Opening night is just three weeks away, so let's get this thread started. Probably the best way to do so is to share Chris Henderson's team previews from All White Kit. He's posted previews from ten of the twelve conference schools so far, with just Illinois and Penn State yet to go. Here they are, in alphabetical order: Indiana: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9507 Iowa: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9855 Michigan: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=10097 Michigan State: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9852 Minnesota: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9808 Nebraska: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9532 Northwestern: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9926 Ohio State: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=10185 Purdue: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9498 Wisconsin: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9888
Here's a link to all Big Ten team schedules, courtesy of our friends at nc-soccer.com: http://nc-soccer.com/wsoccer/2012/conferences#bigten
I'll try to have a conference preview ready sometime next week. Here's how I picked the league to finish in 2011: 1. Penn State 2. Wisconsin 3. Ohio State 4. Illinois 5. Michigan 6. Michigan State 7. Purdue 8. Minnesota 9. Nebraska 10. Northwestern 11. Iowa 12. Indiana And here's how they actually finished: 1. Penn State 2. Illinois 3. Michigan State 4. Wisconsin t5. Iowa t5. Minnesota 7. Ohio State t8. Michigan t8. Purdue 10. Nebraska 11. Indiana 12. Northwestern My biggest miss was Iowa, who finished six spots higher than I predicted. They were definitely the surprise team in the league last season. The biggest disappointment was Ohio State in terms of league finish, (7th vs. the 3rd that I predicted), but overall Michigan was certainly a disappointment in not making the tournament after their breakout season in 2010.
Coach Golan gets to start out facing Florida State, South Carolina, San Diego and USC. Welcome to the big leagues!
Wow! Tough way to start a new job. We'll see how good USC is after a really disappointing season last year. But those other three should all be NCAA Tournament teams at a minimum.
Here's Chris Henderson's preseason All-America team. Big Ten represented by a pair of Nittany Lions, which isn't too surprising: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=10247
Minnesota beat South Dakota State 4-0 tonight in an exhibition match in Brookings, SD. Managed to catch a bit of the video from SDSU's site but between Minnesota wearing shirts without numbers (huh?) and the video being shot by what seemed liked an old iPhone, it was a bit tough. Doesn't help that 80% of the Gophers are blond with pony tails. Only took a couple things away from the match: 1. They looked to be playing a 4-4-2, which they utilized a bit last year when the defense started to suck, Mikki Denney Wright usually went with the 3-5-2. 2. Tam Strahota looked healthy and was playing center back, and was impressive. She was mainly a forward the first 3 years, filled in a bit on the back line when Jennie Clark went down 2 years ago, then sat out last year with an ACL tear. Glad to have her back and in the back. Goalscorers were Steph Brandt, Taylor Uhl, Taylor Wodnick and freshman Haley Helverson. Florida State will be a better test next weekend, duh.
Here's Soccer America's preview of the Big Ten season. PSU the favorite, Illinois and OSU "contenders." http://www.socceramerica.com/article/47760/penn-state-aims-for-15th-straight-conference-title.html
Preseason Big Ten coaches' picks released today. No points for guessing the predicted champ. http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/081412aaa.html
My fearless prediction is that Penn State wins the conference, Nebraska finishes last, and everybody else falls somewhere in between.
Could happen with the coaching change. Although they'll probably have to finish in the top seven with Indiana automatically getting a spot as the tournament host.
Ugh they need to quit giving the host school a guaranteed spot. There were like 7 Northwestern fans at their lone game last year. That's what, $40 in ticket revenue?
Meanwhile, I couldn't find the front entrance so I didn't even pay. Just walked through a gate and sat down. Oops.
I spent about four hours working on a blog entry with my Big Ten predictions, only to have the site bump me off as I tried to post it. So, without any other fluff, here are my picks: 1. Penn State 2. Illinois 3. Ohio State 4. Michigan 5. Iowa 6. Wisconsin 7. Minnesota 8. Michigan State 9. Purdue 10. Northwestern 11. Indiana 12. Nebraska Forward of the Year - Maya Hayes, Penn State Midfielder of the Year - Vanessa DiBernardo, Illinois Defender of the Year - Tamara Strahota, Minnesota Goalkeeper of the Year - Erin McNulty, Penn State Coach of the Year - Ron Rainey, Iowa As always, feel free to discuss, dissect and disagree.
Looks as good as any list I've seen. 3-10 is completely wide open and I think we'll end up seeing a logjam with teams battling the last weekend between being a 4 seed and out of the playoffs completely. Nice to see you giving Tam Strahota some props, she deserves a big season. Unfortunately doesn't look like Minnesota is streaming any games until Big Ten season so I won't be able to add anything beyond second hand reports for a few weeks.
Well that's a great start to the Stefanie Golan era at Minnesota. Taylor Uhl scores on the first shot of the season to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead over #4 Florida State. I won't PBP the entire night, but that's exciting. And make that 2-0 a minute later. Of course Kassey Kallman, FSU's best defender and younger sister of Gopher coach/alum Krystle Seidell is in Japan so they're not full strength.
Finals 8/17 Illinois 1 Western Michigan 0 Indiana 3 Arkansas State 0 (hat trick for Lisa Nouaghsensy) Iowa 5 Eastern Illinois 0 Michigan 5 Fordham 0 Michigan State 4 Bowling Green 0 Florida State 3 Minnesota 2 Oklahoma 2 Nebraska 1 Hofstra 2 Ohio State 0 Penn State 3 Virginia 1 Purdue 2 Toledo 0 Wisconsin 1 Notre Dame 0 Big wins for Penn State and Wisconsin tonight. Near miss for the Gophers.