Amherst 1 Wesleyan 0

Western Massachusetts turned on the weather for Seniors Day and the billiard table that is Hitchcock Field looked an absolute treat.  A powerful header by Enmore Kitten in the eighth minute saw the Mammoths off to a great start and there was an extended period of domination after that but sadly no second goal to potentially kill the Cardinals off. Instead, Wesleyan scrambled effectively and were able to hold the white shirts at bay.  The lead at half time felt fair, but possibly insufficient.

Whilst I am happy to say I was wrong again about a potential outcome, it wasn't due to lack of effort from Wesleyan.  Although Amherst did have a couple of gilt-edged chances, the Cardinals had more opportunities and it was the turn of the Mammoths to scramble.  It would have been hard to view a Wesleyan equaliser as unfair and there was considerable relief when the final hooter hooted (I know sounded is the more appropriate verb, but I liked the alliteration opportunity).

It was the first time I have seen Wesleyan in the flesh and they looked to me like a very even team across the field.  Their keeper made one fine save in the first half and they had some uber dangerous entries, which on another day, could have led to a goal.

For Amherst, a win and another clean sheet in conference are most welcome.  That makes two goals conceded in NESCAC so far, compared to eight goals at the same stage last year.  I did describe the team as, "efficient" last year and it's probably more so in 2024.  Having said that, those with purple in their hearts would love to see maybe a bit more of the 2023 ruthlessness in front of goals, but there is still time.

As noted, it was Seniors Day today and there was a super turn out to celebrate the occasion.  Aside from two NESCAC championships and two national championship final appearances, this group was associated with a 71pct win record, which is quite outstanding, given their participation in NESCAC.  I understand there are alternate views, however I view them as an outstanding group of young men and one that I am proud to have had the pleasure of being around.  I look forward to seeing what they do with a fine liberal arts education.

For me, this represented my final ever game at Amherst, which is sad, but of course, an inevitable part of this journey.  There is still a lot of season left, with undoubted highs & lows still likely, but I do feel quite privileged to have travelled to places I would never have likely visited and more importantly met numerous tremendous people, not just Amherst, but also from Bowdoin, Middlebury, W&L and Babson, just to name a few.  The memories will always be special.

Foul Count: Amherst 10 Wesleyan 15 (not a typo)

I am not an Amherst fan and Ray knows that but this is brilliant! Congrats to your son too

Speaking of possible bias and how bias works, I'd be curious to see how others view the Amherst goal yesterday.

Here it is as posted in the Amherst recap...

https://x.com/AmherstMammoths/status/1842637725553303705

Imo this is a great example for what @freddyfud was elaborating on.  Clean, good goal?  Climbing and using the back of the defending player to elevate and gain separation while committing a foul?  Look at the immediate reaction of the defender clearly intent on shielding the Amherst player (no doubt known as the most important Mammoth player to shield) from an opportunity and also the GK's reaction.  I'm especially interested to again hear from the GK experts since defending corners is a high volume play for GKs and defending teams. Also, should the Wesleyan GK have made a play on the ball to grab or punch out?  Or no?  If we could do a survey of 10 Wesleyan fans/players/coaches and 10 Amherst fans/players/coaches, how many for each would have a take different than their counterparts?  After completing the exercise, and after using AI to run the same play with all the players in opposing jerseys (and Wesleyan scoring off the corner), how many would change their votes?

PK calls are another area that provide a rich tapestry for bias analysis.

My take?  As someone who quite admittedly has a very different kind of purple in MY heart, I'm leaning towards a slight adjustment of that foul count from 10 to 11.  And I'll obnoxiously interject that the other purple home pitch really is a billiard table.

One other thought...and one of respect for the Mammoths industrial complex.  When Amherst goes up 1-0 that often feels like 3-0 or 4-0.  Even though just a goal from equalizing actually getting one feels like a big mountain to climb.  Would be interesting to look at how many games Amherst has lost over the past decade or so when going up 1-0.  Obviously the sample size isn't very high.  In contrast, I would guess Amherst has a pretty strong record of winning or at least gaining a draw after they go down 1-0...and of course that sample size is even less.

As a begruding observer, the battle for NESCAC and national glory is per usual going to be a dogfight.  Imo there is very little daylight between Tufts, Amherst, Midd, and Conn...and there's Williams also smirking from the weeds.

Quote from: PaulNewman on October 06, 2024, 08:02:11 AMSpeaking of possible bias and how bias works, I'd be curious to see how others view the Amherst goal yesterday.

