Over the summer (and winter!) we spend many weekends traveling around Southern California attending soccer tournaments. As always, all opinions are my own and based on personal experience unless otherwise noted. If you have reviews of your own, please add in the comments!
Name: Rockstar Cup (hosted by Strikers FC)
Overall Impressions: This is the first time we’ve participated in the Rockstar Cup. Cool name, but just a bit odd for an adult energy drink to promote a youth soccer tournament, but I guess that’s beside the point. The girls really liked the “Rockstar” hats that were given out in addition to the pins. We won the tournament, so it was a great weekend for LSG! The trophy was so big that she fell over when she tried to pick it up and they were also given t-shirts. Lots of swag…but I didn’t see any actual Rockstar drinks!
Dates: January 10/11, 2014
Cost: $400 U8 U9/U10 $500 U11/U14 $600 Pretty reasonably priced
Location: Tustin/Santa Ana area in Orange County
Application Process/Organization/Coaching Conflicts: I didn’t do the application for this tourney so I can’t comment on that, but the application deadline was very close to the tournament start date which made schedules come out only a few days before the tournament began. Our coach had multiple teams and the scheduling seemed to work out pretty well.
Check In: At the field one and a half hours before game time- hooray!
Rules: Standard 10 point system with 25 minute halves.
Number of Teams at our Age Level: U11- 8 teams flight one, 8 flight two
Strength of Competition: Our Flight One bracket was arranged a bit strangely with one seemingly strong pool and one weaker one. The winner of each bracket played for the final. Most of the top teams were not in attendance and some top teams were playing up, but it was a good tune up to shake off the rust and start preparing for State Cup.
Fields: Games were played across Tustin and Santa Ana. Our team played at 3 different venues which was a bit strange. Most of the fields were fine, but our first field was an elementary school where the tournament volunteers gruffly directed our parents to sandbag the goals for our first game. Hmmm…. not so nice.
Referees: The refs were …refs.
Weather: It was nice and warm- especially in the afternoons, but we’ve had a very warm winter this year so it’s hard to tell what next year will bring.
Restaurants/Attractions: Our team drove in for the tournament, but there are many hotels and attractions in the area. Disneyland/Knotts Berry Farm and other attractions are very close by and the beach is about 45 minutes away.
My little Rockstar Champion…
