i saw ucla beat air force 2-1 and cal poly pomona 3-1 last eve in spring action. the good news for those looking to replace ucla as national champs is that they won't even make the tournament playing like they did last nite. they were down after 2 min. to AF tied it and had to get a late 1 on 1 goal by matt taylor against a shortsided AF to win. 2 second half cliff mclinley goals gave the bruins the win in the second game, but it wasn't easy at all. although ucla controlled the game against Paul Caliguiri's cal poly team, you could not discern much difference between the div. 2 team and the div.1 nat. champs. UCLA will need to find a way to play above the competition this year if they hope to come close to last year's accomplishments. i think right now that Maryland should be a 4 goal favorite in the sept. rematch. they will have no problem unless UCLA learns to "want it" again.
Reccoc- I am surprised and disappointed in you, you know that spring games don't mean squat, all that matters is how well you play in November. Granted, it's probably hard to be motivated in meaningless games, but I would think UCLA will be ready come fall. Maryland a four goal favorite? Are you baiting us?
Who Cares? It's the spring and UCLA probably were trying things out. They will be good! Don't jump to conclusions.
If you pushed me to do a pre-season ranking right now, it would be: 1. Maryland 2. UCLA 3. Saint John's After that, it gets a little blurrier, with a about 6-7 teams (SMU, Furman, Wake Forest, Creighton, Saint Louis, Cal, Indiana and a few more) that you could make an argument for in one order or the other. UCLA is and will be fine. They return a solid core from the national championship team and add the country's best recruiting class and they have a good coach with a good staff. The Bruins are one of the last teams we need to worry about.
Hi Sandon, just wondering why do you have St Johns so highly ranked? Just wondering, I am an alumnus and go to all their home games. They played very well last year, a great defense with Wingert at Sweeper, but they lacked on the offensive end. I figured they would be between 10 and 15th nationally but at 3...wow I'm liking that!!! I
I agree with Maryland, UCLA, SMU, WAKE, Creighton, SLU, but not sure about SJU, Furman, and IU. St. John's like the last post said, don't have the offense. It showed down the stretch. Furman, as every year, may have some darn good talent, but always falter come tourney time! Why? Because their weak conference and average out of conf. schedule does not prepare them for the rigors of the NCAA tournament. Hence why they took it in the you know what come seeding time. IU lose all their offense in Noonan and Mack. Swan is a major loss for them. They will be good, but top 10 preseason....very generous! Good post for great discussion!
Indiana will be very good again, do not underestimate them. They return Ned Grabavoy and Mike Ambersley, two excellent players. A top ten nod is certainly justified in my opinion. Michigan is another Big Ten team that might be really good, they went to the Big Ten championship and if the U-20 championships don't pull away Knox Cameron, he could have a huge year.
I rate St. John's because A) they have a great defense and B, they have a great attacking player coming in named Ashley Kozicki. This kid is a playa' and he will make the Johnnies much more dynamic and keep teams from just keying on Kevin Schmidt.
Thanks for the info Sandon..I didn't here about Ashley K..I guess you are telling me that he is a legit striker..also who is Kevin Schmidt? I believe you meant to say Andre Schmid...Andre was a factor last year. I believe he will fare much better this upcoming season with Asley in the mix. Andre is tall strong and great in the air and has pretty decent speed but he needs to get more physical.
Yes, I met Andre Schimd. I knew it was wrong when I typed it and didn't look it up. Shouldn't have been that lazy.