MIAC 2014

[GarbageGoals33]

Men's season preview came out recently.

http://www.miacathletics.com/sports/msoc/2014-15/releases/082714_MSOC_Preview_2014

2014 MIAC Men's Soccer
Preseason Coaches' Poll
Rank Institution Total
1. Gustavus (7) 90
2. Carleton (2) 86
3.  St. Thomas (1)  80
4. St. Olaf (1) 68
5. Saint John's     65
6. Augsburg 57
7. Macalester 52
8. Concordia 34
9. Bethel 30
10. Hamline 29
11. Saint Mary's 14

[GarbageGoals33]

The MIAC preseason rankings look pretty accurate. 

GAC should be the top team in the MIAC this season.  I don't see their record being as good as last year in conference play, mostly because it is impossible.  GAC is stacked upfront and in the midfield, their only rebuilding area is in the back.  Emerson, Schultz, and Schwab all gave the Gusties decent minutes with Emerson really turning up his quality of play at the end of the season.  The backline will need to gel early for the Gusties to turn a very good season into a great season.  Brett Ylonen will be entering his fourth season as starter for GAC between the pipes which will certainly help keep the GAC backline in check. GAC has up to 5 players on this seasons team (Lilly, Brown, Tollefsrud, Adams, and Ylonen) that are All-Region caliber. I believe this GAC team has enough talent to make a run to the Sweet 16, maybe further if they figure things out in the back early in the season.  This GAC team has about 7-8 players that should be logging 75 minutes a game but Coach Middleton likes to use his subs and show his teams depth.  That is all fine and dandy in some of the easier games and it helps to keep your team fresh for late in the year but GAC really needs to give these key players longer minutes in the bigger games.

I am not 100% convinced that CarlEton will be in the top 4 by the end of the season.  McGarrity will give them a scoring threat in every game they play, and Thompson-Moylin is a solid CB so they could be squeak into the MIAC playoffs if those two carry the load this season.

I had the opportunity to play against Saint Thomas in one of their preseason games, they are young and talented.  They had a decent recruiting class as well as a couple of transfers that should make an immediate impact.  Stockman-Willis in the middle of the field is a difference maker, as long as he can keep his head.  I could see the Tommies finising as high as 2nd this year.

[KnightRider23]

Can't complain with the rankings at all. Carleton and GAC have been the class of the MIAC for the last 3-4 years and you'd have to expect them to be in and around the top 2 come November. I still can't get over the amount of love UST gets year after year, only to repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot and choke come October/November. Only once in the playoffs since '07...and no Rapisarda as well. Northfield's other school has to rebound with no Rosenthal/Kenzieeeeeeeeeeeee, so Skrip has a lot of pressure to produce. Saint John's is a sleeper for me at the 5 spot with a lot of talent, even though the Coborn loss seems pretty massive.

6 teams make the playoffs. Which, in my opinion, is just ridiculous. A 4-4-3 (#3 in preseason poll...lolz) St. Thomas team and a 5-5 (FIVE WINS and FIVE LOSSES!! THEY LOST FIVE TIMES) Augsburg team sneak into the playoffs. Is that what the league is going to come down to at the end of the day? Beat St. Mary's/Concordia/Hamline/Bethel and that puts you three points away from potentially being in the NCAA tournament. Pathetic. And it's a real blow to the 3rd/4th place teams who have to play two games in two days, giving those top seeds a real advantage. I understand other conferences use the 6 team playoff, but I really think it devalues the regular season to have such mediocrity get a shot at the postseason. Would love to hear what others think about that...

GG, you talk about Carleton like they barely did anything last year, when them and Gustavus, at the end of day, finished with almost the exact same endpoint (MIAC champions, quietly whimpering away to Westminster, etc )The Karlies will be right up there at the end of the year per usual, and it helps that GAC's season can't get any better than it did last year. A half-fit McGattity and they still got a MIAC championship last year so imagine if he's healthy (26 points in 2013 to 2012's 42 points). Backline is old enough with some good experience amongst the back four and the underrated Keenan Smith in goal. If they can replace the 18 points that Corcoran provided them from other players on the team, they are right up there for the title come November. Or maybe they finish 5-5 and rest their starters for the entire season and make the playoffs, because apparently that's a thing now.

