NCAA Tournament Discussion Thread (2017)

Attendance today did not peak 2000. Sad. Ucla and USC played in front of 12000 in a league game that meant nothing but seed points

 

I didn't make a soccer-specific TV argument. I said "most TV broadcasts are predicated on the eastern time zone." They are. All the major network news and TV shows are in East Coast primetime, and the NFL schedules their games to be friendly to the eastern time zone.

Also, and I recognize this is a different argument, you couldn't show that map to a space alien and explain why Houston, Dallas, and McAllen-Brownsville-Harlingen are considered to be in the "west." All three are closer to Florida than California.

 

You keep shifting. This started with me wondering why finals arent scheduled outside the East for six years in a row. Texas ain’t there.

Go to Texas and tell them they are Eastern dudes....


Wear a flack jacket.

Oh well. Maybe next year in Orlando they will top 2,000.

 

LOL I hear you. It's just weird though. I guess it seemed 'west' when settlers first started moving out west, not knowing how much country there still was to go.

 

The “ Northwest territory ” once extended from Ohio to Wisconsin and a piece of Minnesota at one time....

All of it was East of the Mississippi.

 

I believe a lot of the attendance has to do with the teams playing. The attendance would have been high if a FL team was playing. No matter where in the country the Finals are, attendance will depend on the teams being close to the venue.

 

Which sort of negates the “ attendance would have been great in Cary” argument. FSU played in Cary to less than 3,000 in the seats in 2013.

But 0rlando was bad for the sport considering that neither FSU nor UF made the cut. If you want Florida to be a destination site for NCAA finals, you need to be of the mind set that you are going regardless. Seriously, UP had better season per game attendance for a 5 win team.

You guys have egg on your face.
Right now, scheduling multiple Ncaa college cups in Florida looks like a HUGE mistake.
I’m not sure what the thinking was, but it was flawed. Was it that folks would be attracted to Disney World? Apparently it was.


You don’t schedule where attendance might be great on the off chance a team MIGHT be in the finals. If you did, schedule Palo Alto’s , Santa Clara’s, or San Jose’s stadiums for the next four years. Stanford will be there.

Or schedule it at Providence Park. You will break all attendance records.

 

I was so impressed by Macario's play this College Cup. She is savvy beyond her years, a true footballer's brain in addition to her technical skills and scoring prowess. She reminded me of Raquel Rodriguez but quicker. Foudy said she has expressed a desire to play for the USWNT, despite being born and raised in Brazil until age 12. It is yet another example of the Brazil federation's incompetence and lack of respect for the women's game coming back to haunt them. One of their best young players was forced to develop abroad, and now has switched allegiances.

 

Wow! I just watched an interview she did on the PAC12 network. She speaks perfect English, no accent. That's pretty impressive. Is her mother American? How can she switch allegiances? Does she have US Citizenship / Green Card?

 

Agreed! Hadn't seen Stanford or UCLA this year, but Marcario was by far the most talented and complete player on the field. Put her in blue and I think UCLA would've had the edge. She was remarkable in her technique, vision, work rate and decision making! I thought it strange Stanford had their most skilled and creative player playing wide most the match. For her sake I hope she doesn't switch to uswnt and end up getting used like a Dunn or a Pugh instead of in the spine where a player of her caliber belongs.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo plays wide all the time and makes cutting runs into the middle. Julie Ertz is not exactly the most technically gifted player and is part of the current USWNT spine. IMO...Pugh and Dunn will be more successful as wide players so that they can use their speed in space.

 

Ronaldo in his prime was one of the fastest humans on the planet. He cut central because he always had the finishing skills of a striker, but no one questions early and mid career Ronald as a wide player. He wasn't a visionary or an assist machine. Ronald under Zidane has lost more than a few steps and is now found mostly in central positions.

Marcario is more Zidane than she is Ronaldo I'd be surprised if Brazil WNT had any problems recognizing her complete game...would also be just as surprised if USWNT overcame their historical player eval tendencies and used her any differently than what we saw in Stanford v UCLA college cup.

 

I've watched Stanford all season. Catarina has played centrally more often than not. Before Michelle Xiao was injured, Michelle would play on the left, Kyra Carusa on the right, and Catarina as center forward in their 4-3-3. They would switch positions periodically. Catarina also would drop back into an attacking mid position sometimes during certain substitution patterns. With Madison Haley starting in place of Michelle, I think they wanted to use Madison as a central target player, hence shifting Catarina outside. It worked out ok.

 

Thanks for the heads up on how Stanford uses her throughout the season. Good to hear she isn't typecast because she looks the part. Using her wide did work out, but from what I could tell UCLA wasn't anywhere near the class of Stanford, couldn't handle Stanford's press, and couldn't much threaten Stanford when they pressed themselves. Macario was vastly more effective than Haley or any Stanford Mid save maybe Sullivan, yet she spent a good portion of the 2nd half with reduced impact in a wide area. Had Stanford not gotten the wonder strike 3rd goal, they very well couldve gone to OT where anything can happen. If Stanford loses that game despite being clearly superior in just about every aspect, one could question the tactics when the gap between the best player on the field and the rest is that substantial. It's just an observation I was thinking as ucla remained competitive in what could/should have been a blowout.

Still, it was great to see such a quality final with two teams trying to play attractive soccer.