CCIW

[Gregory Sager]

As everyone expected, an hour and a half after John Born was promoted, Kris Grahn was named NPU's new head coach. This is exactly what those of us who follow North Park men's soccer were hoping would happen. As associate head coach, Kris was John's right-hand man and was heavily involved in every aspect of the program, especially recruiting. He's obviously the person who is best positioned to keep the international pipleline going, seeing as how Kris himself originally came to North Park from Sweden to play soccer, and as a former All-American and CCIW Player of the Year he's going to have credibility with American prospects as well.

This is a good day for North Park soccer.

[markerickson]

Am waiting for official news that Matias Warp, former Viking All-American, will return after a one year absence.  That will make him 29 y/o. /s

[blue_jays]

Am waiting for official news that Matias Warp, former Viking All-American, will return after a one year absence.  That will make him 29 y/o. /s

Thought I heard he graduated early... time for our annual edition of NPU-splaining for the coming onslaught of vitriol from schools on the Vikings' schedule. Paging Prof. Sager.

[Gregory Sager]

I wasn't aware that one prior occurrence of something made it "annual".

Actually, upon reviewing this board's past posts, I was reminded that last season's "onslaught of vitriol" came from three posters who all hail from the northeastern part of the country (EB2319, Mr. Right, and Paul Newman), none of whom had a rooting interest in any of the teams on last season's NPU schedule. So, in other words, your "annual edition" describes something that's never happened before.

[Gotberg]

Greg - I saw you posted on the WBB board that Ericsson is returning to NPU this year.  USD just removed him from their 2019 roster yesterday.

Interesting - is he returning for soccer, academic or other reasons?  It must be hard to give up a D1 scholarship for a school located in beautiful SD.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm not sure about the details of Ericsson's return. But he certainly is a welcome addition. He is a serious difference-maker at this level. Getting him back makes up for the decision of Mattias Warp to change his mind. He will not return to NPU to get his master's degree after all.

The Vikings did suffer a blow this summer when All-CCIW forward Erik Lundeen broke his tibia in a summer league contest. He'll most likely take a medical redshirt for this coming season and will return in 2020 with two years of eligibility left.

First-year head coach Kris Grahn's got the target pinned to his back in this year's preseason poll, to nobody's surprise:

1	North Park	61 (6)
2	Carthage	56 (2)
3	Wheaton	54 (1)
4	Illinois Wesleyan	39
5	Millikin	37
6	North Central	32
7	Elmhurst	18
8	Augustana	16
9	Carroll	11

The unexpected slotting here is North Central. The Cardinals have been the up-and-coming program in the CCIW over the past few seasons, qualifying for three of the last four CCIW tournaments, so it seems strange to see them dropped down to sixth. They do have a new coach in Enzo Fuschino, but his record at UW-Platteville demonstrates that he's a proven commodity at this level.

I'm also a bit surprised that Millikin was picked to finish out of the money. The Big Blue returns a pair of All-CCIW first-teamers in goalkeeper Isaac Hopper and defender Bradyn Nokes as well as perhaps the strongest right leg in the league in Trey Knighton.

[Gotberg]

Former Carthage player Giles Phillips is starting in defense for Wycombe Wanderers of England's league 1.  Is this the highest level played by a former cciw player? 

He's currently on loan from QPR, which is a Championship team.

[Gotberg]

NPU's roster is posted:  https://athletics.northpark.edu/roster.aspx?path=msoc

A few players from last year are gone - a few old names have returned.

Most of the newbies I have no idea about, but one incoming player does have his own Wikipedia page:

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niclas_Holgersson

[Gregory Sager]

Niclas Holgersson is, to the best of my knowledge, the first player that North Park has ever had who has capped for his country's national team. He was a member of the Swedish U-17 team in 2016 and saw brief action for the blue and gold in the European U-17 championships in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2016.

As you would expect, the coaching staff raves about him. Provided that he stays healthy, he will be a huge difference-maker at this level.

Two of NPU's 2018 All-CCIW first-teamers, Deni Cresto and Joachim Hoff, didn't return this season, and I've already mentioned that All-CCIW second-teamer Erik Lundeen is going to get a medical redshirt after fracturing his tibia this summer. But Gianfranco DeCarne, the junior out of Niles North who left school to play in Italy after a 2016 season in which he finished second in the league in scoring and made the All-CCIW first team, is back. And, as previously discussed, 2017 All-CCIW first-teamer Gustav Ericsson is back after spending a year playing at the D1 level for the University of San Diego as a part-time starter. So the Vikings shouldn't miss a beat in the forward third and at midfield.

