Posted herewith are my picks for the 2008 Womens College Cup. Any one of my projected final four are entirely capable of winning this thing. A few others are, as well.
Notre Dame is really, really good. They are good tactically. They have skilled, fast players. But they can also get after you and grind the daylights out of you. They can finesse you and score goals, or they can ram the ball down your throat and score goals.
UCLA is UCLA. They are fast, and thy are tall. They play some good soccer despite some occasional sloppy passing. You better play fast against these folks or you will be toast.
UNC is the perennial powerhouse. For them, winning the College Cup equals a successful season, anything else is a failure. They have US National teamers who you'd better contain or you will be in a hole, futilely chasing the game.
Stanford is probably the best pure soccer-side in the entire tournament. They have loads of flamboyant firepower up front. Top to bottom they have the best strikers in the country. Their a-mids can kill you, too.
Notre Dame Bracket
First Round Winners/2nd Round Matchups
UND-MSU; Minn-Col; BC-NEastern; Auburn-FSU
3rd Round
UND-Col; BC-FSU
Quarters
UND-FSU
Stanford Bracket
1st Round Winners/2nd Round Matchups
UP-Wash St.; UGA-WFU; OSU-Rutg; Den-Stanford
3rd Round
UP-WFU; Rutgers-Stanford
Quarters
UP-Stanford
UCLA Bracket
First Round Winners/2nd Round Matchups
UCLA-LBS; BYU-USC; Duke-S. Car; WVU-UVA
Third Round
UCLA-USC; Duke-UVA
Quarters
UCLA-UVA
UNC Bracket
1st Round Winners/2nd Round Matchups
UF - Miami; Wash.-Tx A&M; Missouri-Memphis; Charlotte-UNC
3rd Round
UF-Wash.; Missouri - UNC
Quarters
UF-UNC
FINAL FOUR
UND - Stanford; UCLA - UNC
FINAL
Stanford-UNC
CHAMPION
Stanford
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4 comments:
Nice work, Ron.
So far, you've don very well. Almost too well.
As my dad would say, "It's the all important third round coming up." Then the 4th. As I told my father, if they don't get to Cary, it'll be a failure for the season.
More to follow.
Jer
I don't like to look beyond the next game, but Portland has been flying under most people's radar.
Jer
Jerry, Good points. Rutgers will play very, verty hard, and Portland, like FSU, is another team that is capable of winning it all. The climb gets increasingly steep from here on out.
The cruel thing about soccer is you can be head and shoulders better than the other team, but if the other team can bunker the whole game and successfully counter only once, or even take it to PKs, the lesser team can win. So the focus has to be the next game.
- Ron
Right you are, Ron. jThe coaches and Juniors of Stanford knows this well.
They lost to Clemson two years ago in PKs after not putting them away. The Card clearly left them off the hook and paid for it.
Jer
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