2021 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[Another Mom]

W&L tied 1-1 with Randolph. It's a hard fought game, fun to watch.

[Hopkins92]

Randolph went up 1-0 on W&L but the Generals leveled off the foot of Charlotte product, Samuel Bass.

KZoo just went up 2-0 on Hope with 11 to go.

Big night of soccer.

I've been remiss in not watching W&L... Looking forward to the second half.

Messiah is absolutely hammering the Stevenson goal but only up 1=0 at half. Really should be, conservatively, 3-0. Expect the Falcs to coast to a 3 or 4 goal shutout win. Stevenson has struggled to cross the center stripe.

[deiscanton]

Skyline Conference semifinal #2-- Halftime

Manhattanville 1, Merchant Marine 0

The Valiants score in the 45th minute on a penalty kick goal from Eli Pardo-- Pardo converted the penalty kick with 9 seconds remaining in the half.

Winner plays Mount St. Vincent on Saturday.

Update-- That scoreline is indeed how the game ended.   It will be Mount St. Vincent at Manhattanville on Saturday for the Skyline Conference title and AQ.

[PaulNewman]

KZoo 2  Hope 0   Final

Assuming Calvin prevails tonight I give KZoo at least a puncher's chance but also very possible they have played themselves on to the bubble to contend for a Pool C.  SoS is gonna jump quite a bit after playing Hope and let's assume Calvin, plus a 2-0 H2H advantage over Hope, and Hope picking up two ranked losses they didn't have this week.

And I just heard in the background that Rowan scored to go up 1-0 on Montclair early in 2nd half.

[LetteroftheLaw]

The old change up in a muddy 6 yard box by Randolph results in a goal and a 2-1 lead early in the second half. Should be an entertaining last 40 minutes.

[PaulNewman]

Over/under on cards the rest of the Rowan-MSU match???

[jknezek]

Losing the starting goalie has been brutal for W&L. The last 4.5 games (counting Randolph so far), the Generals have recorded 5 saves and given up 5 goals. So every other shot on goal has resulted in a score in the last 9 halfs. Combine that with difficulty finishing, and it might be the story of their season.

[Hopkins92]

Huh. Never want to be unfair and make a snap judgement but... Not sure I understand how W&L is the #1 team in the country. They are VERY direct and seem to rely on opening the defense with 1v1 play. If you stay disciplined and keep them off their dominate foot (I'm talking about the 4 or 5 dudes that run the offense) they don't seem to have answers.

Let me see more, but so far, good/not great team.

[jknezek]

Huh. Never want to be unfair and make a snap judgement but... Not sure I understand how W&L is the #1 team in the country. They are VERY direct and seem to rely on opening the defense with 1v1 play. If you stay disciplined and keep them off their dominate foot (I'm talking about the 4 or 5 dudes that run the offense) they don't seem to have answers.

Let me see more, but so far, good/not great team.

To be fair... they seem to be panicking at the moment. This is not the way W&L has played all season. I've seen more long balls and bad touches this second half than the other games I've watched combined I think. But yeah, looking ugly right now.

[Hopkins92]

Spicy down in Lexington, folks!!!

2-2 with 13 left to play.

Electric.

[Hopkins92]

Losing the starting goalie has been brutal for W&L. The last 4.5 games (counting Randolph so far), the Generals have recorded 5 saves and given up 5 goals. So every other shot on goal has resulted in a score in the last 9 halfs. Combine that with difficulty finishing, and it might be the story of their season.

Dude just squibbed a GK. As that is my craft, I can tell you that is almost always due to some version of nerves.

[jknezek]

Losing the starting goalie has been brutal for W&L. The last 4.5 games (counting Randolph so far), the Generals have recorded 5 saves and given up 5 goals. So every other shot on goal has resulted in a score in the last 9 halfs. Combine that with difficulty finishing, and it might be the story of their season.

Dude just squibbed a GK. As that is my craft, I can tell you that is almost always due to some version of nerves.

yeah. I kind of swallowed my tongue when I saw that. I hate being critical of individual players. It's D3. Unfortunately goalies always stand out. Hero or Goat is the curse of the position.

[LetteroftheLaw]

Spicy down in Lexington, folks!!!

2-2 with 13 left to play.

Electric.

Good build up from W&L on that goal starting from the free kick, but overall I agree, they don't look like the best team in the nation.

[Hopkins92]

Huh. Never want to be unfair and make a snap judgement but... Not sure I understand how W&L is the #1 team in the country. They are VERY direct and seem to rely on opening the defense with 1v1 play. If you stay disciplined and keep them off their dominate foot (I'm talking about the 4 or 5 dudes that run the offense) they don't seem to have answers.

Let me see more, but so far, good/not great team.

To be fair... they seem to be panicking at the moment. This is not the way W&L has played all season. I've seen more long balls and bad touches this second half than the other games I've watched combined I think. But yeah, looking ugly right now.

Yeah, I've seen enough. This team needs to meditate and get right with their inner being because there is no way they get out of the opening weekend playing like this.

Tufts, but even more so Messiah, are my gold standards for teams with templates that produce results in November. This W&L team just doesn't have it. I see the skill and the athleticism, but way too many of their midfielders and defenders are just launching balls with no intention. Messiah, in particular, always has dangerous and effective intent. You are in the semis of the ODAC. This is not THAT big of a deal as the #1 team in the country.

Lots of talk on this board over the years about how you build a culture of swagger. They need more time and experience to get there.

[PaulNewman]

And Denison pulls it off.  Enormous win for Denison.  Bianco already has earned a raise.

And Rowan outlasts MSU, including a flurry in the box last 30 secs and a shot on the underside of the crossbar.