Central Regionals - Recap
We'll start with the games first, and then for those who care, I'll do a review of regionals in Tulsa.
As most know, it was two pools of seven. Top two crossover to play semi's with winners getting their tickets punched to Sarasota.
Saturday Recap
Game 1 - Forget who, but it was 11-4
Game 2 - Forget who again, looked it up. Apparently Van Buren Boys. 11-4. yea. Cruise over to watch Frontline and Madcow battling it out and madcow pulls out the win 12-10 after being tied at 10's.
Game 3 - Forget who. 11-4?
Game 4 - Subzero. Looking at the regionals and know that BAT, Madcow, and Frontline were battling it out in the other pool to not play Subzero...we made a decision. Let's just play ultimate, make the points short and quick and not expend too much energy as our energy will be best served on Sunday. We also wanted to try out a bit of strategy and see how it worked out during the points. SZ beats us 11-5. We cruise on over to watch Madcow and BAT battle it out.
Game 5 - A few of us take this game off to get ice and let the yoursters play. 11-1
Sunday
Game 6 - Illinois 11-2 - The rains started coming down early in the morning pretty hard at times during this game and we just rolled them. Being a young team they had trouble with a wet disc.
So the semi's are set up SZ vs BAT, and Machine vs. Madcow.
SZ finishes off BAT pretty easily and quickly, maybe 15-6?
We start off well against Madcow. 5-1. A few calls here and there and welcome to the game to go, without observers. Madcow starts a bit of a run. They are going up wind and move the disc to the corner of the endzone to try and break our O team. The player tries a break mark backhand that is partially point blocked and the wind catches it hangs. O Player barely gets his finger tips on it while falling down backwards and calls foul on our player behind him. I get a bit upset to say the least as I was in the corner and had a great view. It was a horrible foul call and have a few words to let him know as you know in that situation they aren't going to take it back.
A couple points later we are going upwind, Kreece puts a nice flick up, but it hangs a bit so it becomes a bit crowded. I hang in the back to try and mop up in case it is misread by the tall people. It's looking like a really good choice and I get ready to jump and get clocked in the shoulder and head and only get a chance to recover and see the disc fall a 5 -7 feet away from me as I most likely would have either gotten it in the air or ran it down if I didn't get clocked. Have to call foul on that, knowing what was about to happen and what the outcome would be...I refused to argue the call and left it up to them to contest or not contest. So the disc goes back after a couple minutes of being called a cheater, etc. Hence the reason for not arguing with them. We end up turning it over, they score, we are up 6-3. Oh, go figure that the guy who clocked me was the same one who called the foul earlier.
Next point a nice huck goes up that would have made it 7-3, but the receiver drops it in the endzone. Madcow scores to make it 6-4.
We take half 8-6, I believe. We trade out to about 11-9 when our O is about to get broken and Bjorn makes a sweet layout D. He basically made the cut for the O and the throw was crappy. O player calls foul on the play since he had to jump into Bjorn to try and get to the disc before Bjorn. That was a great D Bjorn.
Move ahead to 12 - 10, caps are coming on soon and the game because slow and moving slow. We score to make it 13-10.
13 - 10. We generate a turn, I pick up the disc in our endzone walk to the line on the backhand side, pick called, so I survey the field knowing the hard cap is coming soon, and if we are going to turn it we are going to turn it in their endzone to waste some time. I see what I want the receiver takes off and I put up a huge breakmark backhand huck down the line. Kolb runs it down, 4 feet from the endzone (weany arm) while everyone from SZ was yelling for him to layout...bummer. We end up turning it over on their endzone.
We are playing great D and Vijay gets a huge layout block 10 yards from their endzone. Another foul called...another BAD foul called...at least according to everyone on the sideline and anyone else who say the play. Vijay was not happy to say the least :) The take the disc back, a huck goes up that is missed. Move the disc down the field, I get it and move it to Vijay....Vijay throws the goal to end the point. Fittingly.
