FC Dallas GK

Growing Up In The Spotlight

Tough couple plays for Jese Gonzales, FC Dallas' 20-year old GK in MLS playoff action.

First, he gets caught moving to his left on a ball swinging to his right...there's some possibility that he assessed the CB position as being in such a spot that the back post was protected, though we'll see below that he was not.  The audacity of the shot is remarkable, but the young GK was happy-footed and from this sort of range, simply needed to stay central and steady.  Watch the film, then see below about the geometry of the play:

Remarkable Season For The Fords

In addition to an incredibly consistent regular season title-winning run in the Centennial Conference (8th ranked conference in the nation out of 42 per Hero Sports) 9-0, plus 2-0 in the semi-final and final of the post-season Centennial Conference tournament, the Fords knocked off 8 NCAA Regionally-ranked teams over the course of the season.  This is a feat NEVER before accomplished in NCAA Division III men's soccer.  Never.

How'd they do it?

Here's a good profile for would-be championship winning teams to aim for (2015 saw 407 men's teams in NCAA Division III):

1. 29th toughest schedule in the nation
2. 17th most goals scored in the nation 
3. 6th fewest shots per goal of all teams scoring 52 or more goals
4. 2nd fewest shot attempts of teams scoring 52 or more goals (you'll go down the list 13 more spots before another top 50 Strength-of-Schedule team shows up on the shot attempts column)
5. 6th highest conversion rate
6. Tied for 12th in Minutes Per Goal Against....only one other top 30 team (by SOS) above the Fords

Efficiency in attack, stingy defense (after letting in 11 through the first five games on a 2-3 record).  That's sticking to it.  A strong sense of belief.

There was some other stuff...but we're not putting that on the web for everyone to see!

Centennial Conference Champions

The Haverford recap is here.

The NCAA Selection Show is here, November 9th at 1.30 PM.

The Hero Sports rankings of both teams and conferences in Men's D3 soccer is here - very interesting for high school students looking for a place to play in college.  Official NCAA Regional and (NSCAA Coaches Poll) National rankings here.