Some Great Soccer News Links and Our Future

For the first week or so, these posts will largely be about "catching up."

A lot has changed since we stopped blogging about soccer back in 2009; global tournaments have been played, upsets have been realized, champions have been crowned, and from a soccer blogging perspective, information availability has ballooned.

There are so many great options for fans these days. Some of my favorites are:

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer

https://www.reddit.com/r/everton (of course)

http://www.livesoccertv.com/

And these guys have done a fantastic job of bringing English football in to our homes and pubs every Saturday and Sunday morning;

http://www.nbcsports.com/live

With all of this competition for your time, Gruffgoat is going to hone in on a niche of sorts that we hope will compel readers to spend a few minutes out of their day, enjoying some of our soccer content.

That niche has yet to be confirmed, but a current pie chart of our content might look something like this:

 

We will likely be expanding one of these wedges depending on what you guys want to read about so give us feedback and continue to stay tuned. 

Catching Up With Atlanta United (VIDEO)

Way back when we first started Gruffgoat's Soccer Blog in 2008 and 2009, we dreamed of what it might be like to have an MLS team in Atlanta, GA.

It seemed as though every year, it was on, and then off, on, and then off again. Fast forward to 2014 and the days of wishing are officially a thing of the past!

Major League Soccer announced that Atlanta would host the league's 22nd team.

As you no doubt know by now, the team will be called Atlanta United and as it is Gruffgoat's hometown team, it will feature heavily alongside Everton in future posts.

Now enjoy this video of the Atlanta United brand reveal (and if you pay close attention, you will see me in here).

~G

Georgia High School AAAAA Girls Top 10 Pre-Season Rankings Announced

The EUROSPORTSCOREBOARD has posted their pre-season top 10 rankings for GA High School Girls Soccer. Enjoy and debate:

"Top 10" Preseason Poll

1 Parkview
2 North Gwinnett
3 Brookwood
4 Walton
5 Kennesaw Mountain
6 Harrison
7 Milton
8 Peachtree Ridge
9 Grayson
10 South Forsyth

Georgia High School AAAAA Boys Top 10 Pre-Season Rankings Announced

The EUROSPORTSCOREBOARD has posted their pre-season top 10 rankings for GA High School Boys Soccer. Enjoy and debate:

"Top 10" Preseason Poll

1 Collins Hill
2 Walton
3 Chattahoochee
4 Brookwood
5 Harrison
6 Parkview
7 Centennial
8 Peachtree Ridge
9 East Coweta
10 North Cobb

Kennesaw State Buys Land for Soccer Expansion

According to an article in today's AJC, Kennesaw State University wrapped up the acquisition of 88 acres across the street from the University's main entrance.

Why is this news for Gruff readers? Because they plan to build seven soccer fields and a 2500 seat - pushing up to 7500 - soccer stadium!

Dan Chapman of the AJC reports that

"within the last year, the KSU Foundation has cobbled together 88 acres between I-75 and I-575 and below Chastain Road. At least seven soccer-sized athletic fields will be laid out along with a track and restrooms.

A jogging trail will encircle a 10-acre lake. Intramural and club teams, including lacrosse, rugby and flag football, will also use the fields."

KSU has a very strong girls program who went 11-4-5 last season, losing a semi final shootout to Belmont in the NCAA Division One Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament.

This type of real estate dedicated to soccer is sure to give the already well regarded program an even bigger boost!

Sorry Atlanta, Aruthur Blank Withdraws his bid for an MLS Expansion Team

Blame it on the State budget, blame it on the overall economy, blame it something...but no matter where the blame is placed - Atlanta, and indeed the entire Southern US, will remain without an MLS franchise for the foreseeable future.

In an statement issued by Kim Shreckengost, executive vice president at the AMB Group LLC and Arthur Blank’s chief of staff said:

"In mid-October, AMB Group submitted its bid application to own and operate a Major League Soccer team in metro Atlanta. We recently informed MLS officials that we will not be ready to field a team in the 2011 season, which is the season currently under review for two expansion teams, primarily because we didn't feel we would be able to complete a public/private partnership arrangement in the timeframe necessary to build a soccer stadium by 2011."

Read the complete article at the Atlanta Business Chronicle here.

So Atlanta soccer fans hoping for an MLS franchise will have to once again wait...and wait...and wait.

The Cobb Amatuer Soccer League - Winter Season post match report for Ohana Kekoas O-35

I promised a post match report for those interested so here it goes:

The weather at Lost Mountain Park was cold as expected, but not the mind numbing cold I was bracing for. Shorts were actually just fine after warm-up and with a beanie and gloves, the weather was not a problem.

As for the match itself - we won pretty easily actually. I'm not sure what the final score was - it's a winter tune up league anyway, so score is not that big a deal - but we slotted in at least 6 on the small sided goals.