We get a turn and score, game 15-10.
Finals against Sub Zero.
During the warmups, it is pooring, then it stops right before teh game. We get broken and trade to 3-3 and it is pouring again with us going up wind in down poor. Kreece puts up a great flick to Vijay and Vijay throws the goal. Huge point. however, lighting is seen...so it is a 30 minute delay.
It has cleared up now only slightly raining and we come down in Zone. We get the turn after someone drops in near our goal line. We move teh disc up field and I get the disc and see Kolb cutting for the hammer...i get a bit excited and the hammer comes out bad, turnover....SZ scores...4-4. They break our O for 5-4...and continue to take half 8-4.
We start on D and they score, 9-4. We score, get a couple breaks, make it 10-7. Then a couple more errors and SZ 15-7. All in all, they made plays, we didn't.
General Thoughts
SZ is a young team that is athletic. I'm not sure that they quite have the skill level to take out the top 4 teams. However, if anyone of those teams overlook them, they will. I liked the way they played, most of the time.
Machine - We are still growing as a team. Saw some good things this weekend. We are capable of doing good things and we'll see how we do in Sarasota. If we can put together a whole game or two at Nationals, we'll do alright.
Van Buren Boys...interesting. They beat BAT 15-10 in the game to play the winner of Madcow vs Front Line for the 3 seed. I was not impressed. Sorry.
Madcow - Had to follow a tough game with us with Frontline to get to play VBB. I think they won 15-13? Then looks like they had a tough game with VBB at 15-13. I think they are a better team than VBB, but probably ran out of gas...just a guess as I didn't see the game. But running in mud against FL while VBB watched, couldn't have helped out.
Strategy Notes
Making sure no one played too much and taking it easy against SZ i think helped us out against Madcow who had a tough pool. (Then again, all three qualifiers were from our pool). As it really didn't matter to us who we played, BAT, MAdcow, Frontline...all the same....so why waste energy.
Madcow. Gotta give them props for trying to battle back...but was that really a smart idea? Maybe if they mailed it in and saved their energy, they would be going to Nationals...but win and you're in, right. I bet that is what BAT was thinking playing SZ.
Tulsa recap
1. There were no Observers for the Semi's, or any other playin game. Coming from the NW, that was different. Whether or not that is the RC's fault, or not...don't know. However, if at all possible, there should be observers at EVERY game to go. I've heard about Central for the past few years, and just got a taste. It's not very good. Spirit...is dead...imho...save that for coed and summer tourneys.
2. Semi's Start - There was no schedule or RC to tell us where to play the Semi's until 15 minutes before game time. unacceptable.
3. Fields - Ankle breakers, imo, and not very flat. They were reasonable soft, but that is probably due to them being muddy from all the rain.
4. Beer - Good.
5. Growth of the sport, Tulsa - Well, if you consider placing the tournament 30-40 minutes outside of town in a pretty isoloated soccer complex, then you might want to rethink using this as a point. I'm pretty sure no one in tulsa even had a clue we were there, if a tree falls.... I'd say somewhat similar to going to "Chicago" for CHC...it wasn't Chicago, and where we were was not Tulsa.
6. Flights - Very limited flights to Tulsa. Ours was delayed 2 hours, from Chicago due to AC issues, so not Tulsa's fault, however, there was only one other flight we could have caught if a plane was not able to be found. So...that's not good.
Latest flights out of Tulsa are about 6, I feel bad for Madison, Madcow, and VBB (though they probably drove).
7. Food - seemed to be limited, but where we ate was good at Peppers.
8. Tournament amenities, etc. 2 of the johns were jsut plane horrible. So that left like 4 good ones for 30+ teams. Water - was there water, other than the rain? there were some bagels and fruits, yea!
Overall ranking, from the UPA to RC to the Tournament itself - F. Simply the worst tournament I have been to in the past seven years. I don't mean to hurt feelings...and don't bother with the...do it yourself...but if you are willing to take on the responsibility...do it right.
that's all, for now.
