Post by RusskyHoya on Oct 19, 2021 22:40:14 GMT -5
Certainly appreciate your point and the "why" to promote the game toward offense. But then realize, that a tie is 2/3 a loss if 1/3 a win. Not sure it is right, but people a lot smarter than me in this great game know a lot more than me. Maybe, this particular situation with Xavier/Gtown magnifies one example where the rule does not play out right.
Fewer games and lower-scoring games also increase the likelihood that the better team (however that is defined) won't finish on top. This is also why most soccer leagues don't have playoffs to decide the league champion: luck and injuries and home-field advantages and the like are likely to wash out over a longer season, such that the team at the top of the table at the end is more likely to be the best team than a squad that managed to get on a hot streak at the end and win a single or double elimination tournament.
In this case, we're talking about a 10-game conference regular season - not a whole lot of games, certainly not when compared to the 24 games in the NWSL regular season or 17 in the Women's Super League. Much less margin for error... and in the case of the Hoyas, being held to a draw by league anchor Creighton is indeed an error, even on the road.
On the plus side, the Hoyas are back in the Coaches' Poll rankings, coming in at #20. Xavier also re-enters the poll and lands at #17. Meanwhile, on the men's side, St. Louis sits at #12 with an undefeated 12-0-3 record, two spots behind 8-4-0 Pitt.
Elsewhere in WSOC, some of the sides the Hoyas have faced faced this year continue to prove their own competitiveness. The most noteworthy recent example: