EAST BAY WINTER SOCCER POLL DISCUSSION
By dmiller
Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 10:07 am in General.
Hey all,
Instead of running on another thread, I decided to start a soccer discussion thread right here. Below are some answers to some questions left on other threads, as well as some other comments… check it out and thanks for reading the soccer poll….
1) First off, I talk with coaches each and every week about teams throughout the East Bay. In leagues I do not cover, I ask coaches from those leagues what they think about certain teams. Honestly, it’s not just me throwing out what I think without consulting with other people. I’ve covered prep soccer for 16 years and think I have a pretty good handle on the respective leagues and quality of teams. Having other people vote on a poll is not always a good thing as evidenced by some of the horribly inaccurate votes we get on the football and basketball polls. Believe me when I say you are better off having one informed person who actually knows the game making the poll. Outside of Kyle Bonagura and myself, very few reporters understand soccer they way we do. And believe me, I have e-mailed with Kyle about MVAL teams.
The fact of the matter is, some leagues are just way better than others, plain and simple. I am not going to rank a team because they are 13-0-1 and play a weak schedule. Not going to fall into the same trap people do during football season.
2) I will make sure to change it to East Bay Winter Soccer Poll. No worries.
3) As for De La Salle, believe me, when I do not think they are the best team in the area, they will not be No. 1. I have never been a big DLS person, but when you’re good, you’re good. Does anyone really think they won’t win the BVAL? There is no doubt next year, the Spartans will have their hands full in the EBAL, with way fewer gimme games, but the BVAL is solid as well.
3) Ricky Villa - thanks for the update on your record. Matt Sills sent me the records for all the teams in the league which was really helpful. The problem I have with running down MVAL teams is the Argus very seldom runs overall records. I figured run the first poll with what I have, then people will start sending me information. heard nothing but good things about your team this year.
4) HAAL — last year I was putting Hayward in the poll throughout the year, along with Castro Valley. I am sure the Farmers will be looking in for a spot as well next week. Makre sure to always report overall records as well to the Review — it makes it easier for me to run things down. I know there are some good teams in the HAAL, but don’t forget Hayward was pretty good last year, then got dumped in NCS by a middle of the road EBAL team…
5) DFAL — tough 1-0 loss for Miramonte to Alhambra yesterday - ouch, that had to hurt.
6) On the boys side, I missed Pittsburg this week and will make sure they are in the poll next week..
7) As far as an “others considered” part of the poll, I have already started putting that together…
Any other soccer questions, please e-mail me at drmiller@angnewspapers or call (925) 847-2167 — I will always respond or call back. Discussion is what makes the world go round and makes this fun!!
Dennis
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]
January 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
With all the forfeits going around because of the tryout with the San Jose Earthquakes, records in the HAAL have been all screwed up. Mt. Eden had to forfeit three games and Arroyo did, too. That helped boost Castro Valley and Bishop O’Dowd a little. I hear there are plenty of other players around the East Bay that attended the tryout but haven’t come forward yet, so records could be changing everywhere soon.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Here’s question — what if two teams, who played each other, both have players who went to the tryouts?????
Chaos — it’s a world gone mad
January 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
It depends how fast said players were cut from the tryouts.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Granada, Granada
What a surprise team I’d say.
They go through the first half of EBAL season with 3-2-1 record. Pretty impressive for a team nobody is talking about!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Mr. Miller:
Thanks for starting this blog.
1) DLS in my humble opinion is not the best team in the East Bay. The strength of their game is that they have a strong defense, led by Captain Dicicco (sp?) and what I think may be the most underrated goalkeeper in the East Bay - a stud in my opinion. Their attack is not the strongest around but their discplined approach to set pieces is unmatched. Their forwards have a hard time finishing which explains many of their ties. They will make NCS playoffs but I see them going as far as the Semis.
2) DFAL - Campolindo deserves consideration over Miramonte.
3) I think your approach to getting the poll started is valiant. You have to start somewhere.
My thought is maybe setting up a website where only coaches can log in and cast votes for teams in the east bay… not realistic I know. But it would help give more validity to any kind of poll.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
well i play for hayward high varsity soccer and we have a better record then some of these team in the poll. we tied against monte vista 0-0 and we still not in the polls. our records is 9-2-2 and no one talks about us. we are in 1st in our league and overall we have 23 goals for and 7 against. how come we are not recognized???
January 19th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Will be curious how rankings come out next week - Cal upset by Foothill, Granada ties MV, and AV beats SRV to reclaim 1st place in EBAL with 5 games to go.
I think MV is getting the sentimental vote based on the last 2 years - Granada should be in there instead of them. MV has not beaten anyone in EBAL other than Livermore. Dennis - your thoughts? Granada instead of MV?
DLS beat Antioch and will probably stay #1, but this week they play Pittsburg and Richmond back to back, so we will see how they do.
January 20th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Interesting week in the MVAL. Both of the ranked teams (Logan and Newark) lost.
Logan lost to Washington, but that wasn’t all that surprising because the Huskies already beat Logan once and were a final four team at NCS last year.
But the second one may come as a shock. John F. Kennedy beat Newark 3-1 two days after scoring 8 goals against American.
A shakeup is the polls is probably in order.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am
Monte Vista is still a quality team. It seems like all the teams in EBAL have a difficult time scoring, whether this is a byproduct of great defense or poor offensive talent, or even perhaps a mixture of both, the Mustangs are still in the thick of things, only a game and a half back out of first. Remember, they have a make up game vs. Livermore. Especially with their tough non league schedule, this team has played all the top teams, and only has the tough 1-0 loss at Richmond and 2-0 from Amador.
January 21st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Get Northgate in there. 10-2-2 overall including a Winter Classic Championship. One of their two losses came when 6 players were still playing club soccer. This team has been on a role and could be top of the table with a win Wed against Acalanes and Friday @ Campo. Don’t let the BVAL deceive you. College Park is middle of the table in the DFAL and gave DLS one of their toughest games of the year…a 1-0 squeaker win for DLS…
January 21st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
roll