Well, since the mighty Bucs soccer team was ranked, and I mean in the real poll, they've been 2-3-2. Losses to Belmont, Lipscomb and JU have set them back in the standings a bit, but a nice win over 1-11 North Florida in double overtime helped right the ship for the upset over Gulf Coast.
Our beloved Lady Bucs soccer team however have been on a tear winning seven straight. I don't know that Henson averaged seven wins a year. They took care of business against the bottom half of the league and picked up a W over 2nd place Jacksonville (Damn they're cheerleaders are smokin hot), then got rolled at Gulf Coast. Last weekend of the regular season with two winnable games against Kennesaw/Mercer. I think if they win out, they become the two seed based on points and would be away from Gulf Coast until the finals.
That guy has done an amazing job in year one.
We'll see how it goes, but I am disappointed in the fact that the communist kickball enthusiasts haven't been championing this run by the women.

(10-17-2011 07:26 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  Well, since the mighty Bucs soccer team was ranked, and I mean in the real poll, they've been 2-3-2. Losses to Belmont, Lipscomb and JU have set them back in the standings a bit, but a nice win over 1-11 North Florida in double overtime helped right the ship for the upset over Gulf Coast.
Our beloved Lady Bucs soccer team however have been on a tear winning seven straight. I don't know that Henson averaged seven wins a year. They took care of business against the bottom half of the league and picked up a W over 2nd place Jacksonville (Damn they're cheerleaders are smokin hot), then got rolled at Gulf Coast. Last weekend of the regular season with two winnable games against Kennesaw/Mercer. I think if they win out, they become the two seed based on points and would be away from Gulf Coast until the finals.
That guy has done an amazing job in year one.
We'll see how it goes, but I am disappointed in the fact that the communist kickball enthusiasts haven't been championing this run by the women.

no need with you giving the updates.....but i'm sure they appreciate you.

Well where are all the enthusiasts keeping this board updated? Alright dammit that's it. I'm calling out Pitt for not keeping us up to date on soccer and giving op-ed analysis on the goings on of intercollegiate soccer. What the hell man. What the hell. #sarcasm

(10-17-2011 07:26 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  We'll see how it goes, but I am disappointed in the fact that the communist kickball enthusiasts haven't been championing this run by the women.

Because I'm sure you're just so eager to hear about soccer and would never want to belittle them or lump them in with the school's incompetent administration simply for enjoying the sport.

If you genuinely want some input - I go to all the home games - what Sayers has done even from the start of this year is remarkable. They lost to a Tennessee Tech team in the home opener that got thrown around the yard by Belmont, and they were a complete mess. He lost one of the two Welsh international players he signed to a knee injury in the conference opener, and they've still been able to put together an excellent season. He's a very structured coach, and I think that helps with a young team like this one. There's even still a chance they might host the tournament if Gulf Coast loses a match and ETSU wins out (which won't be hard). Lipscomb won't beat Gulf Coast, though, so Belmot has to win if ETSU wants to host. Funny how those things work out, eh?

The men will be fine. They had Gulf Coast on the run in the second half on Sunday. They should win both of their remaining conference games pretty handily now that they've got Doumbe back on the outside. If Osorio gets back to 100% (still reeling from an injury against Furman; has played through it, but didn't feature on Sunday), and they can turn in good performances against Clemson and App State, that'll build some real momentum heading into the tournament, which they're hosting this year no matter what.

Ah, the good ol' Anti-Bucs rants. Gotta love it. Still love that communist kickball moniker. Really shows that truly, the idiocy runs rampant on here. Oh I know, there are some communist nations that once played kickball, and you can go google them to death and put it in my face and talk smack about it and go on about how smart you are and how actually intelligent the board is. Save us all the time.

Sayers has turned the team around in less than a year. Still not there, but they are going the right direction. The guys are still struggling after the meltdown vs Belmont. They're a talented bunch. They could win out in the conference tournament and make the NCAAs, or lose out in the first round and have you guys gleefully posting... it could really go either way.