The goal should be as well-defended for NPU as it is for anybody this year with Matthias Stulen and Edin Sabovic back between the pipes. The question mark is the back line, which was devastated by the graduation of Ricky Pimentel, Gustav Leander, and Kyle Robson. Pimentel is now North Park's GA, and he told me that the defensive corps is extremely talented, but is of course very raw -- there will a lot of minutes going to freshmen defenders this year. How quickly and how well they adjust to the college game is likely going to determine how far NPU can go this year.

[Gotberg]

Greg, I think Isaac Lee represented South Korea youth nation teams.  I believe he was a late cut from their Olympic team

Kemkers also returned after a medical red shirt year.

[Gregory Sager]

You're right. i'd forgotten about Isaac Lee.

Kemkers is still not at 100%, as he's redeveloping all of the musculature around the injured hip that forced him to miss all of last season. The coaching staff is easing him in with regard to his workload. The word I heard is that he should be ready for playing time in a couple of weeks.

[GoThunder1]

Greg,

North Park seems to have a lot of questions (along with a lot of potential based upon the return of DeCarne and Ericsson), however, what happened to the players that should have returned from last year? Most notably - Deni Cresto, Joachim Hoff, Benjamin Nygaard, Samuel Zetterlind, etc. Was that due to the coaching change?

The influx of Scandanavian players over the past few years has obviously increased the talent level, however, with such massive turnover year over year, one must question if the lack of cohesiveness will be a deterrent (considering these players only have 2-3 weeks to gel prior to their first game). Based on what I can see, the only returning starters from last year are Stuhlen, Olsen, Khoury, and Lund (to be fair, those are 4 very good players to have returning). Also it is fair to assume that Ericsson and DeCarne will find assume the starting roles they had in previous years.

I am curious on how you see this team shaping up and if you have been able to watch them at all in preseason. You had mentioned that they will be raw on the defensive end - which I agree with, however, on paper they look to be as talented as ever on the offensive end. I can only imagine that Coach Grahn is drooling over the ability to throw out Khoury up top with Olsen on the left, DeCarne on the Right, Ericsson and Holgersson at Attacking Mid, and Lund at Defensive Mid. Assuming that would be the case, he still would have Barriga and Kemkers (assuming he returns to the form he had in 2017) coming off the bench, which is crazy to think about - considering both would be top 5 players on any other team in the CCIW. The conference hasn't seen that much firepower up front from one team since my Thunder were able to attack with the Golz brothers and Marshall Hollingsworth.

It should be a very interesting game between NPU and UC early in the season, as it seems UC is going through the same types of changes (coaching change, loss of impactful starters, etc.). I also noticed Dayo Adeosun doesn't appear on the recently posted roster for UC (no insight into this and could very well be a human error). However, if that is true, that is a big blow to the Maroons - as he would have been the engine in the final 3rd of the field for them.

Looking forward to a great season!   

[Gregory Sager]

Greg,

North Park seems to have a lot of questions (along with a lot of potential based upon the return of DeCarne and Ericsson), however, what happened to the players that should have returned from last year? Most notably - Deni Cresto, Joachim Hoff, Benjamin Nygaard, Samuel Zetterlind, etc. Was that due to the coaching change?

Nygaard, who seemed to be convinced that he was better than he actually was, quit in mid-season last year after his playing time had been cut and he'd been asked to play JV. I don't know the specific reasons why Cresto, Hoff, and Zetterlind aren't back, but I highly doubt that it had anything to do with the coaching change, since Kris Grahn was in charge of recruiting international players and was therefore the guy who'd brought them into the program in the first place.

One of the pitfalls of using international players is that they often graduate early and thus don't use their full four years of eligibility if they're from countries that offer more college-level courses in their high schools than is common in the U.S. (Sweden and Norway being notable examples of such countries). Another pitfall is the attrition caused by homesickness. It wouldn't surprise me if that's the reason why Cresto, Hoff, and Zetterlind didn't come back. Also, as was pointed out here ad nauseam last season, Cresto is beyond traditional college age. That made it more problematic that he'd have the patience to play out an entire college career without drawing a paycheck, although I've noticed online that he hasn't signed anywhere yet.

Cresto and Hoff in particular are unfortunate losses. They were All-CCIW last season, and deservedly so. But I'm not terribly worried about it, not just because the Vikings have added Ericsson, DeCarne, and Holgersson, but because NPU has consistently demonstrated over the past several years that it can bring in new players who can step in and excel at this level right away. And that's not taking into consideration that the returnees who were on the bench last year are now a year better. I'm thinking of guys like Angel Barriga, Patrick Knap, Alfredo Pichardo, Phillip Danielsson, Jonas Andersgaard, and Osvaldo Espinoza in that regard. Also, at last report Erlend Kemkers is a couple of weeks away from playing time -- and he had been described to me as NPU's most improved player in 2018's spring practices before he got hurt last summer. If he can round back into form, he'll be a heckuva player in the middle of the pitch.

