New England Soccer Discussion

Started by Jim Matson, June 09, 2006, 12:25:06 AM

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Mr.Right

Keene St v WCONN at ECONN today will give us a Little East Champion. WCONN looking to repeat and I think the winner of this game will be a team that can sneak an upset or two in the NCAA's. Something to watch for. Keene St beat WCONN in the regular season in a tight match.

Mr.Right

WCONN stud Senior Chauncey Allers gets his 24th Goal of the year late to equalize Keene St 1-1 with about 7 minutes left...Allers has been a stud all year long for WCONN.

Keene St has a Frosh GK and real solid defense but WCONN looks a bit more dynamic in attack. Classic battle to see who will represent the Little East in the NCAA's.

Mr.Right

WCONN finishes off Keene St in OT 2-1 with a Goal by another key Senior Darien Richeme. 2nd straight LEC Title for WCONN and I expect them to be a tough out for whomever faces them next weekend. Last season Brandeis dispatched them rather easily but now WCONN have the experience from last season under their belts. With their location they could be sent anywhere from New England to Upstate NY or NJ/PA....

Mr.Right

Johnson & Wales holding St.Joe's 0-0 at Halftime...Looks like J&W is without a shot still in the game....St.Joe's usually comes out of Halftime guns a blazin so let's see it play out...

Mr.Right

St.Joe's got an early goal 2nd Half to take a 1-0 lead on J&W...Good news for J&W is they finally registered their first shot...

St.Joe's Senior stud Brett Mattos who has over 50 Goals in his career looks to me like he got even stronger as he is a beast...6'1 200 and all muscle...Almost impossible to knock him off the ball...

Mr.Right

J&W showing decently in attack as they are getting into the final 3rd bit either their final pass or shot has been lacking but they do have some skill....

Mr.Right

Interestingly, J&W have had all the possesion the last 10-15 minutes as St.Joe's looks more interested in absorbing pressure and countering...Even with all the possession by J&W they have not had any dangerous sniffs yet...

Mr.Right

Now St,Joe's in control with about 15 minutes left....still 1-0 so anything can happen but I am not seeing it....

Mr.Right

St.Joe's gets it done 1-0 to win its 3rd straight GNAC title and 3rd straight NCAA appearance...Nice effort by J&W....NIce crowd for St.Joe's as I would guess a solid 300....Now who will they be playing and where will they be going...Certainly no one is going to want to face them in a 1st/2nd Round Pod. Let's hope they do not go back to Tufts along with Colby as that would be a bit stale as I would like to see some different match-ups....

Bobcat1

Quote from: Mr.Right on November 04, 2018, 04:54:26 PM
St.Joe's gets it done 1-0 to win its 3rd straight GNAC title and 3rd straight NCAA appearance...Nice effort by J&W....NIce crowd for St.Joe's as I would guess a solid 300....Now who will they be playing and where will they be going...Certainly no one is going to want to face them in a 1st/2nd Round Pod. Let's hope they do not go back to Tufts along with Colby as that would be a bit stale as I would like to see some different match-ups....

Who do you think will host in NE other than Tufts?

blooter442

Quote from: Bobcat1 on November 04, 2018, 05:03:45 PM
Who do you think will host in NE other than Tufts?

Based on rankings alone, one would think Conn. would be in with a shout. That being said, I don't know whether or not they've bid for it.

OldNed

Quote from: Mr.Right on November 04, 2018, 04:54:26 PM
St.Joe's gets it done 1-0 to win its 3rd straight GNAC title and 3rd straight NCAA appearance...Nice effort by J&W....NIce crowd for St.Joe's as I would guess a solid 300....Now who will they be playing and where will they be going...Certainly no one is going to want to face them in a 1st/2nd Round Pod. Let's hope they do not go back to Tufts along with Colby as that would be a bit stale as I would like to see some different match-ups....

Mr. Right, you're correct that the crowd was pretty good in Standish for the game.  The box score lists the size of the crowd as 547, but I'm not sure how they calculate that number.  I can tell you there were people everywhere, standing around the fences and in the stands, and even standing on top of picnic tables nearby to get a better view.  It was definitely a good turnout for the game.

