2008 Team you're most interested in seeing play this year

interesting. We all have our own interpretation on destroyed . However, from watching both teams i would guess 4-1 MLS . But during September anything could happen i suppose . Best of luck to your team they are a solid bunch of lads

 

Rising 08 ECNL Boys Lost 2-0 to the Rising 08 MLS Boys. Three players from PRFC Meadows played with ECNL and really did quite well. The ECNL boys played really nervous during the first 15 to 20 minutes (during which they gave up both goals - one on a questionable foul in the Box - PK) and played very good on defense the rest of the game.
The Rising 08 MLS team is ridiculously good and is very aggressive going after the ball. Assuming they don't lose very often.

 

Rising 07 ECNL beat Rising 07 MLS 1-0. Pretty even match. MLS had some opportunities they didn't capitalize on. ECNL played well and then their striker broke loose and got one in with like 5 minutes left.

 

Rising 07 ECNL is very good. Their Striker and several other players have suited up for the MLS team this season due to injuries.

 

Yes they are a solid team. They play good defense...with a really good CB. Play well in the middle and when their forward thats been out awhile comes back from his injury, they will have two monsters that are really fast and strong that just wear you down. Hopefully all these teams get to play the 2nd half of the season.

 

2008 Boys Update, Advanced Leagues finished last night.

APL
PRFC West Valley Meadows beat Arsenal ECNL last night 3-0 to secure the 3 points needed to pass CCV for the APL Title. Meadows dominated ASL1 last season (undefeated) and went 8-1-1 in APL this season. Most goals (35) and least goals allowed (8). Very well rounded squad with a suffocating defense. Led by one of the best Coaches in AZ, David Meadows.

CCV takes 2nd by only 1 point going 8-0-2. These kids lost the best 2008 keeper in the state, and two other starters to Rising MLS Pro Academy, regrouped and still almost went back to back Champs in APL. Mad props to them. Great job Coach Andersen.

Excel finished 3rd, about right for them. They have 2 quality athletic strikers but their midfield and back line let them down from time to time.

Arsenal ECNL - Here’s the biggest surprise. They finish 4th. Expected they would finish 1st or 2nd. Their back line is solid and fast they just don’t have the athletic finishers up top. 4th place is a terrible result for this ECNL squad.

Markette/Tuzos.... they couldn’t hang all season. Tuzos 08 folded and forfeited last 3 games. Ouch.

ASL1
FC Arizona Olayo completely dominated 9 wins and a tie. Welcome to APL next year!

ASL2
Del Sol II wins the title going 9-0-1. Should jump to APL next season.
Rising North Valley Irwin takes 2nd going 7-2-1. Like Del Sol II this team has played well all season and deserves an APL spot.

Next season APL should look like this (assumes Arsenal just plays ECNL and teams apply for APL and roster continuity)

Rising Meadows
CCV
Excel
FC Arizona Olayo
Del Sol II
Rising N Valley Irwin

 

If I had to put together a top 10 list for Boys 08 including the teams that played State or Open League:

1. PRFC West Valley Meadows - Agree with all above. Easily the most consistent team. Played against a LOT of top flight Non-AZ teams in Desert Cup, MSI and Surf Cup and fared pretty well. Won Desert Cup against a few highly rated ECNL teams. Best resume of all AZ teams with wins against 6 teams on this list. Big wins: CCV (2x), Arsenal ECNL, Excel (2x), PRFC NV, San Juan ECNL, LA Surf ECNL, RSL ECNL, FC AZ Olayo, Calcio Blue (2x), New Mexico Soccer Academy (4th in Desert Conf)
2. CCV - Played really consistent in APL. Lost in the finals of Kick for the Cure and came close in CCV tournament and Prez Day weekend. Big Wins: PRFC Meadows, Excel (3x), Arsenal ECNL, PRFC ECNL, Del Sol II
3. Del Sol II - Breezed through a pretty tough ASL2. Played really consistent in tournaments and made the finals of the top brackets for the Holiday Classic & MSI. Probably should have played up a bracket in the Arsenal Challenge & Desert Super Cup which they won against marginal competition. Big Wins: PRFC Meadows, Tulsa ECNL, PRFC Irwin (2x), FC AZ Olayo, Calcio Blue, Sparta United UT (3rd in Desert Conference)
4. Arsenal ECNL - 4th in APL and won the opening PRFC tournament of the season against PRFC Meadows, CCV & Rising ECNL. Pretty decent resume outside of ECNL play. Big Wins: Del Mar ECNL, PRFC ECNL, PRFC Meadows (2x), CCV, Calcio Blue
5. PRFC North Valley Irwin - Finished a strong 2nd in ASL2 and beat Del Sol II the final game of the season. Didn't shy away from the top bracket of tournaments they played including Surf Cup. Won both the Kick for the Cure (over #2 CCV) and Holiday Classic (over Del Sol II). Big Wins: CCV, Del Sol (2x), PRFC West Valley Moreno (3x)
6. Excel - Had an up and down season but still won CCV and Tuzos Challenge. Big Wins: Arsenal (2x), Calcio Blue
7. FC Arizona Olayo - Really good team that dominated ASL1. Fared well in several tournaments including winning the Awhatukee Classic. Probably could have played up in some bigger tournaments. Big Wins: PRFC NV Irwin, Calcio Blue, PRFC Moreno
8. Calcio Blue - Won the Cactus kickoff and finished 3rd in ASL1. Big Wins: CCV, NSFC Blue, RSL North
9. PRFC West Valley Moreno - Won 2 tournaments (Sandsharks & Cactus Kickoff) and finished 4th in ASL2. Big Wins: PRFC 09 Scottsdale, Sandsharks, Arsenal Teal
10. NSFC Blue - Only played 1 tournament. Probably the smallest resume out of any of the top 10 teams but 2nd place finish in a fairly weak ASL1 got them on here. Big Wins: RSL North, PRFC Scottsdale Kassube

Ranking teams 2 through 4 was pretty tough. I felt like CCV had more quality wins and beat Del Sol II head to head. I also thought Arsenal could have been higher since they have some really good wins but CCV and Del Sol played better when it mattered in league play and tournaments. However I will note that Arsenal also did play a punishing ECNL schedule against many CA teams that could handily beat most teams on this list.

