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The final weekend of the season is now upon us, and it's the easiest weekend of the year to do rankings.
All games are done for most teams, records are final and you know who goes where. If Lyons and Lake Zurich play one another this weekend, that would be the only game to make a difference in the final rankings. The Lions beat the Bears 1-0 in the Pepsi Showdown quarterfinals earlier this year. Lake Zurich began the season No. 2 and Lyons was No. 5 I believe.
Neuqua Valley, which finished the season with just one loss, is this year's No. 1. Lyons handed the Wildcats their lone defeat on Tuesday, but Neuqua Valley won the season series 2-1.
As someone pointed out to me on Wednesday, it was nice to see two Pepsi Showdown teams in the Class 1A title game. St. Viator is in Class 2A, and Class 3A features three teams from the Pepsi Showdown.
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Go PND you are the best team.... good luck andtake first AGAIN
I hope that Joe does this just to stir up controversy. NV has not been the strongest team in the last few weeks. #1 NV vs. #16 West Chicago and thats a sectioanl ranking. If Lyons, NT or LZ win then who cannot call them number #1. Did they face week teams to get this far. No. Did one of them came from a week sectional or had a week supersectional. Nope. If one of these teams won the Pepsi there would not be an arguement. CCheck the facts Joe. As a wise blogger once said. Get a Clue!
Final rankings are a season-long look, they are not based on one tournament. The IHSA tournament is not a tournament based on rankings - it's geographic. No other team had the run Neuqua had against quality teams or suffered just one loss this year.
I believe you have your rankings wrong right off the bat with Neuqua Valley already being your number one team. For a team that WAS considered as the 2nd best team in the country (even though they only played local teams all year), beating the lowest seeded team in their regional only 1-0. They won their sectional championship game 2-1 after 4 overtimes and lost their supersectional game. Sure doesn't sound like they finished the season on a role. There was no "one" game fluke they lost that they should have won. Your rankings should be the team that is the best team at the END of the year, not averaged over the entire season. Lyons is the best team as of now. They showed that they improved throughout the year through the games they played against Neuqua. A big loss, a close game and then a victory over Neuqua. It's obvious, Lyons should be your number one if they win the State as they are definetely the BEST team at the END of the season.
After reading your response to PK, I see where you are coming from. Unfortunately, NOBODY else sees it that way in any other sport. You are also right, the IHSA tournament is not a tournament based on rankings, it a tournament where you have to play who is in front of you and rankings mean nothing. Neuqua had to play Lyons and lost. Ranking Neuqua ahead of Lyons meant nothing and it still will mean nothing if you choose to keep them on top. The ranking process is mostly a person's opinion. In this case yours. The game that was played is a fact and not anyone's opinion. Of course, it is YOUR opinion that will dictate YOUR final rankings.
I hope you didn't just jinx your son's LT team this weekend! I would have waited to see how they do against NT before proclaiming them kings. Anyone who watched NV play throughout the year saw a game that rarely resembled "high school soccer". They were clearly a class above the rest of the teams in the state. LT is a GREAT team and simply had a better Tuesday night than NV. If that game is played 10 times, NV wins 8 of them. One big win in a season means just as much as one big loss...nothing!
Jumping the gun a bit on rankings I think. Why not let the teams play this weekend and then talk? They play some pretty good soccer in the St. Louis area and Edwardsville beat a pretty good Eisenhower team 4-0.
I have talked to Downstate coaches about the soccer down that way this year from what I didn't see, and I've talked to coaches here who played the teams down there. It's been very consistent.
I would disagree with you there. One, I don't care how others rank and how everyone else may have ranked in the past. I will admit, I used to put more stock in the IHSA tournament when I first started. But when you look at the bigger picture, you are ranking an entire season. Not two weeks, one tournament, etc. Football is different because they do rank the teams as much as possible, and there is a reason for it - the football coaches association demanded it. There are a lot of good teams this year, and at the end, you look at the season as a whole.
