Reply to "Ripon Soccer Report" Dated Oct 9, 2008

This post is somewhat late but I discovered this site while surfing the net and being curious, decided to read some posts.

I do not necessarily agree with all of this scouting report, but when scouting we all view things from a different perspective. (Mentioning certain players in this review, leads me believe that it was not entirely non-bias)

I was at this game also, and saw things from somewhat of a different perspective. Last year while scouting teams and players, I was able to watch Ripon in three matches (Lake Forest, Platteville & Beliot). I pulled my tape and notes from these games and reviewed them to evaluate the posters scouting report.

To keep this as short as possible, I will only address a couple of the posters issues.

Fact; Ripon did have a tendency to leave gaps between their midfield and the opponents defenders. However, this is more related to the system their Coach utilized. The system requires a good deal of time to establish to perform effectively, requires the correct players and must be cohesive. If not ran correctly, outside defenders and midfielders get overworked, resulting in early fatigue. It would take too much time to explain the interworkings and needless to say was not the ideal system for this team.
The poster also mentions that Ripon defenders became ball watchers thus allowing for outside runs. In reviewing the tape, these opportunities were more from out-of- position midfielders, in conjunction with the mids not recognizing their assignments, not from defender ball watching. Beliot did try to take advantage of the outside runs, but more times than not Beloit was caught by Ripon’s speedy defender, who was able to clear the ball thus stopping the one-on-one with the goalie and allowing Ripon to reset their defense.
I was not at this game to scout Ripon, but unlike the poster who called out two of Ripon’s defenders, I saw things differently in regards to these players. So in defense of these players (who I was able to watch during Lake Forest & Platteville matches also) here is my scouting review. I actually took notice of Ripon’s defender Krause, this kid has some serious speed and seems to have some after burners when having to catch someone from behind or from across the field (which happened numerous times at Beliot). At any match he may be the fastest player on the field and difficult to out run even if beat with a move. As a true freshman, Krause was not afraid of physical play, was able to play other positions, but would make a freshman mistake from time to time. During the Platteville match, Krause took an elbow to the face on a Platteville corner kick and had 2 front teeth knocked out and stayed in the game (I was standing near his father when he ran by during stoppage to show his dad his missing teeth). At the Lake Forest Match, Ripon’s coach had Krause marking their leading scorers and did a fine job of neutralizing this threat. Ripon Hershoff was forced into the starting center defense position at the Beliot match when Ripon’s normal starting center defenseman got injured during the Platteville game. Tapes showed he was a little rusty at this position during the Beliot game, but sources inform me he was a good coordinator of the defense in subsequent games and these sources state was an improvement for Ripon at this position. Hershoff is more comfortable in an offensive role, but the defense of Krause, Hershoff and Ransom (2 freshman and sophomore) allowed Ripon a chance to be in games. Ripon’s Ransom also caught my attention, he has very good ball skills, decent speed, smart and like Krause not easily intimidated. Ripon should post a few more wins this year.

The match between Beliot and Ripon was a 2-1 win for Beliot and my notes showed that it was even in most categories. Beliot’s goalie was outstanding in this game and should receive the majority of the credit for Beloit’s ability to be victorious.
Good luck to all this season. Got To Love The Futbol.

Great write up. Welcome to the site.

I watched Ripon play three times last year and never really questioned their athleticism, I do think it had a lot to do with their scheme. At times it looked like they had a 5 flat back going on. I understand coaches have their own wrinkles to throw at a game but if you have 5 defending a back line you are putting all your eggs in a 1-0 win or a 0-0 tie.

I have to watch that Krause kid again. I noticed they had some speed in the back but never really scouted the game, just watched for amusement's sake. I have heard some "not-so-flattering" views of their old coach Parker and could understand some of the criticism but when a season gets going from bad to worse, sometimes it's impossible to turn the boat.

Are you affiliated with any teams noworries?

new coach new coach new coach woooohoooo wtb becker back

Ripon is going to need a lot of help this year. I don't see them winning more than 2 conference games.

Thanks for your Reply.

