NESCAC

[camosfan]

Watched the game in the car on my way back from Boston, and I will agree that the quality of the commentary was not what I expected. The guy seemed a hockey commentator filling in.

[College Soccer Observer]

Bowdoin 0 Amherst 1

Yankeesoccerdad was there, whereas I had to try and watch whilst at work so I am quite happy to defer to him on the evenness of the game and checking out the history, since 2010 only two games between the Polar Bears and the Mammoths have been decided by more than a one goal margin.  The 2023 game at Pickard Field continued the tradition of tight affairs.  Based on what I saw, I wouldn't describe it as a cagey affair, but one where both teams had opportunities.  The big moments that I saw were where Bowdoin hit the cross bar and where Amherst scored after a shot had hit the post.  It's always a game of centimetres (2.54 of those makes an inch) and of course, just that bit of good fortune.

I appreciate the kind words from YSD about the Mammoths and there is little doubt that the teams match up pretty evenly.  The Polar Bears are adept at moving the ball from defence to attack quickly and with skill and have players that are capable of doing special things.  This was their first loss for the season and I don't necessarily see too many more ahead for them and they are definitely in the top tier of NESCAC MSOC, which of course means that they are part of the national conversation.

Amherst has a break before taking on NJAC powerhouse Montclair State next Sunday.  Massey rates the Mammoths' SOS as second highest in D3 and the Red Hawks fixture is consistent with that schedule.  It's a great opportunity to get some insight into relativities.

I can't really comment on the deep growls and flexing, but what I did see at the end was a generally quite convivial atmosphere in the middle of the field at least.  There was a fair representation of Downtown United alumni on both sides today and it's a positive reflection on the programme there, that there were many players at the top end of D3 who were on display in this game.  YSD mentioned the foul count, I think it might be the Mammoths' lowest number for the season.  I will leave others to continue with the alternative narrative, which is increasingly not being supported by data.

One sour note for this correspondent at least, was the quality of the commentary.  I had to roll back the film on multiple occasions to see what were described as penalty incidents which were no more than normal tackles.  Not knowing/understanding the rules is one thing, but this particular commentator's inability to pronounce Amherst surnames was infuriating and for some of my colleagues who were also watching the coverage, embarrassing.  To help out future callers:

https://athletics.amherst.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster

There is an ear symbol next to each players' name.  My son is quite good at saying his...

The Colby announcer was no better on Saturday for the Midd v Colby game.

[camosfan]

The Babson guy that did the Tufts game last week was excellent, knew the names of the visiting players, had background information and gave history of the series etc.

[Newenglander]

Watched the game in the car on my way back from Boston, and I will agree that the quality of the commentary was not what I expected. The guy seemed a hockey commentator filling in.

I think there are one or two regional commentators for the NSN games but in general it is typically - the Tufts broadcasters appear to be students and may tend to overexaggerate the calls with exuberance as well...........but at least NESCAC games are free for the live events!

[northman]

Bowdoin 0 Amherst 1

Yankeesoccerdad was there, whereas I had to try and watch whilst at work so I am quite happy to defer to him on the evenness of the game and checking out the history, since 2010 only two games between the Polar Bears and the Mammoths have been decided by more than a one goal margin.  The 2023 game at Pickard Field continued the tradition of tight affairs.  Based on what I saw, I wouldn't describe it as a cagey affair, but one where both teams had opportunities.  The big moments that I saw were where Bowdoin hit the cross bar and where Amherst scored after a shot had hit the post.  It's always a game of centimetres (2.54 of those makes an inch) and of course, just that bit of good fortune.

I appreciate the kind words from YSD about the Mammoths and there is little doubt that the teams match up pretty evenly.  The Polar Bears are adept at moving the ball from defence to attack quickly and with skill and have players that are capable of doing special things.  This was their first loss for the season and I don't necessarily see too many more ahead for them and they are definitely in the top tier of NESCAC MSOC, which of course means that they are part of the national conversation.

Amherst has a break before taking on NJAC powerhouse Montclair State next Sunday.  Massey rates the Mammoths' SOS as second highest in D3 and the Red Hawks fixture is consistent with that schedule.  It's a great opportunity to get some insight into relativities.

I can't really comment on the deep growls and flexing, but what I did see at the end was a generally quite convivial atmosphere in the middle of the field at least.  There was a fair representation of Downtown United alumni on both sides today and it's a positive reflection on the programme there, that there were many players at the top end of D3 who were on display in this game.  YSD mentioned the foul count, I think it might be the Mammoths' lowest number for the season.  I will leave others to continue with the alternative narrative, which is increasingly not being supported by data.