Come on with the Nequa cool aid. SoccerPappa got is right and if you look at the three LT games with Nequa, the first game was at the very beginning of the season, second game went to double OT at the Pepsi finals and LT won the last. LT has been playing stronger all season while NV has been fading. In any sport, it only matters who is left standing, not what you did in the past.
"But when you look at the bigger picture, you are ranking an entire season. Not two weeks, one tournament, etc" Your words. If this is true, why did your weekly rankings change after a team won a game or lost a game? Your weekly rankings, I would assume, was based on how good a team was playing at that moment, not a week or two earlier. While looking at the ESPNrise rankings, if a team lost a game it dropped like a rock in their standings. On the flip side, it was much harder for a team to climb the ladder by winning. Lyons showed improvement throughout the year by playing better and better against Neuqua. By the last game, they had improved to the point to where they were better and the scoreboard showed it. But, then again, that's just my opinion. I kinda agree with the way ESPNrise does their rankings. Hard to get in, easy to drop out.
My team won state a couple of years back. We were and will always be the state champions for that year.
Where did we finish in Joe Trost's rankings? I have no idea. Who cares anyway. We were state champions!
And I am still wondering what does all this have to do with anything?? Bragging rights??
LT won because it played a smarter game then NV. Lt played a 4-5-1 and rarely challenged a lost ball on NV side of center. The only time LT went over center was either for set pieces or when they control the ball. By shorting the field to less then half they were able to control the game. To me, they were the smarter team. If they win State then they are the best team.
Is Nequa the team with the best record?....Yes
Is Nequa the best team?.....No
Kind of reminds me of the 2008 Cubs!
Dad in the stands is right on. Clearly the smarter team with a well-designed game plan that was well-executed. NV had issues scoring down the stretch as opposing teams became much more patient, choosing to defend and take their chances on counters and set plays. NV needed to be less predictable and more aggressive. Too many wins during the season perhaps resulted in a fear of changing something that was not perceived to be broken.
This is to Jinx.. wrote this just because he doesn't give LT any credit. without a doubt NV is a very good team, but this is how I observed the last 3 meetings. Aug. 29th yes you did win no doubt.. at Toyota and Benedictine, both games were almost identical. strategies were the same but at Benedictive, NV tried to go over the top a more than at Toyota.. no doubt on possession NV possessed, but looks like it was LT's strategy to let NV possess, though if it came down to possession NV would probably win that battle. In the last 2 games they faced each other LT had more shots on goal and came closer to score than NV, NO doubt. Watch the tapes. Doesn't that mean anything.. Lets read the game a little better Jinx.. The Winning team should be ranked #1, after all this was there goal from the beginning of the year.
At the end I meant "whoever wins the State Title deserves to be # 1."
Nice showing by the public schools in the 2A semis. Triad is a pretty good team, very surprised to see them blown out like that. Never saw/heard of Freeport in soccer.
Now you have it-the state's most potent offense in LZ against the best backline defense at LT. Should be a dream matchup to see which one wins out-I wouldn't miss this game-nor should you. Tonight will be a barnburner final!!! oh, and the winner will be the number #1 team in Illinois despite what Joe Trost says!!!
As an NV parent I think the winner of state deserves the #1 ranking
King B I agree... Who cares about these stupid rankings anyway. I rather have a state title then be ranked by #1 by the Sun Times. Like that really means something? Wht is there even a discussion over this issue. Who does these rankings anyway and who cares anyway. The ranking should get a clue Lyons #1 for knocking off his boys from NV. Get a life nobody care about who you think should be #1.
I agree with the previous posts after seeing Lyons beat NV in Supers and then beat Lake Zurich and New Trier, they have to be Number ONE. Yeah season long achievment is great JOe, but it is not where you start it is where you finish,and Lyons saved their best for last. yeah they got some real lucky bounces here and there and some amazing keeper play to keep them alive, but push comes to shove they are number one no matter what Nequa did in the regular season.
Simply put, to be the best you have to beat the best and they did it when it mattered most.