Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Printable Version
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Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Papa John - 08-25-2015
The men's soccer team begins their season "for reals" this Friday at UC Santa Barbara. I'll be there as a stealth fan at Harder Stadium with my son and his AYSO friends.
The Cardinal, ranked #8 and led by forward Jordan Morris and defender Brandon Vincent, is a solid candidate to extend Stanford's national championship streak.
UCSB, pre-season favorite to win the Big West North, is a pretty strong opening opponent, especially on the road. The Gauchos gave up football in the early 1990s and soccer is now the big sports draw, even over basketball. Although they had a down year in 2014-15, over the past 10+ years they've been regulars in the rankings and the NCAA tournament.
Two years ago, Stanford vs. UCSB drew 7750, although this year's match is one month before fall quarter begins. Still, it should be a fun atmosphere in the stands and a highly competitive one on the pitch.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - washingtonismoney - 08-25-2015
This should be a good one -- besides the pair you listed (for good reason!), I'm excited to see true freshman Amir Bashti, who I've heard is very good.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Papa John - 09-02-2015
I attended the first half of the UCSB-Stanford men's soccer game last Friday. The game started more than 30 minutes late, due to the fact that the UCSB women's game versus SJSU went 2 OTs. So the first half ended around 9 pm, which was well beyond the regular bedtime for my 8 year-old son.
Stanford was the aggressor for the first 20 minutes or so--they won a lot of 50-50 balls--and had some solid scoring opportunities that were turned away by UCSB's freshman goalkeeper, who happens to also be the coach's son. Stanford subbed for Jordan Morris around the 30th minute, and, maybe it's just a coincidence, but UCSB started to create more opportunities for themselves. Towards the end of the first half, a UCSB midfielder won a ball around the halfway line and sprinted down the right side. He got off a cross that glanced off the Stanford defender's back and sailed towards Nick DePuy, last year's Big West Player of the Year. DePuy, who stands 6' 4",was way too much for his defender to handle and he headed the ball past the Stanford goalie.
That was the only real scoring threat from UCSB, but it was enough. Stanford had plenty of scoring opportunities, but could not get the ball into the net. Morris came back in the second half, which I listened to on the radio. The UCSB announcers were saying that Morris looked like he was favoring one of his hamstrings, but it could have been cramping because it was an unusually warm Santa Barbara evening. A buddy of mine who stayed for the second half said that play was very uneven and very chippy (UCSB had four yellows in the second half alone). Stanford was upset at what looked like excessive stalling tactics on the part of UCSB, and the fact that the UCSB goalie received a yellow card for delay lends some credence to those complaints.
All in all, UCSB did a great job marking Morris, whether he was gimpy or not. UCSB's goalie, aside from the yellow card, was very solid. In fact he was called up to the national U-20 team.
So while it was very disappointing that Stanford lost, it's worth noting that UCSB is a tough team to beat, especially at home. Even though fall classes don't start at UCSB until the end of the month, there were over 3000 fans in the stands, which is pretty impressive for a college soccer match. For comparison, the capacity for Stanford's Cagan Stadium is just under 3000.
The sting from Friday's loss was mitigated by Stanford's impressive win over a ranked Louisville squad, again on the road. I'm still optimistic that the Stanford men will make a run at UCLA in the Pac-12 and do well in the NCAA tournament.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Leftcoast - 09-03-2015
Thanks for the update and game day flavor from those of us who only had the box score versions
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Papa John - 12-15-2015
(08-25-2015, 12:13 PM)Papa John link Wrote:The men's soccer team begins their season "for reals" this Friday at UC Santa Barbara. I'll be there as a stealth fan at Harder Stadium with my son and his AYSO friends.
The Cardinal, ranked #8 and led by forward Jordan Morris and defender Brandon Vincent, is a solid candidate to extend Stanford's national championship streak.
Hey, I (sort of) called it back in August! What an amazing journey from that 1-0 defeat at warm and humid UCSB to the national championship in cold and soggy Kansas City.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - OutsiderFan - 12-15-2015
A terrific example of how a 4-team playoff in college football is not enough. If the NCAA used the college football method, the #8 Stanford men's soccer team never would have had a chance to win the championship they ultimately won.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Nan3cy - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 12:11 PM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:A terrific example of how a 4-team playoff in college football is not enough. If the NCAA used the college football method, the #8 Stanford men's soccer team never would have had a chance to win the championship they ultimately won.
But then you look at Arizona's NCAA basketball championship back in -- what, 1997? 1995? -- when they were a 5 seed. So does that mean there should be 20 teams in a football playoff? Whatever the x is in an x-team playoff, the team at x+1 is going to be very unhappy. To me the biggest issue wrt football is that the guys can only play so many games. If they go to eight teams, I think the regular season should go back to 11 games, so the teams that make the finals aren't playing more than 15 games. (Either that or end the CCGs.)
