CCIW

[PaulNewman]

With a bit more research I think Wheaton is probably on the bubble, not off.  The Thunder have three ranked wins and a h2h win over Carthage. However yesterday Carthage was one spot ahead in the RR...and now Carthage has another ranked win after last night.  Both Carthage and Wheaton also add ranked wins for next week as they hold wins over Trine.

[iwu70]

IWU wins the CCIW Tournament and the AQ.  A real shocker!     iwu'70

[Coach Andrew]

With a bit more research I think Wheaton is probably on the bubble, not off.  The Thunder have three ranked wins and a h2h win over Carthage. However yesterday Carthage was one spot ahead in the RR...and now Carthage has another ranked win after last night.  Both Carthage and Wheaton also add ranked wins for next week as they hold wins over Trine.

I don't believe that the Thunder have a shot for a Pool C as both NC and Carthage would have to get off the board before them.

[Gotberg]

NPU's roster is being updated:  https://athletics.northpark.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster

Always difficult to comment on given the number of foreign players.  A couple of notes, Christian Vaaland is returning as a grad student, and I'm assuming that's his brother as an incoming freshman.  The twins from Siena College returned and so did Vidar Rydell who started as a freshman 2 seasons ago.

I appreciate the publishing of the roster this early in the summer.  It gives a chance to get some level of interest/enthusiasm for the upcoming season.

[Kuiper]

North Central has published its 2024 Roster.

A few observations:

- 40 on the roster, compared to 50 last year.  They only had 6 listed as seniors last year, so the drop isn't attributable to an unusually large senior class.  They had 46 in 2022, so maybe last year was the anomaly and they are gradually getting back to the mean.  It looks like players with eligibility disappeared from last year's roster, some of whom played on the JV last year.

- One noticeable absence is GK Riley Johnson, who started 12 games last year as a sophomore with a .83 GAA and a 10-1-1 record [UPDATE:  I hear Johnson transferred to Loras]

- Four transfers who were on another college team's roster last year: Luis Aviles (Elmhurst, 2nd team all-CCIW F last year), Nicholas Roberts (USC-Sumter CC, 1st team all region CM19), Trevor Share (Butler GK who hasn't seen any action), Lucas Visser (Oakton CC, All region GK)

- 19 freshman on the roster

- 13 international players on the roster

- One senior stayed on as a grad student for a COVID year - Eloi Nyibizi

[Kuiper]

North Park has published its 2024 Roster

Here are a few observations:

- 43 on the roster, compared with 51 on last year's roster

- 10 freshman on the squad

- Among newcomers (including freshman), there are 13 international students, 9 of whom are from Sweden and 3 from Norway

- Two players return for a grad year, including F Jostein Blindheim, who scored 5 goals last year, and, perhaps most importantly, D Christian Vaaland, who was third team all Region VIII last season and second team all CCIW 

- There are several regular contributors who had at least 1 and sometimes 3 years of remaining eligibility that are missing from the 2024 roster, including leading point scorer M William de Carro, regular starting GK Alfred Sward, F Willy Wickman, F Emil Svenander, and F Vincent Sabbione. 

[Gotberg]

North Park has published its 2024 Roster

Here are a few observations:

- 43 on the roster, compared with 51 on last year's roster

- 10 freshman on the squad

- Among newcomers (including freshman), there are 13 international students, 9 of whom are from Sweden and 3 from Norway

- Two players return for a grad year, including F Jostein Blindheim, who scored 5 goals last year, and, perhaps most importantly, D Christian Vaaland, who was third team all Region VIII last season and second team all CCIW 

- There are several regular contributors who had at least 1 and sometimes 3 years of remaining eligibility that are missing from the 2024 roster, including leading point scorer M William de Carro, regular starting GK Alfred Sward, F Willy Wickman, F Emil Svenander, and F Vincent Sabbione. 

I believe de Carro, Sward and Wickman all graduated.  Most Swedes typically arrive at US universities with one your completed based on how Sweden's education system works.

One of the newcomers, is actually a returnee.  Vidar Rydell attended and played for NPU as a first year student in 2022, where he was a starter for most games.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central has published its 2024 Roster.

A few observations:

- 40 on the roster, compared to 50 last year.  They only had 6 listed as seniors last year, so the drop isn't attributable to an unusually large senior class.  They had 46 in 2022, so maybe last year was the anomaly and they are gradually getting back to the mean.  It looks like players with eligibility disappeared from last year's roster, some of whom played on the JV last year.

