First week polls

athleticjames wrote:Does anyone else feel like we're going to be this years' Notre Dame? A team that almost goes undefeated and doesn't really know how good it is until tourney time? Other than Texas A&M, where are we going to be tested? I'm still hoping that SCU enters the rankings again. It's good for the WCC...

Yeah, that was my point to scrfn.

Last year ND was undefeated with an easy schedule, we suffered 1 loss during the season on a harder schedule, yet they got a 1 seed and we got a 2.

Time for the other way around.

Geez - dumbo here. What is SIS?

FANatic wrote:Geez - dumbo here. What is SIS?

Soccer Information Systems.

It's the old NSCAA reporting system. Apparently they got underbid or something, so now they are on their own.

Here's the link

aleppiek wrote:I am still shell shocked by the UNC-UCLA result... who would have thought that would be so high scoring and lopsided. That A&M trip is looking like it is going to be EXTREMELY important when it rolls around.

UCLA will not be able to replace two great field players and their GK is not nearly as athletic as last year's. When they took their best central defender and put her outside and put two inexperienced central defenders to face the onslaught of UNC strikers...well, you get the picture. Still, no execuse for a quality team to get blown out that badly. Good test for both UCLA and USD this Friday.

chiefer wrote:
UCLA will not be able to replace two great field players and their GK is not nearly as athletic as last year's. When they took their best central defender and put her outside and put two inexperienced central defenders to face the onslaught of UNC strikers...well, you get the picture. Still, no execuse for a quality team to get blown out that badly. Good test for both UCLA and USD this Friday.

I don't think that keeper was Jill's first choice. I believe the one they want to start is Chanté Sandiford, who is VERY athletic, but i believe is hurt. No word on how bad. I even think their new keeper from Hawai'i would have been a better choice, but Jill wasn't about to start a frosh against the machine right from the start.

Did you see the game? was there a lack of organization in the midfield? They also have a very good freshman playmaking mid in Chelsea Cline. I find it interesting she saw no minutes.

I think you are right about not being able to replace diMartino , Hardy, and Zerboni. They were the heart of the team last year, in my opinion.

Cheney or not, they will struggle (she'll be gone for National team camp in late September-early October.)

Man, the Geez scouting report. Let there be no doubt that the Geezaldinho is hardcore. When is the school going to give you an honorary doctorate of some kind?

athleticjames wrote:Man, the Geez scouting report. Let there be no doubt that the Geezaldinho is hardcore. When is the school going to give you an honorary doctorate of some kind?

Well I don't know about Doctorate. The school I got my degrees from only gave them to me when I threatened to keep coming back until I got them.

The Dean saw to it I got them the next semester.

I forgot to mention Cheney may also be gone for a few days at the end of October (29th) when the WNT plays Germany. UCLA plays USC that weekend.

Our schedule is looking better and better as we go through the early days of the season. If the trend continues, then whoever is responsible for scheduling will look like a genius. (Geez, are you the one?)

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Our schedule is looking better and better as we go through the early days of the season. If the trend continues, then whoever is responsible for scheduling will look like a genius. (Geez, are you the one?)

I'll let you know in about 10 weeks.

I agree with athleticjames that Geez deserves the honorary doctorate. Therefore, I will be sending him one soon. Three cheers for Geez!

Seriously, between Geez and UPSF, we have some serious intellectual talent in this forum. I'm sorry if I've missed someone. I've been off the board for quite some time and I know there are others out there, but Geez and UPSF kinda stand out big time, right? - I'll nominate Stonehouse as the young whippersnapper who could be on his way to superstardom. And PilotNut and the other Admins, (congrats for the promotion to Mod, Roch,) have done a tremendous job keeping this website first-class all the way!

Maybe I should give Rochin a little more respect. How does a Mod differ from an Admin?

(I'll add that Harry Redknapp does a heck of a job breaking down a game for someone who hasn't seen it. I've spoken to Harry, and have learned gobs about soccer in the process!)

We have a unique and very insightful group here, I count myself amongst the lucky.

This is starting to sound a lot like a eulogy.

I hope not...

Better a Eulogy than a roast.

On second thought the reverse is probably more accurate.
:face:

[quote="UPSoccerFanatic"]

aleppiek wrote:I've been wondering why Washington has gotten so dissed in the polls. On checking, they lost the equivalent of about four starters, including just under half of their goal production.

I was wrong about what Washington lost from last year. They lost the equivalent of 1 1/2 starters and 8 goals of 40, 4 assists of 28. So, why are the pollsters dissing them so much? They finished the season ranked #15 in the RPI and should be better this year than last.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:
I was wrong about what Washington lost from last year. They lost the equivalent of 1 1/2 starters and 8 goals of 40, 4 assists of 28. So, why are the pollsters dissing them so much? They finished the season ranked #15 in the RPI and should be better this year than last.

Well, their own conference picked them 5th, and frankly, except for Stanford, the folks above them haven't faired so well the first week (even Stanford gave up two goals in its win against Hawai'i, which makes their defense suspect.) I think there is a reluctance to heap accolades on them just yet in an unsettled conference.

A couple of good wins and that could change, but when you are in the West, you need to show things first. If they beat Miami and Illinois, for instance, they will be hard to ignore.

As far as a eulogy, we're just practicing Geez.

It appears this year that the Pilots are making the coaches poll the one they are going to use to denote their current ranking. In years passed, they would use the highest of the four polls.

Anyway, it looks like that's what they did before the opener in Eugene.

(Can you still smell that sweet smoke smell driving down the streets of Eugene that you could in the sixties, seventies?)

That makes us the number 3 team in the nation going into this weekend's games. (Something tells me I'm going to get called out on this one.)

It wasn't smoke in Eugene this year, but plenty of dust. The farmers were ploughing their fields from Salem to Eugene.

FANatic wrote:
That makes us the number 3 team in the nation going into this weekend's games. (Something tells me I'm going to get called out on this one.)

I'll go easy and just point out TopDrawer has us #1.

I give up...I'm probably wrong anyway. Time will tell.