In addition, we are sans our regular keeper Danny, so team captain Todd, doing what captains do, stepped up to mind the nets for the first 40. We divided goal keeping duties among four of us the second half so for those keeping score, Jeff, Kevin, TJ and yours truly rounded it out.

The thing that did surprise me about this league is that it's two 40-minutes halves! At seven players per side, that’s a pretty decent amount of running.

Not to mention, we only had eight show up – meaning one sub – so needless to say, yours truly will most likely be pretty sore tomorrow! On a cold day like this, I'd rather be moving on the pitch - albeit slowly - than standing on the sides.

Early on we played some really nice soccer considering the winter rust build up; a lot of ball movement, nice one touch passing, good scoring opportunities and solid defense. We were up by 3 at half time and scored at least a couple of more in the second – but with quickly wearying legs toward the 65 minute mark, we let one slip past us to keep from getting the clean sheet and Witch Doctors did a nice job of keeping the pressure on until the final whistle.

Let’s hope the weather holds out for next weekend and maybe is even a bit warmer…the 40s would be nice!

ADASL’s Perrin Cup Quarter Final Round is Taking Shape

The ADASL is one of Georgia’s top amateur leagues and the argument can be made that it is in fact the highest level of competition available to amateurs in the state.

The league has an excellent annual single elimination tournament that runs the length of the season called the Perrin Cup.

Now with the preliminary rounds, the round of 32, and the round of 16 out of the way, the drama that is the quarter finals, with the exception of one remaining bracket, is scheduled to be played out on February 15th.

The matches scheduled are:

First Division leaders Melchester Wings vs. Third Division upstarts Creswell FC

First Division Dasani vs. First Division Sting Gold (my former club – good luck guys)

First Division AC Silverbacks vs. First Division FC Ljiljan

With the last bracket still in limbo between Neusoft, Screaming Pelicans, Real Pish, and B&H International

I'll be tracking this tournament so stay tuned for updates.

Update from Atlanta Women's Professional Soccer

I just popped open my email Inbox to find an update from Georgia Soccer that may be of interest to friends and fans alike. I've redacted the fundraising bits for the general public, but if you're interested, visit the homepage at www.atlantawomensprosoccer.com/ for all of the details.

It is an exciting time to be a soccer fan! Last month, we kicked off our season ticket pledge drive and are working hard to bring a Women's Professional Soccer team to Atlanta in 2010. In just a few months, on March 29, the Los Angeles Sol and the Washington Freedom will start the league's inaugural season in Los Angeles with Marta Vieira de Silva and Abby Wambach leading their teams in a special opening game.

...

We are preparing to launch a "name the team" contest at the Georgia Soccer Annual General Meeting on January 31 and plan to announce a name for our team at the beginning of the WPS Inaugural 2009 season! Stay tuned for more details about how you can vote on a team name. We are continuing to explore several stadium options and will keep you posted on our progress and news.

I too will try and keep you guys and gals updated as more details emerge.

Metro Atlanta Weather Forecast for Saturday's Sub-Arctic Classic - COLD

The Sub-Arctic Classic is rescheduled for this Saturday at 1:00PM EST as Ohana FC Kekoas take on the Witch Doctors.

Actually it's just the first match or our Cobb Amateur Soccer League winter 7-aside series, but I'm allowed some delusions of grandeur right? The Ohana FC Kekoas is the over 35 team I joined with last fall after taking about seven years off of playing - and by the way, as I've posted before, my hamstrings have never forgiven me.

So as of right now, the Weather channel is forecasting our match day weather as sunny and in the 30sF.

That may not sound too bad for you guys dialing in from the frozen Tundra that is the vast majority of the US right now, but for me...it's going to be a bit on the chilly side.

I'll be sure to post a post-match report for the hundreds...ok, dozens...ok, fan.

FTLOTG.

Georgia High School Boys AAAAA Top 15 pre-season rankings are out - Correction

So apparently I jumped the gun on these by a few weeks...the list I posted below is actually the final 2008 rankings from May 19, 2008...and the actual rankings aren't due out for a couple of more weeks. I'll be sure to post the pre-season rankings as soon as they come out.

Georgia High School Boys AAAAA Top 15 pre-season rankings are NOT out - corrected headline

CORRECTION - Original Post Below

For all of you Georgia high school soccer fans, the first set of rankings have been posted out on eurosportscoreboard.com.

Based on my background post from yesterday, I'd really be interested to know what clubs the majority of the players are coming from in each of these schools. Does anyone have that kind of data? There's a thread over in the forum for those who want to discuss in detail.

My guesses are alongside the list, but they are only guesses...I have no idea on some of these.

