Unreported—but supposedly Messiah takes down Mt. Saint Mary's (D1) 2-0 @ Mount.

Not sure about the quality of the game and Mount not necessarily the most successful D1 program, but a seemingly good result for Messiah exiting the spring.

Wickedly poor call—-fire the ref

Quote from: Freddyfud on November 06, 2024, 03:59:53 PM

Quote from: Hopkins92 on November 06, 2024, 12:33:51 PMYeah, and kind of to your point, I have a very loose theory that Messiah's relatively weak conference does them no favors when it comes to the NCAAs.

But given how they started, the last 10 games should remind upcoming opponents not to take them lightly.

I watched a few on their games early in the season with a couple of good wins and then some during the rough stretch.  Frankly I was surprised watching their loss at Rowan--was expecting a much tougher match despite the close result.  It seemed something had changed dramatically, and I read on these boards about backline injuries.  In any event I also noticed their more recent success but only by looking at the W/L record and not watching the games.  Maybe their conference strength has something to do with it, but I can't help but wonder if they made any adjustments?  Or if some players returned as fit?   

Probably a younger group than years past--more freshmen players added into the starting mix following the graduation of a big and highly talented class last year.

Moved 5th year--Jarec Morlote to CB recently which seems to have greatly helped with possession and keeping the ball in the opponents half

Hood at home is a surprisingly/oddly tough place to play. Messiah had to dig out a 1-0 win there back in 2017 (National Championship year).

Besides the point--MAC Commonwealth has become a lot more competitive/fun to watch in recent years as it is no longer simply a Messiah/Lyco or Messiah/York dual.

More teams to compete=more fun

You know, as much as I dislike the "rah, rah, rah" mentality featured in F&M/NESCAC culture, it is effective at times. Now for longevity of play/success, that is where I would call into question, but thinking that these squads do not have one-off success years is no question. Amherst, Tufts, Williams have been brilliant and nightmares to play against in past years. Style/aesthetic of play aside, it works and can get results, but this style of play will unfortunately cause you to have some killer dropped results in conference. It is a give and take obviously.

Quote from: camosfan on October 23, 2022, 07:55:31 PM
I think D3SoccerTalker responding to you is implying that Messiah would go through Nescac,did I get him wrong? I do have a son currently at Tufts.

No, just merely showing the difficulty of going through the NESCAC completely unblemished (sans ties and what not.) I do think Messiah could, I do think Chicago could, Kenyon, Tufts, Amherst. I just think the likelihood is low given the competitiveness and style of the conference.

Quote from: PaulNewman on October 23, 2022, 07:09:32 PM
Btw, Messiah would not go through the NESCAC unblemished either.  That has no necessary correlation with whether Chicago and Messiah (in either order) are the two best teams in the country.

Last time such a feat was accomplished, 2005 Williams

NESCAC/UAA are two totally different/almost equally exciting conferences. The typical playing style of the NESCAC schools lends itself to closer games as lower end teams do not have a problem with booting the ball down the field and staying compact in order to keep games competitive with the upper end teams. Likewise, schools such as Carnegie Mellon are going to have years in which they severely struggle in the UAA based on the fact that they will try and possess and go toe-to-toe with teams that are more talented than themselves.

Overall, fun games, good teams.

Not to get severely off topic from the point of this strand "Game Notes." Have had an opportunity to watch Chicago, specifically their game against CMU and I was impressed with a lot of their tactical movements (ability to fluctuate between a 3/4 back, midfielders dropping into the backline to create overloads, etc . . .) Interestingly, when they switched to a three back in the second half, Wada seemed to play the central role of the three backs/I was a little more impressed with his ability to anchor the defense than Gillespie. Maybe I haven't seen enough or maybe this just showcases the quality of their backs, either way I am looking forward to seeing how they match up against a decently fluid/dyanmic/sizeable NYU attack.

I think the argument of not taking scrimmages seriously is a pretty flimsy idea. Scrimmages give coaches the best understanding of how their team actually looks and I am not sure I would want to be that much in the gray with about 4-5 days before the actual season. Secondly, if you are a coach that can sit back and watch your team lose 5, 6, 7 to nil! Then I would have some pretty serious doubts about that coach's competitive muscle.

With for sure a slight bias towards Messiah, I would let on to say that the best 4 teams still in it are Amherst, Conn, Tufts, and Messiah. However, I have not been able to watch much of U Chicago or Cortland who have been historically very talented. Obviously based upon the pods, not all of those teams can make it to the Final 4. My Final 4 prediction would probably go Tufts vs. Messiah (been waiting for this), and Amherst vs. U Chicago. Although I would not be too surprised if Conn or Cortland were able to make their way into the Final 4.

I speculate the Messiah boys are anxious and gnawing at the bit to have the chance to compete so early in the tournament. Especially against the quality side that Kenyon is. First round is the focus though, can't start looking ahead which is the cool part about the tournament. Take it one game at a time.

Subtle shakeup in the rankings coming from d3soccer.com earlier today, featuring a new #1. Thoughts on this ranking board juxtaposed to the impending new pool soon to come from USC?