Where's the socialism? I was looking for a very interesting political rant. I'm so so disappointed.

But it illustrates a full point about the big picture of the problems at ETSU. Even in sarcasm and smart ass comments about ETSU soccer, and I'm not against them by the way, glad they're winning. Both programs will contribute to keeping the All-Sports Trophy in Johnson City. My point is simply through all of the ranting, raving and whatever else, I mentioned the Lady Bucs had a seven game winning streak going on, and NOBODY is talking about it. NOT ONE PERSON who comes on here, even the fans who attend every game and the Mullins sympathizers aren't on here championing it. If I were a fan of communist kickball, I'd be here everyday jacked up about it, as would the majority of the Buccaneer fans who post on this forum. Instead, we're more interested in the politics of the presidential search, the head football coach at Wofford and basketball practice.
"We talkin' about practice." -Allen Iverson
If you guys cared half as much as you say, you'd be busting my balls over it, especially over how well the women's program has played. And truth be told, I hope both teams win the conference tournament, but at the end of the day, even if you guys post a thread on here about it, I'm the only one who is going to respond about it.

(10-19-2011 11:59 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  But it illustrates a full point about the big picture of the problems at ETSU. Even in sarcasm and smart ass comments about ETSU soccer, and I'm not against them by the way, glad they're winning. Both programs will contribute to keeping the All-Sports Trophy in Johnson City. My point is simply through all of the ranting, raving and whatever else, I mentioned the Lady Bucs had a seven game winning streak going on, and NOBODY is talking about it. NOT ONE PERSON who comes on here, even the fans who attend every game and the Mullins sympathizers aren't on here championing it. If I were a fan of communist kickball, I'd be here everyday jacked up about it, as would the majority of the Buccaneer fans who post on this forum. Instead, we're more interested in the politics of the presidential search, the head football coach at Wofford and basketball practice.
"We talkin' about practice." -Allen Iverson
If you guys cared half as much as you say, you'd be busting my balls over it, especially over how well the women's program has played. And truth be told, I hope both teams win the conference tournament, but at the end of the day, even if you guys post a thread on here about it, I'm the only one who is going to respond about it.

I'm glad to see them winning, about time. With all the upgrades that have done across the board for women's sports, Title IX will not be an issue for the new AD and President as they venture into returning football. I've been to many soccer games in the last 10 years or so, I still don't know most of the rules, but I do enjoy supporting the girls.

I will freely admit, I've never been to a men's soccer game. I used to see the ASU Men's Soccer team playing while I was going into run football study hall, but I never went to actually watch a game. I'm sure it's fun. Just not something that's ever caught my attention. Perhaps that will change.

(10-19-2011 11:59 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  But it illustrates a full point about the big picture of the problems at ETSU. Even in sarcasm and smart ass comments about ETSU soccer, and I'm not against them by the way, glad they're winning. Both programs will contribute to keeping the All-Sports Trophy in Johnson City. My point is simply through all of the ranting, raving and whatever else, I mentioned the Lady Bucs had a seven game winning streak going on, and NOBODY is talking about it.

Let me first of all apologize, then. I thought you were baiting with your original post, and I was quite evidently wrong. But the reason that you don't see more soccer threads is because any time someone comes on here talking about it, it goes like this:

OP - Soccer-related thread started by user.
Reply 1: "I don't know much about the program, but it's good to see them doing well and representing the university."
Reply 2: "Communist kickball is a joke and I only want to talk about FOOTBALL, Stanton and Mullins are clowns, this conference is terrible, etc."
Reply 1 goes largely ignored, and Reply 2 garners a number of responses both in dissent (which are mocked) and in agreement (which mock soccer). Not exactly a conducive environment to the discussion of the soccer teams.