One sour note for this correspondent at least, was the quality of the commentary.  I had to roll back the film on multiple occasions to see what were described as penalty incidents which were no more than normal tackles.  Not knowing/understanding the rules is one thing, but this particular commentator's inability to pronounce Amherst surnames was infuriating and for some of my colleagues who were also watching the coverage, embarrassing.  To help out future callers:

https://athletics.amherst.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster

There is an ear symbol next to each players' name.  My son is quite good at saying his...

I was at this match in-person...along with my wife and my son (Bowdoin '12) and his family.  It was a beautiful day for football, and my grandson of 20 months was kicking a miniature soccer ball on the fringes of the turf field.  After the match, I pointed out that he should have been subbed in for Bowdoin, and would have likely scored the elusive equalizer... :-)

At any rate, I thought it was a relatively evenly played match.  Each team had spells of dominance and possession.  Amherst definitely had the overall height advantage and continue to be very adept at putting the ball into the box from a variety of angles.  Bowdoin looked prettier in possession and have several forward players who are a menace on the ball.  A draw would have been a fair result, but Amherst's goal was well earned through their persistence.

I will say that I've heard that Wiercinski and Serpone wouldn't be inviting the other to tea any time soon, and Serpone was literally dancing on the sideline at the conclusion of the match...which probably says something on several levels...  :-)

[College Soccer Observer]

Middlebury wins 2-0 at Eastern Nazarene in a game that was not really that close in terms of chances created.  The field appeared to play like Midd's old turf field.  The ball was bouncing all over the place and it seemed that it was very hard for players to control the ball.  Midd heads to Connecticut for two challenges games this weekend.  Trinity is much improved, and Conn is currently undefeated. 

[stlawus]

Williams loses to Wesleyan?? 

[d4_Pace]

Williams with a tough loss to Wesleyan and now staring down a tough 0 point weekend if they can't get a result at a resurgent Tufts team

[EnmoreCat]

Hamilton 0 Bowdoin 0

I woke up a little early for no good reason (athough the weekly shopping has now been done) and watched the final 30 minutes of this game.  I will leave it for YankeeSoccerDad to fill in the gaps with his usual erudite and dispassionate observations, but what I did see looked pretty even.  The one thing that stood out to me compared to watching the final bit of the St Thomas/Texas Lutheran game was how much faster the Continentals/Polar Bear game was.  I completely understand the difference in climate etc, but to my eyes the contrast was a sharp one and not saying it's a good or bad thing either.  Bowdoin's build up was a bit more deliberate than Hamilton's and whilst they got some dangerous balls into the box, didn't quite create a meaningful opening whilst I was watching and Hamilton were countering with genuine pace and might have been unlucky to not be awarded a handball.  I will say though and happy for CollegeSoccerObserver to offer his thoughts on this, but I am really not sure what a handball is these days. 

The commentator mentioned that the Continentals haven't conceded a goal in just over four games now and having watched this cameo, I can understand why.  They were one of the two teams I nominated (Tufts was the other) as big improvers for 2023 and I think they are on the cusp of being considered as much more serious contenders in NESCAC, which of course, just makes this conference even tougher week to week. 

[northman]

I saw the latter part of the first half, and pretty much all of the second half.  Now...with my admitted bias as a former Polar Bear parent...the play I saw in the first half looked pretty even.  I thought Bowdoin controlled much of the possession in the second half and looked the much more dangerous team.  More often than not, Hamilton was sending long balls in hopes of making something happen.  The stats seem to bear this out...as Bowdoin had 8 SOG to Hamilton's 2 and 8 corner kicks to Hamilton's 1.  But, a draw is a draw.  You take the point and move on...

[PaulNewman]

EnmoreCat, I'm sure you are in hard-core pre-gaming mode with the massive intersectional battle just hours away, but I was curious about your post on Bowdoin vs Hamilton.  First, and I may well have missed it, I don't recall you offering detailed analysis of a non-Amherst match.  Secondly, and what I found far more interesting, was your insertion of speed of play into your analysis, which seemed less about Bowdoin vs Hamilton, and more about highlighting a point you wanted to make about NESCAC speed of play in general.  You've obviously observed in person and via video a lot of NESCAC action, so I suspect you didn't see anything in Bowdoin vs Hamilton that was unique.  You said you weren't making any judgments, and yet you still highlighted something about NESCAC in general that you must think means something or at least something to you.  Third, I was curious about your choice of TLU vs UST as your comparison standard.  Now maybe that's because you really haven't watched much other non-NESCAC action and/or because TLU vs UST for at least a few days so thoroughly consumed the attention of the D3 audience (such as it is). 