1 Walton - NASA: Metro North / Concorde
2 Collins Hill - GSA
3 Brookwood - GSA
4 East Coweta - Coweta County Soccer Association
5 Chattahoochee - Concorde
6 Harrison - Cobb FC / NASA
7 Centennial - Roswell Santos
8 Parkview - GSA
9 Houston Co - I have no idea
10 Warner Robins - I have no idea
11 North Cobb - Kennesaw FC / Cobb FC
12 Peachtree Ridge - GSA
13 S Forsyth - Atlanta Soccer Academy
14 Paulding Co - West Metro / Cobb FC
15 Camden County - I have no idea

Georgia High School AAAAA Preview - First Predictions of the Season Courtesy of GSF

Here's a reprint of some very insightful analysis by Gwinnett Soccer Fan on this year's Georgia High School AAAAA Boys predictions. I gleaned from a somewhat infamous forum out at www.network54.com.

Gwinnett Soccer Fan, please contact me if I need to take this down, but I wanted to give your analysis some more coverage and put it out as a good starting point for folks to bring their own opinions to the table.

Again, full props to GSF, reprinted in its entirety:

#1 - Collins Hill ... at least eight or nine returning starters from last season's state runner-up finish ... strong team but will there be chemistry?

#2 - Chattahoochee ... Coach Meenan has really been building a great program the four or five seasons and these guys play CHHS in the first region game of the year ... all the marbles early??

#3 - Walton ... although they lost all of their top stars to D-1 soccer, they will still be a strong team because of Coach Boozer ... Raiders win 6-AAAAA.

#4 - Harrison ... I know many of you out there don't think much of Coach Gross but he has also built a solid program in Cobb County ... look for the Hoyas to win 5-AAAAA and seriously compete for the title.

#5 - Parkview ... they have their terrific striker (KG) coming back and one of the best keepers in Gwinnett County ... they have a solid coach (Tolmich) and have back-to-back 8-AAAAA titles ... only problem has been that they haven't made it past the 2nd round since since the 2005 title season.

#6 - East Coweta ... I know many of you will laugh at this because you are thinking "ECHS, are you crazy?" They return their most of their starters with the exception of their keeper and they should breeze into the quarter-finals before meeting a tough Atlanta-area team. Can they repeat and make it to the Final Four? I think they can.

#7 - Norcross ... The Blue Devils were young the last two seasons and did well in the playoffs despite their youth ... this season they have a great nucleus of solid players and will compete well with Collins Hill and the Hooch ... look for Norcross to be the "sleeper pick" this season.

#8 - Peachtree Ridge ... they won 7-AAAAA last season but were upended in the playoffs by a very good Brookwood team last season ... the Lions will be a solid team but all of 7-AAAAA is good. It would not surprise me to see 7-AAAAA sweep 8-AAAAA in the first round of the playoffs this year.

#9 - Centennial ... they had a great run last season beating Parkview and making it to the quarter-finals before losing to East Coweta ... although they lost some key players, they will be very competitive.

#10 TIE (Brookwood and Northview) ... Brookwood lost nine seniors from last year's team and is in complete rebuilding mode this season and lacking a goalkeeper ... they have a good coach and solid rising JV players but I don't know if they can get past the 1st round of the playoffs ... Northview was really young last season and lost to Brookwood in the 1st round of the playoffs ... EC and SD are terrific goal scorers for the Titans and they will have to beat either CHHS, PRHS, Hooch, or Norcross if they want to make the playoffs.

Honorable Mention:

North Cobb (5-AAAAA)
South Forsyth (7-AAAAA)
Kennesaw Mtn (5-AAAAA)
Central Gwinnett (8-AAAAA)
Camden County (3-AAAAA)
Houston County (1-AAAAA)

Best of luck to all the teams.
GSF

Georgia High School AAAAA Preview – Some Background

It’s a gorgeous winter day in Atlanta; perfect for pre-Spring season training and with that, my thoughts are turning to high school soccer in Georgia.

By way of background, for those of you checking in from abroad, the United States uses the same athlete’s promotion system for almost every sport (save gymnastics and tennis where serious talent is typically home-schooled). In other words, kid’s here don’t get recruited in to professional academies, rather they almost always travel up through the same high school to college to professional system.

This system is modeled on the American football promotion system which basically means that players play recreationally at the youth level, they try to make their high school team (in the US those are years 9-12), then rather than go in to professional soccer, they try to make a university team, and finally after university, they will find their way in to the professional ranks.

I’m starting to see more emphasis placed on a player’s club performance as opposed to a player’s high school performance, but the outcome has essentially the same net effect. The goal is recruitment to a university team, rather than a professional academy.

This system is the rule for which there are very few exceptions. But suffice it to say, we don’t have proper football academies so in spite of its inherent flaws, this is still our best means of surfacing international caliber talent.

