The Big Dance

[Mr.Right]

+K for Climate Science as the East Sectional heads from the "frozen ..now soggy..tundra" of Shoemaker Field to the balmy shores of (ever warming) Lake Ontario.  Thank goodness there were no flights involved.  I have to wonder if a second year of November problems spells the beginning of the end of the wonderful grass on Shoemaker.  I certainly hope not.

Since I am guessing the NCAA made this decision you have to believe the Messiah staff was going NUTS about it. Unless Messiah offered it up to the NCAA which I would highly doubt with a turf field available.

[truenorth]

All that said, if I take what Messiah fans here post in aggregate....and I'm not going to get the words exactly right so don't focus too much on any single word...I (speaking only for myself) experience some entitlement, presumption, over-associative bias, and sort of a insular prism through which all things come back to Messiah.  I'm going to try to keep this short instead of going into a whole dissertation....but other schools have great stories and families too...and it's sad when anyone's career ends with a loss (or at the very elite levels of D3 without a Final Four appearance or without a title)...but it's not tragic, and it's certainly not more tragic or more alarming when Messiah loses once in a while or has injuries or whatever...and other teams can have injuries and titles and whatever independent of Messiah or comparisons or switch of topics back to Messiah....Just as one very clear example, and I do genuinely appreciate the poster and enjoy reading his posts...but OWU can be cited as winning the 2011 title without an immediate morph into the play by play of Messiah's great goals against OWU in the first game of that season with a reminder that Messiah won the game.  Listen, I have been plenty guilty of doing this exact thing -- taking a topic or event and linking in a connection or way to get a word in about my school -- but I have tried to be more mindful...and my school isn't Messiah, with that tradition or with anywhere near the vocal fan base on this site.

Not trying to be provocative....but rather attempting to give voice to something that always feels like it is in the air and difficult/awkward to mention or discuss.

Your post strikes me as thoughtful and reasonable PaulNewman.  As a fan of soccer in general (not just men's D3 college soccer), I have long admired Messiah's tradition of success on the national stage.  I too am not particularly religious and thus I don't personally relate to institutions that have an overtly religious mission and value set.  They are what they are, and that's completely fine.

That said, I personally experienced some of what you describe.  My younger son's Bowdoin team went to the final four in San Antonio in 2010.  That year both the Messiah men's and women's teams were in the final four, which is impressive in its own right.  We sat at a large table with parents from a number of the schools at the pre-tournament banquet.  We definitely picked up on a sense of entitlement from some of the Messiah parents.  I have no idea whether that was attributable to the program's long history of success (heck, I'm a Patriots fan) or the religion-oriented culture of the school and the families of the student athletes...probably both....

Just an observation, not a judgment...

[watchers on the ball]

Mr. Right-- My apologies for any confusion, I was not referring to your writing. I was talking about Paul Newman's literal 6 paragraphs. I think you are an entertaining writer and enjoy the quips you share in your posts, as well as your inside scoop. +invisible karma

[Mr.Right]

Watchers on the ball-------OK no worries...Thank you and I do appreciate your response....Very well I think we can all move on as I am ready to watch hopefully a couple solid matches and a great stream from Case...Also, I am sorry for getting snippy with you...Please tell us more about Eastern as I actually am curious if in fact that is the team you root for.

[PaulNewman]

I can read, so, yes, I have seen Mr. Right say nice things about other teams. However, I don't have time to read 6 paragraph wordy essays. I stand by the NESCAC bias.

P.S. Thanks for the two karma points, guys!!!

Lol. Your first post was before mine...now you're disowning what you wrote?

And you're too busy to read my wordy post?  Then don't.

[Flying Weasel]

Now that it has been concluded that Messiah has the toughest draw in the NCAA Sweet 16 and will be facing off against world-beaters Cortland St tomorrow afternoon it looks like Vegas has been influenced as well by Falcon Nation as they have Cortland as favorites in that game. Even though we have been told over and over throughout the season that Messiah fields about 6-7 D1 players in their starting lineup it will just not be enough against Cortland.

So glad you finally came around to seeing things our wa----ohh, but wait, no one called Cortland world-beaters, did they?  No one said Cortland was the favorite, or did I miss something?  I think someone thought you were too dismissive of the teams in Messiah's Sectionals.  That's all. 

I think Cortland may be a little overrated, but that's more a feeling than anything else.  They couldn't protect 2-0 leads on three occasions this season and that isn't a good sign and probably what makes me doubt their credentials the most.  They may have had the easiest opening weekend of the tournament, so there's not much to take away form their two wins to reach the Sweet 16.

