Messiah should take Brandeis easily. Today's Tufts-Brandeis grapplethon just a poor representation of the game. Fitting for it to end on a GK's clearance error.

Aroh is lost in space, positionally. Runs way too far forward in possession.

Van Brewer is excellent. You can't hit what you can't catch.

Brandeis is a great matchup for Tufts, though. Brandeis is ponderous and predictable on the ball.

Scholastic soccer...the perfect place for managers to:

1. Take chances to try and score goals.
2. Keep the ball and manipulate it to move defenses.
3. Entertain the crowd.

What does virtually every NCAA manager (all levels) do? Set up to avoid mistakes. At least 6 behind the ball in possession, bunker after scoring, booming clearances, very little buildup thru the 1/3s.

Hugo Perez was our most influential (and best) youth NT manager in the '98-'00 age groups: the same ages of current NCAA sophs, freshmen and HS seniors. Hugo was an enormous (and successful) advocate of always playing on the front foot, having plenty of the ball, taking chances and most of all, allowing players to relax, have fun and go at the goal. Quite obvious now why he was let go by US Soccer. The way our managers want to play is dull, reactive and frankly, cynical.

We now have a form of the game that rewards farmers at every level, from town team, to NCAA, MLS and USMNT.

No NESCAC team is worth all these words. Frankly, it's become an agricultural league of grinders and grapplers. I'll never get back the 120' of my life I tossed away attending Tufts-Bowdoin last week.

Leicester? You're high. Direct and defensive? Sure. But there was supreme technique, skill and clinical play all over the pitch for them during that run.

Quote from: PaulNewman on September 13, 2017, 08:10:35 PM

Quote from: blooter442 on September 13, 2017, 07:47:27 PM
PaulNewman's buddy Beatty has been pretty quiet. Seems he is being played out wide mostly, which I would suppose makes sense given his speed.

Makes sense except not when they can't get him any service and the sideline provides an extra superb defender against him.  It's also possible he is not the same after one or two serious knee injuries.

P.S. Schools like Brandeis and Wheaton also know him very well as they recruited him hard before he ended up going to UMass-Lowell, which I never understood and wondered if UMass-Amherst would have been a a better choice.

Grip it & rip it. D3 full of ex D1 sprinters (actual and allegorical) who can't ball. My kid has one on his team. The guy is a blur- even with a lingering track injury that requires daily acupuncture- and utterly useless on the pitch.

Sixth game into the season, 2-2-1 record. My son's team has gone 100% hit & hope longball. Wretched stuff, but there's only 3-4 real players in the side, and two are hurt. That's all it takes for a decent side to revert to u10-type stuff.

It's a soccer-like game...but it's not real soccer.

Amen. Reasso just a disastrously bad manager.

One of the biggest reasons my daughter (lacrosse) and son (soccer) chose D3 schools was to be able to do a semester abroad in a situation where it was supported by coaches.

Quote from: truenorth on July 12, 2017, 04:47:52 PM
This is an interesting recent discussion regarding the academics vs. athletics "paradox" within the NESCAC schools.  Several thoughts come to my mind. 

First there is empirical evidence to suggest that college athletes perform as well or better than their non-athlete peers in the career world following college.  Even many of the pure-minded LAC professors have to be aware of the importance of a fruitful, remunerative career for college students following their family's $250K 4-year investment.

Second the implied "gap" in academic achievement between non-athletes and recruited athletes at NESCAC schools is relatively narrow.  That gap is much wider at the Ivies.  One of my sons played soccer at Bowdoin, was a very strong student, and probably didn't need a tip even though it was indicated it would be available to him if needed.

My other son played soccer for Brown, which is frankly what got him in.  He was also the number one recruit at Bowdoin, but would have been a "C band"...meaning he would have needed the coach's tip and a number of strong recommendations.  We were ready to encourage him to reach out to an Olympic medalist who is a friend of ours for a recommendation letter.  All this despite the fact that he was a very strong student.

Today's NESCAC schools (and UAA schools, Claremont schools upper midwest LAC schools, etc.) place a strong emphasis on building a diverse community of students each year.  They talk about the importance of looking beyond just the metrics of GPA and board scores to the intellectual curiosity, passions and community involvement of applicants...and this includes athletic achievement.

My daughter was a four-year laxer & top contributor in a big time d3 program. Very good student, bio major...but definitely not med school material. Got a good job three weeks after graduation...just because the boss saw 'lacrosse' on the resume. Got a better job a year later- in a field where she had zero experience/expertise- because the person charged with the hire saw 'lacrosse' on her resume. Friends of hers with 4.0s- but no sports- are still living in mom's basement two years later.

I've coached one kid in 20 years who got close to 5:00. Also a 400, 800m guy. Absolute garbage player. Just useless.

Quote from: jknezek on July 14, 2017, 10:54:00 AM

Quote from: 1970s NESCAC Player on July 14, 2017, 10:20:16 AM
Assuming that the USMNT qualifies for the WC in 2018, Arena is trying to find the players to round out his 23-man roster.  In the case of this edition of the "experimental" Gold Cup team, weeding players out -- i.e., eliminating them from consideration -- may be the best he can hope for.

I understand this, but here's the thing. This is our Federation championship. We shouldn't be sending weakened teams to this event, especially since it is held here in the States. It drives me nuts. I wish we only did this once every 4 years like the other Federations. We might actually take it seriously then. But all those Caribbean nations need the money it brings to just field teams. So we have to play it twice and we send embarrassing teams like what we fielded the other night. They might be wearing the shirt and getting the caps, but does anyone really consider that our National Team?  The team I saw at the end of the January camp, playing an exhibition against Jamaica in Chattanooga, was a better team than what we slapped on the field in our Federation tournament. That's sad.

And some people don't think Chuck Blazer really harmed US Soccer...

School doesn't join a top conference and hire a coach like that to lose games.

Agreed, 100%. A complete embarrassment.

'C' team. That's a good one. But let's just call it the MLS team (which it mostly is).

If these are the best players in MLS, I can see why they're falsifying attendance figures and the TV ratings are lower than dog shows.