Here it is as posted in the Amherst recap...

https://x.com/AmherstMammoths/status/1842637725553303705

Imo this is a great example for what @freddyfud was elaborating on.  Clean, good goal?  Climbing and using the back of the defending player to elevate and gain separation while committing a foul?  Look at the immediate reaction of the defender clearly intent on shielding the Amherst player (no doubt known as the most important Mammoth player to shield) from an opportunity and also the GK's reaction.  I'm especially interested to again hear from the GK experts since defending corners is a high volume play for GKs and defending teams. Also, should the Wesleyan GK have made a play on the ball to grab or punch out?  Or no?  If we could do a survey of 10 Wesleyan fans/players/coaches and 10 Amherst fans/players/coaches, how many for each would have a take different than their counterparts?  After completing the exercise, and after using AI to run the same play with all the players in opposing jerseys (and Wesleyan scoring off the corner), how many would change their votes?

PK calls are another area that provide a rich tapestry for bias analysis.

My take?  As someone who quite admittedly has a very different kind of purple in MY heart, I'm leaning towards a slight adjustment of that foul count from 10 to 11.  And I'll obnoxiously interject that the other purple home pitch really is a billiard table.

One other thought...and one of respect for the Mammoths industrial complex.  When Amherst goes up 1-0 that often feels like 3-0 or 4-0.  Even though just a goal from equalizing actually getting one feels like a big mountain to climb.  Would be interesting to look at how many games Amherst has lost over the past decade or so when going up 1-0.  Obviously the sample size isn't very high.  In contrast, I would guess Amherst has a pretty strong record of winning or at least gaining a draw after they go down 1-0...and of course that sample size is even less.

As a begruding observer, the battle for NESCAC and national glory is per usual going to be a dogfight.  Imo there is very little daylight between Tufts, Amherst, Midd, and Conn...and there's Williams also smirking from the weeds.

Cool

Mohammed Nuhu delivered another assist yesterday. We are witnessing a generational talent blossoming before us. I pity Hamilton if they are pitted against Nuhu's Amherst in the postseason. The Continentals are clearly weak, so a matchup with the greatest NESCAC player of all time will be an unwelcome sight. Nuhu continues to silence the critics.

Hahahaha ^

Quote from: nuhusuperfan26 on October 06, 2024, 01:05:30 PMMohammed Nuhu delivered another assist yesterday. We are witnessing a generational talent blossoming before us. I pity Hamilton if they are pitted against Nuhu's Amherst in the postseason. The Continentals are clearly weak, so a matchup with the greatest NESCAC player of all time will be an unwelcome sight. Nuhu continues to silence the critics.

I wouldn't be too quick to write off the Continentals. 3 wins and no losses in their last 5 games. Hamilton are coming off a 6pt weekend, including a dominant 1-0 victory over Bates today in which Hamilton outshot the Bobcats 17-0.

Hamilton have a talented and experienced group. Today, the midfield duo of Margaronis and Peplowski looked different class. Don't let them get hot!

Quote from: nuhusuperfan26 on October 06, 2024, 01:05:30 PMMohammed Nuhu delivered another assist yesterday. We are witnessing a generational talent blossoming before us. I pity Hamilton if they are pitted against Nuhu's Amherst in the postseason. The Continentals are clearly weak, so a matchup with the greatest NESCAC player of all time will be an unwelcome sight. Nuhu continues to silence the critics.

love to give Nuju credit but also like to point out he was a 2003 freshman - lots of years under the belt....

Quote from: PaulNewman on October 06, 2024, 08:02:11 AMSpeaking of possible bias and how bias works, I'd be curious to see how others view the Amherst goal yesterday.

Here it is as posted in the Amherst recap...

https://x.com/AmherstMammoths/status/1842637725553303705

Imo this is a great example for what @freddyfud was elaborating on.  Clean, good goal?  Climbing and using the back of the defending player to elevate and gain separation while committing a foul?  Look at the immediate reaction of the defender clearly intent on shielding the Amherst player (no doubt known as the most important Mammoth player to shield) from an opportunity and also the GK's reaction.  I'm especially interested to again hear from the GK experts since defending corners is a high volume play for GKs and defending teams. Also, should the Wesleyan GK have made a play on the ball to grab or punch out?  Or no?  If we could do a survey of 10 Wesleyan fans/players/coaches and 10 Amherst fans/players/coaches, how many for each would have a take different than their counterparts?  After completing the exercise, and after using AI to run the same play with all the players in opposing jerseys (and Wesleyan scoring off the corner), how many would change their votes?

PK calls are another area that provide a rich tapestry for bias analysis.

My take?  As someone who quite admittedly has a very different kind of purple in MY heart, I'm leaning towards a slight adjustment of that foul count from 10 to 11.  And I'll obnoxiously interject that the other purple home pitch really is a billiard table.

