Quote from: PaulNewman on November 14, 2018, 03:59:52 PM
I

St Thomas, a team that has had back to back Final Four and Elite 8 seasons, also barely has been mentioned this season.

This year's St. Thomas team is far different from the teams of the past 2 years. They graduated 9 seniors from last years team, with 7 of them being starters (Including the MIAC and USC Player of the year). They are very young this year, and the youth they brought in are good but not at the level of the past 2 years. They were semi-fortunate to get an at large bid, and then very fortunate to host one of the weakest pods in the tournament. I expect Luther to beat them, as they did dominate the bulk of their regular season match up that ended 2-1 in favor of Luther. It can be argued that St. Thomas did start playing better as the season went on, I think they just aren't that talented this year. But, tournament soccer is different and they will try and absorb pressure from Luther and hit them on the break, which could work considering Luther does play a possession/attacking oriented style of soccer.

As I've stated before, I would love to see a Luther/Chicago Elite 8 matchup. For reference, I have not watched Trinity this year, but I have watched the Luther and Chicago and I figure that would be a class game to watch.

Quote from: D3Grad on November 07, 2018, 12:11:44 PM
MinnesotaSoccer is right about Luther.  They are a great team to play against and watch.  Much more enjoyable than Loras branded soccer. 

Augsburg has relied on their big center back for most of the goals.  Look for him (#20) on set plays.  They have some good midfielders too.  Vang (#8) is a creative player and good with the ball on his foot.  He can be dangerous if teams defend poorly against him. 

St. Thomas is an extremely young team.  Very few players with NCAA game experience on the roster.  Many playing now have watched the games in the past but are new to the field.  St. Thomas has the players to do well but have struggled to score on offense.  Their naivety and inability to score might be their downfall.  They have a good goalkeeper who can keep them in games, e.g North Park last year. 

A Carleton-Chicago game would be interesting to watch. Carleton is well coached and very disciplined as Gustie has said.  May pose to be difficult for Chicago to break down.

I agree with a lot of this.

Augsburg the past few years has tried to play a possession oriented style, but they just have not had enough quality players to truly be threatening with it. They can be exposed if the opposing team has an organized press. This year it seems they have gutted out some results, including all of the MIAC playoff games. I watched them all and I would say they deserved to lose all of them IMO. #20 is a D2 transfer CB who is like 6'5" and has 7 goals, he's a solid defender as well. #8 Vang is a top class player. The problem is that he is pretty much all of their creativity, even though he is good enough to supply that in any game. I could see them losing to UW Superior in the first round, but if they advance I cannot imagine they can beat UST again. They beat UST in the playoffs in a S/O after being up a man fro 80mins of regulation and all of extra time. During which UST was the better and more threatening team.

St. Thomas lost a lot last year, and had to fill in with a lot of freshmen. Granted, they did bring in some talent, but not enough to cover their losses. I think they were given an easy pod of 4 and should advance, especially since they are hosting. One thing too is they have 3 top goalkeepers for a D3 team. Which is unfortunate since you can only start 1, but I would say those 3 are probably all in or around the top 5 keepers in the MIAC.

Gustavus has been grinding out results all year. They got a new coach this year, who has done very well with this team especially since there is a very low influence of freshman who have played. You can tell they are still working out some kinks though. They have been looking to build from the back (4-3-3 pushing FBs very high and wide, splitting the CB's and dropping a CDM in between them. From this, they do not connect with their midfield much and usually try and hit a long ball and find the second ball. It is odd, and I think in the coming years this team will see more fluidity in possession as the coach has more time to train his players and recruit players of his won. With that, they have kept a lot of clean sheets and have some individual quality in #12 Parens and #17 Gibbons who are both around the tops in the conference for points. I would expect them to advance in the first game over Dominican (although I am ignorant to Dominican's quality), and to lose to Luther who are the best team in the region as I have stated before.

Carleton: I have not watched them this much this season, but when I did I was not very impressed. But they kept getting results, they did play a terrible non conference schedule, but still got good results in the MIAC. They are always organized and play direct, but it seems this year the difference is they have someone who has been scoring goals for them in #9 da Cunha. If they play Chicago I could see them getting smacked to be honest, I do no think they are great so I disagree with GustieFan on this one.

This is unrelated to other topics and is a bit wishful but it relates to the U Chicago section of the bracket.

For any neutrals interested in some good D3 soccer, we should all hope for a Luther vs. U Chicago Elite 8 match up. Most of my knowledge comes from the North region and the MIAC for reference.

Luther is the best team in the North region, they easily handled teams such as GAC, UST, and Mac. They also play a great brand of possession/attacking soccer not often seen at any level in college. They have a good chance at an Elite 8 run just like Chicago does.

So, if this match up happens I highly encourage people to check this game out. It could easily be the game of the year when it comes to two teams playing actually soccer and attacking each other head on. This for me was the most exciting revelation I had when the bracket came out.

Quote from: gustiefan04 on November 05, 2018, 01:19:06 PM
Definitely surprised to see St. Thomas, GAC and Augsburg all get Pool C bids. That makes 4 teams from the MIAC in the tournament this year. Amazing!

This is a huge surprise and I'm not sure if it is very deserved? Non the less it is exciting for the conference, which I am partial too. Very tough draw for Carleton, who got the AQ but has to go to U Chicago. UST hosting is a bit of a head scratcher, but they do have a very nice facility and location so that maybe played a part?