I am not affiliated with any MWC Teams. The posts that I have read appear civil and I would hope that posters would continue to be well-mannered. All athletes play for the love of the game and school/team pride is great. Well thought out, non-callous opinions is what makes it enjoyable to revisit forums.

Good luck to all this season.

Gotta Love the Futbol.

We've had this site up for about a year now and 'civility' seems to be the theme most of the time since a lot of us know each other. There is the occasional Patriot fan that get a different treatment when discussing AFC East relations but other than that, it's all good.

I also watch the site very closely for posters that are here to name call and nothing more...they don't tend to last past their first couple of posts.

Good to have you on Cheese. We will have some more preseason reviews on both high school and college soccer throughout this month and then obviously during the season as well.

St. Norbert's is the team to beat. Carroll and Grinnell are a step below and then it is a crap shoot. I think it will come down to who recruits the best this year. With three new coaches in the league, Lawrence and Beloit will probably fight for fourth, but neither have an offensive threat that will scare a lot of teams. probably a battle not to be last as well.

hack wrote:St. Norbert's is the team to beat. Carroll and Grinnell are a step below and then it is a crap shoot. I think it will come down to who recruits the best this year. With three new coaches in the league, Lawrence and Beloit will probably fight for fourth, but neither have an offensive threat that will scare a lot of teams. probably a battle not to be last as well.

How can St.Norberts be the team to beat? They havnt beat Carroll since the regular season in 2007 and they lost to Grinnell in the conference tourney. And if I remeber Grinnell returns 10 starters like St.Norberts...And if your assuming Norberts is the team to beat because Carroll lost 5 starters...your in for a rude awakening

How can St.Norberts be the team to beat? They havnt beat Carroll since the regular season in 2007 and they lost to Grinnell in the conference tourney. And if I remeber Grinnell returns 10 starters like St.Norberts...And if your assuming Norberts is the team to beat because Carroll lost 5 starters...your in for a rude awakening

Mainly because they have done everything that Carroll has done in the offseason to keep pace and I think another year under stenger is a benefit to them. They have the talent to compete and the desire. I think the new players come into Carroll are going to be a bit slow on the uptake and Carroll may lose one early or get a little too overconfident. What ahppens in the past has absolutely nothing to do with this season. I will tell you one thing I want to watch that game when it is played. They have both Grinnell and Carroll at home I have to favor the homefield advantage.

Oh and I never assume.

Hack, are you from the Appleton area? There should be plenty of awesome games to catch up there, i didn't realize carroll and grinnell both travel to Norbey in 09.

As always, those two games will decide the conference standings.

There is a lot of passionate talk about St. Norberts and Carroll, however I think some of these other schools should keep notice of this early talk. Upsets are always in the making, teams have miracle season, while injuries could seal the fate of others. We need to remember, to be humble, should we stumble along the way. Here are some recent stumbles and something to think about at the bottom.

BRISTOL, R.I. – The seventh-seeded Nichols College men’s soccer team pulled off the upset over the second-seeded Roger Williams in the opening round of The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship

Sophomore Nick Cianci (West Hartford, Conn.) scored in the 16th minute to lead the Providence College men's soccer team to a 1-0 upset victory over fourth-ranked Boston College at Glay Field. With the victory, the Friars improved to 2-0, while the Eagles fell to 1-1. It marked the second consecutive season in which the Friars defeated the Eagles. Last season, PC held off BC, 1-0, in Newton, Mass

Bolivia beat Argentina at home 6-1. Tying for Argentina's worst lost ever.

What makes this upset even bigger is their Fifa rankings at the time. Bolivia was ranked 56th at the time, which was 50 places behind Argentina.

Bolivia has only played in 1 world cup in 50 years, an amazing number, and hasn't won a road game in 16 years. They are as bad as they come, yet on this day they were unstoppable.

Week 6 of the college soccer season was is in the books and more upsets were seen around the country. SMU continues their freefall losing at Memphis. Wisconsin will fall out of the Top 30 after losing a pair and #2 Maryland gave up 5 goals to Clemson. But some things never change and #1 Wake Forest stayed true to form blasting Virginia.

