My version of NASA tourney - what I saw and what I heard....

Between my two daughters games this weekend and time spent hanging around between games, I probably watched more than a dozen Academy games this weekend and of course talked to a number of parents up through U13's. I thought it was a good tournament and especially considering the late switch of fields for the U12's from Tramore to EC-Y it ran smoothly at our locations.

What I saw - NASA, Norcross, TH and CF teams all try to play good soccer. And the coaches all seem to focus on touches, being comfortable with the ball at your feet, playing simple, passing and not booming the ball. I can't say the same about a number of other clubs I saw this weekend, with the worst offenders being SSA-CFC and Strikers. Frankly, it's bad when the parents' loudest cheers come from little Suzie kickballing the ball down the field. Please stop.

I also saw great sportsmanship between parents and players. We lost a heartbreaking 2-1 game against TH-Navy Sunday morning and almost every parent on both teams congratulated the opposing teams' efforts. It was nice to see. I saw the same thing after both NASA-CF games on Sunday.

IMO, the first CFNB - NASA Ingram game was more indicative of how those teams match up than the second. I thought the second result came from CF players clearly being more set in their roles and showing, I think, their experience gained from the Eclipse tourney. They were definitely the more prepared team and understood roles better than the NASA team, which I think is understandable given practice and playing time together. The last three games between the two clubs have been 1-goal games or ties so I think the 4-0 score was misleading. CF definitely outplayed NASA and deserved the win but it wasn't a 4 goal separation between the clubs. I definitely look forward to all of those future matchups as both teams grow into 11v11 play. Congrats to them on the tourney win.

What I heard - NASA is pretty good at U10, pretty bad at U11 and jury is out at U13. I heard from parents some of what the poster below commented on about U13, and it does sound like the mix of talent might need to be re-evaluated there.