2024 EMass Boys High School Soccer

[AlexFilides]

Alex's weekley Top 25.

1. Newton South 12-0-4
2. St. John's Prep 13-1-3
3. Lowell 17-0-0
4. Weymouth 14-1-2
5. Concord Carl 10-2-3
6. Oliver Ames 12-1-2
7. St. John's (S) 12-5-1
8. Xaverian 9-4-3
9. Norwell 14-1-2
10. Lexington 11-2-5
11. Wakefield 13-2-1
12. Natick 9-4-3
13. Brockton 8-1-5
14. Hingham 15-2-0
15. Belmont 11-3-4
16. Arlington 11-3-3
17. Lincoln-Sudbury 7-4-4
18. Masconomet 14-2-2
19. Mansfield 12-3-2
20. Franklin 11-4-1
21. North Reading 15-0-2
22. Needham 9-6-1
23. Sharon 10-3-3
24. Braintree 8-5-3
25. Wellesley 8-5-4
25. Dedham 14-3-0

[AlexFilides]

Once again, looks like it will be another great D-1 soccer tournament. Probably a 6 team race to the title(just counting EMass teams) Newton S, SJP, Lowell, Weymouth, CC and St. John's Shrewsbury.

Dark horses, teams that are capable of knocking off any one of the top 6 teams, but not strong enough to make a run through the whole tournament and win the D-1 crown. But never say never.
Xaverian, Needham, Lexington and L-S.

Newton South has a ten game shutout streak. Very impressive. Lack of tournament experience, especially needing to go deep into the tourney could be an issue.
St. John's Prep-I think they go against Newton South in the D-1 finals, assuming they aren't on the same side of the bracket.
Lowell- Had a few decent challenges, but the main concern is they haven't played overly tough competiion, , which will be there biggest downfall. They don't know what it is like to play tired and running into 2 or 3 tough opponents in a row. The weak schedule will also hurt. It would not entirely shock me if a team upset them in the first or second round. I'd be worried about matching against Newton North.
Concord-Carl-probably a step back from last year, but still in the mix.
St. John's Shrewsbury- certainly not out of the question of winning D-1.

If the season ended today. 44 teams would make the tournament at D-1.

[AlexFilides]

Was able to see Lowell play and quite surprised how small they were. I think they'll run into a bit of trouble against taller teams that play the ball in the air. I think they'll get destoryed if they run into either Newton South or St. John's Prep.

Natick with a nice win against Newton South.

Franklin with a win against St. John's of Shrewsbury.

[Guest]

Best friends and roommates Jesse and Chester awaken with hangovers and no memory of the previous night. The answering machine contains an angry message from their twin girlfriends Wilma and Wanda as to their whereabouts. The two also learn they have almost been fired from their pizza delivery jobs, and they find the cabinets in their kitchen are full of containers of pudding. They emerge from their home to find Jesse's car missing (leading to the titular question) and with it their girlfriends' first-anniversary presents. Because the girls have promised them a "special treat", which Jesse and Chester take to mean sexual intercourse, the men desperately begin retracing their steps in an attempt to discover where they left the car. Cohasset isn't that great this year. They lost to Wayland and Dearborn Stem whatever school that is. They did lose to Norwell and Weymouth by a goal, but don't have any impressive wins on their resume. But generally the people you will find that use such language and use gay culture as an insult are the lads – the boys – drinking buddies that you will sit in the pub (or bar in America I suppose) with and they are usually the same lads that will be debating the football or having a pre-match pint. Which is why it is such a taboo subject, how would football fans react to a footballer that they know is gay? And how would all those macho alpha male players react to knowing that they have a team mate that is batting for the other team? You can’t really compare it to the rise of black footballers as they are two separate subjects and whereas that was an issue of race, homosexuality is a lifestyle choice (or you’re gay from birth – whichever side of the argument you want to be on but I don’t really have enough knowledge on what that argument is about).