Ok.....back to reality...Has anyone seen this Penn State-Behrend team play? I am assuming tonight's match against Calvin will be a half-field scrimmage with PSU-Behrend having 10 players behind the ball? On second look though this team has not allowed a goal in the first 2 rounds and have managed 2 goals themselves in two 1-0 victories. I was surprised to see them shutout Lycoming and then John Carroll for the second time this season. They come from a historically weak league the AMCC and I would be guessing but I assume this is the farthest a team has gone coming out of this league. They also were pretty even in the SOG category against both teams. Wondering if they can give Calvin a fight because if they do not than Calvin will have a significant advantage over the winner of Kenyon/Case because they will be able to rest players.

I tuned in for bits and pieces of their game against Lycoming.  I did not see a team that was bunkering in.  They seemed to be looking to attack, but they did have to absorb some sustained pressure from Lycoming at the end with Lyco fighting for their lives, but that is to be expected.  Again, I didn't see long stretches of game.  I did catch parts of their AMCC conference final, if I'm not mistaken, and in that game (obviously against a different level of competition) it was a pretty wide-open game with lots of end-to-end stuff.   But that wouldn't necessarily be the approach they'd take when playing a equal or superior opponent.

[JimLahey]

Well Well Well, I think "Short-Tempered" Mr. Right just sits at home and adores the NESCAC without paying proper homage to the UAA. During this season, at one point, every UAA team was ranked in the top 25. "Truth-Tellin" Paul Newman seems to be the only one who does proper research on this forum. Regardless of the irrelevance of the NESCAC, looking forward to the matchups this weekend, gents. Geaux Tigers!

[blooter442]

Well Well Well, I think "Short-Tempered" Mr. Right just sits at home and adores the NESCAC without paying proper homage to the UAA. During this season, at one point, every UAA team was ranked in the top 25. "Truth-Tellin" Paul Newman seems to be the only one who does proper research on this forum. Regardless of the irrelevance of the NESCAC, looking forward to the matchups this weekend, gents. Geaux Tigers!

Ahoy fellow Deisian, I am not trying to be a Mr.Right apologist but I have to say he has definitely given plenty of homage to the UAA particularly last year when the conference had two teams in the Final 4. In fact, after initially being a skeptic he has become one of the biggest 'Deis boosters in the last few years (although both he and I were quite critical of them this year).

[Bobcat1]

Well Well Well, I think "Short-Tempered" Mr. Right just sits at home and adores the NESCAC without paying proper homage to the UAA. During this season, at one point, every UAA team was ranked in the top 25. "Truth-Tellin" Paul Newman seems to be the only one who does proper research on this forum. Regardless of the irrelevance of the NESCAC, looking forward to the matchups this weekend, gents. Geaux Tigers!

Irrelevance of NESCAC?? You might want to look at the list of National Champions the past 5 years... The UAA is a great conference, there is no denying that. However, you may want to have one of your teams win a National title or two in the current era before labeling another conference (with multiple National titles in the last 5 years) irrelevant.

[Mr.Right]

Well Well Well, I think "Short-Tempered" Mr. Right just sits at home and adores the NESCAC without paying proper homage to the UAA. During this season, at one point, every UAA team was ranked in the top 25. "Truth-Tellin" Paul Newman seems to be the only one who does proper research on this forum. Regardless of the irrelevance of the NESCAC, looking forward to the matchups this weekend, gents. Geaux Tigers!

You are not going to be able to reel me back in...I  have said my piece and I actually do give the UAA plenty of credit for playing style over Nescac but since you do not fully read my posts ur ignorant comment and shot at me makes no sense since I have no clue who the hell u are. Maybe an attention grab for yourself? Possibly banging your head too many times on all those UAA Mens Soccer Championship trophies?  Your use of gents is a Clear giveaway of where u are from so I will give u a pass as well. Maybe because I have said I was unimpressed  with Case in attack as against Brandeis? Who knows but I am not going to respond to every nut that takes a swing...I am moving on now

[PaulNewman]

Did the order of the games for Messiah moved to Rochester stay the same or change???

[Mr.Right]

These Case announcers were doing the games last weekend and did a nice job. The girl is pretty knowledgeable and adds some nice insights.

[blooter442]

Did the order of the games for Messiah moved to Rochester stay the same or change???

Stayed the same.

Whooey...this one should be fun!

[Mr.Right]

This chick is so impressive analyzing what Kenyon is doing...I love this....In 7 minutes she recognized Kenyon in a 4-4-2 with a diamond but pinching their midfielders all the while their strikers moving north to south.....Case in a 4-2-3-1 .....


Kenyon strikes first on a really nice run but Case defending was not good...Gotta step up and stick that kid...Also ball watching when the ball came across the box...

Big opening goal.....

[blooter442]

Kenyon strikes first, the Lords cutting the Spartans open like butter down the right. Going down so early with the last matchup in mind (a 3-0 Case win) it will be interesting to see how Case reacts to this.