- One noticeable absence is GK Riley Johnson, who started 12 games last year as a sophomore with a .83 GAA and a 10-1-1 record [UPDATE:  I hear Johnson transferred to Loras]

- Four transfers who were on another college team's roster last year: Luis Aviles (Elmhurst, 2nd team all-CCIW F last year), Nicholas Roberts (USC-Sumter CC, 1st team all region CM19), Trevor Share (Butler GK who hasn't seen any action), Lucas Visser (Oakton CC, All region GK)

- 19 freshman on the roster

- 13 international players on the roster

- One senior stayed on as a grad student for a COVID year - Eloi Nyibizi

The biggest absences are All-CCIW first-teamers Sid Marquardt, Aidan Westerberg, and Jack Fairwood, all of whom either graduated or simply ran out of eligibility, and a whole pile of starters who elected to forego their remaining eligibility as Cardinals and left the program. They include D Daniel Navarro and all but one of NCC's standout Italians, including All-CCIW selections Jacopo de Collibus and Edoardo Bonifacio and second-leading scorer Matteo Innocenti, leaving only Tommasso Polidori as a returning Italian starter. (Enzo Fuschino does have some new Italians this season; it remains to be seen whether they are adequate replacements for the ones who left school early.)

It's not a complete rebuild for Enzo, but it is a rebuild, nevertheless. There's no doubt that this is going to be a very, very different North Central team in 2024.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park has published its 2024 Roster

Here are a few observations:

- 43 on the roster, compared with 51 on last year's roster

- 10 freshman on the squad

- Among newcomers (including freshman), there are 13 international students, 9 of whom are from Sweden and 3 from Norway

- Two players return for a grad year, including F Jostein Blindheim, who scored 5 goals last year, and, perhaps most importantly, D Christian Vaaland, who was third team all Region VIII last season and second team all CCIW 

- There are several regular contributors who had at least 1 and sometimes 3 years of remaining eligibility that are missing from the 2024 roster, including leading point scorer M William de Carro, regular starting GK Alfred Sward, F Willy Wickman, F Emil Svenander, and F Vincent Sabbione. 

I believe de Carro, Sward and Wickman all graduated.  Most Swedes typically arrive at US universities with one your completed based on how Sweden's education system works.

One of the newcomers, is actually a returnee.  Vidar Rydell attended and played for NPU as a first year student in 2022, where he was a starter for most games.

William de Carro and Willy Wickman graduated and chose not to use their final year of eligibility as grad students; I'm not sure if Alfie Swärd graduated or not, but as noted he elected not to come back, either. On the other hand, Christian Vaaland and Josse Blindheim did graduate after three years and then chose to return and use their final year of eligibility as grad students. This should not come as a surprise, since de Carro, Wickman, and Swärd are Swedes, whereas Vaaland and Blindheim are Norwegians. Norway pays for the tuition of its university students, even those who go abroad, while Swedes have to pay for their schooling out of their own pockets. Vicente Sabbione and Johan Björck simply decided not to return to NPU. Same with last year's three bitterly disappointing scholie transfers, Emil Svenander and the Storødegård twins.

Last year's Vikings were mostly pretty young, and they played like it; they barely kept North Park's 20-season streak of double-digit wins alive. This year's Vikings will be very young as well; grad students Christian Vaaland and Josse Blindheim and reserves forward Daniel Baker are the only players returning for a fourth season as Vikings, but the coaching staff is quite pleased with the incoming talent -- and they're thrilled to get wing midfielder Vidar Rydell back, who has great potential.

I think that the All-American juco striker that they picked up, Chicago native Angel Arismendiz, could be one player in particular who stands out for the Vikings this season. He put up very gaudy scoring numbers at the juco level. Long and lanky GK Melker Regland, who arrived on campus last January and thus participated in the team's off-season practice sessions, is another newbie who will most likely be a conspicuous presence for the Vikings. And I'm also intrigued by Francesco Semplice, a freshman F/M whose (I presume) father of the same name enjoyed a long career as a pro in Italy, albeit not at the Serie A level. It must drive Enzo Fuschino crazy to see his archrival land an Italian player.

The size of the team is already proving to be a source of humor. After having fielded rosters that for several years had well over 50 players, Kris Grahn now has a more manageable 43 Vikings in 2024. I've told him that what he considers to be a more manageable roster is still big enough to freak out most other D3 soccer coaches.

[Gregory Sager]

The CCIW preseason poll is out. The coaches anticipate a serious first-division dogfight this season.

T1.	North Central (2)	55
T1.	North Park (2)	55
T3.	Carthage (3)	52
T3.	Wheaton (2)	52
5.	Illinois Wesleyan	34
6.	Millikin	28
7.	Elmhurst	21
8.	Carroll	18
9.	Augustana	9

The story on the CCIW site contains interview clips with NPU's Kris Grahn and NCC's Enzo Fuschino.
https://cciw.org/news/2024/8/22/north-central-north-park-headline-loaded-cciw-mens-soccer-poll.aspx

[Gregory Sager]

North Park scrimmaged Calvin yesterday at Hedstrand Field and beat the Knights, 1-0. The Vikings overwhelmingly controlled the run of play, and, frankly, should've won 3-0 or even 4-0, but they muffed a couple of easy opportunities in the box.

