15 selections from the NESCAC for all-new england. Nice!

Quote from: d4_Pace on November 21, 2019, 10:11:00 AM
I mean last year, Lind came off the bench. Two he's not the most liked player around the league and coaches are human and vote with some emotion. Three I didn't look this year, but I know last year a lot of those points came out of conference which isn't weighed as heavily

But last year him coming off the bench and points against out of conference shouldn't matter, right? Because this is this year? I also haven't been aware that he is particularly disliked other than just because he goes to Amherst and everyone hates Amherst.

Looking back, he got assists against Bowdoin, Hamilton, Merchant Marine, Middlebury, Tufts, William Paterson, and Trinity. Mix of good and bad but still I think his stats should have put him on the 1st team.

Quote from: hiyasoccer on November 20, 2019, 06:01:45 PM
For the people that watched more games this year... since Giammettei ran away with POY, who was the runner up?

Thought the only other person who could challenge was Dane Lind, who somehow didn't even make it to 1st team. Not exactly sure how that works considering he was 2nd in goals, 1st in assists, and 2nd in points in the league. There aren't too many people who break 10 assists in consecutive seasons. Would have put him above Gass just for consistency even though Gass is a handful.

Men's Soccer All-NESCAC Teams

Player of the Year: German Giammattei, Amherst
Rookie of the Year: Ryan Grady, Middlebury
Coach of the Year: Josh Shapiro, Tufts

First Team All-NESCAC
Pos.   Name   Institution   Yr.   Hometown
GK   AJ Marcucci *P@&   Connecticut College   Jr.   West Chester, Pa.
D   Liam Bardong =   Williams   Sr.   Manhasset, N.Y.
D   Liam Donelan *   Connecticut College   Jr.   Milton, Mass.
D   Biagio Paoletta =   Tufts   Jr.   Fairfield, Conn.
M   Calvin Aroh   Tufts   Jr.   Glastonbury, Conn.
M   Cutler Coleman *   Amherst   Sr.   Winter Park, Fla.
M   Augie Djerdjaj   Connecticut College   So.   Mahopac, N.Y.
M   Gavin Tasker *   Tufts   Sr.   Concord, N.H.
F   Joe Braun *   Tufts   Sr.   Yardley, Pa.
F   Demian Gass   Williams   Sr.   Houston, Texas
F   German Giammattei R   Amherst   So.   Pinecrest, Fla.

Second Team All-NESCAC
Pos.   Name   Institution   Yr.   Hometown
GK   Ryan Grady   Middlebury   Fy.   Deerfield, Ill.
D   Luke Eckels *#%2   Hamilton   Sr.   Ridgewood, N.J.
D   Michael McFarlane   Middlebury   So.   Suffield, Conn.
D   Jules Oberg   Williams   So.   Stockholm, Sweden
D   Aidan Robinson =   Middlebury   Sr.   Gloucester, Mass.
M   Matt Butera   Connecticut College   Sr.   Westfield, Mass.
M   Travis Van Brewer   Tufts   Jr.   Wilbraham, Mass.
M   Henry Wilhelm   Middlebury   Sr.   Shaker Heights, Ohio
F   Ethan Fabricant   Colby   So.   Summit, N.J.
F   Dane Lind   Amherst   Sr.   San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
F   Aidan Wood =#   Hamilton   Sr.   Ipswich, Mass.

My list is definitely Tufts/Amherst heavy. I bet someone from one of the bottom 5 teams is going to sneak on.

Eckles, I guess. He's a year younger than me and so I played against him for 3 years. Absolutely a good defender but I honestly thought he was going to be a bigger deal than he ended up being. His freshman year he was a beast and it seemed like he could match up against anyone in the league. I thought he didn't end up hitting his ceiling. Still, I'd probably take him over just about any other defender in the league so he hasn't done badly for himself.

Would be nice to see Conn/Midd coaches getting COY as they are new.

Thought I might make a prediction for NESCAC 1st team as that list is probably coming out soon.

GK: Marcucci
DEF: Paoletta
DEF: Daly
DEF: Robinson
MID: Lind
MID: Butera
MID: Tasker
FOR: Giammattei
FOR: Wood
FOR: Djerdjaj
FOR: Braun

POY: Giammattei
ROY: Grady
COY: Shapiro

Pretty standard guesses, don't think we'll see too many surprises. Defense is the most up in the air. Giammattei is a lock for POY.

Amherst, Tufts, Conn, Midd!

Exciting championship game. Thought both teams did well and probably a fair result although heartbreaking for Middlebury to have an under 2-minute goal by Tufts take the championship again (same as 2017). I've been impressed with Midd the entire tournament as they seem to have developed a mentality of "We're going to win because you're not going to score." It worked against Conn to take it to PKs and then at Amherst to hold off a late charge. You won't beat Midd at set-pieces and humping balls into the box- their average height from defensive midfielder to goalie seems to be a very solid 6'2. The way to beat them is to break them down by playing through them quickly before they can face you up but I think Tufts is one of maybe 2 or 3 teams in the country who can do that to a team like Midd. Tufts put on a pretty classic performance by playing the ball around, getting crosses in, and keeping the ball on the ground. I kind of thought Midd was going to take it all but Braun and the jumbos proved once again that they just know how to win.