2014 predictions:

1. Carleton
2. GAC
3. SJU
4. Tommies
(participation awards go to...)
5. Northfield's other school
6. Dogsburg

[KICKIN95]

Looks like the Duhawks are going to run the MIAC gauntlet this season.  Playing 3 of the top 4 teams.  Still no GAC match up in the regular season. Maybe they are destined to meet in the NCAA's  like we all thought was going to happen last season.

[gustiefan04]

Will be attending the Augsburg @ Wheaton game this evening. Wheaton looks to be pretty stacked this year, so I will be very interested to see how a predicted middle of the pack MIAC team stacks up. Should shed some light on the overall strength of the MIAC.

[gustiefan04]

GAC over Carroll 3-1, shots 16-7. Good way to kick off the season!

[Durantula]

de ja vu of last year with gustavus vs wartburg yikes speed kills i guess

[gustiefan04]

Looks to have been a bit of a debacle for GAC. Change in formation thru the middle of the field, an all region GK on the bench, All American forward coming on as a sub? Not sure what is going on in St Peter...

I would expect this type of tactic against a lower level team, but unless there are some injuries, why would you mess with your line up against a quality opponents?

[Durantula]

if the all american you were talking about was zach brown i heard he is dealing with a quad injury?

[KICKIN95]

Looking at the box score from the GAC v Wartburg match it would seem that GAC would have come out on top.  GAC seriously outshot the Knights and convincingly won the corner kick battle leading me to believe the play was in the Wartburg end the majority of the match.  Wartburg looks to have been very aggressive by the foul count and the amount of cards including a Red Card for Wartburg in the 89th minute. was this a chippy tilt or an isolated scuffle?

[GarbageGoals33]

Knightrider23, sorry about the confusion on CarlEton squeezing into the playoffs.  I completely forgot that 6 teams got in this year, which is very unfortunate.  The CarlE's should make the playoffs this year as a 4 or 5 seed in my opinion.

GAC's loss to Wartburg is unfortunate but it's not a bad loss.  I would think if these teams met 10 times GAC would probably win 6 or 7 of the matches.  The one thing I have noticed about the GAC teams over the past few years is they are content with having possession and they show no urgency to put the ball in the net.  This team has the attacking talent to make things happen, hopefully they utilize what they have this season because they will be losing a lot of scoring threat heading into next... Also, uncertain what is going on with Ylonen not playing the last two games.  Injury?

[Cheesehead Henry]

We've seen this before though. Wartburg's speed can make them be able to bunker in and endure hits and wait for a perfect time to counter with blazing speed. I'm willing to bet that half of their goals were breakaways just off the counter.

Loras, on the other hand, prefers to play more direct with the ball. Just like Wartburg, they've found what works for them and found a way to be really good at it.

The Wartburg vs. GA game, while I couldn't stream it, seemed to show the live stat updates having a lot of GA's shots going high. Now, should GA start hitting those shots on frame, and the GK starts giving up rebounds or the shots go in, then it could've been a very different game.

[gustiefan04]

Solid weekend for the Gusties with a 3-0 W over CSS and 1-0 W in OT over UWO.

Looking forward to the start of conference play this week. STO, the Thommies and GAC appear to be coming out of the opening non-conference schedules as the teams to beat in the conference. CarlEton maybe the biggest surpirse with a sluggish 2-3 start to the year. I will be very interested to see how they come out against the Gustavus on Wednesday afternoon.

[GarbageGoals33]

Nice start to the season for GAC with a record of 6-2.  Unfortunately for GAC they had a lead in both games they lost.  Hopefully they are able to hold onto leads as the season progresses into conference play.  GAC has played 4 teams that made the NCAA tournament last year (Carroll, Wartburg, CSS, and UWO) going 3-1 in those contests.

GAC seems to be playing with keepers splitting time each game (45mins. each) which is interesting.  Hopefully by the time the crunch time games come around they have figured out which keeper will be leading them. 

The MIAC race should be a good one this season (as it always is).

[gustiefan04]

I was curious about the GK situation. Interesting that the 2 seniors are splitting time now when for the last 3 years one was a clear cut starter...

Seems very strange as an outsider looking in.