One other thought...and one of respect for the Mammoths industrial complex.  When Amherst goes up 1-0 that often feels like 3-0 or 4-0.  Even though just a goal from equalizing actually getting one feels like a big mountain to climb.  Would be interesting to look at how many games Amherst has lost over the past decade or so when going up 1-0.  Obviously the sample size isn't very high.  In contrast, I would guess Amherst has a pretty strong record of winning or at least gaining a draw after they go down 1-0...and of course that sample size is even less.

As a begruding observer, the battle for NESCAC and national glory is per usual going to be a dogfight.  Imo there is very little daylight between Tufts, Amherst, Midd, and Conn...and there's Williams also smirking from the weeds.

PN:  Showed this to my son, who is clearly no admirer of Amherst (or Wesleyan either, for that matter).  His take was the defender needs to be stronger, that no one on the field was asking for that call, and that there is no reaction from the Wesleyan bench.  The goalkeeper came for the ball and missed it.  This is defensive miscue that was punished.

CSO, thx for responding. I asked my son to take a look yesterday while visiting my first and only grandchild so far. He was more down the middle. He had no disagreement with a lack of a foul call but he also would not have disputed a foul call there either. He thought the kitten did use the body of the smaller kitten to gain an advantage but not necessarily blatant enough to call an infraction.

The set piece foul call seems like the most frequently called foul in the majority of soccer matches...akin to seeing a flag in the backfield or a kickoff return in American football and 90% of the time you know the call is going against the offensive team.

I couldn't quite tell if your son thought the GK and defender shared culpability on the miscue or not. In other words, did he think the GK (especially seeing the most dangerous threat to the other side of him) could or should have made a play to grab the ball or punch it out? Also curious who is responsible for lining up the marking so that a 6'5, 210 lbs AA caliber player isn't left isolated on a 5'9, 165 lbs guy defending. Does this fall on one of the CBs or the GK or some combination therein? Of course, as I have mentioned quite a few times, the problem facing Amherst is that they usually have at least a handful of guys on the pitch 6'3 or above at any given time. So it's a pick your poison kind of deal. I didn't check but I wouldn't be surprised if Wesleyan doesn't have any field players over the 6'0 mark and certainly not more than a few.

Just checked... Wesleyan does have  6'3 and 6'4 guys who play and several around 6'0-6'1. Not sure who was on the field at time of goal but I don't think one of the bigger Wes players was marking the kitten.

He believes that the GK should absolutely have dealt with that ball better.

While there hasn't been a huge break-out goal scoring game yet, Williams, which has lacked the finishing touch for years, finally seems to be moving in the right direction offensively.  Even with last year's leading scorer, Andrew Coelho, not playing this year (I assume injured), the Ephs seem to finally have some dudes who can finish plays in Lorcom Mitchell (in particular, he's scored with some impressive strikes in three of the last four games despite still playing only about half of games), Alex Bethencourt, Kellen Grace, and Spencer Mix, all of whom will be around for awhile.  The offensive stats aren't quite at elite levels yet but with a critical mass of young playmakers who will grow as a group, the future is very bright.  The Ephs also have a recruit coming in from NJ, the younger and bigger brother of a four-year Wesleyan starter, who scored 31 goals as a junior (in small-school soccer, but in NJ soccer that's still impressive).  If Coelho can return to form and the Ephs can get even more punch from next year's recruits, they may start to show some of the true offensive potency that has eluded them for years - even in the year they made it to the national title game on the strength of stingy defense. It's clear that Coach Siebert weathered a rocky bit of player retention early in his tenure and has done a stellar job with recruiting, and the team is growing deeper in talent as he brings more classes in.   

The Eph defense and defensive midfield led by Guiterrez, Labonski and Diffley is strong as always, so the question for THIS year will be, can the very young attacking bench unit, which has generated virtually all of the teams' goals, continue to grow into bigger roles as the season moves along and teams game plan against them.  Williams while still going very deep has started to tighten the rotation just a bit, which should help with continuity while still keeping guys fresh for the second half of games, when the Ephs clearly do their most damage - incredibly, 12 of the 15 Eph goals have come in the second half of play.     

On another note, that Amherst header goal certainly looked clean to me.  As others have said, when you have a skilled 6'5 guy against someone who looked around 8-9 inches shorter, it's just going to be no contest every time going up in the air. There is always going to be some physicality in the box and that wasn't a foul.   

Quote from: PaulNewman on October 06, 2024, 08:02:11 AMSpeaking of possible bias and how bias works, I'd be curious to see how others view the Amherst goal yesterday.

