Men's soccer pre-season poll released

The WCC just released its pre-season men's soccer poll. The coaches picked the Pilots to be 6th. Does that sound about right? I live on the East Coast and haven't seen a men's game in years. What seems to be the main reason for the so-so performance in recent years? Anyway, each day this week a new poll will be released by the WCC for all the fall sports. And they've started pre-season all-conference teams, which I'm not sure is a concept I'm really in favor of.

Here's the whole list and preseason teams:

2009 WCC Preseason Coaches Poll
1. San Francisco - 36 (6)
2. Santa Clara - 24
3. Loyola Marymount - 23 (1)
Gonzaga - 23
5. San Diego - 19
6. Portland - 16
7. Saint Mary's - 6
(First place votes)

2009 WCC Men's Soccer Preseason All-Conference
Jalil Anibaba, SCU
Rafael Baca, LMU
Nick Barclay, GON
Bryan Burke, USF
Conor Chinn, USF
Roger Downes, LMU
Austin Guerrero, POR
Tye Perdido, GON
Ryan Peterman, USD
Yousef Samy, SMC
Collen Warner, POR

ekrauss wrote:The WCC just released its pre-season men's soccer poll. The coaches picked the Pilots to be 6th. Does that sound about right? ... What seems to be the main reason for the so-so performance in recent years?

It's been pretty par for the course as of late. Between players leaving early to pursue pro careers, serious disciplinary situations a few years back and a number of other causes, it's been a pretty unspectacular stretch for the last little while (although it doesn't help that we naturally compare them to the women's team and judge the men's success relative to them.) Some people point fingers to the coaching situation, which may have some merit, but that's only been part of the greater situation... And Clive doesn't exactly leave a small shadow...

DaTruRochin wrote:
2009 WCC Men's Soccer Preseason All-Conference
Jalil Anibaba, SCU
Rafael Baca, LMU
Nick Barclay, GON
Bryan Burke, USF
Conor Chinn, USF
Roger Downes, LMU
Austin Guerrero, POR
Tye Perdido, GON
Ryan Peterman, USD
Yousef Samy, SMC
Collen Warner, POR

Alright, which coach didn't vote for Tim Tebow??

Well... without Frankie Lopez returning, the men's team will likely struggle with offense a bit, though maybe a healthy Ryan Luke will make more an impact. Collen Warner is a stud and Guerrero is great, but the team just isn't that strong across the board... and I don't know who will be starting across the back line. Should definitley be interesting to see if any of the new guys step in right away.

So overall... I personally don't think we'll finish that low, but it's not an unfair assessment.

But still... is this the lowest the men's team has ever been picked? Maybe it's not a fair expectation, but for me it's just not OK for a UP soccer team to be picked to finish in the bottom half of the WCC.

It seems we have not had multiple dynamic attackers in quite some time. Frankie was often keyed on, Alex before him was definitely keyed on. How nice would it be to have multiple dynamic attackers that could play off of each other?