The biggest problem, I think, is that people see men's soccer as something Stanton and Mullins have tried to pawn off on the alumni as a half-assed replacement for football, which isn't necessarily true (at the very least, it's not half-assed). They also see it as something foreign, with Calabrese filling out his coaching staff with two Brits and a Brazilian, and players from Nigeria, Germany, and Brazil, and just brush right over the fact that the team's leading goal scorers - and arguably their best players - are from Knoxville (Aaron Schoenfeld) and Kingsport (David Geno), respectively.

As for women's soccer, that's just a fact of life. There are very few actual fans of women's soccer (and most of those are parents) to trumpet a team's successes, and a very slim number are likely to actively seek out a school's dedicated forum on NCAAbbs to do so. And I would love to talk about either soccer team, but when I can say with a good 98% certainty that the thread will simply see insults flung at a sport I carry some sizable amount of passion for, I'm not going to be launching them out there left and right.

I know the sport isn't a joke, ironically enough I ALMOST played in high school (that was many beers and late night Waffle House runs ago), you damn sure have to be in shape to play the sport.
In short, it's apathy. Every sport has fans to some degree, and even the sympathizers or better yet coaches/departmental employees who come on here should have the desire to post the news of it.
I'm guessing most people didn't know the women's team has actually played really well, which tells me Henson was one hell of a recruiter but a terrible head coach.
I mock the sport as a whole, but I do want the teams to succeed. I see Left-wing kickball as the sport parents put their hyper-active kids in to run the BeJesus out of them so they'll be too tired to do anything else, and overseas it's more corrupt from a gambling standpoint than basketball is over here.
When Tim Hayes made the comment: "ETSU's programs have become INCREASINGLY MORE IRRELEVANT..." That statement is huge, and it's almost as if nobody gives a damn.

(10-20-2011 10:11 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  I see Left-wing kickball as the sport parents put their hyper-active kids in to run the BeJesus out of them so they'll be too tired to do anything else.

It's unfortunate that that mentality is still present in America, but you're right. People in some parts of the country will drop their kids off at practice or games and not even go watch them play. It takes a whole other class of crappy parent to do that sort of thing.

Fortunately, that mentality is changing. MLS has given American soccer players a legitimate avenue to a professional career, rather than simply hoping to be seen by European clubs (who scout the US & Canada very heavily). We're also establishing a fan culture in the States. More people are growing up with the sport on TV and local clubs are feeling the positive effects for the most part. This is only the first generation of fans that have grown up with MLS, and as those generations build on top of one another, you'll see more atmospheres like what exists in Portland or Seattle (who drew 65,000 for their home finale this year).

But I digress.

The women's team clinched a share of the regular season conference title with a 2-1 victory over Mercer today. Kim Elmore scored her first collegiate goal, and it was one to remember. She had a great game off the bench. Englehaupt played one of her best games of the year and got her first collegiate point on the first ETSU goal. The whole defense was solid in front of Gaughan, and Petersen tore it up in the midfield. Mercer had one of their center backs shadowing Caudle the whole game, but she played well and got an assist on the game-winner (Kerns buried a rebound from a Caudle shot). Oddly enough, they got the share of the title because Belmont beat Gulf Coast for the latter team's first-ever loss in Atlantic Sun play. What do you know, Henson helped ETSU win a conference title after all...

The men lost to Mercer, 1-0, last night in Macon, meaning they now have to beat Upstate to have any shot at getting into the tournament. We lucked out on the help: one of Lipscomb, Belmont, and Mercer needs to fail to reach ten points for us to clinch, and Mercer plays both of those teams this weekend in Lipscomb and Belmont's respective home finales, so one of those teams is not going to reach that mark.

The issue with it is it's only drawing in places like Portland, Seattle and Salt Lake City, and this may offend some, but soccer in the U.S. is getting roughly our 6th or 7th best athletes. It's just a huge uphill climb, not saying it can't be done to grow it into respectability here, but with so many different parts of this country being segmented and addicted to certain sports it'll never be as big here as it is across the pond. Oh, and keep in mind London is starting to push for an NFL team.
As for the parenting thing, it kills me to see that, anything not to be a parent. It's either soccer or video games.
Now as for today. That's so big for the women's program. They've been so terrible for so long to have that kind of a turnaround that quick.

