This is footage of the 2 red cards and the headbutt that should have resulted in a 3rd red from the Umass Boston - Haverford game.  As a former player it's sad to think that the careers of the Haverford seniors were ended in PKs by a team that exhibits this kind of behavior. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ypZO-ULHFxA&feature=youtu.be

@Mr. Right...In the future it might be worth making sure you have some semblance of an idea as to what is going on regarding a certain situation before posting an egregiously hot take on a public online forum

@Mr. Right...Absolutely embarrassing that you would compare a 28 year old man who was arrested today for attacking a Haverford player and then headbutting a referee to the Amherst bench.  I played at Amherst for 4 years and no player received a straight red card in my time there, and there was for sure never an instance where police were called to the field.  It's too bad that someone like you who cares so much about d3 soccer has so little credibility to his name in the d3 soccer world because of your clear lack of judgment.  Many of my fellow Amherst and non-amherst Nescac soccer alums feel the same exact way

It really bothers me that Nico did not win player of the year.  He is quite obviously the best player in the NESCAC and on top of the ridiculous skill, physicality, and general effectiveness he has exhibited each game this season, he also has the best stat line in the league to back it up (11 goals and 4 assists).  While these awards should be taken with a grain of salt, they do mean something, and it really is too bad that 30 years down the road Nico will not have a NESCAC POY award to look back upon.   I am somewhat embarrassed for the NESCAC coaches who voted in Odulate over Nico because it shows not only a huge bias but also an inability to evaluate talent (which might be why Serpone is such a superior recruiter to his NESCAC counterparts).  At first I thought Amherst had a recruiting edge because Serpone worked hard and had Amherst's academic reputation working in his favor, but now I am really starting to wonder if it actually has to do with the fact that many NESCAC coaches watch games and genuinely think, "Oh that kid Nico who just scored 3 goals against us in 20 minutes,  one of which was a bicycle kick, is not as good as that solid defender we played against last week".  People always criticize Amherst for a so-called inability to play soccer, but I am really starting to question who knows what about the game and whether the guys who didn't pick Nico are the same guys who try and argue that Hazard is better than Messi.  I am not trying to badmouth Odulate here.  I just think Nico is THAT good.

As an ex-Amherst player, the constant Amherst bashing on the boards over the past few years has gotten old, but I respect the fact that people are entitled to their own opinions and can say what they want within reason about Amherst.  We play a very physical game, our bench has always been active, Coach Serpone is usually extremely animated on the sideline, and we don't look anything like Barcelona.  We argue on the boards about whether these qualities are good or bad for days, which usually doesn't lead to anything productive, but that is the nature of the boards and I have no problem with that. However, I think that EasyGoer27's accusations involving "studs up tackles", "tackles from behinds", "elbows that are more like punches", "borderline horse collars", and hypothetical lawsuits in which an opposing player is suing an Amherst player because he was hit so hard that he can't read or see clearly for a year, are a bit over the line.  I think there is very little evidence out there that Amherst players are truly dirty or that they purposefully try and injure other opponents (I do not think fouls or yellow cards can be equated with dirty play, rough yes, dirty no).  In the past 3 years there have been 3 instances of truly dirty behavior in the NESCAC that I can think of and none involved an Amherst player.  The players involved in these instances were Lima, and Kramer twice.  In no way do I think that their actions reflect the Williams and Tufts programs respectively, I just want to to point out that they were not Amherst players. 

At the end of the day, I think that the boards should continue to be a place where people voice their opinions, which undoubtedly will involve continued Amherst bashing (which is just white noise to me at this point).  However, it should not be a place where making baseless accusations about 18-22 year olds intending to harm one another is ok.  That is the only reason I've decided to jump on the boards quickly to defend my ex-teammates.       

Thank you for the kind words Mr. Right.  I am not one to make excuses, so I give the utmost credit to Williams in 2012 and 2013, and Brandeis in 2014 for beating us in the elite 8.  However, like you said, Williams and Brandeis did not exactly play possession-oriented soccer in those elite 8 games.  I think anyone who was at those games or played in those games would admit that they were very ugly, scrappy games due to the conditions.  Williams and Brandeis fought hard, and at the end of the day things went their way and not ours.  I have even heard from people that are more familiar with the Brandeis program than I am that they had such a successful season in 2014 because they had become tougher and more physical than they were in the past.  At the end of the day, I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion regarding which style is most effective.  I personally have the utmost faith in the way Coach Serpone and Coach Shea are doing things at Amherst, and I'd like to think that Amherst will get back to the final four soon. 