As most know, it was two pools of seven. Top two crossover to play semi's with winners getting their tickets punched to Sarasota.
Saturday Recap
Game 1 - Forget who, but it was 11-4
Game 2 - Forget who again, looked it up. Apparently Van Buren Boys. 11-4. yea. Cruise over to watch Frontline and Madcow battling it out and madcow pulls out the win 12-10 after being tied at 10's.
Game 3 - Forget who. 11-4?
Game 4 - Subzero. Looking at the regionals and know that BAT, Madcow, and Frontline were battling it out in the other pool to not play Subzero...we made a decision. Let's just play ultimate, make the points short and quick and not expend too much energy as our energy will be best served on Sunday. We also wanted to try out a bit of strategy and see how it worked out during the points. SZ beats us 11-5. We cruise on over to watch Madcow and BAT battle it out.
Game 5 - A few of us take this game off to get ice and let the yoursters play. 11-1
Sunday
Game 6 - Illinois 11-2 - The rains started coming down early in the morning pretty hard at times during this game and we just rolled them. Being a young team they had trouble with a wet disc.
So the semi's are set up SZ vs BAT, and Machine vs. Madcow.
SZ finishes off BAT pretty easily and quickly, maybe 15-6?
We start off well against Madcow. 5-1. A few calls here and there and welcome to the game to go, without observers. Madcow starts a bit of a run. They are going up wind and move the disc to the corner of the endzone to try and break our O team. The player tries a break mark backhand that is partially point blocked and the wind catches it hangs. O Player barely gets his finger tips on it while falling down backwards and calls foul on our player behind him. I get a bit upset to say the least as I was in the corner and had a great view. It was a horrible foul call and have a few words to let him know as you know in that situation they aren't going to take it back.
A couple points later we are going upwind, Kreece puts a nice flick up, but it hangs a bit so it becomes a bit crowded. I hang in the back to try and mop up in case it is misread by the tall people. It's looking like a really good choice and I get ready to jump and get clocked in the shoulder and head and only get a chance to recover and see the disc fall a 5 -7 feet away from me as I most likely would have either gotten it in the air or ran it down if I didn't get clocked. Have to call foul on that, knowing what was about to happen and what the outcome would be...I refused to argue the call and left it up to them to contest or not contest. So the disc goes back after a couple minutes of being called a cheater, etc. Hence the reason for not arguing with them. We end up turning it over, they score, we are up 6-3. Oh, go figure that the guy who clocked me was the same one who called the foul earlier.
Next point a nice huck goes up that would have made it 7-3, but the receiver drops it in the endzone. Madcow scores to make it 6-4.
We take half 8-6, I believe. We trade out to about 11-9 when our O is about to get broken and Bjorn makes a sweet layout D. He basically made the cut for the O and the throw was crappy. O player calls foul on the play since he had to jump into Bjorn to try and get to the disc before Bjorn. That was a great D Bjorn.
Move ahead to 12 - 10, caps are coming on soon and the game because slow and moving slow. We score to make it 13-10.
13 - 10. We generate a turn, I pick up the disc in our endzone walk to the line on the backhand side, pick called, so I survey the field knowing the hard cap is coming soon, and if we are going to turn it we are going to turn it in their endzone to waste some time. I see what I want the receiver takes off and I put up a huge breakmark backhand huck down the line. Kolb runs it down, 4 feet from the endzone (weany arm) while everyone from SZ was yelling for him to layout...bummer. We end up turning it over on their endzone.
We are playing great D and Vijay gets a huge layout block 10 yards from their endzone. Another foul called...another BAD foul called...at least according to everyone on the sideline and anyone else who say the play. Vijay was not happy to say the least :) The take the disc back, a huck goes up that is missed. Move the disc down the field, I get it and move it to Vijay....Vijay throws the goal to end the point. Fittingly.
We get a turn and score, game 15-10.
Finals against Sub Zero.
