2-0 DLS over Amador. Made the trek after doing a bit of shopping at Stoneridge mall. Amador looked much better than their record shows – the #15 is a terrific player in the back. Amador had chances but lacked the quality to put the ball in the net..DLS scored both in half two – one from deep and the other a header from a set play. DLS efficient closing things out.
Sounds like Cal v SRV and B O’D v SLZ were entertaining matches from tonight. Congrats to all the winning sides!

Livermore 3 MV 2.
Livermore up 2-0 at half but MV comes back.

Agreed…AV in down cycle this year. This could be the year Foothill finally beats Amador Valley. AV has not lost to Foothill since NCS playoffs 2003…but all streaks come to an end.

Cal vs SRV
1st half CAL was the better attacking team despite relatively even possession play.
Cal had the quicker counter and has good attacking team.
2nd half was dominated by SRV in the mid field and tried to equalize but lacked the finishing players. Cal had some quick counter attacks and nearly scored again.
The game ended with SRV pressing. Rivas was ok but was not dominant.
Some say Cal controlled game, not sure what game they were watching??

The story was San Ramon actually controlled the midfield, Cal had the quick counter and was better at finishing. One surprise for me was the Cal defense was not very strong and looks vulnerable, nothing like what I expected. Cal is a good attacking team but is bearable.

One other thing I noticed in this Cal vs SRV game the clock stopped at 2 min in the first half which benefited Cal as they scored their second goal during this stoppage time. But in the second half the Cal scorekeeper ran it all the way to 0 taking the stoppage time out of the referees hand. Was this an honest mistake or true home field advantage??

Ah, the Sweeper. He’s the man.
And I hate to admit it, but I didn’t have high enough grades or LSAT score to even apply at Berkeley law. I moved to SF and go here in the City.

Sweeper comes out in another name. SRV usually plays a 3-4-3 but they were getting dominated early which caused a shift to a 3-5-2. I do agree with the non call at the end of the game, you can’t give that away there unless it’s clear. CAL played better soccer and looked to combine as their first goal came off that and another chance where it was Rivas slipped. CAL needs to continue improving. SRV is built for next year and Chaussy is a transnational checking forward

Now after watching Pitt and a few local teams in the east bay … I take a few things back… Pitt is holding strong and playing well. There coach is making the correct reads on how to move the team around. I made time to go and see the second half of the YV – Clayton game… It was exciting to the last seconds… Bodies flying , pushing , strong and well executed game . I believe YV was the stronger team of the two … Very unlucky the linesman didn’t see CV player offsides by 5 yards, yes five yards. CV tied the game on a very unfortunate miss call. That’s soccer. YV is young, but so very dangerous. I have not seen another team defend like YV does, they cover great. I understand they havent played the strongest teams around, but no mistakes in the back add up. If you look at the stats on players, they are well distributed around. If i had called them a pony once, I’m a bigger donkey. Great game.

YV 1 Clayton 1

It was a great game. CV started the game strong and almost had a goal in the first 5 minutes. the shot hit off the crossbar and it was cleared from almost going in. That’s probably the best chance of the first half.

2ND Half was dominated by YV. The coach made some adjustments at half and they paid off. They had at least 6 really good shots that were close to going in, one of them the keeper made a great save and the ball hit off the crossbar. YV scored with about 20 minutes left in the game with a pass behind the defense and the forwards effort to fight for the ball resulted in a goal. CV goal came with about 1 minute left on a questionable call. The keeper made a good save and the follow up was from the CV striker who looked to be way offside. The linesmen couldn’t keep up with the play. That’s they way most high school refs are so we need to get used to it. Some YV guys were hurt in this match so they might be missing tomorrow against O’Dowd but, I think other guys will step up and make a difference.

By suggesting the D2 final will come down to two non DFAL teams oldHAAL dad shows he has no knowledge of soccer and history. 8 of the 9 last D2 champions have come from the DFAL and I do believe BOD was handled by Dougherty earlier this year 4-2. They are in like 4th or 5th place in the DFAL. But this is why they play the games…

Both Logan and Newark are undefeated in MVAL play. Each won their games 4-0 yesterday as Logan overpowered Kennedy, while Newark stomped out Mission San Jose. Logan sit up-top the boards with 11 GF 0 GA, and Newark with 9 GF 0 GA.

On Wednesday, they both will play for first place in the MVAL at Newark Memorial. This is most definitely a game to watch Matt, see if Logan can adapt it’s game play to Newark’s swampy field around this time. Game starts at 6 according to MaxPreps. Most def will be there.

Campo 2
Dougherty Valley 1

Much credit to both Campo and Acalanes for continuing to uphold their soccer program pedigree.As I have said in other posts the main difference between D1 and D2 is, simply put, the quantity of good players.Both of the aforementioned schools are fortunate that year and year out they have the ability to reload.Las Lomas is another school in D2 that normally has this pool to choose from and in fact I would of thought this year they would have been more competetitive since they only graduated 4-5 players( although 3 were studs and first team DFAL).
I have seen Campo,Acalanes ,BOD,San Lorenzo and a few others as well. BOD is good but the coach is not. Campo wins it all this year because they have the best keeper in the East Bay.

