2017-2018 D1 Women's Soccer Talk!

Here are the surprises that I saw so far. Any thoughts?

Good Surprises:

Arizona: They upset a ranked Oklahoma team and by all accounts they are looking like a potential tournament team. They still aren't pretty to watch but they look like they could finish in the upper half of the Pac 12.

Rutgers: They looked strong dismantling a solid LMU team and they are looking like the only challenger to Penn State's hegemony in the Big Ten.

UNLV: With all of the losses that this team had to absorb and after seeing them in the spring I didn't have very high expectations. So far they look like they are going to be a significant challenger to San Diego St. in the Mountain West and they might even be the favorite.

The Bad:

Notre Dame: They looked confused and completely disjointed against Butler. They bounced back against Ball St. but that is of little consolation since Ball St. is far from a tournament team. The expectations are always high in South Bend and I can't imagine that anything other than the Sweet 16 will be considered a successful season. So far, they don't look like a Sweet 16 team.

BYU: Their preseason ranking of #8 by the coaches seems a distant memory after getting steamrolled by "unranked" Penn St. and then tying Ohio State. They better turn it around this weekend against Cal State Fullerton because after that it is 5 straight games against Pac 12 teams with them playing UCLA, Colorado, Utah, Oregon St. and Arizona consecutively. If they don't fix things they might have all their hopes on winning the WCC regular season title which could prove difficult with good teams at Santa Clara, Pepperdine and LMU.
 
MakeAPlay said:
New Poll out including votes. How the heck is $C still ranked in the top 5? Were they even watching any games?

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-women/d1/united-soccer-coaches
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One might think they are just trying to get under your skin ;). My wife and my 12yr old watched both SC and UCLA play CSULB and could not stop talking about how much better UCLA was. Not trying to butter up to anyone, just passing along a little friendly feedback.

Still have SC over UCLA when they start slinging the pigskin, but that's about it.
 
Kicker4Life said:
One might think they are just trying to get under your skin ;). My wife and my 12yr old watched both SC and UCLA play CSULB and could not stop talking about how much better UCLA was. Not trying to butter up to anyone, just passing along a little friendly feedback.

Still have SC over UCLA when they start slinging the pigskin, but that's about it.
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My thought are similar to yours. Their Beach FC freshman player is working out fine FYI. 2 starts and she looks nice at the 6.
 
Zerodenero said:
No joke, #17 in gold is an athlete. She's the type of player that you know can ball just by her posture & walk. Sprinkle in a little bit of dazzle in front of the box to create space....dish out...run back for the thru pass. An athlete + field IQ = Dangerous.
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I like her, but not that much, finishing skills need more refinement in my opinion, but has speed to kill. Kind of the opposite of Maria Sanchez for Santa Clara, excellent skills, but no explosive speed.

And while I'm at it, that game shoulda been a 1-0 win for Cal (on the pk). Both teams had the GK let a ball through that was literally 1 foot to the left of each GK. Both dove and the ball went through before they could get low enough to block the ball.

Those balls never get through an 8 year old softball/baseball player! Take an infielders stance, hands low, and simple slide step or shuffle step to the left. This is a very easy ground ball in baseball or softball. You'll never see a baseball player dive for a ball so close. How many times have we seen a GK dive for a close ball and have the ball bounce off the GK's feet or stomach to create a 2nd chance. The trainer who started this trend (dive for everything), never played other sports. It is so ingrained in the training that you see GK's diving when the ball is clearly 20 feet wide left or right. Just gotta laugh at that.
 
MakeAPlay said:
That is completely laughable. The Southeast bias is evident. 3 of the last 6 national champions were from California....
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Completely agree, ever since ESPN bought the SEC network, they've been shoving the SEC down our throats. It's so obvious that the ESPNU channel should be called the SEC II network, its all SEC programming. I'm a huge college football fan so I'm particularly sensitive to it.
 
Justafan said:
I like her, but not that much, finishing skills need more refinement in my opinion, but has speed to kill. Kind of the opposite of Maria Sanchez for Santa Clara, excellent skills, but no explosive speed.

And while I'm at it, that game shoulda been a 1-0 win for Cal (on the pk). Both teams had the GK let a ball through that was literally 1 foot to the left of each GK. Both dove and the ball went through before they could get low enough to block the ball.

Those balls never get through an 8 year old softball/baseball player! Take an infielders stance, hands low, and simple slide step or shuffle step to the left. This is a very easy ground ball in baseball or softball. You'll never see a baseball player dive for a ball so close. How many times have we seen a GK dive for a close ball and have the ball bounce off the GK's feet or stomach to create a 2nd chance. The trainer who started this trend (dive for everything), never played other sports. It is so ingrained in the training that you see GK's diving when the ball is clearly 20 feet wide left or right. Just gotta laugh at that.
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I had the same conversation about Kim with somebody yesterday. Speed for days, just adequate skills. I would take her though. Only a few defenders in the conference that can deal with her 1v1.
 