COULD THE PAST COME BACK TO HAUNT?????

October 2, 2001,
Men's Soccer: Carroll College defeats MWC Champion Ripon College 1-0
Carroll Men's Soccer nets upset win over Ripon.

Gotta Love The Futbol

You make good points in not underestimating teams but you have to understand the make up of this conference compared to the make up of professional leagues.

In the pros, the guys are just that, professionals. In the Midwest Conference, a lot of the players are barely college worthy players and would struggle to make plenty of high school programs.

I see where you are coming from but in this conference, it's a two or three horse race, rarely has it been any different.

Any time any where an upset can occur, however unlikely it is in this conference for a team to defeat another Ripon Last year looking at there wins did beat a "pretty" good Edgewood team in OT. They did hold a Very good almost great Carroll team to one goal for like 88 minutes and then gave up a second. An upset though in this conference would be probably tying a team that should beat you because of a weather condition from the lower teams to the top three. If weather is in play naything goes otherwise it is what it is.

You are right that even the worst of teams have had their day in the sun and it is almost always because the better team expects them to roll over but with the fields getting better and better, the upsets have seem to become more limited with each passing season.

You make a good point about the Ripon game and I have no idea why it is but they always play Carroll tough as hell. I blame steroids.

Ollie Octagon – Disappointing Retort

“In the Midwest Conference, a lot of the players are barely college worthy players and would struggle to make plenty of high school programs.” Author: Ollie Octagon

I usually do not respond to many forums (quality over quantity and a Master at a craft over a Jack of all trades) however, this comment was disheartening thus, prompting a needed reply.

First Point; The small sample of upsets are not all pro teams. Only one and there are numerous other college upsets. Any upset does not necessarily project that the winning team will be or is a top rated team. It does reveal that any team could be a spoiler and possibly ruin a bid for a MWC tournament spot.

Second Point; Your opinion of the vast majority of soccer players in the MWC is malicious, inaccurate and flawed. I personally know of a many number of players who could have chosen to play at a DI school and I know of one who attends Ripon. Many players across the country choose their school based on educational factors first and continue to play their chosen sport because of the love of the game.

DIII, DII and NAIA conferences normally have a small group of schools at the top and history has proven that they usually change every so-many –years. However, I have seen parity growing at a rapid rate, with the quality of players coming out of high school and many players choosing playing time over sitting a bench for 3 of their 4 years of college eligibility.

So I am predicting here today, that your MWC will have a few spoilers this season, thus disappointing someone’s chance for the top spot or making the bid.

So To; Beliot, Lawrence, Lake Forest, Illinois College, Ripon, Knox and Monmouth .

Print some of these type of posts, They make for great Locker Room Bulletin Board material, Motivate and GO FOR IT.o

I would be the first to say that there are always Division 1 type players sprinkled amongst the masses but you can't seriously tell me by watching the bottom half of the MWC that some of these players belong on a pitch let alone on a college program.

I realize nearly any time a game is played, that either team has a chance to win but in this conference, the way the top two or three roll through the rest of the conference, leads me to believe some players simply do not belong.

Not all, just some.

As for motivational pieces in certain teams locker rooms, if they need to read a post by an overweight Irishmen, then they need more help than they may have originally suspected.

I side with Ollie here...LOL

I'm going to print your response to show my mommy and daddy. They will be so proud.

I wish to start out with an apologize to the creators of this site and all person who visit these forums for the tone of this retort and assure everyone that it is not a practice of myself to respond in such a way and any subsequent post will be positive in nature.

I like how Noworries writes and his taking the high road in his opinions. His editorials are well thought out and he writes to encourage not humiliate.

Ollie there is no need for your negative opinions (or any of your negatism) on the ability of college players among DIII conferences. If you were smart enough, you would be capable of seeing that Noworries looks to highlight the positive toward the conferences, teams and players. Visiting these forums, we as a soccer community would rather be civil and enjoy reading about the positives of all, no matter how inconsequential you may think they are.
In regards to his Bulletin Board material, again if you were capable of seeing beyond your nose, you would have seen that Noworries was looking to get a rise out of you and during his fishing it appears as if he caught the bottom feeder he was trolling for.