 

Great analysis AZSocceFan...

Arizona sent two teams to play in the Desert Conference league this season. CCV was an automatic bid since they won APL last season. Derek Yen chose RSL Markette over Rising Meadows for the 2nd slot, he even knew Markette had a complete roster turnover and Meadows was fully in tact. Here are the results of that surprisingly dumb decision.

https://system.gotsport.com/org_event/events/1109/schedules?group=6090

CCV has played 8 games: 1 win, 1 tie, 6 losses. Their only win was against RSL Markette team.
RSL Markette has played 8 games. 0 wins, 1 tie, 7 losses.

So after 16 games and a possible 48 total points AZ teams have 1 win and 2 ties for a total of 5 points. Dreadful results. Really can't get any worse.

New Mexico, who is sitting in 4th place: Rising Meadows beat them 1-0 and tied them 0-0 this year.

 

AZsoccerfan, you had me all the way up to 9 and 10.

#10 should be ranked higher based on league finish alone. And how can #9 finish 4th in state league 2 and be ranked higher than other teams? You had me until the last two spots.

 

I think if you shuffle up AZSocceFan's #7-10 teams in a bag and re-ordered them it would be fine, all of those teams can beat each other. He's probably basing some of his rankings on YouthSoccerRankings website. Your point about #9 finishing 4th in ASL2 doesn't hold as much water as you think though, the Top 2 teams in ASL2 could outplay the winner of ASL1 and should be in the APL next season.

This weekend in the RSL Ostrich Tourney Del Sol II beat NSFC/East Valley 4-0, and NSFC finished dead last in their group of 4. NSFC/East Valley has played Calcio Blue 4 times this season. 3 ties and a loss. NSFC/East Valley has even lost to a poor RSL Southern Hoauola team. Could they beat Rising Moreno? Absolutely, it's just not as clear cut as looking at Advanced League standings. NSFC/East Valley themselves don't even believe they belong with the top teams, they applied for Presidents Cup instead of State Cup.

 

Appreciate the feedback. I originally had NSFC a bit higher based on their finish in ASL1, but when I looked at their quality wins they didn't really beat any really good teams. They had a lot of ties and close losses to some good teams (Olayo) but weren't able to break through with a quality win. They had a chance this past weekend and got clubbed 4-0 by Del Sol II and tied Calcio Blue.

Both #9 (PRFC Moreno) and #10 (NSFC) were the only 2 teams that didn't have a least 1 win against another team on the list and I felt that ASL2 had better teams/competition than ASL1 but 9 & 10 could go either way and I think it would be fair to have NSFC at #9.

 

I think this has more to do with not playing Sundays as opposed to not believing in themselves. Historically Presidents Cup would work around non Sundays; not so much State Cup.

 

Below is the President's Cup list of teams. I would put FC Arizona Olayo, North Valley Rising Irwin or NSFC East as the favorites to win. Interesting that most of the ASL 1 teams opted for President's Cup instead of State Cup.



I can only assume that State Cup will be:

• West Valley Rising Meadows
• CCV Courage
• Excel
• RSL Markette (probably better suited for Prez Cup but I think APL mandates them to be in State Cup)
• Tuzos (will they be able to field a team - they forfeited their last several games of the APL season).
• Arsenal ECNL - Can ECNL play State Cup? If so, will this infringe on their ECNL season which starts up again in a few weeks.
• Del Sol II - could be a darkhorse candidate to go far
• Calcio Blue - They seem to play every tournament and they are conspicuously absent from Prez Cup participants

Missing anyone?
Kind of wish Olayo and Irwin put on their big boy pants and challenge themselves by playing in State Cup.

 

Anyone know what happened to Tuzos?

 

Team forfeited last 3 games of APL. Parents finally had enough of that Coach. 2-3 starters now on Rising West Valley Moreno, which is last years Tuzos B team. Coach Moreno had 2 boys on Tuzos last year so he agreed to coach Tuzos B team. His boys moved on from Tuzos so he told his B team parents he was done coaching, and they talked him into staying. He agreed as long as they moved to Rising West Valley and they all did. He has several high quality kids on that team that West Valley Meadows borrows from time to time.

 

https://events.gotsport.com/events/teamlist.aspx?eventid=79497

State Cup accepted teams. Looks like Calcio Blue is in, Arsenal ECNL is not. ASA hasn’t updated in a month though maybe there are some late entries. Agree that Olayo and Irwin should be up there though. Wonder if Del Sol II will bring their 6-7 MLS Pro Academy kids? They’ve played them the last two tourneys. I watched the Del Sol II vs Atletico game last weekend in RSL Ostrich tourney. 3-4 of the regular players didn’t even get to play 2nd Half. Del Sol II coach kept telling his kids “I don’t care about the score I just want to see improvement.’”... this as he’s playing to win by sitting the normal B team kids the entire 2nd Half, LOL. They lost. I felt terrible for those benched kids.

Seeding/Drawing is on Monday I’m guessing 2 groups of 3 in State Cup.

 

Those Del sol boys could be part time players for the MLS team. Right? As long as they were on the roster since November I don’t know the rules but I see it as bring ur best. State cup use to have the states best teams play. Wish more of the ecnl teams would part take.