Here it is as posted in the Amherst recap...

https://x.com/AmherstMammoths/status/1842637725553303705

Imo this is a great example for what @freddyfud was elaborating on.  Clean, good goal?  Climbing and using the back of the defending player to elevate and gain separation while committing a foul?  Look at the immediate reaction of the defender clearly intent on shielding the Amherst player (no doubt known as the most important Mammoth player to shield) from an opportunity and also the GK's reaction.  I'm especially interested to again hear from the GK experts since defending corners is a high volume play for GKs and defending teams. Also, should the Wesleyan GK have made a play on the ball to grab or punch out?  Or no?  If we could do a survey of 10 Wesleyan fans/players/coaches and 10 Amherst fans/players/coaches, how many for each would have a take different than their counterparts?  After completing the exercise, and after using AI to run the same play with all the players in opposing jerseys (and Wesleyan scoring off the corner), how many would change their votes?

PK calls are another area that provide a rich tapestry for bias analysis.

My take?  As someone who quite admittedly has a very different kind of purple in MY heart, I'm leaning towards a slight adjustment of that foul count from 10 to 11.  And I'll obnoxiously interject that the other purple home pitch really is a billiard table.

One other thought...and one of respect for the Mammoths industrial complex.  When Amherst goes up 1-0 that often feels like 3-0 or 4-0.  Even though just a goal from equalizing actually getting one feels like a big mountain to climb.  Would be interesting to look at how many games Amherst has lost over the past decade or so when going up 1-0.  Obviously the sample size isn't very high.  In contrast, I would guess Amherst has a pretty strong record of winning or at least gaining a draw after they go down 1-0...and of course that sample size is even less.

As a begruding observer, the battle for NESCAC and national glory is per usual going to be a dogfight.  Imo there is very little daylight between Tufts, Amherst, Midd, and Conn...and there's Williams also smirking from the weeds.

Quote from: PaulNewman on October 06, 2024, 08:02:11 AMSpeaking of possible bias and how bias works, I'd be curious to see how others view the Amherst goal yesterday.

Here it is as posted in the Amherst recap...

https://x.com/AmherstMammoths/status/1842637725553303705

Imo this is a great example for what @freddyfud was elaborating on.  Clean, good goal?  Climbing and using the back of the defending player to elevate and gain separation while committing a foul?  Look at the immediate reaction of the defender clearly intent on shielding the Amherst player (no doubt known as the most important Mammoth player to shield) from an opportunity and also the GK's reaction.  I'm especially interested to again hear from the GK experts since defending corners is a high volume play for GKs and defending teams. Also, should the Wesleyan GK have made a play on the ball to grab or punch out?  Or no?  If we could do a survey of 10 Wesleyan fans/players/coaches and 10 Amherst fans/players/coaches, how many for each would have a take different than their counterparts?  After completing the exercise, and after using AI to run the same play with all the players in opposing jerseys (and Wesleyan scoring off the corner), how many would change their votes?

PK calls are another area that provide a rich tapestry for bias analysis.

My take?  As someone who quite admittedly has a very different kind of purple in MY heart, I'm leaning towards a slight adjustment of that foul count from 10 to 11.  And I'll obnoxiously interject that the other purple home pitch really is a billiard table.

One other thought...and one of respect for the Mammoths industrial complex.  When Amherst goes up 1-0 that often feels like 3-0 or 4-0.  Even though just a goal from equalizing actually getting one feels like a big mountain to climb.  Would be interesting to look at how many games Amherst has lost over the past decade or so when going up 1-0.  Obviously the sample size isn't very high.  In contrast, I would guess Amherst has a pretty strong record of winning or at least gaining a draw after they go down 1-0...and of course that sample size is even less.

As a begruding observer, the battle for NESCAC and national glory is per usual going to be a dogfight.  Imo there is very little daylight between Tufts, Amherst, Midd, and Conn...and there's Williams also smirking from the weeds.

I just watched this film back. One of the more clean set piece goals I've seen in NESCAC play. No extension of arms to push off, clear size advantage that looks even more uneven due to the Wesleyan defender not jumping. There has been wayyyy worse stuff that has lead to goals (jersey pulls, toe stomping, etc), especially in the box, especially in the NESCAC.

Further, agreed with CSO noting the reaction (or lack there of) from Wesleyan as the goal was scored. GK had no business coming out for that, either.

As a self-proclaimed "goalie person"... I don't think I'd say he had no business coming out. But he needed to be a lot better with his footwork and decision-making there. Either he needed to drop back on his line with the cross (as you imply), or make a quicker decision to go for the ball. Slight hesitation and indecision led to him being a fraction late.

Not an easy play, to be fair.