Ollie stop hiding and let us know who you are at games (maybe put your name on your shirt, someone can help you spell it) I’m sure there could be many who would love to converse with you on your soccer prowess.
Also, are you not a little old to be crying to mommy and daddy.

It’s pathetic to see and old fat Irishman living his life vicariously through these college kids.

Need any help with the bigger words, maybe one of the college kids, ” you think so little of” can help you.

Good luck to all players’ teams and coaches and I hope that personal best’s are achieved by all.

As Noworries would say;
Gotta Love the Futbol

I may have missed something in the translation but I didn't see anything that was overly offensive. I guess that is sort of the difficulty with message boards, tonality is sometimes impossible to follow.

Nice post RWAK, I think Ollie does have a tendancy to be overly criticle but having drank a few beers with him, he's a gentle giant that talks big.

and i do hope ollie catches the carroll/grinnell game, i forget where it's at but there are beers to be had.

Good luck to the MWC, i hope we get a couple of the teams nationally ranked sometime.

noworries wrote:
COULD THE PAST COME BACK TO HAUNT?????

October 2, 2001,
Men's Soccer: Carroll College defeats MWC Champion Ripon College 1-0
Carroll Men's Soccer nets upset win over Ripon.

Gotta Love The Futbol

Nice call Noworries. It looks like someone did their homework. Now let me add a little to that.
Ripon was the team to beat for years prior to 2001. Carroll and St. Norbert’s did heavy recruiting in 2000 and 2001. By 2001 Ripon only strength was down to set plays. They had a player, I forget his name, that could flip throw the ball about 40-50 yards, NO LIE, it was truly a spectacle to see, plus he was pretty accurate with it. So basically he could put the ball in the box from any throw in past half. Then they would hope for the ball to bounce around a bit, maybe a missed clear, and hope to score. Not saying it didn’t work, but that’s all they had left in 2001. Ripon was on the down turn at that point.
St Norbert’s and Carroll were on the rise and St Norbert’s took over from there until recently when Carroll has taken the lead.
At this point I do not believe that Carroll or St Norbert’s are on the down turn. Norbert’s returning 10 starters, and Carroll having a good depth of players not seen because they had such stars starting over them last year. I think Carroll could have a rocky start with new starters but with a very talented Coach to back them I think this problem, IF it does come up, will only be a minor road bump that will be well smoothed out before they start playing teams in the MWC.
I do see some teams on the rise Grinnell being a big one. I think for Grinnell their goal should be get to the MWC tournament. After that anything can happen in the MWC, like you have noted yourself Noworries.
Ripon to be honest I did pay much attention to last year, I hope I get to see them play a few this year. I think for this year there will be Carroll and St. Norbert’s fighting for number one again. Maybe 2-3 years down the road you will have the rise of some fresh teams, Beloit, or Lawrence, but as for now I think the top 2 teams still have lots of firepower left to keep them on top.

First of all, I am not sure where you thought I was being mean spirited and secondly if I have an opinion on the talent level of a conference, it is just that: opinion. Regardless of them being negative or positive, my view of the conference is that it is very top heavy, for that view to change, and I hope that it does, I would need to see three or four of the bottom teams step up and put pressure on the likes of Grinnell, St. Norbert or Carroll. As it stands the three aforementioned teams finished 2008 with +8, +21 and +28 in goal differential. While the bottom teams were -16, -14 and -13. If this is not a sign of lack of parity than I certainly will ask one of these college athletes for a definition.

Until the 2009 season plays out, the conference will presumably look like it always has, three or four solid teams and three or four weak teams. It's not as much a slight against the weaker teams as it is kudos to the stronger programs.

If this happens to be the year or the renaissance for the Midwest Conference then I will be the first to step up and eat crow.

Calling out for me being Irish is sort of comical because most people that are from this state have at least a bit of Irish in them. Maybe it's my red hair that you covet?

In short, I don't mean to criticize but I do mean to be critical of the game. After all, that is what makes it so interesting and fun to watch.