I can see how what I wrote is advocating for what Sasho is pushing, but I'm really not. As I said, it's a fool's errand, but for a guy like Sasho, who wants college soccer to be seen as a path (for some) to professional soccer, he saw it as the path.

The ship sailed long ago. As soon as MLS and US Soccer got vested in transforming the talent pipeline, college soccer was cooked on this front.

Quote from: SierraFD3soccer on October 08, 2026, 11:38:13 AM

Quote from: Kuiper on October 07, 2026, 03:47:30 PMD1 news that might be of interest to D3 fans

According to the NCAA's official social media account:

DI Cabinet approves proposal that would move men's soccer to a two-semester playing season. Because it passed with less than 75% of the vote, the proposal will now go to a 30-day rescission period, during which eligible DI schools or conferences can submit a vote to defeat the new rule. If two-thirds of the eligible members do not vote to defeat it, it will subsequently take effect.

The Cabinet's vote is not final until its meeting concludes later today.

Sasho Cirovski from Maryland fought for this for 13 yrs. Remember when he first proposed it. Many thought he was crazy. Like it hate it, it def. is different and we will only see. I am a Terp fan and definitely like watching his teams despite the fact the most if not all impactful ones are foreign born on UMD. He resisted for a while before adopting the Marshall model.

Interesting that rather Aug 1st they start on Aug 15 and have the NCAA tournament in late April May rather then in the cold.

Check out is his tweet along with the comments. All interesting imo - https://x.com/SashoCirovski/status/2107950976514822488

Yeah, we talked about this... Trying to make college soccer more relevant in the development/pipeline is kind of a fool's errand, but he is right that they needed to do something to counter the MLS academy system funneling the best American talent into the professional model.

Quote from: Falconer on October 08, 2026, 12:02:03 PM

Quote from: Hopkins92 on October 03, 2026, 06:03:49 PMAppleby obviously values possession... But you've gotta be ok with guys taking chances... Hard to score methodically working the ball from side-to-side.

When you keep the ball in the other team's half, nothing really bad can happen (unless a bad and unnecessary foul draws a card). Chances should be taken. Sometimes, even very chancy shots go in. The Falcons sometimes have this disease also--too much passing, not enough shooting. If a team is that good at possession, and Hopkins usually is, where's the harm in taking chances on the other team's end? You're going to get the back back pretty soon. It's not as though you're giving up on possession.

Absolutely. Watching them in person against Gettysburg, you can see that if they don't have a clear option to pass forward, even when they are well past the center line, their instinct is to turn back toward their own goal and hit reset on the entire thing.

And I would be sort of OK with that, if their QB (centerback) was given more leeway to take the acres of space the other team is giving him. Other teams are sitting back, waiting for the fairly predictable pass out to the flank. Hop will either play it to the outside back and work combos, or if the other team is sitting on that, they'll skip directly to the midfield.

What they very rarely do is exploit the middle of the field and attack up the gut.

They need to mix that up. They have been playing the same style for over 8 years (probably more) and you don't need to really watch game tape to scout them at this point.

They have the skill; they just need to inject some edge and daring into their approach.

I think at almost every level, you have to take the first game of the season with a boulder-sized "grain" of salt. I don't think a team really develops an identity until 4-5 games in. The first two weeks, you are figuring out whether guys who show out in scrimmages and practices actually translate to a collegiate-level game (for the young guys).

And the rest of the squad, depending on graduation/attrition, often fills new roles and is asked to step up beyond where they were the last 1 or 2 seasons.

I know these may seem like obvious points, but I don't think it's all that fair to look at G1 or G2 and make season-long pronouncements. Especially at the level of programs like W&L and/or Lynchburg.

Overall, I came away much more impressed with Hopkins than from my livestream watch of them from last weekend. I think the weather was worse than I factored into my impression of them.

I really like this team. A ton of technical skill and they communicate really well. Very positive vibe.

They need a guy that's a little more gnarly in the final third, but you could say that about a lot teams like Hopkins, who place a premium on technical skill and less on straight up athleticism.

I won't go through the roster and comment -- that'd be weird -- but I was really impressed with about 10 of the guys. The guy that scored Hopkins' goal was willing to take guys on and that's where I'd say a few more guys should   be willing to take more chances.

Appleby obviously values possession... But you've gotta be ok with guys taking chances... Hard to score methodically working the ball from side-to-side.

So, a correction... I made the lovely backroads drive up to Gettysburg today to watch the Hopkins game. Game ended 1-1.