#119 Matt, you are probably right. I was at the game and noticed the ref going to the booth at the half. Your guess that clock management was addressed may be spot on.

Do you not post any comments of Albany’s High school soccer ? It was a show on yesterdays game Pilots & Albany , the score was 7 ( albany ) 0 ( pilots ) 3 red cards for Pilots, 2 players and one for the coach .

Matt time for ncs seeds? Alittle pre championship gitters to get us started haha

What was the final score of O’Dowd -YV? Anyone know any info on the game?

I have got to say the refs screwed Pittsburg over in a one team advantage against berkely.

DLS looked solid in scoring three first-half goals against Richmond tonight. They simply hung back in their final third for most of the night, applying low pressure while Richmond knocked it around trying to find a non-existent opening in DLS defense. The Oilers never really threatened despite maintaining possession.

It was good to see DeCosta back in the line-up and Bernardi is always fun to watch, but they were missing Tobin up top, unfortunately. Matt Bravo was all over the field again, playing forward early and then moving into the back line in the second half.

The Spartans looked dangerous on counter-attacks, throw-ins and free kicks into the box. The Richmond keeper struggled with DLS pressure on the first goal.

The DLS match-up Tuesday at Cal should be a fantastic one.

I would agree with waterboy. The ref let the game go and both sides were playing hard.

I saw the game totally different than that. I saw berkeley dominate possession in the first half but did not do much with it besides the 2 shots and one was a goal. Pitt had 4 shots one on a break away that they missed. The second half pitt dominated with possession and berkeley countered and had a couple of chances as well as pitt. I thought it should have been 1-1.

Berkeleys def is one of the best I have seen especially with a lead. They dropped back and did not let pitt get in. I saw pitt play liberty and today they are a good team but we will see how they stack up come playoffs.

DFAL analysis:

Campolindo: Currently the powerhouse leader of the DFAL, but could easily be threatened by Acalanes. Tough ties against Alhambra (1-1) and Las Lomas (2-2) should not hurt their NCS seeding too much, but could create some trouble for them with a surging Acalanes threatening to take the league title. With a win over Acalanes, they should seal up the DFAL and most likely a #1 or #2 seed in NCS.

Acalanes: I would expect to see Acalanes move up in the rankings after 4 wins against SRV (1-0), Piedmont (2-0), Las Lomas (4-0), and Miramonte (2-1) this past week to compile nine straight wins now. This team seems to have definitely found their composure after losing some key players from last year. With a win over Campo next week, they could find themselves very close to a #1 or #2 seed in NCS.

Dublin: Seems to have regained their composure after a 0-2 loss to Acalanes to pull three straight victories, including a respectable win against Dougherty Valley 3-1. Definitely a rebuilding year for this team after losing 12 seniors from their NCS championship team last year. Still a strong side in D2 and expect them to do some damage in NCS.

Alhambra: They seem a little bit out of form, and have not been able to post a win in their last 7 games. A nice tie against Campo (1-1), but tough losses to Dougherty Valley (0-3) and Miramonte (0-1) will certainly not help their cause for NCS seedings. However, Alhambra is a scrappy team that can find a way to string wins together in big games. As with any DFAL team, should certainly qualify for NCS and could win a few games there.

Miramonte: Certainly a stronger side this year than last, despite graduating their star player. They have shown to be able to compete in every DFAL game, but have unfortunately only been able to come up with one win. Certainly another rebuilding year for Miramonte but expect them to return to strong form in the next couple of years. Miramonte has traditionally had a very strong soccer program. They have an interesting schedule with teams outside of NCS (good to see them play games out of league which they haven’t done for the past few years).

Dougherty Valley: Started out very strong with a great showing in the Winter Classic. Have had some success outside of league, with solid wins over BOD (4-2) and Piedmont (4-1). Unlucky showing thus far in league, but still post an overall winning record so expect to see this team in NCS and can always threat to do some damage. As with every team in the DFAL, I still believe that they could beat any other team in the DFAL with a strong showing.

Las Lomas: I was very surprised to find the knights in last place in the DFAL. They have traditionally had a very strong program and did not graduate very many players from last year’s squad. However, they too have a winning record, so we may see six teams from the DFAL in NCS. I would not be surprised to see them regain their composure and possibly be a threat in NCS.

Overall, I find the DFAL to be the top D2 league in the east bay with all seven teams being strong sides. I should expect them to get some strong seeds in NCS, and as a league they will certainly threaten for a championship that they have won 8 out of the last 9 years. San Lorenzo and Bishop O’Dowd also seem to be great sides that I wish the best of luck. I just hope that the BSAL does not get as lucky of seedings as they did last year over the DFAL (several DFAL teams have defeated Piedmont {the current leader of the BSAL}).