At any rate, I doubt anyone questions your observation and conclusion.  NESCAC is widely accepted by almost all of us here as the superior (and perhaps by a significant margin) conference in all of D3, and so it certainly follows and makes sense that NESCAC would have the most superior speed of play.  That said, I'm not sure watching the 20-30 minutes of a match that was mostly 8 v 10 and had so much extracurricular drama is the fairest measuring stick.  UST (who won two NCAA tourney games last year and also led Chicago at the half in the Sweet 16) and probably TLU too would win games in the NESCAC.  I don't know if they would be top half, but they could compete. I'd also be interested in your assessment of speed of play with other comparables...like Calvin vs Chicago, or Calvin vs John Carroll, or W&L vs Christopher Newport, or Johns Hopkins vs F&M, or SLU vs Vassar.  Lastly, I'd suggest that perceptions of speed of play are also often impacted by camera angle and distance akin to what speed of play looks like on video vs live.  The NESCAC video tends to be much closer to the field and at a lower angle since most NESCAC venues are not in stadium or stadium-similar settings. 

[Kuiper]

EnmoreCat, I'm sure you are in hard-core pre-gaming mode with the massive intersectional battle just hours away, but I was curious about your post on Bowdoin vs Hamilton.  First, and I may well have missed it, I don't recall you offering detailed analysis of a non-Amherst match.  Secondly, and what I found far more interesting, was your insertion of speed of play into your analysis, which seemed less about Bowdoin vs Hamilton, and more about highlighting a point you wanted to make about NESCAC speed of play in general.  You've obviously observed in person and via video a lot of NESCAC action, so I suspect you didn't see anything in Bowdoin vs Hamilton that was unique.  You said you weren't making any judgments, and yet you still highlighted something about NESCAC in general that you must think means something or at least something to you.  Third, I was curious about your choice of TLU vs UST as your comparison standard.  Now maybe that's because you really haven't watched much other non-NESCAC action and/or because TLU vs UST for at least a few days so thoroughly consumed the attention of the D3 audience (such as it is). 

At any rate, I doubt anyone questions your observation and conclusion.  NESCAC is widely accepted by almost all of us here as the superior (and perhaps by a significant margin) conference in all of D3, and so it certainly follows and makes sense that NESCAC would have the most superior speed of play.  That said, I'm not sure watching the 20-30 minutes of a match that was mostly 8 v 10 and had so much extracurricular drama is the fairest measuring stick.  UST (who won two NCAA tourney games last year and also led Chicago at the half in the Sweet 16) and probably TLU too would win games in the NESCAC.  I don't know if they would be top half, but they could compete. I'd also be interested in your assessment of speed of play with other comparables...like Calvin vs Chicago, or Calvin vs John Carroll, or W&L vs Christopher Newport, or Johns Hopkins vs F&M, or SLU vs Vassar.  Lastly, I'd suggest that perceptions of speed of play are also often impacted by camera angle and distance akin to what speed of play looks like on video vs live.  The NESCAC video tends to be much closer to the field and at a lower angle since most NESCAC venues are not in stadium or stadium-similar settings.

For what it's worth, I also took note of the comments about the speed of play comparison.  Like @Paul Newman, I also thought it an odd sample to make the comparison not because of climate, but because it was 10 v. 8, which means the game can be really spaced out on a proper size field and makes it more difficult space-wise and energy-wise late in the game for either team to press. 

Speed of play is not a good or bad thing (I think @EnmoreCat conceded that; patience can be a virtue after all), but it is helpful when pressing necessitates one-touch passing and movement off the ball so that the team with the ball can unbalance the pressing team and make the press less effective.  So, I would mildly disagree with @Paul Newman that the statement really implies anything about which league is better (without disagreeing that NESCAC is better - I just wouldn't say that speed of play is necessarily the evidence of that).  Chicago was a pretty deliberate team last year, choosing their moments to bomb forward, and they won the national championship.  You can have really strong technical players -- and St. Thomas may have a few of the more technical players in D3 -- without playing "fast" so-to-speak.    Really good players can make one shift with the ball or one turn on a pass and make a pressing player look silly, leaving plenty of time to pick out a pass

Having said that, from my perspective as someone who has watched St. Thomas more times than any sane person not affiliated with the team or any of its opponents would do over the past two years, is that they have been playing slower than they did last year.  I think that's because they lack the target forward that was a fulcrum of their offense last year and that has reduced their movement off the ball around the target and, as a result, reduced one of their primary methods of going forward.  One of the problems with a possession-based team is that if they start lacking ideas for how to get forward, they either resort to individual plays like dribbling or long shots or, if their coach really emphasizes possession, they play possession for possession's sake which involves a lot of lateral and backward passes.  Indeed, you can be a possession-based team and have really fast speed of play, but not go anywhere, which is why I think the better phrase to communicate to players is "urgency" than "tempo," because urgency implies direction and goal-based speed.