Despite the close score, once St. Joe's scored (great play turning the corner around the right back by Noah Robinson) I never felt that J&W was really in it.  I wish St. Joe's had pressed a little bit more to score another goal rather than sitting back and defending, but I guess that's just falling back on what they're really good at and it worked out fine. 

Johnson & Wales is a good team, with a bunch of really good players who are very well coached.  My hat is off to them as they competed until the final seconds, and it will be interesting to see what kind of players Coach Kulik can recruit to replace some of his seniors.  Keeper Nick Mancini did a really good job yesterday for J&W, notably on an early header from Brett Mattos that was going in until Mancini got a hand on it and then on a 2 on 1 with Brett Mattos and Mitch Duncan where Mancini came out to break up the pass and shot from Mattos to Duncan.  J&W is really going to miss him next year, I think.

Now it's on to the NCAAs and speaking as a parent I'm just happy St. Joe's made it that far.  And I'll keep being happy as long as the selection committee doesn't put us in the weekend bracket with Tufts again...

Mr.Right

I feel real bad for Babson. They did not get screwed as in the end their resume just did not stack up as they had no ranked wins BUT they were a NCAA team IMO and I feel for them and Senior studs Greenspan and Parker. Babson will bring basically everyone else back as they were quite young but the loss of Greenspan and Parker will be felt BIGTIME...You just cannot replace players like that with the snap of a finger. However, other players are going to have to step up and pick up where those two left off. They are both All-Americans IMO and it is just a shame they cannot end their careers in the NCAA Tournament. The way Babson lost in the NEWMAC Championship was just ruthless as well as Springfield scored on a nice volley with about 2 minutes left. I will say recently Babson Head Coach Jon Anderson has weakened his schedule and it really hurt them this year. Anderson has picked up Lesley(4-9-4), New England College(7-8-4), Mitchell(9-9-0) to go along with Emerson(3-13-1) in their own league. I mean its not that bad but in the past those 3 games would have been against stronger opponents giving them more opportunity to find ranked Wins. I totally understand that they cannot control their opponents records. The one year they beat rival Brandeis it just does nothing for them. It is not their fault that other NEWMAC sides like WPI could not stick in the rankings. It is a bit confounding how the Final rankings shaped up and in one game Springfield jumped what like 8 spots and Babson dropped 6 spots. No doubt Springfield deserved to finish ranked #4 as the Newmac Championship basically got them two extra Wins and had Springfield dropped that game to Babson they still might have snuck in. BUT Springfield PLAYED Endicott, Stevens, Gordon etc and ended up with 3 ranked Wins. Babson did play Brandeis/ Williams/ Tufts/ ECONN/Dickinson/ETOWN bit either failed to beat those teams or unluckily beat the teams that had off years while Springfield beat the teams that had solid years. IT IS THAT CLOSE.....

Still Congrats to Babson/Anderson on such a great year and he should be COY in NEWMAC for the quick turnaround his team made this season.

blooter442

Quote from: Mr.Right on November 05, 2018, 07:10:31 PM
I feel real bad for Babson. They did not get screwed as in the end their resume just did not stack up as they had no ranked wins BUT they were a NCAA team IMO and I feel for them and Senior studs Greenspan and Parker. Babson will bring basically everyone else back as they were quite young but the loss of Greenspan and Parker will be felt BIGTIME...You just cannot replace players like that with the snap of a finger. However, other players are going to have to step up and pick up where those two left off. They are both All-Americans IMO and it is just a shame they cannot end their careers in the NCAA Tournament. The way Babson lost in the NEWMAC Championship was just ruthless as well as Springfield scored on a nice volley with about 2 minutes left. I will say recently Babson Head Coach Jon Anderson has weakened his schedule and it really hurt them this year. Anderson has picked up Lesley(4-9-4), New England College(7-8-4), Mitchell(9-9-0) to go along with Emerson(3-13-1) in their own league. I mean its not that bad but in the past those 3 games would have been against stronger opponents giving them more opportunity to find ranked Wins. I totally understand that they cannot control their opponents records. The one year they beat rival Brandeis it just does nothing for them. It is not their fault that other NEWMAC sides like WPI could not stick in the rankings. It is a bit confounding how the Final rankings shaped up and in one game Springfield jumped what like 8 spots and Babson dropped 6 spots. No doubt Springfield deserved to finish ranked #4 as the Newmac Championship basically got them two extra Wins and had Springfield dropped that game to Babson they still might have snuck in. BUT Springfield PLAYED Endicott, Stevens, Gordon etc and ended up with 3 ranked Wins. Babson did play Brandeis/ Williams/ Tufts/ ECONN/Dickinson/ETOWN bit either failed to beat those teams or unluckily beat the teams that had off years while Springfield beat the teams that had solid years. IT IS THAT CLOSE.....