The influx of Scandanavian players over the past few years has obviously increased the talent level, however, with such massive turnover year over year, one must question if the lack of cohesiveness will be a deterrent (considering these players only have 2-3 weeks to gel prior to their first game).

That's a fair question. There are enough new pieces to the puzzle to think that there might be a shakedown period at the beginning of the season that's necessary to get the first unit clicking in sync; I'm less worried about Ericsson, who has only been gone for a year, but DeCarne's been gone for two years, and the entire rotation has turned over since he last donned the NPU kit. That's why I'm glad that Kris has scheduled two tough scrimmages this week: Roosevelt (tomorrow night), which is raw but always plays with tremendous pace, is already two games deep into its regular season (and has scrimmaged UIC as well), and Lewis (Saturday afternoon) is a D2 outfit -- not a great one as D2 programs go, but it's always a challenge when scholarship players get thrown your way.

I'm hopeful that these two scrimmages will help the top eighteen or so come together more quickly.

Based on what I can see, the only returning starters from last year are Stuhlen, Olsen, Khoury, and Lund (to be fair, those are 4 very good players to have returning). Also it is fair to assume that Ericsson and DeCarne will find assume the starting roles they had in previous years.

Also, even though Niclas Holgersson hasn't even put on the kit yet aside from the team photo session, he's already been written into the starting lineup in ink. Everybody associated with the program tells me that he's a special talent for this level of soccer.

I am curious on how you see this team shaping up and if you have been able to watch them at all in preseason. You had mentioned that they will be raw on the defensive end - which I agree with, however, on paper they look to be as talented as ever on the offensive end. I can only imagine that Coach Grahn is drooling over the ability to throw out Khoury up top with Olsen on the left, DeCarne on the Right, Ericsson and Holgersson at Attacking Mid, and Lund at Defensive Mid. Assuming that would be the case, he still would have Barriga and Kemkers (assuming he returns to the form he had in 2017) coming off the bench, which is crazy to think about - considering both would be top 5 players on any other team in the CCIW. The conference hasn't seen that much firepower up front from one team since my Thunder were able to attack with the Golz brothers and Marshall Hollingsworth.

I've watched them practice a bit, but it's really hard to pick up much from observing a practice. I think that the two scrimmages this week will provide ample opportunity to get a sense of the Vikings. I'm less concerned about the offense gelling as I am with the back line.

I am so happy that the Golz family ran out of sons. I got tired of seeing them whip the Vikings in multiple sports.

It should be a very interesting game between NPU and UC early in the season, as it seems UC is going through the same types of changes (coaching change, loss of impactful starters, etc.). I also noticed Dayo Adeosun doesn't appear on the recently posted roster for UC (no insight into this and could very well be a human error). However, if that is true, that is a big blow to the Maroons - as he would have been the engine in the final 3rd of the field for them.

IIRC, it was mentioned last year that Adeosun was graduating early. If so, his departure wasn't unexpected, and the new coaching staff has had time to prepare for it. But it's terrible timing to lose a player of Adeosun's caliber while he still has a year of eligiblity left when that loss is in the same graduation cycle that costs you three All-Americans in Koh, Lopez, and Capotosto.

Looking forward to a great season!

How does Wheaton look? I noticed that Carthage has yet to post a roster. I really wish that we had a Carthage fan posting here as well, although Steve Domin's teams are never a mystery -- loads of fleet 5'8 or 5'9 Hispanic guys from the north and northwest suburbs who try to run you right off of the pitch (and frequently do). He loses three senior starters from last season -- including his leading scorer and his keeper, both of whom were All-CCIW first-teamers -- but he had a very nice group of juniors who should be coming back.

[Gotberg]

I believe Cresto didn't return because he turned pro (I'm assuming 4th tier is pro)

I found him on this Midland-Odessa Sockers roster:

http://www.sockersfc.org/team/roster/

[Gregory Sager]

Nice detective work, Gotberg. I couldn't find him with a search engine -- probably because I had "Deni Cresto" within quotes, which must've prevented me from getting a hit for Deni Jose Lima Cresto.

They must've just signed him. They don't even have his height and weight listed on the roster yet. Anyway, best of luck to Deni down there in the Permian Basin.