[Yankeesoccerdad]

Bowdoin 0 — Hamilton 0

I am impressed this game got so much attention.  Obviously I wanted a win for Bowdoin, but a tie wasn't unfair.  The box score gives the advantage to Bowdoin in shots and SOG, and I thought Bowdoin was better but I acknowledge my bias, like Northman.  Bowdoin was missing a couple of starters on defense, but there was no impact on the game as they didn't concede any goals.  The pace felt fast in live action as both teams passed well.  It felt like the typical NESCAC back and forth battle, with some skirmishes but, in a departure from NESCAC, relatively few long balls and no chippiness. 

I confess I was disappointed in the tie but Enmorecat's comment made me look at the Hamilton schedule—they haven't lost and haven't conceded any goals thus far in October.  Their midfield is very strong (as expected) and maybe this is a reversal of last year, where Hamilton started strong and faded in October when a few defenders went down?  They face Amherst next so we will learn a lot there.

I saw some Hamilton players called for a handball, in the second half but i didn't see it from my vantage point.  The ref was there and signaled play on, so it might have been incidental.  If it was a handball, that is two weekends Bowdoin benefitted from the refs.  There are a number of calls (and non-calls) that often go against Bowdoin so I take the good with the bad.

As for Bowdoin, I thought they played well but were unlucky.  The Hamilton GK is pretty athletic and had some nice saves.  Bowdoin had at least one hard shot each half that was over the bar by a small margin.  Bowdoin next plays at Colby Tuesday afternoon.  I am planning on attending as it is my son's last year and Colby is the only NESCAC campus I haven't visited.

The game also featured a couple of Downtown United alums.  I never got a T-shirt like some parents but it is always nice to see mutual respect and friendship after a hard-fought match.

A couple of non-soccer thoughts.

It was senior day for Hamilton, always a nice event.  The walk out song for Hamilton was Etta James' "At Last."  I can't believe some college-age soccer players picked that, but if they did hats off to them.  It was a role reversal with the students on the sidelines asking the over 50 crowd who the artist was.

The game featured four Lukes, two Jacks, two Julians and two Kais, not counting players who didn't enter the game.  There were many confused looks each time those names were shouted.

[SierraFD3soccer]

EnmoreCat, I'm sure you are in hard-core pre-gaming mode with the massive intersectional battle just hours away, but I was curious about your post on Bowdoin vs Hamilton.  First, and I may well have missed it, I don't recall you offering detailed analysis of a non-Amherst match.  Secondly, and what I found far more interesting, was your insertion of speed of play into your analysis, which seemed less about Bowdoin vs Hamilton, and more about highlighting a point you wanted to make about NESCAC speed of play in general.  You've obviously observed in person and via video a lot of NESCAC action, so I suspect you didn't see anything in Bowdoin vs Hamilton that was unique.  You said you weren't making any judgments, and yet you still highlighted something about NESCAC in general that you must think means something or at least something to you.  Third, I was curious about your choice of TLU vs UST as your comparison standard.  Now maybe that's because you really haven't watched much other non-NESCAC action and/or because TLU vs UST for at least a few days so thoroughly consumed the attention of the D3 audience (such as it is). 

At any rate, I doubt anyone questions your observation and conclusion.  NESCAC is widely accepted by almost all of us here as the superior (and perhaps by a significant margin) conference in all of D3, and so it certainly follows and makes sense that NESCAC would have the most superior speed of play.  That said, I'm not sure watching the 20-30 minutes of a match that was mostly 8 v 10 and had so much extracurricular drama is the fairest measuring stick.  UST (who won two NCAA tourney games last year and also led Chicago at the half in the Sweet 16) and probably TLU too would win games in the NESCAC.  I don't know if they would be top half, but they could compete. I'd also be interested in your assessment of speed of play with other comparables...like Calvin vs Chicago, or Calvin vs John Carroll, or W&L vs Christopher Newport, or Johns Hopkins vs F&M, or SLU vs Vassar.  Lastly, I'd suggest that perceptions of speed of play are also often impacted by camera angle and distance akin to what speed of play looks like on video vs live.  The NESCAC video tends to be much closer to the field and at a lower angle since most NESCAC venues are not in stadium or stadium-similar settings.

As to speed of play, whether it be NESCAC or not, the natural v. turf, imo, plays a big part in many games. Especially after a day or rain.  Watching the Midd v. Conn game which is a good one 1-1 right now.  I can't really judge concerning speed considering that the ball seems to be buried in tall grass. So other games where the teams lift the ball all the time. NESCAC may play very fast in many games, but would not say that with grass games like Midd v. Conn.

[stlawus]

I don't think I've ever seen a yellow card be shown 2 seconds into a game.