"...city’s top soccer teams squared off in two separate games at TD Place..."
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"...we should expect better, particularly from a public school board — a publicly-funded school board..."
The Cumberland-Capital United merger could end up making some pretty darn tough teams. Re: that pick up top.
ReplyDeleteHotspurs + WOS too?
DeleteReally? Hotspurs & WOS? Sound odd, given that they don't cover adjoining areas.
DeleteYep, not Oct. 17th yet. Someone is smoking some pre-legal stuff. But then again strangers things are happening.
DeleteImmaculata field restrictions appealed, games go later despite committee decision - Jon Willing Updated: September 17, 2018
ReplyDeletehttps://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/immaculata-field-restrictions-appealed-games-go-later-despite-committee-decision
Any word on what the U9-U12 teams are doing this winter? Hopefully all play each other?
ReplyDeleteI doubt that'll happen.
DeleteThings seem very secretive for this winter. Based on the fact that Coliseum was trying to run U11 and U12 leagues but has no teams registered, and based on the teams that have entered Coliseum at the older ages, I would assume the 8 opdp clubs are running their own league and will only publicize it once it is filled with their own teams?
DeleteThe only real question is whether this is the year they stick the knife into Hotspurs.
Delete7 teams.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the Capital United-Cumberland merger, or because OSU convinced the other clubs to turn on Hotspurs?
DeleteSo what is going on league-wise at the U9-U12 age groups? Are these 7 clubs still carrying on with their "exhibition games"? I know the polar bear league was kept quiet last year until all the spots were filled - is it the same deal this winter?
DeleteI don't have kids at those age groups, so just curious about what I've been lucky enough to avoid.
Merger.
ReplyDeleteFuturo were allowed to participate in all festivals this summer. They did not show up. Maybe next year?
Futuro teams have never really played in these local festivals. I don't think they find value in them when you look at the competition. I know personally that my kids have had bad experiences with these, where it seemed that the host club would deliberately group teams to give themselves the better competition and we would end up completely wasting a day or weekend.
ReplyDeleteMuch better developmentally and cost-wise to hand-pick opponents for friendly games - you have control over the quality of the opponent.
How did the U13s do outside of the ERSL? I mean teams that are not in the ERSL, (Montreal, Toronto, USA, other academies...). They are way too strong for the ERSL. Personally, they should be strictly doing friendlies and tournaments. Not sure why they are in the ERSL.
ReplyDeleteDon't know about all parents, but I'm finding the OPDL travel to be a pain in the butt. Espeically this last stretch of games. Only thing worse than driving 5 hrs each way to smoke a team is doing that drive and being on the receiving end of the smoking.
DeleteCall me crazy, but I would prefer if they had a league for Ottawa, Outaouais and Kingston, limit the first division to maybe 6 teams, and you've probably got a pretty decent league without all the travel. You can then save the travelling for really worthwhile games and tournament.
All these imposed "standards" are bs. Don't have to be told how often to train and stuff like that. The best players will likely just go to the clubs that have the highest standards anyway.
Je suis d'accord à 100%. S'il vous plaît soyez conscient de notre population française et de la langue aussi. : )
DeleteLe language n'a rien à voir avec ceci. Ce commentaire est très peu constructif.
DeleteAu contraire. Psychologiquement, le simple fait de parler de ce (légitime et valide) sujet et du coût dans le sport; Cela fera penser à quiconque de soutenir les élites dans le soccer.
DeleteBill 101!
Bataille prolongée! ; )
"...a league for Ottawa, Outaouais and Kingston, limit the first division to maybe 6 teams..." I agree with this. It would make it so much easier for clubs that have not been given "royal permission" in the youth side to branch off into a regionally less expensive 14-week[end] B-B-Q festival-tournament. Heck, you wouldn't even need OS or EODSA involved! Take out the middle-man and invite the Barcelona's, the academies, the footy7s, the crazy7s, the anybodies!!
