CCIW

[The Sock Heir]

Just a bit of age joking, no sour grapes here. You North Parkers need to stop taking the bait because it will continue for years to come as long as NPU keeps getting foreign players. And duh, yes I would want them on my team. Scientific studies show that fans want the best players to be on the teams that they root for.

So now we know not to take anything you say seriously, we can move on

[Gregory Sager]

Just a bit of age joking, no sour grapes here. You North Parkers need to stop taking the bait because it will continue for years to come as long as NPU keeps getting foreign players. And duh, yes I would want them on my team. Scientific studies show that fans want the best players to be on the teams that they root for.

North Park has had Swedes in its soccer program dating back to when soccer first became a varsity sport at the Park in the early Eighties. (Morgan Emanuelsson, a native of Sweden, was on the first NPC varsity side; one of his teammates was Tim McNaughton, father of current Vikings midfielder Ryan McNaughton.) And Swedes been among NPU's most dominant players going all the way back to Magnus Ramstrom, a three-time All-CCIW first-teamer in '91, '92, and '93. NPU has produced some of the CCIW's best soccer players over the past two decades, and several of them have been sons of Mother Svea: Fredrik Airosto, Sven Eggefalk, Jonatan Eriksson, P.J. Eriksson, Kris Grahn, Hannes Granlund, Sehten Hills, Filip Lindmark, Markus Nilsson, Andreas Olofsson, Magnus Ramstrom, Greger Svensson, and Henrik Wihlborg have each made the All-CCIW team over the past two decades for NPU, and all of them are Swedes (or, in the case of Hills, Liberians who lived in Sweden ). And until a few days ago I had never heard or read a single complaint about any of their ages.

In other words, if this griping by opposing fans is something that "will continue for years to come as long as NPU keeps getting foreign players," then why has it never reared its ugly head before over the past twenty years, seasons that have featured so much Swedish talent wearing North Park's kit?

[Gregory Sager]

This seems like the perfect time for me to congratulate NPU's Robin Hals and Jakob Aronsson upon being named the CCIW's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively. In the interests of board harmony and goodwill, I will refrain from mentioning which country Hals and Aronsson call home.

[GarbageGoals33]

The expansion of coverage for DIII Soccer online is the answer to your question Gregory.

[Gregory Sager]

The expansion of coverage for DIII Soccer online is the answer to your question Gregory.

If so, then it's not a very good answer. The people making the complaints are not d3soccer.com or d3boards.com users who root for schools in Virginia or Minnesota or Massachusetts; they're fans of other local sides. F'rinstance, blue_jays is a fan of Elmhurst, and keeker is a fan of Chicago. Even voiceofseason, who took great pains not to badmouth NPU's Swedish connection, is a fan of a local opposing side: Illinois Wesleyan. None of these people needed expanded online coverage of D3 soccer to know that North Park has lots of Swedes on its roster.

[keeker]

The expansion of coverage for DIII Soccer online is the answer to your question Gregory.

You're a smart fella, garbage. As D3 soccer gets more and more quality players (DA or top non da club players) interest in d3 will only go up. we'll start revisiting d1 v d3 soccer, but not yet.

[Jim Matson]

Greg, I am complaining about the Swedes. They ought to be Norwegians.

[voiceofseason]

Who is this 28 year old?  I'd wager that Grahn, a graduate student, is the oldest on the team.  I doubt he's even 25.  And to claim the average age is 23 seems like an uneducated post.

Ok, I sort of started this whole topic, but it was more in the vein of "John Born has a good thing going," not sour grapes, jealousy, etc.  I saw them play IWU, and they were impressive.

And you would be wrong about Grahn.  He's at least 28, and I think 29.  He was 25 or 26 his freshman year when he played against Illinois-Springfield (where I first saw him).  Again, not really important - what IS important is that he's a really good player.  On a really good team.

Glad NPU is behind IWU on their schedule....

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, I am complaining about the Swedes. They ought to be Norwegians.

Jim, meet freshman Siggy Pryser, NPU's starting left midfielder.

[GarbageGoals33]

Augsburg has two Norwegian imports that are fairing well in the MIAC:

Both are starters.

http://athletics.augsburg.edu/roster.aspx?rp_id=13439&path=msoc

http://athletics.augsburg.edu/roster.aspx?rp_id=13452&path=msoc

[Gregory Sager]

NPU has another Norwegian freshman, reserve defender Markus Fodstad. Unfortunately, the link to his picture doesn't work. That's life as a reserve, I guess.

[d3fan1]

Are Auggies Norwegian players named Ole and Sven?

[voiceofseason]

I do not know if this is true, but I was told Norway packages the loans, etc. better than Sweden.  if this is true, I wish IWU would tap this market!!   

[Gregory Sager]

Are Auggies Norwegian players named Ole and Sven?

Mathias and Harald. Pretty typical names for Norwegian guys.

[Gotberg]

In 1993, NPU had a Swedish Sven and a Norwegian Svenn.  That year's team had 2 Swedes and 2 Norwegians and they got along just fine, contrary to rumors at the time

That same year NPU had it's best ever Scandinavian, albeit an unofficial player, play a game for their offseason indoor league team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Bohinen.  Lars was in town visiting his girlfriend who was an exchange student at North Park and he trained with some of the NPU players in preparation for Norway's upcoming international games.  Great guy.