soccerdawg

mjuhb hits the bulls eye with his information and fair opinions. He gathers good information and makes fair non-biased opinions that makes for fun debates. I hope he keeps up the good work.

st. agnes had a great season and deserved the state championship. They also beat farragut, collierville and Franklin (AAA ranked teams) during the season. Proves they played some tough teams. they should be proud of themselves.

Bearden has made an impressive run. They had to beat the best in order to get there.

St Agnas played a weak schedule overall. If Brentwood, Bearden, Hendersonville, Franklin, Brentwood Academy, Notre Dame, Baylor and a host of other teams played St. Ag's schedule, they could have done the exact same thing. St Ag beat Collerville 1-0. so what, Franklin beat Collerville 4-0. SA beat Franklin 4-0 on there first game of the day and Franklin's second game and Franklin missing 4 starters. SAA beat BGA 1-0 in preseason, and Franklin beat BGA 1-0 in regular season. Baylor or Brentwood Academy would have done the exact same thing if playing the same schedule. Look at Baylors schedule and say it wasnt toughter. SAA should have scheduled someone besides cream puffs. And DII soccer doesnt mean much. You only have a handfull of teams that are forced into there own bracket (unfairly so i might add), but nonetheless, the same teams will make state every year, due to the small number of teams period. The same DII teams can make state every year even with Mediocre teams. Even A/AA has different teams each year making runs, which makes it fun for them. In DII, the same few teams. Winning a state championship in a division that only has a couple dozen schools statewide isnt much to brag about or playing those schools and bragging about not giving up goals all year. A lot of schools would have done the exact same thing if they had played the overall weak schedule SAA played. Yes, SAA is a strong team, but they played on overall weak schedule. No matter what you say, that point cant be defended because you can look at the schedule and see they only played a few ranked teams and weak teams all the rest. Sorry, but im not impressed with the record or going winning state in the small and generally weak DII division.

St Agnes did play a weak schedule overall.

One of the Franklin keepers is going to TNFC and of them is going to the Strikers for club. I do not know which one for sure, but I think Polk (the taller one) is going to the strikers, i think the other one plays for TNFC or played for TNFC, quit and is going back.

Yes, I will have to back that up. Riegal is a horse up front and consistently scores goals against anyone. AAA, A/AA DII, it doesnt matter. I didnt know whe she was, becuase i dont think she played club for a couple of years. You would think that someone that didnt play club would not be a top player, but this girls is in fact a top player. Her work ethic is incredible, and that may be the biggest reasons she is so effective, she never stops working. She is as strong a forward as many of the players in the top 10 forwards and I know all of them.

Not really, Siegal is a very good team and at this point in the season will be tougher the beat than Brentwood. But Brentwood was a very strong team and Franklin beat them. Siegal is a stronger team than Brentwood and will be tougher to beat.

Your right, Brentwood isnt near as good as Seigal. Seigal will be much tougher to beat.

I think its the other way around. That Siegal will be Franklin Highs easiest game. Franklin shut out Brentwood in a must win game, the biggest of the season. They can shut out anyone. Im not even a Franklin fan, but im pulling for the middle TN at this point.

Exactly, no one wants anyone to get hurt, but all players have a right to the ball in the box and the right to go in aggressive. In girls soccer, I truly doubt that with few exceptions, a girl has it in her mind that she is going to intentionally run into a goalie with the thought of hurting her. Whoever got hurt, those parents are going to see it as a foul and cry dirty play. If the forward got hurt, then it was the goalie who fouled her on purpose. How bout this, all players need protection)not just goalies, as forwards get crushed all the time by defenders and goalies) and it is the officials job to determine who fouled who, and if the foul was deemed flagrant and/or intentional then she is sent off. Most girls do not try and hurt other girls. Boys do. But not girls except in some rare instances, maybe. If you ask that girl that ran into the Baylor keeper if she did it on purpose, what do you truly think she feels. NO she did not. She just wanted to make a play as is her job. So stop crying about dirty play and trying to come up with rules to give goalies even more protection than they already have. They can throw there knees up at forwards, they can dive on forwards ankles, knees, and legs and wrap up the balls. All of these things result in forwards having injuries, including an ACL our forward received thanks to a goalie diving on a girls leg as she tried to go around her. So i dont want to hear the crying. It goes both ways. Unfortunate, but no not dirty, and no not mean spirited, and no, no position needs extra protection. Play hard, play fair, and accept injuries as part of the game with no crying about dirty fouls, every time it happens.

my board is already a chump since Germantown is out. Here's my new board. After the finals are over with ill definitely have enough information to get it right. Final 4 Franklin (darkhorse) Farragut Ravenwood(darker horse) Bearden AAA champion Bearden over Franklin in Final

Ravenwood has become a pretty good team this year with a fast striker and a great sweeper. Hendersonvilles last 8 or so games have been against opponents that I do not believer are as good as Ravenwood. An upset is a possibility. But Clarksville seems to have improved as well and Franklin wont have a cakewalk if they just show up and expect to win. My final 4 AAA Franklin upsetting Segal in the quarter finals Ravenwood upseeting Hendersonville in sub state and there first round opponent in state. Bearden Germantown AAAChampion Beardon over Franklin in finals (as much as it hurts me to say it, Franklin is very well coached and somehow win the games that counts despite there youth, however i would expect the run to end in the final game).

i thought it was on of the better games ive seen all year. Both teams played really hard. Game could have gone either way.

Never mind, you are a BA parent. I thought we had a good debate about the brew for a change. I think both teams are probably equal in talent and both teams have good coaches. I wish we had either one of the coaches.

