Did anyone see that top Curcio players helped lead Long island to undefeated record and championship at UA this weekend including Baltimore in the finals. That says a lot about LI and Curcio talent no matter how you look at it. In case you are wondering, Long Island older age group also beat Baltimore in the finals.
After watching at UA it tells me several things , Curcio must not be a good coach as many of those kids on her team are very skilled and should not be losing as much as they do.Coach Rose is a very good coach making adjustments and understanding game situations .The 3 stooges won at the younger age but were out coached in just about every game which tells me they just had the most talent . Other teams made in game agustments while they barely hung on desperate to make "their " players look good. It's a good thing they no longer put birth dates in the bios or LI could no longer complain.
In semi finals coach Rose didn't have to coach very hard. The refs absolutely influenced the game more than they should have. I am NOT saying that LI wouldn't have won anyway. They were very skilled and well-coached. It was just a shame as a New England parent to watch at least 2 and maybe 3 of 4 yellow cards called in the first 12 minutes of the game be phantom calls. The New England team played man-down for 8 of first 15 minutes and then the last 40 minutes as well. After having a fun, exciting 11-10 OT game in pool play, to have the refs affect the game like that was a let down. I'm sure the LI players, coaches and parents would also have liked to see a different game played. Again, not saying the outcome would have been different, but from what I saw, the two best teams were in that semi-final, and the game wasn't much of a game.
Having said all that, congrats to LI on the tournament win. They are certainly a worthy champion. Good luck to the girls the rest of the summer and look forward to playing them again in the future.