This means absolutely nothing, as last preseason in Grand Rapids NPU trounced a better Calvin squad than this one is at the moment (the Knights graduated eight starters), and it decieved everyone around the Vikings program into thinking that the Park would be a much better team than it turned out to be. But this year's Vikings skew young, too, even if they are more experienced than Calvin. This just has the vibe of being a better Vikings team than last year; all I'm saying is that I'm not going to put too much weight upon yesterday's win. Once bitten, twice shy, and all that.

[Kuiper]

North Park scrimmaged Calvin yesterday at Hedstrand Field and beat the Knights, 1-0. The Vikings overwhelmingly controlled the run of play, and, frankly, should've won 3-0 or even 4-0, but they muffed a couple of easy opportunities in the box.

This means absolutely nothing, as last preseason in Grand Rapids NPU trounced a better Calvin squad than this one is at the moment (the Knights graduated eight starters), and it decieved everyone around the Vikings program into thinking that the Park would be a much better team than it turned out to be. But this year's Vikings skew young, too, even if they are more experienced than Calvin. This just has the vibe of being a better Vikings team than last year; all I'm saying is that I'm not going to put too much weight upon yesterday's win. Once bitten, twice shy, and all that.

I assume the Chicago or North Central games are usually the big tests for North Park, which is probably still true, but I wonder if the Illinois Wesleyan game on 10/12 that comes right before the Chicago game on 10/16 is the one the team is circling on its calendar this season.  It has all the makings of a humdinger.  After losing in Bloomington in the regular season last year and then losing out on PKs in the CCIW tournament, North Park should be primed for payback.  Plus, there is a decent chance North Park could be undefeated this year coming into the IWU game (if they can survive Eau Claire and Whitewater at home, which will be no easy task). The crowd should also be especially good too because it's homecoming. 

[Gregory Sager]

Wesleyan was a big surprise that really came out of nowhere last season, because the Titans have never been anywhere near as formidable in men's soccer as they've been in most other sports. I don't really think that IWU is a circle-it-on-the-calendar contest for North Park (or for Carthage, NCC, or Wheaton, for that matter). Maybe that will change if the Titans can sustain last season's success for another season or so.

The Meatball War (North Park vs. North Central) has really only been a big deal over the past three seasons or so, since Enzo Fuschino came over from UW-Platteville and built up the Cardinals practically from scratch. NPU's traditional big games have been Chicago, Wash U, and the two long-term conference rivals, Wheaton (the ancient conference bully whom North Park eventually turned into a peer) and Carthage (a rivalry that personifies the term "chippy"; fistfights have broken out a couple of times in the postgame handshake line).

[markerickson]

NPU's newcomer list includes a kid from Italy.

Augustana must be really bad.  One does not often see coaches unanimously giving one point.  The exception would be NPU football. 

[Gregory Sager]

NPU's newcomer list includes a kid from Italy.

Yes, I've talked about Francesco Semplice here already:

And I'm also intrigued by Francesco Semplice, a freshman F/M whose (I presume) father of the same name enjoyed a long career as a pro in Italy, albeit not at the Serie A level. It must drive Enzo Fuschino crazy to see his archrival land an Italian player.

I think he could turn out to be a really nice addition for North Park.

Augustana must be really bad.  One does not often see coaches unanimously giving one point.

Augie hasn't won a CCIW game since victimizing Carroll in Rock Island back on October 21, 2021. That's the only CCIW game Augie's won since Covid wiped out the 2020 season. Augie's currently riding a 12-game losing streak and a 17-game non-winning streak in CCIW play. So the disrespect from the league's coaches is well-earned.

Augustana has been picked to finish last or next-to-last in each of the last 11 CCIW preseason polls. The coaches haven't slotted Augie to finish in the top half of the league in a preseason poll since 2007. It's no coincidence that Augie hasn't had a winning season in CCIW play since 2010.

In the first decade and a half of CCIW men's soccer, which I like to call the "Wheaton and the Five Dwarves Era", Augustana and North Central generally traded places in being the best of the mediocrities that made up that part of the CCIW that didn't wear blue and orange and play their home games next to the Union Pacific's train tracks. Augie even somehow forged a tie against national power Wheaton in 2001 to share the CCIW crown with Joe Bean's crew with identical 5-0-1 records -- and that was a year that Wheaton got to the Elite Eight.

Coaching changes pretty much sent the Augie men's soccer program into a death spiral, and it's never recovered over the past decade and a half. It's a little hard to figure out; Augustana isn't the all-sports king of the jungle in the CCIW anymore, but for the most part it's still not the kind of school that has programs that linger at the bottom of the league standings year after year like this. And Augustana's Thorson-Lucken Field is a very nice D3 soccer-only facility right on campus. Men's soccer has somehow become the red-headed stepchild of the Augustana athletic department.

The exception would be NPU football. 

North Park football hasn't been a unanimous pick for last place in the CCIW preseason poll since 2013. And it won't be happening again anytime soon.