Still Congrats to Babson/Anderson on such a great year and he should be COY in NEWMAC for the quick turnaround his team made this season.

I would certainly give Anderson CoY for righting the ship well. On the one hand I do feel bad for them, as objectively 12-3-4 is very solid. They also rolled through the NEWMAC, putting together a 5-0-2 record. And Parker would be my pick for NEWMAC PoY, with Greenspan defensive MVP. It's interesting, though, as we were saying last Thursday that they were #4 in NE, seemingly pretty much a lock, and that was before/during the NEWMAC semifinal (which they won). I figured getting to the NEWMAC final would see them in, regardless of result (either AQ or Pool C). However, on closer reflection, they did not have any real "statement" results, and the 1-3-3 RvR exemplifies that. In the past few years a win over Brandeis would have been solid, but the Judges' underperforming rendered it useless (and it certainly didn't help their SoS). Moreover, going unbeaten against conference foes like Springfield/WPI/Wheaton during the NEWMAC regular season would traditionally be seen as a sign of strength, but not this year.

I agree that the SoS was not fantastic. I seem to remember Babson having a SoS around or above .600 most years. And while I would cut them slack on Emerson considering they are a NEWMAC team, I look at that list of non-conference games in New England and see Mitchell, Lesley, New England College and I go "hm." Even two of the other teams in their New England non-conference schedule (ECSU and Bridgewater State) are, with all due respect, not like playing a St. Joe's/Endicott/Gordon/RWU/etc. (e.g. a non-NESCAC, non-conference game that will be a tough out). They also have dropped Bowdoin from the schedule, which confuses me because that was a good New England regional matchup. Of course Babson did have Tufts and Williams on the schedule, as well as (a sub-.500) Brandeis, and their SoS of .583 is not bad by any means -- last year's SoS was .582 -- but it's certainly not as strong as it was in 2016 (.597), 2015 (.604), or 2014 (.602) at the time of the final rankings. In the recent past -- since winning the NEWMAC title as the top seed in 2010 -- and excluding their tournament omissions in 2013 and 2017, they've either had somewhat-unspectacular regular seasons and fallen ass-backwards into the conference title (2014 and 2015, although I guess the former's 14-5 was better than the latter mark of 10-6-2) or lost in the NEWMAC tourney and gotten a Pool C (2011, 2012, and 2016). This year, after losing in the NEWMAC tourney, they did not have the SoS or RvR for the latter path.

TyWebb

#1694
Quote from: blooter442 on November 05, 2018, 10:50:21 PM
Quote from: Mr.Right on November 05, 2018, 07:10:31 PM
I feel real bad for Babson. They did not get screwed as in the end their resume just did not stack up as they had no ranked wins BUT they were a NCAA team IMO and I feel for them and Senior studs Greenspan and Parker. Babson will bring basically everyone else back as they were quite young but the loss of Greenspan and Parker will be felt BIGTIME...You just cannot replace players like that with the snap of a finger. However, other players are going to have to step up and pick up where those two left off. They are both All-Americans IMO and it is just a shame they cannot end their careers in the NCAA Tournament. The way Babson lost in the NEWMAC Championship was just ruthless as well as Springfield scored on a nice volley with about 2 minutes left. I will say recently Babson Head Coach Jon Anderson has weakened his schedule and it really hurt them this year. Anderson has picked up Lesley(4-9-4), New England College(7-8-4), Mitchell(9-9-0) to go along with Emerson(3-13-1) in their own league. I mean its not that bad but in the past those 3 games would have been against stronger opponents giving them more opportunity to find ranked Wins. I totally understand that they cannot control their opponents records. The one year they beat rival Brandeis it just does nothing for them. It is not their fault that other NEWMAC sides like WPI could not stick in the rankings. It is a bit confounding how the Final rankings shaped up and in one game Springfield jumped what like 8 spots and Babson dropped 6 spots. No doubt Springfield deserved to finish ranked #4 as the Newmac Championship basically got them two extra Wins and had Springfield dropped that game to Babson they still might have snuck in. BUT Springfield PLAYED Endicott, Stevens, Gordon etc and ended up with 3 ranked Wins. Babson did play Brandeis/ Williams/ Tufts/ ECONN/Dickinson/ETOWN bit either failed to beat those teams or unluckily beat the teams that had off years while Springfield beat the teams that had solid years. IT IS THAT CLOSE.....