DeleteAs an ex-participant from a small club, I know of a few small clubs that are in exactly the same position right now! 6 spots is quite easy to fill. It's going to be the motherload! Not all parents want to pay $2K+ a year. : )
They play ERSL because otherwise they would have to coordinate a lot more friendlies. But the local scene definitely isn't ideal for them. Like most Futuro teams, players are given various specific tasks or challenges in local games.
ReplyDeleteThey generally do quite well against other teams from what I've seen and always have way more possession and dictate how the game is played. Maybe don't penetrate enough in the final third so scores make it seem closer than reality, but it is a really nice team to watch. There are a few unbelievably technical players on that team, but every one of the kids on the team is quite good. Not a big team, but really skilled. I would be curious to see how they look when these kids catch up physically to others in the next year or so.
From what I hear, they were by far the best team of the four Ontario Cup semi-finalists, which included a team that has hammered a number of OPDL teams this season, but they were exhausted from returning from England the night before their game and had a small roster because of the trip.
I see that team at training and friendly games here and there and they seem to have it together. Some age groups can have a poisoned atmosphere (I'm thinking of their 2006 team a couple of years back, before a group of families left after causing all kinds of drama). Other age groups you also see players leave looking for something better, some come back, others are embarrassed to return...but the 2005 team seems to have bought in to the program and it really shows. They're a good example for younger teams to follow.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to have an Ottawa based OPDL team, you better make sure that it's a good one, cause going to Toronto half the time just to get beat is not good for the players, the parents, the coaches and the club in general. If your team is not that good, don't bother.
ReplyDeleteOPDL teams are all over the map. Some are strong, some are weak, every team has at least some kids just filling spots. Travelling to play a strong team isn't a big deal, but travelling to play against a really weak team is really frustrating. And I've been surprised by how many weak teams there are. Having a league for eastern Ontario and western Quebec, limited to a handful of teams, would give you more consistency because you won't have many, if any, weak teams. You can always pick up games here and there to play against a strong out of town team.
DeleteI fully enjoyed the Festival only season that just ended. Although I agree that you can set up your own friendlies and control the process, it's also true that alot of strong out of town teams do show up for these events, and you do get some decent opposition just by going to the festivals.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure if Futuro showed up for these festivals, they would be paired with appropriate opposition.
OPDL is a mixed bag. There's great players in OPDL, but there's also really bad ones, players that should be playing 2nd tier regional league. I imagine that money plays a role here, and teams must make certain numbers, and therefore have to accept the bad instead of the best.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad but that's the reality of soccer in Canada. Those players end up playing 15-20min per game, which benefits no one.
As a result, certain teams in OPDL are awful... just terrible. I would like to see a mid-season reshape of the league, creating 2 tiers, where the best during the 1st half of the season play each other and the worse play each other.
And also, a merger with OASL would be good at u14/u15 so the league becomes really best against the best. If we don't go to that model, best against the best, soccer in this country can never recover.
Even tiering or rebalancing will only serve to separate the mediocre teams from the less mediocre teams. At each tier, you'll still have teams with good and bad players, although you would expect the higher tiers to have proportionately more good players.
DeleteOnly way to get the best playing the best is to have pro/rel. Relevant standards can be imposed as a condition of promotion (such as minimum coaching certifications, etc.), but much of what OPDL has mandated is simply to create work for people through administration. Many of the requirements serve no player development purpose. They need to look at how the rest of the world does things, not try to come up with something on their own which is unproven and based on theory.
It is hard to take models from the rest of the world, because most of the rest of the world has a viable and relevant professional game to make the finances work. Jacking up house league prices is not much of a substitute. Promotion-relegation is a great theory, but the reality is that a lot of programs won't survive a relegation. Just look at what happened to CapU, and that was not even a relegation.
DeleteFirst step has to be more regionalized play not divided by provinces. There is absolutely no reason why all but the absolute highest level should need to go to Southern Ontario to compete. All this nonsense in Ottawa soccer is coming from clubs put under absurd financial pressure to operate their programs.
Agree with regionalizing across provincial borders. Ottawa-Montreal is the obvious example, but I'm sure there are others as well.