As for a typical Amherst practice:  It usually begins with an intense warmup.  We then work on our pregame lineup announcements and being loud on the bench.  This usually goes straight into practicing our WWE moves for around 25 minutes.  After that we practice hard tackling for about an hour, and we end with hitting long balls for around 20 minutes.  Just kidding.

We start with a warm up that usually goes into possession.  After possession there will likely be some defensive work for the backs and maybe some finishing for the attacking players.  We then usually end playing some sort of game.  Very similar to what I was used to playing club and academy.

In terms of Seitz, like you said, I really liked him because of how fit he was and because he loved to attack.  I also thought he served great crosses. 

In response to NCAC New England and Brother Flounder I thought Tufts was a very good team this past year because they had a very solid defense, a hard-working midfield, and special attacking players like Santos and Hoppenot who finally played up to their full potential.  They had the maturity to defend a 1-0 lead against Messiah for almost 90 minutes and I have nothing but respect for the likes of Williams, Santos, Hoppenot and the other players who led that team.

Predictions for this upcoming season are extremely tough because I believe that the NESCAC will have more parity than ever.

I think that the top 4 in no particular order will be Amherst, Wesleyan, Middlebury and Williams.
Amherst will be strong like they always are.
Wesleyan has underperformed in the past and will put out a solid side as always.  They are also not losing that much.
Middlebury will be very dangerous and fun to watch with Glazer and Conrad leading the charge as upperclassmen now.
Williams will be reinvigorated with Erin Sullivan at the helm and I think they will rebound from last year's dip.

5) Tufts - losing Williams, Hoppenot, Santos, Kramer etc. will be tough for them
6) Bowdoin - They also lose some key seniors and I think they over-performed this past year
7) Conn - I've really liked Conn in the past but I have heard rumblings about key players leaving, which will definitely hurt them
8) Colby - They keep improving every year and I think they will be better than Bates, Trinity, and Hamilton this year
9) Bates - Peabo is good and if he has a great season he could make some things happen for this squad
10) Trinity - Savonen leaving will hurt them
11) Hamilton - Kraynak, Reynolds, Abbott and Frost leaving will be tough on them

As for my NESCAC All-Star team of players I have played against:

If I made an All-Star team including Amherst players there would be a lot of Amherst players on there because I am obviously biased so I will refrain from including any Amherst players.

FWD:
Hawkey (Conn)
Conrad (Midd)
Hoppenot (Tufts)

MF:
Rory (Wes)
Pitney (Midd)
Devlin (Conn)

DF:
Bratt (Wes)
Brewster (Bowdoin)
Ratacjzak (Williams)
Freeman (Midd)

GK:
Purdy (Wes)

Bench:
Kraynak (Hamilton)
Santos (Tufts)
Issroff (Wes)
Patch (Conn)
Redmond (Midd)
Seitz (Williams)
Cahill (Midd)

Quote from: Cacstar12 on June 26, 2015, 09:33:56 PM
I don't even want to think about my top 11 I've played with or against in nescac. It will exclude any player who loves the long ball. Aka any Amherst/ starting to be midd player. If Conrad/glazer played in Spain everyone would laugh at them, where as a forward who plays with a team who plays with the ball on the ground would get more respect. They deserve respect because they signed up to play nescac soccer and only Conrad found a way. Wirz from Amherst who spencer noon freaked out about not getting all nescac about, does not deserve it. If he got it, that's basically saying the best nescac can offer is a center back that panicks and punts the ball. Wirz was perfect for nescac. Nothing else. My best center back pairing would be raicjack and Brewster by far. I refuse to debate outside backs, all so similar. Athletic and can run. Center mids are more interesting. I want to say Rory from Wesleyan because he was a huge typical nescac player, but he could play. He could connect passes well and had vision, but Christman from williams did that and was a hard tackler. It's hard to pick the best center mids because they are all different. I'd say the ones that could play were the best. Instead of head the ball or lay it off for another long ball.also the lower teams would have had center mids that had potential, I just didn't see it because their teams would get rocked. So I can't really say.

