Quote from: Yankeesoccerdad on November 18, 2022, 09:51:35 PM

Quote from: camosfan on November 18, 2022, 06:56:17 PM
IF you drive to the game all you need should be in your car

toe warmers
blanket
two different coats
lined shoes
lined pants
and don't go to the top tier of those open stands.

Definitely driving and bringing all sorts of cold weather gear. It will be our first time at Amherst not playing Amherst so should be interesting!

You guys forgot the most important things to pack - hot chocolate and Kahlua!

Quote from: LL_Alum on November 13, 2022, 08:35:48 PM

Quote from: EnmoreCat on November 13, 2022, 06:22:48 PM
St Lawrence 2 Amherst 4

Sadly work interfered with my viewing in part, but I came away with nothing but respect for the way Saints play and the pro-Saints posters have every reason to be proud of their team. Nevertheless, it's not the first time Amherst has started hot and on the first goal, there were two other players who were ready to score.  The 3-0 scoreline was as much about momentum and Saints really took over about 30 minutes in and at 3-1, I felt nervous, knowing the potency of their attack. The 4th Amherst goal calmed the nerves, but everyone knew it wasn't going to finish 4-1.

4-2 not long into the second half and the Saints' tails were up and the Mammoths were pushed back.  It wasn't always pretty, but ultimately in my clearly biased view it felt like there wasn't lots of dangerous play in Amherst's area.  But of course, it only takes a moment to change that and Saints clearly have players who can unlock that particular door.  Amherst did create chances too and ultimately were rewarded for the ones they did take

Not sure what comes next and it's hard to believe we have seen the last of the upsets. 

Foul count was 26/12 and 4/3 in yellows, well above pace for Amherst.

I was on the RPI team that played Amherst in the Elite 8 in 2019 and had an eerily similar experience. I had never really seen anything like the intensity that Amherst brought to every aspect of the game. My impression of Serpone was that he was kind of an a-hole but that he had his guys firing on all cylinders and operating at their most intimidating. When we played them it was like 40 degees, pouring down rain, their grass field as essentially an unplayable mudpit, but these guys were fired up and swaggering. They had this palpable arrogance about them, like they knew they were the #2 team in the country and they were going to put us down, it was unreal. They scored their first goal and the kid did like a 15 foot knee slide right in front of our bench, and it was just over at that point.

They actually moved the game to the turf at halftime (don't get me started) and we got a goal back and arguably had the run of play in our favor the last 55 minutes or so, but I've got firsthand experience of seeing how their mentality, reputation, and intensity can catch teams off guard and get you boat-raced before you even know what hit you, even in a massively important match. I'm assuming it's a NESCAC thing, that the rivalries there are so intense and the conference is so high-quality that a) the intensity is just at peak levels and b) the top NESCAC teams come out of that conference with a certainty that they're better than anything else in the country has to offer.

Wow I totally forgot about that game, I remember watching the stream. Absolutely insane game, possibly peak Amherst/NESCAC/D3 shenanigans levels. You guys played a solid game given the situation, once the game got moved to turf you put some good pressure on. And in the first half, it was just a ridiculous situation with the field, I played something stupid like 6 games on that field in my career and it's usually bad by the end of the season, but that was another level. Combo of that and your first experience playing Amherst is a tough tough game.

Anyone watch the first half of Williams vs. Messiah and want to catch me up? Hopping over from the bowdoin game.

After being a deserved Bowdoin winner away from predicting every score exactly last weekend, I'm feeling pretty good about my prophetic abilities that definitely have nothing to do with luck. I'll go Williams 1-1 Conn and Amherst 2-1 Midd.

PN I'm with you on coasters... not my jam. College soccer observers point on it being different to add golden goal after nobody has played OT all year makes sense to me, though still not my favorite.

Quick predictions, in decreasing order of confidence:

Bowdoin 2-1 Conn
Amherst 1-0 Wes
Midd 2-0 Hamilton
Williams 1-1 Tufts

There's no right answer here, but I'm on board with oacalum's perspective. Collapsing on the field after giving up an OT winner hurts for a couple minutes more than a loss at the end of a game does, but it fades to the same feeling pretty quick. Celebrating and screaming your head off after an OT winner for your team sticks with you, like the adrenaline rush leaves an imprint in your memory.