DeleteSome countries have pro/rel models that aren't based on the individual team, but rather are based on a club's aggregate results. One advantage of this is that a club could have a weak team in a specific age group, but would not necessarily be relegated if the other teams did well enough. Over time, the best players gravitate to the clubs with the best development programs, and you tend not to have as much player movement because of relegation.
Anybody hear what the quality of the soccer in the Eastern Development League has been like?
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the quality, but just like in MLB, National League and the American League "world" face-offs, we could all encourage fairly entertaining (and $$$$ sponsored) soccer games to watch (at TD Place) should the ERSL league, the OPDP festival leagues, the Outaouais leagues and the EDL leagues were not scared of each other and put up their best on the field... are they?
DeleteInteresting:
ReplyDeleteGeneral Manager Brian Mason Email: gm@wosc.com
(https://www.wosc.com/page/show/289012-contact-us)
&
(https://www.eodsa.ca/DisplayPage.aspx?PageID=41)
I am pretty sure they have made sure this does not contradict the "All Board Members shall be subject to the Conflict of Interest Policy in Ontario Soccer’s Published Rules." part of the constitution. I have worked with some of them on other committees and let's give credit where credit is due, they are smart people with ideas that have merit. It is only the blatant lack of inclusiveness in the OPDP implementation that is very problematic/unfair.
DeleteHalf the EODSA board members have positions with clubs who have a goal of taking over the EODSA and making it inoperable. These people need to resign, as they can't be trusted.
DeleteHalf? I think only three don't.
DeleteGet on the Board then.
ReplyDeleteJust being on the Board won't do much - the group running it don't give a damn about their own rules.
DeleteERSL is in an absurd situation. Absolutely no guidance to us about what is coming next. Do they start shutting down? Plan for another season? How much will it cost to run their league? EODSA says there will be a 'Town Hall', when it is simple stuff like registration costs that we need to plan our club budgets.
ReplyDeleteThe way things are going.....will there eventually only be 3 big elite clubs in Ottawa (Non Academy) and then Futuro/Barcelona.
ReplyDeleteOSU
WOS
CUSC
City, Internationals, Nepean etc...merging with the big 3.
They won't be big clubs for long at the rate kids are leaving the sport. Registration for 2017 was the lowest since 1999
DeleteRegistrations across Ontario have seen a drastic decline and it seems to be declining at a much greater rate in recent years. The changes the OSA brought in with LTPD have been catastrophic and have set the game in Ontario back 15 years.
DeleteI would attribute it to OPDP rather than LTPD, though the two happened almost together. The financial demands forced mergers to support OPDP teams at the expense of what the vast majority of players saw and/or increased costs.
DeleteThe whole idea of 'professionalising' the sport is stupid, there is no economic base to support that many genuine professionals. The entire shift has been done without thinking about what the foundations of the game in Canada actually are. Clubs like OSU and WOSC are not the problem, they are the symptom.
Kids are leaving sports in general. Many are lazy....many are kids of lazy parents. Domino effect. When I was a kid, there was maybe one overweight kid per class. Now there are several.
ReplyDelete5000 kids in two years is not kids getting lazy. Unsanctioned soccer for kids is growing, basketball is growing, rugby is growing. Even friggin' ultimate is growing.
DeleteYep 5000 kids at $2000 a year (conservative) is why they trying to funnel the youth-to-adult stream in their favour. Killing off completely the ERSL this upcominng season and wrestling control from the OCSL. All the while having employees on every board that has final say in both samctioned soccer and unsanctioned soccer. Now, that sounds like "insider trading" and can very well be legally challenged by other not for profits or even businesses in general. All the while OS silent so long as they get their "cut" in the form of viable teams.
DeleteThere are currently three Senior National Team Members from Ottawa on the men's team. Before that.....you had to go ALLLLLLLLLL the way back to Hooper to see a guy from Ottawa playing that high up. LTPD and taking soccer more seriously is what will get people there. Someone is doing something right.
ReplyDelete