(10-23-2011 07:40 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  The issue with it is it's only drawing in places like Portland, Seattle and Salt Lake City, and this may offend some, but soccer in the U.S. is getting roughly our 6th or 7th best athletes. It's just a huge uphill climb, not saying it can't be done to grow it into respectability here, but with so many different parts of this country being segmented and addicted to certain sports it'll never be as big here as it is across the pond. Oh, and keep in mind London is starting to push for an NFL team.

Gah, don't remind me about London. I can only imagine how rough that travel would be. Hopefully it's just leverage for the NFL to get some new stadiums built with public monies.

Saying that soccer gets our 6th or 7th best athletes is a bit of a misnomer. In practice, our soccer players are as well-conditioned as any other nation's (in fact, many European import players have commented on the physically demanding nature of MLS). I can rattle off 20 or 30 players in MLS that are probably in better shape than Wayne Rooney; shucks, most of our men's team is probably in better shape than Rooney.

The difference is in skill development. Rooney got into the youth system at Everton at nine years old and has worked with professional coaches since that point. Outside of MLS markets, you won't find that caliber of coaching in the US. Sometimes, it's volunteer parents coaching until the kids are twelve or thirteen, and the kids don't develop their skills as well as they should.

MLS actually set its attendance record this year, and has had quite a few markets blossom into success. New York, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Houston will all have stadiums three years old or less when Dynamo Stadium opens just down the road from Minute Maid Park next year. There are still problem children (Clark Hunt's negligence in Columbus, Stan Kroenke's mess in Colorado, Lew Wolff's San Jose and Robert Kraft's tax write-off in New England), but the league as a whole is trending upward and has grown fast. How much longer it will take to reach here, well... no idea.


The men host Clemson tomorrow night and should beat them pretty handily (they're 5-8). Hopefully there will be a good turnout for that game like there was for the Virginia Tech game, and maybe the App State game will draw as well since it's a name students recognize. After seeing all of 300 people at the women's game today and even less on Friday night, it'd be a nice change of pace out there...

I don't know. I'm not saying those guys aren't well conditioned, but imagine if Chris Johnson, Chad Ochocinco, Darelle Revis, Chris Paul, D-Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Adrian Peterson, Kenny Britt, Mike Wallace, Johnny Knox, Devin Hester, just to name a few had developed skill sets for soccer instead of football/basketball.
Or for a good local example, Zakee Wadood and Tim Smith? Outside of Beckham and Donovan the guys I mentioned above are on a completely different level athletically than most American soccer players. I didn't even get into baseball and hockey, where some of those hockey guys could play soccer (the Predators actually play intrasquad games in the arena basement in Nashville before games).
I would go so far as to say to some degree there are better athletes in professional wrestling (See Rey Mysterio, The Rock, CM Punk, AJ Styles, Kurt Angle (Gold medal 96 Olympics) as some that play soccer. It's one thing that frustrates me about the World Cup. We send out great players who compete, but imagine if the top 5 percent of our athletes played soccer like the other countries? WE WOULD DESTROY the competition.
The MLS plays in the summer, correct? That does help because they don't try to compete with the NFL, so they will have some success in butts in seats, but TV wise they'll always struggle.
Anyways as for the women, it's amazing what they've done, and it's equally amazing the collapse the men have had since their ranking. Implosions like that are just a rarity.