There is a debate going on about who is currently the best soccer player of the calender year. It is between two players, Messi and Ronaldo (and a third who will be ignored in this argument). There are a few factors involved here that I will simplify in a way someone that doesn't watch soccer will understand. Assuming I am being honest with the information below, I would like to know who you think deserves the title of "best player". Also with this information is it possible to state with great confidence or form a good argument that one is better than the other for this calender year?

The best player in the world wins something called the Ballon d'Or. The one truth to help set up this argument is this; the Ballon d'Or is given to the best individually talented player in the world. The most important thing when picking a winner for this award is individual achievement and skill. After that, team achievement (team trophies) are taken into account to determine who is best. If there is confusion on this I can expand further.

Given this definition of Ballon d'Or, here are some facts on the two players.

There were four big tournaments this year that both these players competed in; the Champions League, the World Cup, the Spanish League, and the Spanish Cup.

For club teams (which play in the Champions League, Spanish League, and Spanish Cup), Cristiano Ronaldo plays for Real Madrid while Messi plays for Barcelona. These two teams can be considered equal when Ronaldo and Messi are excluded from them. For national teams (World Cup), Ronaldo plays for Portugal while Messi plays for Argentina. With Ronaldo and Messi excluded from their national teams, Argentina is undoubtedly the better team. These two facts are important because it's generally accepted that a good player will play better when he is surrounded by good players. Thus, Messi should in theory play better for Argentina than Ronaldo does for Portugal.

In terms of tournament prestige, it goes: Champions League = World Cup > Spanish League > Spanish Cup. Some argue the Champions League is more important and some argue the World Cup is. Both sides have valid arguments so I set their importance as equal.

[Guest]

I don't know all the history as to why it isn't this way, but I do think this would be great. For my son personally (2012) he would benefit from this. If this doesn't change he would have to find something to do in the spring of his 8th grade year as he would be a u15 then his senior year integrate with a whole new group of boys. Is it the end of the world no, but would it be nice yes. Am I holding my breath that this will happen... NO

[Guest]

Was able to see Lowell play and quite surprised how small they were. I think they'll run into a bit of trouble against taller teams that play the ball in the air. I think they'll get destoryed if they run into either Newton South or St. John's Prep.

Natick with a nice win against Newton South.

Franklin with a win against St. John's of Shrewsbury.

Needham injuries? They seem to have fallen apart the last couple weeks.

[Guest]

Where does he play club? No one recruits from public high schools

He played for Bolts and is a great player. Not sure if true but I heard he is also talented in track and is going to pursue that in college over soccer

[AlexFilides]

D-1 Predictions

Arlington 3 Bridgewater Raynham 0
Wellesley 2 Diman 0
Franklin 2 Springfield Cent 0
Beverly 4 Everett 0
Needham 3 Marshfield 1
Brookline 5 Lynn English 1
Chelmsford 2 Somerville 1
Durfee 2 New Bedford 1
Shrewsbury 2 Central Catholic 0
Acton Boxboro 1 North Andover 0
Metheun 3 Bp Feeham 2
Newton North 1 Winchester 0
Cambridge 1 Boston Latin 0

1st Round
Newton South 2 Cambridge 0
Newton North 2 Lowell 1
Weymouth 3 Bp Feehan 1
St. John's Prep 2 Acton Boxboro 0
Concord-Carl 3 Shrewsbury 1
Brockton 2 Durfee 1
Natick 1 Chelmsford 0
St. John's (S) 2 Brookline 1
Needham 3 Lincoln-Sudbury 2
BC High 3 Beverly 2
Franklin 2 Algongquin 1
Lexington 2 Wellesley 1
Arlington1 Framingham 0
Braintree 2 Xaverian 1
Leominster 1 Westford 0
Ludlow 2 Belmont 0

2nd Round.
Newton South 2 Ludlow 0
Newton N 1 Leominster0
Weymouth 3 Braintree 2
St. John's Prep 3 Arlington 0
Concord-Carlisle 1 Lexington 0
Brockton 1 Franklin 0
Natick 2 BC High 1
St. John's (S) 2 Needham 1

3rd Round

Newton South 1 St. John's (S) 0
Natick 3 Newton North 2
Weymouth 2 Brockton 0
St. John's Prep 1 Concord-Carlisle 0

Semifinals
St. John's Prep 1 Newton South 0
Weymouth 2 Natick 1

Finals
St. John's Prep 3 Weymouth 2.

