Top Teams Next Year

O.K., we all have an idea of how good the Pilots can be next year. But who will be the top competition? Will Stanford be better yet? Is UCLA going to lose much? What about those also-rans back east?

Interesting you should ask. With all of our confidence about our team next year, I was wondering how the competition would stack up. So, I checked out the other four of the top five teams. I didn't write down positions, but here's what I have:

Stanford: Started 3 frosh, 3 sophs, 3 juniors, and 2 seniors (Abegg and Falk). Their two main subs were a junior and a soph. Their big loss will be at central defender, as I believe their two seniors are their central defenders (I know Abegg is and Falk is a 6' defender, so I assume she's central). If they can satisfactorily fill in their central defender positions, they'll be very tough.

UCLA: Started 1 frosh, 2 sophs, 4 juniors, and 4 seniors (Zerboni, DeMartino, Hardy, and Thompson). Their two main subs are a junior and a frosh. These are very key players they will be losing. (The year after, they will be losing Cheney, Lang, Wilmoth, and Cook, three of which will be very big losses.) Somewhere I heard a rumbling that maybe Lang will go pro? Assuming Lang stays for next year, they'll be good but I think maybe not quite as good as this year. In 2010, unless that have a lot of unseen talent on the bench or great new talent coming in, I see a drop off.

Notre Dame: Had some mixing up of starters, so I've got 12 listed. Started 3 frosh, 2 sophs, 3 juniors, and 4 seniors (Hanks, Bock, Weber, and Dew). Like UCLA, they will be losing some very key players.

North Carolina: Had some mixing up of starters, so I've got 14 listed. Started 1 frosh, 4 sophs, 6 juniors, and 3 seniors (Long, Avervbuch, and Rodenbaugh who split the GK duties with a junior). I would expect them to be very strong again next year. The year after, however, they lose Nogueira, Heath, Washington, Engen, Eveland, and their junior GK. Those are huge losses.

I think these teams all look strong next year, with the likely strongest being UNC and Stanford (if Stanford can fill their central defense roles), with Notre Dame and UCLA being slightly weaker. I haven't checked out Florida State; and I know Florida thinks they were young this year. If I had to predict right now, I'd put the Pilots in the top group.

But in 2010, wow! If I read things right, we'll lose only one starter after 2009 -- Michelle Enyeart. She's a big loss. But suppose Ohai comes in? I'm betting she's got a pretty good idea who we'll have back for 2010 and how she would fit into that team.

What is interesting to me is how UCLA's recruiting might be affected by US Soccer moving Jill Ellis out of the Head coaching slot in the Youth women's teams. I always thought she had an inside track on the best players in the country. However, UCLA will continue to get the best local players and have seemed to open the Canadian connection (Kara L and Sydney L.).

Notre Dame won't be seeing the likes of Dew, Bock and Hanks anytime soon.

Florida State has a master identifier of talent in Coach Krikorian. Expect them to be in the hunt as long as he is coach there.

UNC. As much as I wish they would go away. I agree they will be strong again next year.

Stanford will also be back strong again as the school adademics is a very big draw for athletic recruiting. I don't think they will have trouble filling in the holes in the defense.

Is there anywhere that lists how many players each team lost to the U-20 National team in this years' tournament? I'm just curious how many players UNC, UCLA, Stanford, ND, etc. lost compared to us. Thanks.

Here is the ESPN write up:

Goalkeepers

Penn State first-team All-American goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher stands 5-foot-8 and has captured the team's No. 1 keeper spot by virtue of her superlative hands and exceptional anticipation. "If Alyssa has a good tournament, we will be difficult to beat. She's one of the best in the world in her age group -- if she is on her game and confident, she will make the U.S. a better team," DiCicco said.

Minnesota's Cat Parkhill and Virginia's Chantel Jones are also quality options for DiCicco to substitute for Naeher between the posts.

