, so I say 50/50 chance to get out of group

U17 Boys Valley United
* Draw is WI, IL and KS
* Very strong group as IL, WI and Valley are all very good.
* Tough to predict wins over IL and WI, but Valley are a talented side.

U18 Boys Bangu
* Draw is ON, IL and KY
* Very strong group even though it contains a jelly-filled KY team
* Can't envision a scenario were Bangu can beat IL. Will probably hope for tie and look to goal differential for a chance.

U19 Boys Eagan
* Draw is IN2, OS and KY
* Weak to average group and a tough age group to predict
* Could go 3-0 or 0-3...no prediction here

'07 State Cup Finals

It's official. Eagan winners for U19 Boys, Bangu Tsunami Sota winners for U19 Girls. Both 2-0 winners over their opponents.

Bangu with 8 titles. With no other club winning more than one, and the Wings and Eden Prairie winning no titles, it would be tough to argue club supremacy.

Bangu Tsunami FC - B14, B16, B18, G13, G14, G16, G17, G19
Minneapolis United - B13
Plymouth Soccer - B15
Valley United - B17
Eagan - B19
Woodbury SC - G15
St. Croix SC - G18

My picks for teams with the best chances to advance out of group play at Regionals are Bangu 19 Girls, PSA 15 Boys, Bangu 17 Girls, Valley 17 Boys, Bangu 18 Boys, Bangu 16 Girls, and Minneapolis United 13 Boys. Of course, it will all depend on the draw.

Congratulations to all the teams and players that participated in this year's MN State Cup.

Favorite Soccer Memory

Thanks to the parent who suggested a great topic. Please share your favorite soccer memory with the rest of the soccer community. Please, let us hear about the game you watched in South America, or Europe or in Blaine watching your U8 player? Or could it be about a post game party at Pizza Hut? Or a national showcase tournament where your underdog team beat a nationally ranked team? Or a weather delayed game where both teams huddled under a shelter? Or a special coach or parent volunteer who touched your child's life?

Abdus Ibrahim Update

Updates on Abdus Ibrahim from a recent US National Team U17 game. Ibrahim is with MLS' Dallas FC, and a former Richfield HS and Wings SC player. It will be interesting to see if he ends up getting any minutes in the MLS. He is currently listed as a developmental player on the Dallas FC roster.

From Top Drawer Soccer - U17 MNT v. Jamaica
http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/articles.aspx?article=2304

The Star Tribune about MLS draft:
http://www.startribune.com/526/story/932450.html

State Cup 2007

Alas, time to get back to this old blog.

Thought I should post a thread for State Cup chatter. Already there is controversy with schedules changing after the initial publication. Rumors abound of favouritism and unfairness...so what else is new. Most of us realize that 'MN Nice' is not a compliment...it refers to the “I'll be nice to your face, then seek to destroy you behind you back” behaviour (the old Scanda-houvia passive-aggressive thing.)

Good luck to all players, teams, coaches, referees, MYSA officials and parents (in that order.) I hope the competition is as exciting as the blog posts we will see.

Remember if you’re downright nasty, with no point, I will delete your post :>)

Happy Blogging!

Local Tournaments

Here's a place to chat about local tournaments in Minnesota (or even neighboring state). If your team has played any local tournaments over the past couple of years, let us all know about the competition, refing, fields, organization and fun factor.

I know historically, NSC Cup is one of the larger early season tournaments. The "USA Cup Weekend" has grown as many local teams don't want to pay the big bucks or commit to 5-6 days of playing (probably at the expense of the EP tourney.) They also get many of the international and east coast and west coast teams as they come in early to play a warm up tourney before the cup.

Midwest Regional League

I think Midwest Regional League is important enough to have its own posting. For league schedules and game results check out: http://www.midwestregionalleague.com/index.asp

Coach Chatter

Please use this post for your top 10 coaches list. Please try to keep things civil and try to be constructive. Thank you and good luck!