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Mick - 12-15-2015
I was thrilled to see this victory. Stanford's team is a lot of fun to watch, well-coached with some brilliant individual players. i think it will carry over to next year, I like the young'uns on the roster.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - jacketree - 12-15-2015
I think the key to an equitable football playoff is to allow only conference champions into the playoff and in the process eliminate conference championship games. Pure round robin champions.
Some of the high school teams in the State bowl games this weekend are playing their 16th games. It would be easy to cap a college football season at 15 games, including a 16 team playoff, with 11 regular season games. Bowls for those (and it sure does seem like everyone these days) who don't make the playoff. First two rounds at home stadiums based on some power formula for seeding. You could even reseed after every round like they do in the NFL if you want to limit upsets.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - BostonCard - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 12:11 PM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:A terrific example of how a 4-team playoff in college football is not enough. If the NCAA used the college football method, the #8 Stanford men's soccer team never would have had a chance to win the championship they ultimately won.
It doesn't necessarily mean that more than 4 is better. Yeah, a #8 team won the whole thing, and wouldn't have had a chance in a four game playoff. But that would have just made that non-conference game against UCSB more important.
BC
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - 82lsju - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 12:27 PM)Nan3cy link Wrote:But then you look at Arizona's NCAA basketball championship back in -- what, 1997? 1995? -- when they were a 5 seed. So
Villanova was a #8 seed when it won the NCAA men's basketball championship in 1985
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Papa John - 12-15-2015
I think that we need to take into account the number of teams that are eligible for a playoff in a given sport. Consider the percentage of division I teams that make the NCAA playoffs in the following sports:
Men's basketball: 19.4%/18.2% (68/64 out of 351 teams make the NCAA tournament)
Women's basketball: 18.3% (64 out of 349)
Baseball: 21.5% (64 out of 298)
Men's volleyball: 20% (6 out of 30)
Women's volleyball: 20.2% (64 out of 317)
Men's soccer: 23.4% (48 out of 205)
Women's soccer: 19.2% (64 out of 333)
Football: 3.1% (4 out of 128 FBS teams make the CFP)
Increasing the CFP to 8 teams still means that only 6.3% of eligible teams make the playoff. This would be the equivalent of allowing 22 (OK, make it 24) teams into the men's NCAA basketball tournament.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - stupac2 - 12-15-2015
Well realistically there are only ~65 teams with a realistic shot at it in CFB (12+10+14*3 for the conferences and ND), so 4 is really ~6%. But still, making it 8 would still make the playoff really small compared to what's acceptable for literally every other sport. I've never really understood status quo bias, but in CFB it's so baffling. (Don't tell me that you would actually pine for the system we have now, or what prevailed pre-BCS, if CFB had adopted a tournament at the same time basketball did, because you wouldn't and you know it.)
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Rally - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 04:05 PM)stupac2 link Wrote:Well realistically there are only ~65 teams with a realistic shot at it in CFB (12+10+14*3 for the conferences and ND), so 4 is really ~6%. But still, making it 8 would still make the playoff really small compared to what's acceptable for literally every other sport. I've never really understood status quo bias, but in CFB it's so baffling. (Don't tell me that you would actually pine for the system we have now, or what prevailed pre-BCS, if CFB had adopted a tournament at the same time basketball did, because you wouldn't and you know it.)
More perplexing is why Divs II and III have had expanded playoffs for some time.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Rally - 12-15-2015
Regular season starts now? What, do they have the national Tournement first and then play the season? No wonder I don't get soccer.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - stupac2 - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 04:14 PM)ferrari link Wrote:More perplexing is why Divs II and III have had expanded playoffs for some time.
FCS has a 24-team tournament! But no, it's just impossible for college football to have a reasonable playoff!
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - Rally - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 04:55 PM)stupac2 link Wrote:[quote author=ferrari link=topic=12576.msg148476#msg148476 date=1450221244]More perplexing is why Divs II and III have had expanded playoffs for some time.
FCS has a 24-team tournament! But no, it's just impossible for college football to have a reasonable playoff!
[/quote]
Because, well, you see, D1 players need time for classes. FCS? Heck, we all know they're just there to play ball.Â
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - BostonCard - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 04:55 PM)stupac2 link Wrote:FCS has a 24-team tournament! But no, it's just impossible for college football to have a reasonable playoff!
Yeah, and you know, for decades attendance and television of of those FCS playoff games far exceeded that for the FBS Bowl Games.
BC
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - terry - 12-15-2015
(12-15-2015, 04:55 PM)stupac2 link Wrote:FCS has a 24-team tournament! But no, it's just impossible for college football to have a reasonable playoff!
Not impossible. Just undesirable.
Re: Men's Soccer starts regular season vs. Gauchos - pauloalto - 12-15-2015
Money. That's what makes an expanded playoff difficult. Cities hosting bowls have invested millions of dollars in building their tourism through the bowl system. An expanded playoff threatens to diminish them in a couple of ways. First, playoff games outside of the bowls make bowl games less important. Second, fans are not likely to attend two or three games, take the family and stay for days spending at each one. Too little time for planning and too expensive.
Maybe an eight game playoff can be fit into the bowl system, but not 16.