Defenders

Led by the tandem of captain )Nikki Marshall (Colorado, who plays center back, and Meghan Klingenberg (North Carolina) on the left flank, DiCicco has plenty of options for his defensive unit. Marshall, who plays forward for Colorado, has exceptional speed and the tools to score as the rare offensive defender. Notre Dame's Lauren Fowlkes and Wake Forest's Kaley Fountain also have the goods to contribute to the U.S.'s shutout efforts. However, the back line will be sorely challenged by the brilliant array of international goal-scorers, and will likely be most susceptible to their South American and Asian opponents, whom they have yet to face in 2008.

Midfielders

Perhaps the iron-women area of the field, the center of the park is patrolled by two superbly experienced and versatile players in Keelin Winters (Portland) and Becky Edwards (Florida State). "Winters is another dangerous player," DiCicco said. "She can score goals; she's a very smart player, skilled from the midfield -- a lot of our play will go through her. Same with Becky Edwards: an excellent player who will be our quarterback in the game. She's an important player to us, and also a leader." Ingrid Wells (Georgetown), Gina DiMartino (Boston College) and Elli Reed (Portland) can be slotted in to any number of positions, and DiCicco will rely on them heavily for their creative firepower.

Forwards

Nikki Washington, who plays forward for North Carolina, has found another home for her rocket foot on the wings of the U-20 national team. "She is a wide player; she can score and create goals. She's a take-on kind of player," DiCicco said. The attack claims bragging rights to one of the most prolific goal-scorers (10 goals) and decorated players on the U-20s: Michelle Enyeart (Portland). She leads a pack of gifted strikers that includes Alex Morgan (Cal) and Sydney Leroux (UCLA), the only member of the team with prior World Cup experience (she represented Canada in 2004 as the youngest player in the tournament at 14).

Despite the challenges that lay ahead, DiCicco will be holding his squad to golden standards. With the U-17 girls headed for the New Zealand World Cup final Nov. 15, it looks like it'll be up to the U-20 women to finish out an American sweep of world championships in 2008. Now wouldn't that be something?

athleticjames wrote:Is there anywhere that lists how many players each team lost to the U-20 National team in this years' tournament? I'm just curious how many players UNC, UCLA, Stanford, ND, etc. lost compared to us. Thanks.

Straight from FIFA: USA roster

Pilots just lost narrowly by 1-0 to them. They lose two senior central defenders; we lose Megan R and Korie but gain Keelin, Michelle E and Elli.

Advantage Portland.

Pilots just lost narrowly by 1-0 to them. They lose two senior central defenders; we lose Megan R and Korie but gain Keelin, Michelle E and Elli.

Advantage Portland.

I agree, HR, as far as you go. But you have to figure in the newcomers as well. Stanford gets Verloo, who may be the top forward in the country. They also list two other field players who have extensive national-level accolades: defender Rachel Quon from Eclipse Select on the north side of Chicago and midfielder Mariah Noguiera from Slammers FC in the LA area.

By contrast, our Cloee Colohan has spectacular credentials and may be the best defender in the class, but none of the other UP recruits lists any significant national or regional honors. (Does anyone know if the other four have unlisted credentials?) UP has a long history of taking players that aren't on anyone's top 10 list (e.g., Keelin, Jessica, Natalie Budge) who end up being all-WCC or even All-America, so I'm not too worried about the shortness of the resumes of some of these ladies. Just saying that on paper the advantage to Portland may not be as great as we hope.

Harry Redknapp wrote:Pilots just lost narrowly by 1-0 to them. They lose two senior central defenders; we lose Megan R and Korie but gain Keelin, Michelle E and Elli.

Advantage Portland.

We also gain Cloee Colohan (u17 Nat'l Team Captain) and 4 other talented players, including Kendall Johnson, 2 time Oregon POY. Courtney Verloo has gotten the National accolades, but Kendall has taken her teams to the championships.

The other players aren't exactly slouches, and have credentials at least as good as Keelin's or Jessica's.

Also take into account our coach actually improves the players once they arrive.

Looking ahead at the "blue-chip" recruits for 2009.