[AlexFilides]

Despite being the first round, lot of great games going on.

Needham beats Lincoln-Sudbury 1-0. Seems awfully early for these 2 teams to meet in the tournament, but no fault of the MIAA's. Needham crashed hard at the end of the season.

Newton South just squeaking by Cambridge 2-1.

Thought Beverly would've put up more of a fight against BC High.

Get ready for the upset of the century. Newton North over Lowell.

[Guest]

With BC High vs. Beverly, I don’t think Beverly is particularly resilient, so arguably they were going to struggle when they didn’t get the first goal. But also a lot of the difference was crazy finishing vs one team dominating play for much of the game. Goal #2 for BC High was a ridiculous bike, while 3 and 4 were each crushed from 30+ yards out with both hitting crossbar towards the corner of the frame. I wouldn’t have expected any of those shots to typically turn into goals.

[AlexFilides]

With BC High vs. Beverly, I don’t think Beverly is particularly resilient, so arguably they were going to struggle when they didn’t get the first goal. But also a lot of the difference was crazy finishing vs one team dominating play for much of the game. Goal #2 for BC High was a ridiculous bike, while 3 and 4 were each crushed from 30+ yards out with both hitting crossbar towards the corner of the frame. I wouldn’t have expected any of those shots to typically turn into goals.

Beverly in the past has had some strong tournament results. Beverly defeated Masco and tied Acton Boxboro in the regular season and to be honest BC High somewhat underperformed. I still thought BC High would win, but thought it would've been closer.

[AlexFilides]

Metheun defeats Weymouth? That's shocking!

Metheun tied a one win Malden team and barely got by Lawrence.

[Guest]

Came across a game between Newton South and Ludlow. Not a parent on either team. Just a neutral soccer fan who wants to enjoy a game. But the enjoyment is mostly ruined by some of the crazy parents comment on the sideline: When some parents were not happy with the ref's call, they shouted "Ref! Is your son on that team?" Since when HS soccer parents behave like this? I recalled when my son's school played a game, all I shouted was "Let's go, white!" or "Go black!" stuff like that. I would never shouted anything offensive like that. Is that a norm nowadays?

[AlexFilides]

I did a list of the 10 worst jobs. Prison guard, bank teller and on that list was high school referee. Just think how hard it is to be a youth referee and then times that by ten at the high school level.

I had a hunch that Ludlow might knock off Newton South.NS wasn't particularly strong towards the end of the year. They also only defeated Cambridge by a goal.

Came across a game between Newton South and Ludlow. Not a parent on either team. Just a neutral soccer fan who wants to enjoy a game. But the enjoyment is mostly ruined by some of the crazy parents comment on the sideline: When some parents were not happy with the ref's call, they shouted "Ref! Is your son on that team?" Since when HS soccer parents behave like this? I recalled when my son's school played a game, all I shouted was "Let's go, white!" or "Go black!" stuff like that. I would never shouted anything offensive like that. Is that a norm nowadays?

[Guest]

Came across a game between Newton South and Ludlow. Not a parent on either team. Just a neutral soccer fan who wants to enjoy a game. But the enjoyment is mostly ruined by some of the crazy parents comment on the sideline: When some parents were not happy with the ref's call, they shouted "Ref! Is your son on that team?" Since when HS soccer parents behave like this? I recalled when my son's school played a game, all I shouted was "Let's go, white!" or "Go black!" stuff like that. I would never shouted anything offensive like that. Is that a norm nowadays?

Which side did it come from?