Hi All

First game of the conference got off to a bad start, game tied up at 1-1 half time but a Red card early in the second half and two injuires that forced two key players off for the rest of the game saw the game turn and finished off a disappointing 4-1 loss.
The coach met with 3 players after the game (including my girl) and congratulated them on being the only 3 players who didnt dropped their heads and give up for the whole game.
Coach also had to play both his back up keepers on the park to field a team.

Struggling with numbers being a first year team and gunna be hard for the remainder of the matches.

Hi All

Second game fo the conference saw the Girls bounce back agaisnt the conference leaders, down 2-0 at half time they game back and drew 2-2. Big effort considering both his back up keepers are having to play on the field and the leading goal scorer suspended from last game.
Keeps their slim chaces alive
These Girls are huge underdogs and walking wounded but fully committed. Coach has at least have them beleiving
Next gale this Friday (Saturday our time)

Thanks for the updates, Silvergale. :)

Edited by decentric: 10/10/2012 10:30:01 PM

Third game on Friday saw the walking wounded girls get a well earnt 1-0 nil in the conference game.They have now moved to second in their conference league with next game against the conferecne leaders. They need to win or at least draw to have a chance of continuing.
For a team picked off the back of a weetbix packet, all credit due to the coach in getting all these new girls pulling together. What ever happens this year is a bonus.

What formations are the team playing?

What sort of style are they playing?

The college coach I know of makes no excuses for playing direct football.

Started with 4-3-3 but has had to revert back to 4-4-2 due to injuries of some key players. The coach plays basic but attacking football, just doing it really tough with numbers so trying to get the balance right

Fourth game saw the Girls come up against the conference leaders for their second head to head. Like the first time they played they have come from behind to snatch a 2 all draw.
Makes the proposition of winning the conference alot harder as we now need the leaders to lose or draw their last game and we need to win both games we have remaining. If the leaders win their last game its all over.
Its incredibly hard not being able to watch these games and to have to sit back waiting for an SMS or email to get updates, hate it!!
Regional ranking remains around 14 out of 34 and Statewide, 34 out of 84. Not bad considering its a first year team. Recruitment is already underway to get the squad up to approx 25 players (currently 9 fit girls and 6 playing with different levels of injuries)
Any keen Girls out there?

Forgot to mention, played in approx 2 inches of snow!!!!

I'm not sure about your daughter's academic capabilities, but how is she finding the level of uni compared to her Grade 12 here?

Pretty good. Shes doing graphic arts and has made comment that some of her soccer assisgnments are harder than the college subjects. Not easy but shes coping well.
Shes not a scholar, more like the middle of the road type of student

The academic program was my major concern.

No plausible reason was proffered from the Journalism professor about why a scholarship wasn't awarded. In fact he didn't even respond. My daughter's work was marked at master's level in the subjects she took, which was ridiculous, because the standards were so low - more like grade 9 or 10 work here!

The college ensured that the sporting program took precedence over the academic program too.

If one faces it, it is almost impossible to break into the US pro football league. Academia takes precedence for life opportunities.

Edited by Decentric: 24/10/2012 12:58:11 PM

The Girls payed their 5th game on Friday with all the pressure on them in a do or die game.They had only lost one game in conference play which was to this team.The Girls quickly started dominating and ended up with a comfortable 4-1 win. My Daughter even earnt her second yellow card of her career!.
Still reliant on the conference leaders either losing or drawing for us to have a shot at winning the conference. The last game is Tuesday (our Wednesday morning)
All fingers will be crossed!

The Girls just played their last conference game against the team equal second with them and ran out 2-1 winners. Currently sitting top of the group but pending the result of the team that was sitting first, if this team loses or even draws we will win it but if they win we wont finish any lower than second.
Great result for a first year team

I think you were asking how one could appraise a first year team's performance?

First or second is pretty good.=d>

Hi D

The other team ended up winning 1 nil yesterday so 2nd place finish, as you said pretty good.(1 point seperated them)
They still have the State Wide knockout split into Northern and Southern California. Currently sitting 12th out of nearly 40 in the Northern and 30th in the State out of 80.

Hi All

Season is done and dusted in dramitic circumstances,9 colleges had their November results taken away due to incorrect paperwork submissions, pretty heavy. Not limited to soccer or the girls, the entire college sports where penalised.
This took us from 12th to 23rd, outside the top 16 playoff

In much better news, my Daughter was nominated and achieved "All Conferecne 1st team" selection as a freshman which is the highest you can get in your first year.
:d
There coach also recieved coach of the year for their conferecne and also got coach for the Northern and Southern game later in the year.(Coaching Northern)

Overall great over achievement for team and coach for the year and couldnt be happier.