Bullets scored on a play where their left winger torched the Hop defender, pure speed. He then kind of punched a pass into the box and the Hop last man whiffed and their striker had the ball all alone in front of goal, 12 yards out and then slotted it in. Midway through the first half.

Somewhere around the 30 minute mark in the second half, Hop had a sub winger come on who juked a few defenders to open up a shot from outside the 18... He absolutely ripped the shot near post for a golazo. One of the nicest goals I've seen in person in a long time.

Hopkins was wearing down the Bullets with their possession, but just couldn't really put the right foot forward in the final third.

I love my boys and I respect the coaches, BUT... Even on set pieces late in the game, they've got 2 guys in the box. I was losing my mind. Put your guys in the box and lump it in, dammit.

And their main guy in the back is really good, BUT... He almost handed them 2 goals in the first half with sloppy passes. If you know Hopkins, it was when they are spreading out the back 3 and he was trying to curl the ball around a defender that was just sitting there guarding space. FFS.

I would love for that guy (Jackson) to start pillaging a bit more. They are sitting off of him, waiting for the passes into the flanks. They are giving him ACRES OF SPACE up the middle. F'ing take the space, man. I like this guy, he's going to be very good. But I hope Coach A directs him to take the 20 yards of space and direct the offense more. He's good enough to do it, but way too often they pull the ball back and reset the offense.

Kind of frustrating to watch at times. That said, they absolutely adjusted to a more direct style at halftime. Good coaching. You could see Gettysburg wasn't really ready for the switch and made for a somewhat one-sided affair at times.

kuiper - You are a national treasurer. Please don't think it's not appreciated that you are constantly posting great content.

Huzzah.

While I'd somewhat agree about Dickinson, Hopkins is now 7-2-1 and is in the top 20 in the NPI.

As mentioned, lots of games left, but right now a loss to Hopkins is not a drag on your rating.

I mean, that's the fundamental problem with every coach's poll on every level. They are a joke.

Centennial is a hot mess this year. It's really hard to get a read on some of these teams, at least on paper.

Hopkins is 2-0 and then Dickinson is 1-0=1 in conference play, then a slew of 1-1 teams and then WashC is 0-1-1 and F&M is 0-2.

Very early days, but it's gonna be a weird year, and as mentioned over the MA thread, it's unclear if this is a 2-bid year (AQ - At Large).

Hopkins guts out a blustery affair, 1-0 over the Fords at Homewood. I caught some of the first and most of the second. What stands out to me about both teams is... No one really stands out. They play their system, but I didn't see many individual duels or attacking flair.

I'd say Haverford had more possession and more dangerous chances, mostly from set plays getting lumped into the box.

I will say, the weather was absolutely a factor. Very rainy and you could tell it was extremely difficult to get the ball out of one end due to the weather (man do I remember that feeling.) Once Hop got the goal in the 1st half, they sat back and attacked with fewer numbers.

The Fords looked ready to score, but with about 15 minutes to go, Hop shut things down. Especially in the last 7 or 8 minutes, the only thing working for the Fords was getting fouled and lumping stuff into the box.

Quote from: Ejay on September 25, 2026, 03:02:03 PM

Quote from: Hopkins92 on September 25, 2026, 10:21:03 AMAnd I don't know why I'm defending the Dips, but that's a convenient year to start that accounting, because they made it to the Elite 8 once and the Sweet 16 3 times in the span before 2017.

You're right, I should have gone back to 1952 when they were voted Outstanding Team in the Nation by NSCAA :eyeroll:

I don't think saying that the 3 previous deep runs directly preceding your chosen cut off is a zany thing to bring up. If I'd pulled you back even into the 90s... point taken, tip of the hat.

But 2014-2016 saw some pretty good runs.

And I don't know why I'm defending the Dips, but that's a convenient year to start that accounting, because they made it to the Elite 8 once and the Sweet 16 3 times in the span before 2017.

Yeah, last year was the first year since 2016 that Hopkins had not made the NCAAs and the first time since 2012 that F&M hadn't made the dance.

And, frankly, F&M had a bunch more years where they were truly dominant and made deeper runs in the tourney than Hop, but overall, they have been the two most consistent postseason teams in the CC for over a decade.

So, yeah, the Dips dip seems more precip-itous.

Not to be too obnoxious, but on paper, JCU ranks higher than Lycoming on the NPI scale.

(I have a weird and grudging respect for the Blue Darts, whatever they're called, because they've knocked Hopkins out of November madness twice in "recent" years.)

Streaks... And I won't repeat my Smurf joke.