According to the recruiting database, there are 56 players listed with "US National Team Experience." the distribution of these players (with listed positions) is as follows:

4 Recruits
Florida (D, 3M)
Stanford (G, D, M, F)
UCLA (2D, M, F)

3 Recruits
Maryland (G, 2F)
North Carolina (G. D. F)
Santa Clara (3M)
West Virginia (G, D, M)

2 Recruits
Boston College (M, F)
BYU (D, F)
Illinois (M, F)
Miami (D, M)
Penn State (M, F)
San Diego State (M, F)
Texas A&M (2F)
Virginia (D, F)

1 Recruit
Duke (M)
Florida State (G)
Georgetown (D)
Louisville (G)
Missouri (G)
Notre Dame (G)
Ohio State (F)
Oklahoma (M)
Portland (D)
Seton Hall (G)
Tennessee (D)
Texas (G)
USC (F)
Washington State (F)
Wisconsin (F)
Uncommitted (M)

Of course, these recruits vary widely in ability, so merely counting is naive. And also of course there are many others who will be outstanding players but don't have the "national team" imprimatur. But if one takes these numbers as a crude measure of the quality of the incoming frosh, several things stand out:

1. Stanford and UCLA are adding a lot of talent, so they'll be tough again next year. (Florida too, but they're far away.)
2. North Carolina may be getting a smaller slice of the pie than usual.
3. Notre Dame and Florida State seem to have relatively weak incoming classes (no field players listed).
4. Portland and USC, among the current West Coast powers, have only one listed blue-chip recruit each.
5. No WCC team other than Portland and Santa Clara has anyone from this pool.

Again, I'm not claiming that counting the number of listed players with US national team experience gives an accurate and nuanced ranking of the income classes, but it certainly contains some information and suggests that the Pac-10 powers will be as talented next year as they were this year.

Just of the top of my head it never seems to me that the Pilots get the recruits with the most accolades coming in. But Clive, and now Garrett seem to get players that fit the system correctly. We have seen what an individual (Christine) can do, but when you put the right pieces around her, it is even better.

Agreed, MW.

However, I think the last few years have been exceptions to this. In 2006, Kendra was a Soccer Buzz top 25 and Michelle E. was top 50. In 2007, Elli was top 25 and Keelin a top 50. In 2008, Charney, Michelle O., and Dani were all top 30. Angie Woznuk and Kristin Moore were also both top tier recruits, as was Kelsey Davis (though she initially went to UCLA). We've had our share of top-level recruits in recent years and they have in nearly every case been extraordinary players for us.

What has been remarkable has been finding players who were not top-25 such as Michelle E. and Keelin and helping them develop into national-team stars. If we can keep doing that, we don't need the "blue chips."

Yes, our recruiting class this year is small, but we are only losing 3 seniors, and getting back our top defender in Becky, and our goalkeeper Erin McNulty(Canada U-20s). Coach K has an eye for talent and I trust the recruits we have coming in next year will be solid. Our recruiting class is as follows.
-Breezy Hupp (one of the greatest names ever) is one of the top goalscorers in the FL panhandle.
-Tifani Mullen another top goal scorer from the Tampa area and also club teammates with the Payne twins( big time recruits for 2011).
-Christina Cobb plays on probably the best team in Florida, and was supposedly choose State over Notre Dame, I think she is also a fast goal scorer.
-Kelsey Wys, our "crown jewel" if you will, was cut from the U-17 team but is one of the top 5 goalkeepers in the class of 09.
-Tiana Brockway, just recently committed, she is from of all places in the world, Tacoma, Washington. We NEVER get girls from the pacific nw, so this is good news. She is apparently a great player from what I can find on google, odp region team member. Funny, I found an article from last year about how she dreamed of playing for UNC, I hope we will do.
So yes, small class but solid, I trust K and Eric. Unlike our neighbors in Gainesville who will sport a roster of 37 next year I would not be surprised if someone came over the pond and joined our squad next year, knowing K and his European connections.
Our biggest loss will be Sanna Talonen. But Toni Pressley, Tiffany McCarty and Jessica Price are all speedy and very talented, so I am not worried about goal production for next year. Our back line loses 2 starters, but I believe Julie Lancos, former national teamer, and Margo McAuley will step in and join Edwards and Stephan to form a formidable defense.