BGA has the most individually talented team in the region. I bet Brentwood Academy would argue that point. They have played the same level of competition and have a better record. Are you saying that you have the talent but arent very well coaches. Because if you have the best talent, the PJPII should not even been in the game. So is it coaching the reason you lost more games that BA or does BA in fact have more talent. Its got to be one of the other to explain why BA has a better record? Which is it? and im a centennial person. Not a dawg in the hunt, but your statement should be clarified

IF they want to blow the horn, who cares, its not meant to be ugly or mean spirited. Just having fun in my opinion. I wouldnt take it as a bad sportsmanship. If franklin bus blew the horn after there win and finally got some good hearted "revenge" on the horn blowing, who cares, good for them. Brentwood blows the horn when they win. Big deal. Kinda funny actually if you just relax for a second and not get so bent out of shape. Its high school athletics and its all in good fun. Im sure the bus drivers are awesome people and just having some fun after a victory. I wish my school had a few more opportunities to blow the horn. Thats the only thing im mad about. No horn blowing opportunities. Where is the love? If fact, now when you lose, you gotta think to yourself that how your now also going to have to listen to the horn blow. Little extra pain. Thats great. Its funny. Go bus drivers.

IF they want to blow the horn, who cares, its not meant to be ugly or mean spirited. Just having fun in my opinion. I wouldnt take it as a bad sportsmanship. If franklin bus blew the horn after there win and finally got some good hearted "revenge" on the horn blowing, who cares, good for them. Brentwood blows the horn when they win. Big deal. Kinda funny actually if you just relax for a second and not get so bent out of shape. Its high school athletics and its all in good fun. Im sure the bus drivers are awesome people and just having some fun after a victory. I wish my school had a few more opportunities to blow the horn. Thats the only thing im mad about. No horn blowing opportunities. Where is the love.

It was a good game. Could have went either way. The way Franklin started out i thought they would win it easy, but Ravenwood held tough and got into the swing of things and played a good game. Franklin missed two point black shots on goal from 5 yards out. Keeper made a nice save on the last one. Ravenwood did what they needed to do for the second night in a row and should be congratulated. What a nice tournament run for them.

As much as i hate to say it. Why cant Centennial win the big games. We have had the talent for the last 5 years and nothing to show for it at the State level. Last year losing in the first round and not even making it the other years. Any theories anyone? Last night, it would have helped to have at least warmed up with some sort of organized intense warm up and have the coach there earlier making sure we were getting focused. But why do that, were Centennial right? the other team is going to just let us win. Right? That seemed to be our attitude and it isnt a suprise that we got beat by a more focused and determined team. It starts at the top. The players wouldnt be like that if they had the right leadership from the adults in charge of them. I would be interested in some other thoughts on Why Centennial loses the must games like the one they lost last night every single year. Granted we made state last year, but we had a super loaded team and lost in the first round. Again, losing a game we should have won. Why?

My allegiance is with another AAA school, but that was an interesting game between Franklin and Brentwood. I saw both games and Franklin made adjustments in defending this time around that proved to be difficult to solve for Brentwood. Brentwood actually had the ball more but didnt really get any good looks in on goal consistently during the game. They had one really good look off of a long shot rebound form the keeper but the side bar denied the rebounded shot and the keeper jumped on it. Brentwood was missing some key players, but so was Franklin in all honesty. I heard some Brentwood people talking about not having their full team, but Franklin didnt have there full team either. Both teams had to use younger players and make due. Thats why its a TEAM game. Have to be able to adjust and over come. If both teams are healthy next year, they will be tough to beat im somewhat relunctant to admit, but tyring to be fair. Great win for Charlie West and the Ravenwood players. Another and I mean another disappoinment for a talented but unorganized Centennial team. Not being mean, just it is what it is.

ive seen DB over the years at the Katie Hunter tourny over the years in Oak Ridge and there coach does a nice job of playing a system of play that matches his talent level and does what he needs to do to give his girls a chance to win against more talented teams. He get his players fit, gets everyone back behind the ball defensively (jams the defensive space with players) and keeps a fast player on the sweeper looking for the quick counter. He wins a lot of games 1-0. It may not be pretty all the time but he teaches it well and it makes his "team" dangerous to play against if you are not ready for the bunker in and counter style of play. The best team on paper is simply that, if they cant find a way to get one in the net and the other team does. I would have thought OR would have won, but DB executed there game plan and got the result they were looking for.

Im a Centennial fan, but Centennial didnt get beat by the officails last year. They had the BEST and most loaded team to come around in a long time. They should have scored 4 goals with the talent they had and wouldnt have had to worry about a PK or a bad call. They didnt and put themselves in a situation where one bad call could hurt you. They have underachieved for the last 4 years for the level of talent they have had. That 88 class was unbelievable but wasnt utilized at all. I dont think no on in the state should have touched Centennial the last 4 years, but all they have is one trip to the state finals and got beat in the first game. Bottom line, I am a Centennail fan but Cougar fans to stop crying about a bad call and realize they coaches didnt have experience over the last 4 years to assist the team in reaching there incredible potential. Coaching was the problem and reason they didnt win state, not the bad officiating. Thats just normal. This year, Centennial should be tough to beat along with the other AAA schools. Whoever comes out should make a run at state.

Brentwood beat Franklin, and Centennial dominated Brentwood. Should make for a good Franklin vs. Centennial game. Can Franklin really hope to stop Anna Fisher with two freshman defenders and freshman goal keeper?

yep. I saw the game. Brentwood has a talented experienced team and I would say you could make an argument for being #1 in AAA. Franklin beat Collierville bad and Brentwood beat franklin.