Liberty League

[Saint of Old]

I really dont see a need to go over 30 honestly.

Call me old school  if you want, but in soccer 30 is good enough and thats counting 3 goalies.
Even if you lose 2-3 plaers to injury.
I mean if you cannot get into your squads 30 man team then it means you did not show the coach enough to include you or the coach just does not think you did... this is coming from a person who was  right there with you as well at one point.

[deutschfan]

The Skidmore coaching staff must have heard you.  Their 38 man roster two days ago is now done to 30.  In terms of season predictions, I have Hobart first with 12 returning seniors and Ithaca second with impact players returning across the pitch.  It is appropriate that these two squads square off with Messiah this weekend.  It will provide a good sense of the overall strength of the league.  For SLU to return to the dance will require a coaching miracle given its losses to graduation.  For all the excitement of winning the league title, one and done with that group of seniors was a major disappointment.  While I didn't think it was possible, Union's non-conference schedule is even softer than it has been in previous years.  The plus for me in looking at their schedules is that I learn the names of colleges I never knew existed.  I expect RPI and RIT in the 3 and 4 spots but based on the past few years for the LL to get more than two berths in the dance would require divine intervention.  After that I have SLU and Vassar getting the last two spots in the LL tourney with Clarkson looking to be the spoiler.  Let the games begin.       

[Ejay]

Going off on a slight tangent, Hartwick's move to D3 continues to be interesting.  Their roster has only 16 players, including 10 freshman. I suspect they won't be much trouble for STLU, or even Bard for that matter.

[Saint of Old]

The Skidmore coaching staff must have heard you.  Their 38 man roster two days ago is now done to 30.  In terms of season predictions, I have Hobart first with 12 returning seniors and Ithaca second with impact players returning across the pitch.  It is appropriate that these two squads square off with Messiah this weekend.  It will provide a good sense of the overall strength of the league.  For SLU to return to the dance will require a coaching miracle given its losses to graduation.  For all the excitement of winning the league title, one and done with that group of seniors was a major disappointment.  While I didn't think it was possible, Union's non-conference schedule is even softer than it has been in previous years.  The plus for me in looking at their schedules is that I learn the names of colleges I never knew existed.  I expect RPI and RIT in the 3 and 4 spots but based on the past few years for the LL to get more than two berths in the dance would require divine intervention.  After that I have SLU and Vassar getting the last two spots in the LL tourney with Clarkson looking to be the spoiler.  Let the games begin.       

Extremely intelligent post.
I do agree that any team who finishes ahead of the Bombers will win the league.
There is nothing in sports more dangerous than a pissed off team.
Ithaca knew they were an NCAA team last year and they did not get an invite.
They cannot take out their frustrations on the Dance Committee but they can on the league... and I can see them doing that.

I do disagree on your assessment of the Saints and any other team based on graduating players, the game has evolved to the point where freshmen are coming into the league and playing like grown men.
I thought SLU's last African Soccer King #6 Jethro Dede was the best player in the league his entire 4 years at SLU.
He did get back to back POY of the league his Sr and Jr years, cannot recall another player doing this off the top of my head.
Another African King was Dan Annan who captained the team to a National Championship in the late 90s was also a gem of a player. Annan continued the legacy of fellow West African Mani Brito who still owns the scoring record from the 1996 season.
In between those 2 we had perhaps our greatest African General Macky Diop who led the team to a Final 4 in 2002 and perhaps would have led them to the promiseland had he and the other great player on that squad (Shawn Watson) Macky played with a smile on his face literally. I have never seen anyone (Besides Ronalldhino) do that had not missed the crucial semi at home v. Messiah....
Anyway, there is yet another African star donning the Saint midfield this year who might join the tradition of players I just mentioned.

I see SLU getting the first or 2nd seed based on the above.

Hobart is always strong and they will be 3rd
Skidmore will be disappointed by last year and make a push for 4th
Vassar will finish 5th. They have some talented upperclassmen who have been giving it to the league since freshman year.
6th place is tough but the alphabet soup of RIT and RPI will be fighting it out with the edge going to RPI who always seem to win the games they must down the stretch.

Bard will be there next season and Clarkson are still a year or two away.
What a league.

[Caz Bombers]

Hobart 1, #5 Messiah 0. Look at you, Statesdudes.

[Bartman]

Hobart 1, #5 Messiah 0. Look at you, Statesdudes.

Inspired by the new branding 🤣. Seriously ,Coach Griffin gets the most out of his players, and is a great coach to play for. Beware Liberty League, the Statesmen are back this year!

[Saint of Old]

St. Lawrence 2-0 down at home and playing the ball through the Goal Keeper.

Is this a joke... This style of soccer will lose many games.
PLAY FWD... The concept is not difficult.
Not sure if these boys dont understand that the point of the game is to go fwd and score or not??? NO one cares about possession unless it results in goals. Jeesh.