Former AJC Soccer Writer has a New Shtick

As a follow up to my earlier “where in the world is Carmen…I mean Wendy Parker?” post, I wanted to let fans of the now retired “Off the Ball” segment know that she has moved on to greener pitches.

Wendy is trying her hand at digital journalism over at Ink-Drained Kvetch. According to Wendy's "about me" segment,

"after 25 years in the newspaper business, I have left it to pursue new opportunities in journalism. As of Sept. 1, 2008, I have accepted a buyout from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where I worked for nearly 19 years, mainly as a sportswriter. For the last four years, I was a producer and editor on the AJC’s website (ajc.com), where I got a chance to reinvent my career."

I caught up with Wendy today via post comment and she mentioned that she may dip back in to some soccer writing in the near future. Until then, enjoy her current stuff.

Cherokee County Board Approves New 50 Acre Soccer Complex

1/08/2008

Cherokee Impact News

According to an article in the Cherokee County tribune writtin by Ashley Fuller, Cherokee County's first soccer complex could be ready by Autumn 2009.

The article says, "The county's Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night approved a bid from F.E. Sims Enterprises for the construction of the complex on Blalock Road in Toonigh.

The county received 11 bids for the project, and F.E. Sims' bid of $2.4 million was the lowest. County Manager Jerry Cooper said work on the project could begin within 30 to 45 days."

The article continues, "County leaders hope to have the complex completed in time to see the fields used for games this fall."

This is great news for soccer in the North Metro Atlanta area.

It goes on to say, "Cooper said the complex would be built on 50 acres on Blalock Road near its intersection with Toonigh Road and north of East Cherokee Drive. The complex will include 17 soccer fields that range in size for under-6 to under-19 teams, 800 parking spaces, two restroom buildings, a concession stand and field house, and administrative building, storm drainage facilities and water and sewer infrastructure to serve the complex."

Well done Cherokee County!

Concorde Fire Showcases Well at Disney

12/31/2008

Concorde Fire News

Concorde Fire took their talents to the Disney Showcase and 3 out of the 4 boy's teams ended up with hardware.

The U18 Boy's Concorde Fire Elite, coached by Mark Tonner, were 4th in their Showcase Bracket. They went 2-0-1 in group play, scoring 8 times and allowing 4 goals.

The U15 Boy's Concorde Fire Elite, coached by Adrian Powell, were 3rd in their Showcase Bracket when they beat the Dallas Texans USSF U16 team in the 3rd Place Match.

Finally, the most impressive team of the tournament for Concorde was the U17 Boy's Concorde Fire Elite, coached by Ken Kurilec. They won all three of their group play games by scoring 7 and only allowing 1 goal. In the Final, they were unable to beat the Dallas Texans USSF U18 team by losing 0-1.

Cobb Amateur Soccer League - winter season postponed

Ugh! I was mentally prepared to blow my hamstrings out yet again and lo and behold if the rain gods didn't spare me.

We've had a much needed boat load of rain, so I'm guessing the fields at Lost Mountain Park were fairly drenched.

For any CASL Winter leaguers out there, we're scheduled to resume next week, Saturday, January 17th at a slightly discounted price. Looks like we are looking at a short 6 game season, still not bad for January and February; certainly better than sitting around and getting fat while we wait for the spring portion of the season to roll in!

AJC's Off the Ball is Off the Radar

Resolving to make ‘08 great??? Last year's New Year's resolution?

This, my friends, is the latest post I could find on the Atlanta Journal and Constitution's once steady soccer blog called, “Off the Ball.”

After looking all over AJC.com for about five minutes, I finally found a link to the blog using some archived searches. Atlanta fans, let me know if I've missed something here.

I realize that the men’s Silverbacks team has effectively folded for 2009 (and most likely beyond), but we have so many great local soccer stories that need to be covered; and Wendy Parker was our last main stream media hope!

Wendy, if you’re out there, please let us know what the story is with Off the Ball.

Atlanta area soccer fans, we need to rally here and I’m not a reporter, so please send me your local high school, college, youth, and amateur adult soccer news stories and I’ll post them on Gruffgoat’s Soccer Blog for us all to share and enjoy.

Cobb Amateur Soccer League - winter season to start tomorrow

While most amateur outdoor men’s leagues are on hiatus right now, a couple of weeks ago my current league, Cobb Amateur Soccer League, announced a short, 7-a-side winter outdoor season set to start tomorrow afternoon!

This is only going to be a six or seven match season, but if you’re willing to bundle up on those chilly Saturday afternoons in January and February, then why the heck not?

My only concern is still my hamstring. I’m hoping all of the running and stretching I’ve been doing since Thanksgiving will have strengthened it enough, but as any players out there know, there’s really no true test until you play a match. The combination of running, jogging, jumping, lunging, change of pace and direction, etc. is really unmatched in any other sport.

I’ll know tomorrow for sure (provided we aren’t rained out).