Another thing - you let OT play out and the other team scores an equalizer, you end up in penalties, which are just like a dumb way to decide a game. We were 3-0 in PK shootouts in my career but they are a bad way to pick a winner.

I was 2-2 lifetime on playoff OT golden goals btw, I've experienced both sides of the coin.

I don't mind the no regular season OT thing that much, but I dislike the no golden goal pretty strongly. There are few feelings like the sudden elation when you realize your team has scored the winner and it's all over, everyone sprints out onto the field and piles on the scooter, and celebrate. Plus, all else equal ending games sooner is probably better, these tournaments are already a grind fest.

Ah I interpreted you saying you'd be "mildly surprised if the four horsemen of the NESCAC aren't the semifinalists" (paraphrasing) as you thinking Conn is likely to beat Bowdoin.

Yeah it's clearly a must win game for Conn, and Bowdoin I expect to show up as well - I'd be shocked if they were looking ahead to NCAA's rather than focusing on winning NESCACs. Not how they operate.

Conn certainly has some solid results and talent, but the talent has been inconsistent and they have as many or more bad results than good. If it was that easy to just show up, put it all together, and put in the effort, Conn would have already done it. Not that easy.

PN you're giving a lot of weight on how good Conn is to them being champs last year... I'm not sure I agree. College soccer is a high turnover sport and teams can change quickly. They're probably better than your average 8th place NESCAC team by a good degree, but they're still a team that's lost half its conference games. Maybe they've been unlucky and underperformed and we should expect better results going forward but I think that still benchmarks them as a 4-6 team. Tufts I think is a bit different, they've only lost twice but haven't been able to get W's. I think NESCAC quarters will be more open this year than normal, but Bowdoin I think has clearly earned the #1 spot and favorite, below that's I think it's pretty mish moshy from Williams to Tufts, but I personally am almost worried about the polar bears against the next three teams, who I think deserve their spots there. Williams and Amherst and coming into form at the best possible time, and Midd is just good and has been for most of the season.

Even though most Tufts games I watch I am cheering for the other team, I prefer those announcers to the more professional NESN ones who just don't really know much about soccer and don't have as much background on the teams usually.

The funniest but worst was the old Bates announcers who were students that did not take it seriously at all and would just chat it up about whatever, who they knew on the teams, what the weather was like, etc.

Pace in Bowdoin vs. Tufts is obscenely high, especially for a midweek game. Up and down and up and down.

I ran the scenarios in my head and I am pretty sure Bowdoin has already clinched the #1 seed on record against top 4 (regardless of literal top 4) but if people know better feel free to fact check me on that.

Curious if anyone that has watched Hamilton more has thoughts on them? They've now lost 4-0 twice in 8 days with a 0-0 draw against Williams sandwiched in the middle. But before this weekend they were Midd's only loss and had generally all solid, consistent, competitive results. I think if the Bowdoin and Amherst results were 1 or 2 goal games I wouldn't be so confused and would just say "this is your standard 3-6 NESCAC team" but those teams don't usually have weeks like this. They have 3 draws and 2 losses in their last 5 NESCAC games and couldn't be going into the tournament much colder.

Trying to find an example to tie to, it kind of reminds me of Wes or Conn from before their switched up the schedule (and not counting the years where Conn has been very good). Both would frequently start hot with easier schedules and tail off hard towards the end of the season. But almost always they would show up for the tournament ready to play and have been responsible for some of the more surprising first round upsets in recent history. I would love to see a Hamilton vs. Tufts 4 vs. 5 matchup.

Not the prettiest Bowdoin win but they get it done. First half was pretty tight and even but the game opened up once for each team. Bowdoin had a small edge for the first 10 minutes of the second faded and Wesleyan was the better team in the run of play for the rest of the half. They did a great job of pressing Bowdoin, forcing turnovers and pinning them in. But Bowdoin defense had a solid game, and on the occasions where Wesleyan were able to get the ball into dangerous areas they didn't have the composure and quality to put a half chance on goal or turn a decent situation into a good situation.

With about 10 minutes left Juantorena received a pass deep in midfield with his body open and immediately send Tyler Huck away with a perfect ball. Wesleyan keeper caught in no man's land and shuck had a really nice volleyed finish to the far bottom corner.

6 yellow cards in a game!?!?!? I'm not even mad, I'm just impressed. NESCAC refs do not produce yellows very easily most of the time.