If I'm not mistaken, the Swarthmore-Haverford rivalry is the oldest ongoing one in the country.

Great match. Congrats to both teams for an epic battle. Also, I have to give credit to the referee, who did a very good job.

Thanks for doing the video: I appreciate the work. I see the beginnings of D3 soccer's version of Moneyball.

Quote from: d4_Pace on November 23, 2021, 09:22:15 AM

TLDR: Amherst are going to do what they do and you can't take the bait.

Which brings me to something that's been rattling around in my (alleged) mind that I would love to hear some comments on. If you accept that Division 3 soccer is, at its core, an activity that colleges offer to enhance the experience, learning and maturation of their students and not a stepping stone to a career playing professional soccer, what do the institutions owe to their 'student athletes' in terms of tactical, technical and ethical instructions? Should a program recruit for and coach a style of play that mimics great football at the highest level, or should they recruit and coach to win at the D3 level? Turns out that the best D3 teams employ both philosophies (more on that in a moment), because both philosophies can win nantional titles.

To wit: this year's final four (buckle up, I'm about to make wild generalizations about your favorite team which are unfair, but deal with it!) are comprised of two teams that play with possession and control, trying to break down lines with ball movement and creativity, and two teams that use size, speed, athleticism and physical aggression to win. At a higher level of play, the blast-in-the-box and smash it home is much less effective, but it turns out that at the D3 level, it's good enough to win about half of the national titles over the past, say, 20 years.

So the question is: should D3 soccer programs try to play 'good football', or should they try to win at any cost.

Great goal for NPU. It was coming. I think it was the 49 who weighted a perfect pass. Good player.

Good half of football. Both teams had opportunities. The Oles made two square passes in the midfield which could have cost them--one leading to a 3-on-2 counter that had everything except the finish. NPU is relying on the long ball whereas the Oles are moving the ball through the midfield very crisply, catching NPU defenders  on the weak side. Either team could win this.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 17, 2021, 11:39:29 AM

Aaah, the NPU play-by-play guy is overrated. I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him.

Haha. Now I feel like the only kid in class that doesn't get the joke. I genuinely didn't know that was you.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 17, 2021, 11:39:29 AM
My favorite example of this try-to-fit-in syndrome among Swedes is a term with which many soccer coaches are familiar (and which causes many American and British athletes to snicker), fartlek.

In adolescence, I used to make my American friends laugh hysterically at the Swedish word for 'speed' (fart), the number 6 (sex) and 'the end' (slut). Hiiiiilarious.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 17, 2021, 03:16:08 AM

Quote from: Centennial1 on November 15, 2021, 08:57:30 PMWhen trying to evaluate where they stood on a national level, I didn't rate them like a Kenyon, Messiah, or Tufts, because teams can look very good against average opposition (to wit: MSU).

I dispute your contention that St. Olaf's schedule consisted of "average opposition." The MIAC is a pretty decent league, even with St. Thomas having been given the heave-ho, and the Oles played two tourney teams in non-con play (one of which was Chicago) plus a couple of solid (albeit inconsistent) sides in Colorado College and Luther. Given the difficulty of scheduling when you're more or less on the corner of the D3 chessboard (Canada to the north, and no D3 teams to the west until you're nearly to the Pacific), St. Olaf did alright for itself in terms of setting up a good schedule. Massey ranked the Oles' SOS 110th out of the 414 D3 teams, which is well above average.

I hear what you're saying, Gregory, but I'll respectfully stick to my guns. Compared to the top programs, playing the top opposition, the Oles were hard to compare based upon their oppostion. Using the Massey ratings that you mentioned, Kenyon, Messiah, and Tufts (the examples of top teams that I cited), had SOS ranking of 19, 2, and 1 respectively. That's a huge difference from 101. My point is that I really like the play of St. Olaf, and hope that they look that good against great programs like NPU, and perhaps Chicago/Calvin.

BTW, nothing against NPU. I like them. My favorite thing about NPU is the PbP's authentic pronounciation of Scandinavian sirnames. Having grown up in Sweden, Cent1 approves . Bonus points for anyone who can pronounce #7 Rydfjäll correctly.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 15, 2021, 05:06:57 PM
St. Olaf has a very cool hype video.