[stlawus]

St. Lawrence 2-0 down at home and playing the ball through the Goal Keeper.

Is this a joke... This style of soccer will lose many games.
PLAY FWD... The concept is not difficult.
Not sure if these boys dont understand that the point of the game is to go fwd and score or not??? NO one cares about possession unless it results in goals. Jeesh.

Very frustrating.  Bad first touch let us down as well.  To be fair to Otterbein they looked decent, didn't make a lot of mistakes.   But after last year's tournament lost against Brockport you'd think we'd "tighten that **** up", in the words of Aaron Boone.    Also, Clarkson might be better than I thought.  2 impressive wins this weekend.

[Saint of Old]

The entire league is good his year.
RPI wins
Hobart Beats Messiah
Ithaca wins.

Could be a long year  unless some changes begin to be made.

[Bartman]

Statesmen go 2-0 with a 2-1 double OT win over  NYU . Both Ithaca and Hobart go 2-0 against Messiah and NYU .....LL Power!

[Domino1195]

St. Lawrence 2-0 down at home and playing the ball through the Goal Keeper.

Is this a joke... This style of soccer will lose many games.
PLAY FWD... The concept is not difficult.
Not sure if these boys dont understand that the point of the game is to go fwd and score or not??? NO one cares about possession unless it results in goals. Jeesh.

Very frustrating.  Bad first touch let us down as well.  To be fair to Otterbein they looked decent, didn't make a lot of mistakes.   But after last year's tournament lost against Brockport you'd think we'd "tighten that **** up", in the words of Aaron Boone.    Also, Clarkson might be better than I thought.  2 impressive wins this weekend.

Watched most of the game - but not getting 2,3 goals in the first - they had chances - and then Otterbein getting that fluky first goal seemed to rattle SLU. Second half I thought they lost patience and tried to force things.

But shocked at the result.

[deutschfan]

Kudos to Hobart and Ithaca for putting the LL back on the national map with honorable mentions to RIT and Clarkson.  Last time LL had 3 bids was 2012.  Not out of the question now but what is unthinkable is that the LL could receive 3 bids and SLU not be one of them.  The Otterbein result at home is a horrible result.  Clarkson had the better of Otterbein and despite Coach Tosch propping them, Otterbein will be a middle of the pack OAC team this year. 

[soccerfan111]

St. Lawrence 2-0 down at home and playing the ball through the Goal Keeper.

Is this a joke... This style of soccer will lose many games.
PLAY FWD... The concept is not difficult.
Not sure if these boys dont understand that the point of the game is to go fwd and score or not??? NO one cares about possession unless it results in goals. Jeesh.

I hear you Saint of Old. Even at the highest level this weekend (Manchester United vs  Southampton), Southampton's best chances were when Man United would try and play out of the back when they were under pressure. There is a very fine line (but a very big difference) between playing out of the back under significant pressure and playing out of the back under so-so pressure. I don't understand the infatuation with wanting to play possession in your own defensive third. The risk vs. reward isn't there. Yes, playing good soccer and keeping the ball is the way to go, but do it in the middle of the field and the attacking third. If nothing is on, play it long into a 1v1 situation and go from there. Worst case, get up the field and win it back on the other half. It's extremely frustrating to watch (at any level) and I hope the Saints figure out that connecting the most passes doesn't win a game. You win by going forward. The genius of the and is keeping the all and penetrating.

[CU_GKnight]

Since roster size had been mentioned here and a few other threads talked about playing time, I found the box score for Clarkson's games quite interesting. In a pair of tight wins (2-1 and 2-0) they played 28 different players, 26 got more than 20 total minutes and only 5 had more than 100 minutes on the weekend.  I'm not sure that it means anything, but I did find it to be interesting...

[Saint of Old]

I admit in the heat of the moment my comments  may have been a bit overly blunt, but after a wile there is not much one can do but to call it out.

Generally speaking it was a mixed bag for the Saints over the weekend.
We have a quality player who can replace Dede if he works hard as he has his entire career up to this point.

The style of play is baked in at this point and has been evolving for 5 years now, so complaining about that wont do much good or change anything.

My concern is that I am waiting to see a few very talented players  who have played in this team for more than a season at this point sometimes 2 to make that next step.
The seniors will play like seniors, thats never a concern. When these boys see the end of the road a fire always gets lit under the a$s.

The sophomore and junior classes must step up and produce. This year will mean alot for the program and really show where the future is headed.
The boys are all quality players but already after 1 weekend there is very very little room for error at this point.

This league has teams like HOBART/ITHACA and now Clarkson  making a serious push with a good goalie and backline.

I am looking forward to a great season from the boys in red and will try to be much more reserved  and objective in my analysis, but it is very very tough to do sometimes.