(10-24-2011 08:25 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  I don't know. I'm not saying those guys aren't well conditioned, but imagine if Chris Johnson, Chad Ochocinco, Darelle Revis, Chris Paul, D-Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Adrian Peterson, Kenny Britt, Mike Wallace, Johnny Knox, Devin Hester, just to name a few had developed skill sets for soccer instead of football/basketball.
Or for a good local example, Zakee Wadood and Tim Smith? Outside of Beckham and Donovan the guys I mentioned above are on a completely different level athletically than most American soccer players. I didn't even get into baseball and hockey, where some of those hockey guys could play soccer (the Predators actually play intrasquad games in the arena basement in Nashville before games).
I would go so far as to say to some degree there are better athletes in professional wrestling (See Rey Mysterio, The Rock, CM Punk, AJ Styles, Kurt Angle (Gold medal 96 Olympics) as some that play soccer. It's one thing that frustrates me about the World Cup. We send out great players who compete, but imagine if the top 5 percent of our athletes played soccer like the other countries? WE WOULD DESTROY the competition.
The MLS plays in the summer, correct? That does help because they don't try to compete with the NFL, so they will have some success in butts in seats, but TV wise they'll always struggle.
Anyways as for the women, it's amazing what they've done, and it's equally amazing the collapse the men have had since their ranking. Implosions like that are just a rarity.

Implosion is the only word to descibe that turn of events indeed...

Summers-Taylor Stadium record 1,722 spectators for the 1-1 draw with Clemson tonight, mostly students.

They played okay. Not great, not terrible, just okay. Schoenfeld got flat-out robbed on a couple of headers, including one in overtime. They're playing this "paratrooper" style of soccer, where they launch the ball forward and hope one of their forwards can play iso ball until everyone else catches up. If they play the ball along the ground, they wear the other team down because they're making them run. Calabrese has to get in their ears about that. If we play the way we did tonight, we could beat USC Upstate, but I don't think we'll do much in the tournament. Still have another week and a half to work out all the kinks, but Calabrese has to get this team ready to play on Saturday.

Also, I haven't really been impressed with Pedro Zaccarelli this year, but he looked pretty brutal tonight. He got absolutely smoked on the play that directly led to Clemson's goal and looked uncomfortable in general. Fubara got the assist, which was a really nice ball, but after that just kind of faded into the background. Might just be a sophomore slump, but his long passes are way off target and he just seems out of his rhythm.

Over 1700 fans at a soccer game.. if there has ever been a time to bring back football its now.. As a student I can honestly say the feel of campus is just different this year.. It's time and GO BUCS

(10-25-2011 12:01 AM)fsurookie911 Wrote:  Over 1700 fans at a soccer game.. if there has ever been a time to bring back football its now.. As a student I can honestly say the feel of campus is just different this year.. It's time and GO BUCS

That is exactly the sentiment I would try (and have tried) to get across. The more support that is shown to the current line-up of teams we have will only HELP the cause to bring back football...NOT the opposite. Thats just my opinion. Over 1700 for soccer on a cool Monday night is great. Sad that it ends in a tie, but thats soccer and im no particular fan of the sport. However, that does not detract from the positives last night. Too bad more "fans" cannot get past their agenda and see that, but i understand their viewpoint too...i dont agree, but understand.

Wasn't last night the start of homecoming week and a kickoff for Greek events? Kudos for the convenient scheduling, though.

(10-25-2011 01:28 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  Wasn't last night the start of homecoming week and a kickoff for Greek events? Kudos for the convenient scheduling, though.

Yes, but I still think we would have hit 1,000 for that game since it was an ACC school. We got 1100 for Virginia Tech, which isn't a particularly good team either. The game that we likely wouldn't hit 1,000 for if not for homecoming is the Upstate game Saturday, and we might not hit that mark anyway. I would hope for a fairly large crowd though, considering the game's implications and the fact that the way things are scheduled, people can go almost straight from the soccer game to the Dome for the Tusculum game and get there with ample time to spare.

Va. Tech had the Greek Chili Cook Off. Again, a reason for organized Greek organizations on campus to show up. While those two games are big for helping build a program, their biggest game of the season is Saturday against Upstate at 1pm. How many people will legit show up?