Side notes: I can't help but feel bad for St. Norberts here, and the soccer purest part of me is happy to not see Loras make it with their terrible soccer brand. I will admit I haven't watched them this year so I do not know if much has changed and all my ill feelings are based of of years past.

With a little over half of the conference season gone, things are starting to shape up in the conference. St. Thomas seems to be running away with the conference, with a 10-0 season looking very likely. Macalaster is looking likely for 2nd, while the top 4 seems to be rounded out with Gustavus and Hamline. The final 2 playoff spots are up for grabs with anyone right now. With only 4 point separating 5th and the bottom.

Nobody in the conference outside of UST and Mac seem to be consistently getting expected results, making for the conference this year looking a bit top heavy, and very jumbled at the bottom. It will be very interesting to see how things shake out.

Not a great showing for some MIAC teams yesterday as Bethel falls to Crown and Hamline falls to Northwestern. Not a great look for either team.

I will do some brief analysis in order of the MIAC Coaches poll that was released Monday.

St. Thomas: Rightfully the number 1 team to start. There is a lot of talent on the team, but they need to prepare a back 4 from last year that was the foundation of their final 4 run. they do return their midfield and attacks, and added some transfers to their front 6 as well. As long as they can manage all those mouths to feed, and replace their backline they should win the conference.

Macalaster: They lost a few key players, but they should be very solid once again. They play a tough brand of soccer that makes them very hard to beat. Arguably the lost less than UST and they should challenge for the title as well.

Augsburg: Holker has done wonders for the program. They played well last year, but lost some key players for this year. Their play last year relied heavily on athletic wing backs to cover a lot of space, so replacing those two spots will be tough. Also the loss of Kohl (who isn't currently fostered) will hurt as well. But an already great Vang will be exciting to watch again as he enters his sophomore year.

Gustavus: Started slow last year but played well in conference. They did not lose much to graduation, but their success will rely on young guys stepping up to the plate in their sophomore and junior years. Only time will tell if GAC is on the decline or has just had a few rougher seasons these last 2 years.

St. John's: Always a tough and physical side to play against. They graduated a lot, and need to replace their backbone which is a lot to ask. They still have some goal scorers left, but will need new guys to step up for them to compete for a title.

Carleton: Another case of graduating some key players without direct heirs in their sight. Will need to replace Phelp's offense to compete. But Carleton usually does well enough to make the playoffs and that is definitely achievable.

St. Olaf: Their terrible joke pitch is always hard for road teams. They need to replace some key players as well, but they keep their pace in attack. It will be interesting to see what kind of quality they have this season.

Hamline: Only graduated 1, but he was one of their best players and a leader. They will need people to make strides again this year to crack the playoffs, but I think it is still possible for them as it will be a tight race for the last 2 playoffs spots.

Bethel: Played extremely well last year, but need to replace Jaderholm's production. They lack the full squad and first 11 depth to compete throughout the whole season, but can beat anyone if they play well.

Concordia: Worst pitch in the MIAC and a terribly long trip make for a tough away game. Beyond that, they don't have the quality to compete, and do any damage really.

St. Mary's: Surprisingly picked last, they played well last year. They packed it in with a 5 back system and hit long balls. This tactic got them points, but they weren't threatening enough in attack to grab enough points to make the playoffs. Expect more frustrating and boring soccer this season.


This is my round up, I obviously don't have all the info on every team, and I did my best to stay unbiased. I would love to hear others opinions as wel!

Hopefully a good MIAC thread can get going this year for us nerds. In anticipation of games starting this weekend I figured I would get a thread going.

Hopefully we'll have another exciting season for the conference and I look forward to some discussion/banter on here!

Quote from: dontshootthegoose on October 10, 2016, 12:00:42 PM

Quote from: Shooter McGavin on October 10, 2016, 09:15:56 AM
Shooter's Take as of 10/10...

1. Chicago (12-0-0)
2. Rowan (11-0-1)
3. Trinity (13-0-0)
4. Ohio Northern (12-0-2)
5. Amherst (9-1-1)
6. Mass-Boston (11-0-1)
7. Messiah (9-0-3)
8. Springfield (11-0-1)
9. St. Thomas (10-0-2)
10. Lynchburg (9-0-2)
11. F&M (9-1-3)
12. W&L (9-2-0)
13. St. Lawrence (9-2-0)
14. Rochester (7-1-2)
15. Middlebury (6-1-2)
16. Haverford (8-2-2)
17. Wash U (7-1-1)
18. Kenyon (9-2-0)
19. Calvin (10-2-0)
20. Gordon (9-1-1)
21. Capital (10-1-1)
22. Oberlin (10-1-1)
23. Newark (13-2-0)
24. Carnegie (9-1-1)
25. St. Joseph's-Maine (10-1-3)

Not one North Region team, I don't disagree.

St. Thomas (MIAC) is in the North region. I don't disagree that the region is very weak this year though

St. Johns plays very similar to Loras and maybe that's why they've been successful against Loras? The game was all kick ball and was a slug fest, not pretty but as seen with Loras it works. Maybe fighting fire with fire is the way to beat/tame Loras?

I don't see how Gustavus was overlooked being 5-0 with no goals against. They may have a soft schedule and lost a very good senior class last year with back to back MIAC MVP's and All Americans Zac Brown and David Lilly, but you can never count them out. They've consistently been a top (if not THE top) MIAC team of the 2000's.