Kicker4Life said:
One might think they are just trying to get under your skin ;). My wife and my 12yr old watched both SC and UCLA play CSULB and could not stop talking about how much better UCLA was.
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It's hard to appreciate how good they are unless you see them up close. What's crazier is that they are super deep. They had a returning 2nd team all Pac 12 player coming off the bench on Sunday. They have so much attacking depth and lineup flexibility that they can play many different ways. It's going to be tough to hang with them for 90 minutes.
 
 
It's so early hard to make heads or tails of anything yet.
I watched UNLV and the scorelines were nice but the teams they played were terrible. He needs to start scheduling better if he wants the program to grow. By comparison, their hardest non conference game is San Diego's State's easiest. What kid wants to go play cupcakes all season? Take some losses but stretch yourself. (And if you lose any of those easy games your RPI is shot).
I'm curious on Arizona. I can't watch that travesty to the game but will be interested if they get results. Has anyone seen them? Have they connected 4 passes in a row yet?
Also curious on Oregon. They talked a lot of off season game to open with a 4-1 loss. If they drop 2 this weekend they have to win the rest of non conference to get to .500 before the gauntlet begins.
UCLA is good. No question. AC said both LBSU and SDSU are good teams (and I thought both did some nice things. SDSU esp has some young talent. In the stands I heard their recruiting going forward has some big pick ups). Thursday will be fun. Jerry is my least favorite college coach so I am hoping for another dominant ucla performance.
USD was underwhelming. New coach soooo???
I thought USC was ugly (only saw a portion tho) and just so direct with no feel for the game. But again, first game so who knows.

These next two weekends will be telling, esp as the second tier of teams get better and sort out lineups and iron out early season wrinkles. Some real talent in so cal (both in our players and the teams we have to watch.) Lucky us and boo to the SEC! Your weather sucks and the bias is real!
 
full90 said:
It's so early hard to make heads or tails of anything yet.
I watched UNLV and the scorelines were nice but the teams they played were terrible. He needs to start scheduling better if he wants the program to grow. By comparison, their hardest non conference game is San Diego's State's easiest. What kid wants to go play cupcakes all season? Take some losses but stretch yourself. (And if you lose any of those easy games your RPI is shot).
I'm curious on Arizona. I can't watch that travesty to the game but will be interested if they get results. Has anyone seen them? Have they connected 4 passes in a row yet?
Also curious on Oregon. They talked a lot of off season game to open with a 4-1 loss. If they drop 2 this weekend they have to win the rest of non conference to get to .500 before the gauntlet begins.
UCLA is good. No question. AC said both LBSU and SDSU are good teams (and I thought both did some nice things. SDSU esp has some young talent. In the stands I heard their recruiting going forward has some big pick ups). Thursday will be fun. Jerry is my least favorite college coach so I am hoping for another dominant ucla performance.
USD was underwhelming. New coach soooo???
I thought USC was ugly (only saw a portion tho) and just so direct with no feel for the game. But again, first game so who knows.

These next two weekends will be telling, esp as the second tier of teams get better and sort out lineups and iron out early season wrinkles. Some real talent in so cal (both in our players and the teams we have to watch.) Lucky us and boo to the SEC! Your weather sucks and the bias is real!
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I always thought that SDSU did a ton with what they get in terms of recruits. I just have always been confused as to how America's Finest City struggles to attract top talent. I bet if UCSD had D1 football and basketball and was D1 in soccer they would be a top 25 program rather quickly.

Regarding SCU, I always thought it was weird that he would marry an ex-player.
 
soccerobserver said:
Maybe some prefer the Hero Sports quantitative rankings?? It was posted on 8/13...

Here is the link:http://herosports.com/colleges/sports/d1-womens-soccer

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The quantitative rankings aren't very useful until midseason when there is enough data for them to have some predictive value. Unfortunately this early in the season you have to take into account a ton of offseason stuff that the math can't account for like recruiting class strength, returning players who missed the prior season (U20 WWC, Redshirt, transfers, injuries). Too many variables.
 
MakeAPlay said:
Regarding SCU, I always thought it was weird that he would marry an ex-player.
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I have heard story after story from former players...and after listening to the way he coached his team so many years starting in 2011 one of my players was strongly discouraged to follow up on their overtures.
 
gkrent said:
I have heard story after story from former players...and after listening to the way he coached his team so many years starting in 2011 one of my players was strongly discouraged to follow up on their overtures.
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To be fair, his coaching style works great for some, and their legacy is also attractive to a lot of players.
 
MakeAPlay said:
I always thought that SDSU did a ton with what they get in terms of recruits. I just have always been confused as to how America's Finest City struggles to attract top talent. I bet if UCSD had D1 football and basketball and was D1 in soccer they would be a top 25 program rather quickly.

Regarding SCU, I always thought it was weird that he would marry an ex-player.
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I don't think she was an ex-player very long before they got married. In today's world (with social media and the internet) I doubt a College Coach would be able to ride out the storm of scrutiny. ;)
 
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