Very cool indeed. That coach hasn't even hit puberty by the looks of him. I keep an eye on the MIAC during the season, since that's where I played One Quarter Of A Million years ago. I watched St. Olaf play with discipline, creativity, poise--and had a couple of gnarly set piece plays to boot. When trying to evaluate where they stood on a national level, I didn't rate them like a Kenyon, Messiah, or Tufts, because teams can look very good against average opposition (to wit: MSU). I would love to have them prove me wrong, and see a Champion from the MIAC. You never know: this is football. Anything can happen.

Very nice build-up for Chicago's second goal. Passed around/through the pressure, stretching the D, one time finish. Well done.

Quote from: Saint of Old on November 12, 2021, 08:42:56 PM

Quote from: ConnAlum on November 12, 2021, 08:32:20 PM

Quote from: PaulNewman on November 12, 2021, 07:31:46 PM
I think somebody forgot to tell Rochester that they got an at large bid.  Wesleyan must be sick watching this.

And looking ahead, there's no team in the country, including any NCAC teams, that feel more at home at Roy Rike Field at Dr. Jay Martin Soccer Complex than Calvin.  A home away from home.

Can anyone explain why Rochester was thrown into the Midwest quadrant? I know they're less than 6 hrs away from OWU which isn't too bad, but still feels weird seeing a New York team in there with the rest. Any chance Rochester only received the at-large due to geographical reasons? Obviously it wouldn't make sense to have Wes in this quadrant but were there no better candidates than UR here? I mean they're a team that finished below 6-7-3 Brandeis in UAA...and now they're down 4-0 first round and could easily be 5 or 6.

PN I'm sure Calvin loved this UR draw before the game even started and I was surprised to see quite a few people predict a Rochester W in their brackets. If Calvin had hypothetically played a team like Wesleyan I'd bet a lot on Wes not being down 4-0 at any point in the game. Anyways I'm hoping for first round exits for Rochester, Swarthmore and SUNY Oneonta...none of them should be here imo

Careful there man, people are passionate this time of year, I got smoted a minute ago for speaking my mind

BTW... I know it was you Fredo.

Post of the day. If you can use smoted and a Fredo in the same post: you win!

Obviously, W&L aren't bothered by Baruch, but they do have the tools to make a deep run. The one thing that I didn't see a ton of was speed to keep up with the Messiahs and NESCACers. The one player with speed was the #10, but his poise and vision aren't as good as the #6 and other midfielders. They do a great job turning away from defensive pressure without losing sight of the field, and have good skills up and down the pitch. The #6 looks to be their most dangerous player up top. He took a knock to the head about 15 minutes into the second half. That's where I would have rested him for the balance of the match, but the Coach had him right back in as the game got more and more physical. Looking forward to their round 2.

BracketMaster: you're the man.

I do know that coaches frequent these forums, but most are probably reticent. Insofar as social media policies, that's a good question: I haven't heard of any. I was wondering just that this morning while watching a D2 soccer vlogger (from Drury U.) do travel/game highlight vlogs. He uses footage which looks like the school feeds in the content. I was wondering if he and others do this 'under the radar' or whether they have official permission. If he doesn't, here's hoping that I haven't outed him: he's actually benefitting the program--I hadn't heard of Drury before finding his vlog.

I don't know how this platform counts guests, but many may be bots of sorts, and not interested lurkers. The forum format is probably a bit antiquated for college kids today: they're busy posting noods on SnapTok and not arguing here with geezers. I'll stick with the geezers.

Quote from: jknezek on November 09, 2021, 10:35:30 AM

Quote from: Centennial1 on November 09, 2021, 10:25:35 AM

Quote from: Mr.Right on November 09, 2021, 10:01:02 AM
2021 ECAC Regional

https://ecacsports.com/news/2021/11/8/ecac-announces-2021-diii-mens-soccer-championship-field.aspx

Thanks for posting, and pursuant to what Ron B. said above about the state of the NCAA and their future revenue risk, organizations like the ECAC may become more relavent if D3 travel funds become even more scarce. In terms of major sporting organizations, the NCAA competes with the NFL for the honor of being my least favorite.

The big questions going forward: is there anybody less lazy than me that would set up a bracketology for the forum? I don't have the time to administer a contest, but I'd donate a $50 gift card of some sort to the winner. Any takers?

Having run a few of these in the past for my office at March Madness... you ought to donate the gift card to the poor fool who offers to run it! There is probably some software out there that makes it easier, but then you need everyone to use the software. I volunteered 3x, never again...

Haha. That's a better suggestion, and I'll take your advice and offer it to the poor fool *brilliant public servant* who offers to run it!