My main thing, Amherst killed d3 soccer. They decided that finding skilled players wasn't a thing so they butchered the game by bringing in the sucre twins. One of them got drafted and everyone I know would have paid 100$ to watch him train not only with a pro team but even a pdl team. Such a joke, but also such an achievement. What coaching. To transform soccer into a form of wwe wrestling takes skill. Everyone hates Amherst for killing the game of soccer and adding a sense of fairness to it. Their announcing of the lineup was like a basketball team and then they jump against eachother was one thing, but they get the results. If God is a soccer ball. Amherst is a knife. They don't play soccer they found a loophole that everyone is catching onto. Middlebury got Conrad. If Amherst got Conrad, even messiah would bow down. Huge religious rift right there, but still. The smaller fields are better for long ball teams. That's why williams is so good at home (120x80) field.

I hope Colby, tufts, new williams, bates(yes bates, they will suck, but they try and play atleast) decide and counter amhersts trend of putting 6'4+ guys on the field to disrupt things. I respect Grady and knoth for being a center forward and short. More for knoth for having a more fluid career, but we'll see what happens in the end. We've all seen guys don well then fail.

So my best eleven would have more Colby kids. They play.
Bowdoin doesn't have a style, they just adapted.
All interesting for the nescac.

Hey everybody,

I've been reading the boards for the past four years, so now that I have graduated it's surreal to finally be participating on this forum with the likes of d3boards legends such as Mr. Right!

I just wanted to respond to Cacstar12's post about "good soccer" and my lack of soccer skills.  I was actually just offered a contract in the Swiss promotion league (3rd division) so there are clearly professional coaching staffs out there who believe that I have the ability to do more than just "panic and punt the ball" and that I am more than just perfect for the NESCAC and "nothing else".  When I arrived as a freshman at Amherst four years ago, I bought into Coach Serpone's system.  I decided that I would sacrifice my love of dribbling out of the back for the greater good of the team.  And after 4 years, 3 NESCAC championships, 65 wins, a 40 game unbeaten streak, and a season in which we conceded 3 goals over the course of 20 games (which is an NCAA record) I am very happy that I put my trust in Coach Serpone (He's also actually a great guy, believe it or not). 

As for your "interesting" metaphor involving God, a knife, a soccer ball, and a loophole in the system that Amherst has found, I hate to break it to you brother but there is no loophole.  For as long as I've been at Amherst, we've gone out and played for 90 minutes on the same field, using the same ball, and adhering to the same rules and regulations as the rest of the league.  The loophole thing sounds like an excuse to me.

I would also like to address your sentiments, that are shared by many posters, regarding the "good soccer" that is played in the NESCAC by teams other than Amherst.  I admit that Amherst does not play anything like Barcelona or Bayern Munich, but if you think that there is a team in the NESCAC that does I would have to strongly disagree.  Having grown up around soccer and having been in Europe for the past month trialing with pro teams, I can tell you that there is not a team in the NESCAC that plays soccer comparable even to low level European pro teams.  But that's not a bad thing.  It seems like many of the d3boards regular contributors forget that soccer is about results.  There are no judges who award style points for the type of soccer played.  This is not figure skating or gymnastics.  At the end of the day, every team in the NESCAC wants to win and how they go about trying achieve that goal is their own business.     
   
Finally, as for your jab at Ale Sucre's soccer playing ability.  I had the privilege to play with him for two years and he is a fantastic player.  After he was drafted in the MLS Draft he went on trial in France and there were a couple of Ligue 2 French teams that were interested in him, but he ended up choosing not to pursue a soccer career.  I personally think he would be able to hold his own at a PDL practice so your 100 dollars would probably just go to waste.  His brother Fede was also talented and a very important piece in Amherst's 40 game unbeaten streak, so your allegations regarding Ale and Fede butchering the game of soccer are absolutely ludicrous.  But hey, I shouldn't be surprised given that this is coming from the guy who would pick a bunch of Colby guys when choosing the best 11 players he has played with in the NESCAC.  I mean no disrespect to the Colby program or the Colby players because there have been some good Colby players and I think that they keep improving every year, but for your top 11 in the league? Seriously?
   

Great to finally be on the boards!!!