Still Congrats to Babson/Anderson on such a great year and he should be COY in NEWMAC for the quick turnaround his team made this season.

I would certainly give Anderson CoY for righting the ship well. On the one hand I do feel bad for them, as objectively 12-3-4 is very solid. They also rolled through the NEWMAC, putting together a 5-0-2 record. And Parker would be my pick for NEWMAC PoY, with Greenspan defensive MVP. It's interesting, though, as we were saying last Thursday that they were #4 in NE, seemingly pretty much a lock, and that was before/during the NEWMAC semifinal (which they won). I figured getting to the NEWMAC final would see them in, regardless of result (either AQ or Pool C). However, on closer reflection, they did not have any real "statement" results, and the 1-3-3 RvR exemplifies that. In the past few years a win over Brandeis would have been solid, but the Judges' underperforming rendered it useless (and it certainly didn't help their SoS). Moreover, going unbeaten against conference foes like Springfield/WPI/Wheaton during the NEWMAC regular season would traditionally be seen as a sign of strength, but not this year.

I agree that the SoS was not fantastic. I seem to remember Babson having a SoS around or above .600 most years. And while I would cut them slack on Emerson considering they are a NEWMAC team, I look at that list of non-conference games in New England and see Mitchell, Lesley, New England College and I go "hm." Even two of the other teams in their New England non-conference schedule (ECSU and Bridgewater State) are, with all due respect, not like playing a St. Joe's/Endicott/Gordon/RWU/etc. (e.g. a non-NESCAC, non-conference game that will be a tough out). They also have dropped Bowdoin from the schedule, which confuses me because that was a good New England regional matchup. Of course Babson did have Tufts and Williams on the schedule, as well as (a sub-.500) Brandeis, and their SoS of .583 is not bad by any means -- last year's SoS was .582 -- but it's certainly not as strong as it was in 2016 (.597), 2015 (.604), or 2014 (.602) at the time of the final rankings. In the recent past -- since winning the NEWMAC title as the top seed in 2010 -- and excluding their tournament omissions in 2013 and 2017, they've either had somewhat-unspectacular regular seasons and fallen ass-backwards into the conference title (2014 and 2015, although I guess the former's 14-5 was better than the latter mark of 10-6-2) or lost in the NEWMAC tourney and gotten a Pool C (2011, 2012, and 2016). This year, after losing in the NEWMAC tourney, they did not have the SoS or RvR for the latter path.

Both Mr. Right and Blooter have summed it up pretty well in regards to Babson. I would just add that I think it all came down to R-v-R. 1-3-3 was just not going to cut it. A .357 winning percentage against ranked teams is just too low. Babson needed to find a way to win at least one of those three ties (all road games;Dickinson, ETOWN & WPI). If Babson turns just one of those ties into a win and now the R-v-R is 2-3-2 I think they're in. That has them taking points in 4 out of 7 ranked games. Additionally, they were ranked as high as 3rd in the region with a similar R-v-R (2-2-1) when they still had the Brandeis win.

A final point: I think the NCAA is missing the mark with conference winners that lose in their tournament and then lose out on Pool C. Basically, the NCAA is saying your conference and conference games really didn't matter (Unless you're NESCAC and then you get to host and draw a first-round bye). I have some suggestions to add value to a regular season conference title. Add a component to the R-v-R. Add a C for conference winner and assign it a value. So in Babson's case their R-v-R-C would have been 1-3-3-1. Or better yet, make it part of the primary selection criteria along with R-v-R & SOS etc,. Is Springfield's last-minute goal worth more than 7 hard fought games that Babson took to win the conference? Personally, I don't think so.

I realize that there are teams smarting even more than Babson today. St. Norbert, NPU, Oglethorpe, and CMS. all have beefs that are every bit as strong as Babson's.