My team (U-19 Santa Monica United) is going to participate in a tournament this weekend. We have an excellent team assembled for this one, including a US U-18 national team midfielder playing for us as a guest. We're going for the title and nothing less. Even more importantly, it seems like I've wrapped up a starting spot for Saturday's games at least.

I'll keep you updated how the results go this weekend. Semis and championship are on Sunday if we advance. Wish me luck! It's going to be hot.

Here's the web site:

http://www.southcoastbayern.com/Welcome_SCBCUP.htm

Two tough games on Saturday, including a showdown with FC Barcelona, one of the best clubs in all of California.

Looks like a good tournament. And if you start G, good luck with it, your team only gets 3 subs.

G, does your team play a diamond in the back with a stopper & sweeper, or a flat back 4?

I might give this tournament a call and say some crap about Santa Monica United and make fun of their right back. ++ 949-338-2750

3 subs? Since when? It's always been unlimited subs.

We play a flat back four.

Go ahead, call that number, you'll jsut waste a lot of money.

I read on there that U-14-19 have to go with FIFA Substitute Rules. I assumed that's only 3 subs.

That's cool, how it should be played. The sweeper does less work and it doesn't cover as much ground with the stopper/sweeper.

And I'll call collect.

Well, so much for that.

Not quite the tournament we all hoped we would have, to say the least. Actually, Cesc, we played a 3-5-2 throughout the tournament.

For our first game on Saturday, we were all warmed up and prepared and on time, and then found out at the last minute our opponents never showed up. I was kinda glad because we got the free 3 points and we would be fresh for the game later on in the day, but it would have been nice to sleep in a little. Anyways, we all went out to lunch as a team after that.

In the second game, we played FC Barcelona. We didn't come out as fresh as I thought we would, but instead really lethargic. I didn't start, which is a good thing because we allowed 2 goals in the first 10 minutes off miscommunications and defensive errors, mostly because the group assembled hasn't played together as much as we should have. I came in about a minute later and played the rest of the game at right back.

The second half was better, but not great. Yours truly helped set up our first goal. Our right winger was stuck near the corner flag with 2 guys around him, so I went to support him. He laid it off to me and I one touched a cross in. Our CM chested it down to my friend from school and he blasted it in the top corner. Then they scored after my defense and midfield left me all alone with this dribbler who didn't pass me, but instead slotted a hard shot to our keeper's left. Then we came back with another one before they finished off the game off a header from a guy I our center back should have been marking, but I had to try and cover for him and he got the best of us. SO they won and eliminated us, 4-2, but they were supposedly one of the best teams in the state.

In the consolation game today we completely dominated the run of play. I played the entire game at right back, sending in a lot of decent crosses that our striekrs failed to convert. We played extremely well, with some fantastic runs, passes and shots. In fact, we hit the post twice. According to my dad, we had 10 shots and they had one. They won the game 1-0, as we missed numerous opportunities.

So, not the best tournament for us, but it was still fun.

Sorry to hear G, was the 3-5-2 working with 2 DM's? Seems like this was just a pre-season tournament anyways, so not much to worry about? The part where you said about the Right-Midfielder being stuck up and passing it back to you, I know exactly how you were that's a great place to be in, free to cross the ball. Happened to me, but it was from a throw in. Don't think I'm gonna play right-back though, Right-Midfield is my spot!

I didn't see the standings on the website and the highest age they show was U-17, can you give me a link?

And I'm still gonna call the tournament and say your team was robbed and talk some crap!!

It's hard to say if the 3-5-2 really worked or not. It seems that we will be going with the 3 in the back from now on, as that's just the way our coach likes to play defensively, but to be honest I'm not sure if the 2 D-mids helped much. Most of the goals we got scored on were because our midifleders didn't come back enough, leaving us 3 in the back pretty helpless. Usually only one of them was working his butt off and coming back consistently while the other stayed in the midfield, which hurt us.

But yeah, we still have a lot of time to work out the kinks.

As for the standings, see if this works:

http://www.schedulesetc.com/active/schedul...07&age=B-19

For some reason, it says that we won our last game, which we didn't.

Also, you'll see a team called ' Isle of Man.' They're from England, so that was pretty cool.