During the warmups, it is pooring, then it stops right before teh game. We get broken and trade to 3-3 and it is pouring again with us going up wind in down poor. Kreece puts up a great flick to Vijay and Vijay throws the goal. Huge point. however, lighting is seen...so it is a 30 minute delay.
It has cleared up now only slightly raining and we come down in Zone. We get the turn after someone drops in near our goal line. We move teh disc up field and I get the disc and see Kolb cutting for the hammer...i get a bit excited and the hammer comes out bad, turnover....SZ scores...4-4. They break our O for 5-4...and continue to take half 8-4.
We start on D and they score, 9-4. We score, get a couple breaks, make it 10-7. Then a couple more errors and SZ 15-7. All in all, they made plays, we didn't.
General Thoughts
SZ is a young team that is athletic. I'm not sure that they quite have the skill level to take out the top 4 teams. However, if anyone of those teams overlook them, they will. I liked the way they played, most of the time.
Machine - We are still growing as a team. Saw some good things this weekend. We are capable of doing good things and we'll see how we do in Sarasota. If we can put together a whole game or two at Nationals, we'll do alright.
Van Buren Boys...interesting. They beat BAT 15-10 in the game to play the winner of Madcow vs Front Line for the 3 seed. I was not impressed. Sorry.
Madcow - Had to follow a tough game with us with Frontline to get to play VBB. I think they won 15-13? Then looks like they had a tough game with VBB at 15-13. I think they are a better team than VBB, but probably ran out of gas...just a guess as I didn't see the game. But running in mud against FL while VBB watched, couldn't have helped out.
Strategy Notes
Making sure no one played too much and taking it easy against SZ i think helped us out against Madcow who had a tough pool. (Then again, all three qualifiers were from our pool). As it really didn't matter to us who we played, BAT, MAdcow, Frontline...all the same....so why waste energy.
Madcow. Gotta give them props for trying to battle back...but was that really a smart idea? Maybe if they mailed it in and saved their energy, they would be going to Nationals...but win and you're in, right. I bet that is what BAT was thinking playing SZ.
Tulsa recap
1. There were no Observers for the Semi's, or any other playin game. Coming from the NW, that was different. Whether or not that is the RC's fault, or not...don't know. However, if at all possible, there should be observers at EVERY game to go. I've heard about Central for the past few years, and just got a taste. It's not very good. Spirit...is dead...imho...save that for coed and summer tourneys.
2. Semi's Start - There was no schedule or RC to tell us where to play the Semi's until 15 minutes before game time. unacceptable.
3. Fields - Ankle breakers, imo, and not very flat. They were reasonable soft, but that is probably due to them being muddy from all the rain.
4. Beer - Good.
5. Growth of the sport, Tulsa - Well, if you consider placing the tournament 30-40 minutes outside of town in a pretty isoloated soccer complex, then you might want to rethink using this as a point. I'm pretty sure no one in tulsa even had a clue we were there, if a tree falls.... I'd say somewhat similar to going to "Chicago" for CHC...it wasn't Chicago, and where we were was not Tulsa.
6. Flights - Very limited flights to Tulsa. Ours was delayed 2 hours, from Chicago due to AC issues, so not Tulsa's fault, however, there was only one other flight we could have caught if a plane was not able to be found. So...that's not good.
Latest flights out of Tulsa are about 6, I feel bad for Madison, Madcow, and VBB (though they probably drove).
7. Food - seemed to be limited, but where we ate was good at Peppers.
8. Tournament amenities, etc. 2 of the johns were jsut plane horrible. So that left like 4 good ones for 30+ teams. Water - was there water, other than the rain? there were some bagels and fruits, yea!
Overall ranking, from the UPA to RC to the Tournament itself - F. Simply the worst tournament I have been to in the past seven years. I don't mean to hurt feelings...and don't bother with the...do it yourself...but if you are willing to take on the responsibility...do it right.
that's all, for now.
posted by $ at 7:18 AM
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