Congratulations to your daughter.=d>

Great achievement.

Thanks D
Its not uncommon for freshmans to make the first team but they are usually made up of a majority of Sophomores
Nows that she has been recognised/identified in her conference, she just needs to produce the same again next year and hopefully better.
She played the whole season with a badly bruised meniscus(spelling?)which may even had a slight tear. Couldnt get it checked properly as she would have been excluded from playing and she was that determined to fight on through the pain. This was all agreed upon by coach, player and parents.
Now the long wait till next season and the end of my post updates, thanks for all of your support!!!!

I studied in the US as well and was very close to the soccer teams on campus, which featured a lot of Swedish, Canadian and Aussie players.

I agree with most things said on this forum:

Make a choice:

- If academics is most important to you, an Aussie uni is probably better for most majors. Plus you can play state league or NYL in parallel, which is likely better for a football career in Australia in the long run.
- If you just want to get "a degree", have a really good time and be pretty much fully funded - go to the US.



If you do go to the States:

- Yes, campus jobs can be hard to come by. Quite a few foreign athletes sold hot dogs at the basketball arena for $6/hour. But then again, you get a full scholarship including housing, food, tuition. So the amount you save compared to renting a flat in Camperdown, paying Sydney Uni a lot of money for fees and spending $10/beer at the Ivy is incredible.

- Yes, you can combine a good education with good football training. Take a look at the rankings at http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d1 and then compare them to the US News & World Report rankings. Top soccer schools like Cornell, Georgetown, Notre Dame, UCLA, Elon and Brown offer top notch education. Cornell, UCLA & Brown are more than comparable to Sydney Uni or UNSW. Then again, Cal State Northridge will not be your first choice academically. But you can have a bloody good time partying there!

- Housing can be bad; or good. Do your research about what buildings are offered, check them on review websites. Just google enough and you'll be fine.

Good info, Penrith Party.

Just heard of three more stories.

Two more have come back after a semester.

Again, it was the low academic standard of the US junior colleges that was the concern. Both these these students were passing uni here before they left.

A third one is doing very well in football terms over there. Still, they are stuck at the top of division 2. The issue will be the quality of the degree when this player returns.

The player will be knocking on the door of playing professionally in Australia. The player is a mediocre student academically.

Hi Decentric

From my daughters team, approx 5 will not return for different reasons, not all Aussies either
One fell in love with a player from the boys team, going back to Tassie to get married!!
Two Poms complained about the coach and the college, said they where going to go to another college (Typical whinging Poms)
Two just got home sick

Seriously, Kids today lack mental toughness, harden the fcuk up

A useful forum. A shame the posts don't seem to be very current but a good insight regardless.
My son is only in Yr10 & has been 'accepted' by NSR for a US soccer scholarship & was looking for any feedback negative or positive about NSR. This has given me a good starting point with some useful links, although the choices of Uni/College are huge and not easy to identify the costs. I don't even have an idea about how much it would cost in Australia either for comparison. It is also difficult for a Yr10 student to select where in the US he would want to go to study when he probably couldn't even place any one University on a map of the US!

I know one player who has enjoyed a productive visit to a US scholarship. Mediocre academically and a very good footballer, but still unlikely to get a US pro contract.

The problem is the academic level of the academic institution. A degree is a degree in Australia. It is generically acclaimed. As a friend who lived in the US said, they have the best and worst universities in the world.

Most of the institutions that offer scholarships, are a long way below the academic standards of any Aussie university, whereas the Ivy League, and another group I cannot remember, are the best universities in the world, well above any uni in Australia.

As far as I know they don't offer academic scholarships though.

A poster on here, I think his name is Dimi, did a sports scholarship in the US and completed it. He thought it was great.

With NSR there were too many things that they said and the institution said, that didn't concur, in a relative's case. What was supposed to happen, often didn't. NSR's communication with the college, with both parties at fault, was too nebulous.

When NSR laud the US College system , some of the people who've worked there seem to have paid more for their degrees in Australia than necessary.

There is no doubt it is great life experience. However, I think it is best to study here and travel later.

The football coaching will probably be better than anything in Australia unless at HAL and NTC level and some NPL clubs. They will probably play some long ball though.

Ask NSR to provide statistical evidence of what percentage of Aussie NSR scholars progress to professional contracts.





Edited by Decentric: 28/3/2014 08:45:50 AM

Ash,
There has been some corruption with the dates on this forum, The entire story I posted was over 2012 & 2013, there is another post further down the page titled the same but YEAR 2
I have mentioned many times, am happy to provide a full review of the NSR story, the good and the bad, you can PM (personal message) me and happy to talk you through it

bump