Last point: Grady deserves to win ROY. He's been terrific backing up the best defense in the NESCAC and his save % (imo the best goalkeeper metric) beats Marcucci by .01.

Predictions:

Amherst vs. Wesleyan: Not going to be any surprises here. Wesleyan will try to ride off the trend of years past of low seeds going far in the tournament, and they themselves have experienced this (2015 finals run vs. Bowdoin), but I can't see them getting past the best Amherst team we've seen since, well, 2015 (when they had a shock loss in the NESCAC quarterfinals). Giammattei slowed down against Bates- as in he didn't get a goal, and then followed it up with 3 against Trinity. Dane Lind has also broken 10 assists for the second year running and I suspect they will combo again for a goal or two. 3-0 Amherst.

Tufts vs. Hamilton: Haven't followed Hamilton too much this season so I can't say anything about them really. However, my money is on Tufts to win this year's NESCAC as I think the mid-season slump brought them back down to Earth and made them realize they needed to get it together. They followed up 2 losses and a tie with 3 wins against Conn, Midd, and Bowdoin, which was without a doubt the hardest last 3 games of anyone's schedule and they willed out 9 points. Hamilton will put up a fight but will wilt against an all-out push by Tufts who knows they need to make a run in NESCACs to stay high in the regional rankings. 2-0 Tufts

Conn vs Midd: My first prediction for a lower seed to win! Conn and Midd faced off at Conn's field in 2017 and Midd escaped with an OT win. The field will most likely be trash as it tends to be towards the end of the year but Midd is used to playing on trash fields. I remember going up to Midd's turf once a year and the ball bouncing around like a pinball. So I don't think Midd will be affected by Conn's bad field as much as other teams would be. Midd has a size advantage over Conn and have shown to be able to get up for big games this season (tied Amherst, beat Conn, lost in OT to Tufts). Conn will look to avenge 2017 and their most recent defeat to Midd but Midd will come out on top of a scrappy, dirty game. 1-0 Midd

Williams vs Bates: We thought that Bates might show improvement this year, and boy did they do it. 9 overall wins to break their single season record in many years and a few youngsters that can keep the momentum going. Williams has done well this year in OT (3 wins) and that will serve them will in a tournament that often goes to OT but I'm just slightly uninspired by them. Gass with a few goals this season but with one of the worst shot to goals % in the league. Bates will have to get used to playing on a beautiful Williams field but I just think these guys can get it done. 2-1 Bates

Cheers to playoffs!

Giammattei with another POW. Don't think we'll see the NESCAC POY decided as early as this for a long time.

Hello all! Wanted to make a quick introduction before getting on with the post. I'm a recent ('19) grad from NESCAC soccer and after reading the thread for 4 years and graduating I thought it would finally be appropriate for me to make an account. I've enjoyed reading everyone's opinions and although I haven't always agreed with the analysis, I have appreciated the amount of time everyone spends watching and discussing NESCAC soccer. As for me... in order to avoid accusations of being biased I have decided to remain anonymous but I promise that I will look at things from a holistic standpoint and be fair (kudos to whoever can guess what school I'm from). Lastly, if there is anything that you need to know about me, it is that I absolutely loved playing for a NESCAC team and am excited to be talking with people who care about the league I love so much.

Now to soccer! Saw the Tufts, Middlebury, Williams and Amherst games. 9 goals and 1 conceded for those four teams combined is not a bad start for NESCAC. Thought Tufts looked the strongest and am always impressed with how many people they manage to get on the scoresheet. Van Brewer is one of those players that always seems to have a solid game, although I don't think anyone has been able to really stick it to him in the past 2 years. I wonder how he would have done against the giants of Amherst in 2015. Anyone remember the 6'7" Orozco? I would pay to see the two of them play against each other. Amherst looked strong and I think they have the potential to challenge for the top 3 spots. That was a given for a number of years but for the past 3 years or so they have looked vulnerable. If Lind can produce like he did last year with assists and Giammattei can up the goals a little they will score a lot. Middlebury had a solid game against a solid team in Norwich who always puts up a fight (it's a military academy after all). Don't think I saw their big guy Brandon Reid up top at all- maybe he picked something up in preseason? Tough ending for Williams as the ref should have called Springfield for timewasting about 10 seconds before he did. Beautiful freekick, Renieri will hope that wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime shot.

That's all for me right now. The clear game of the weekend is Tufts v Williams and I would be shocked if Tufts conceded against a weak Williams attack and even more shocked if Williams managed to keep Tufts' front 4 out.