Best Team this year

[Big Daddy]

This subject was started in the Laffayette/Jesuit game report thread and before we get that thread locked, I wanted to start a new thread on this subject.

Basically the statement was:

truman said:

I would agree that the game was very competetive. But I wasn't very impressed with the skill of Lafayette or Jesuit. In the past, I've seen both teams keep the ball on the ground, but Saturday's game was a kickball contest. A good kickball contest, but not a lot of ball possession. I think that a good ball possession team could beat either of these teams, just as Catholic-BR and St. Louis did earlier this season. I think that if Lafayette would have kept the ball on the ground, they could have scored at least 3 goals. But instead, they packed it in the whole second half and were lucky to get away with the win. Although Jesuit also kept playing the ball over, they had a few point-blank opportunities that they missed or Lafayette's goalie got a piece of. Congratulations to Lafayette on winning, but I think the best team in the state this year is in Division II or Division III.

[ShreveDad]

St. Louis showed they could beat Lafayette. Lafayette showed the same. Let them play a best of 7. Then we will know who is better. One thing we do know. They are both state champs. I never saw Ben Franklin play so I can't comment on them. We have said all year that there is no one team heads and tails above the other top teams in the state. That being said, I still say Lafayette is the best team in the state.

[Big Daddy]

goat said:

hdkiga i agree! i don't think st louis would beat lafayette right now. i don't think they would beat acadiana. sure they beat lafayette 4-1 but look at all there loses. i think you are being kind when you say they would be in the top 3! maybe the top 10 but not the top 3 or even 5. acadiana, jesuit, rummel, and i think cl and catholic of baton rouge are all better than st. louis.

before i get beat up by all the st. louis fans i want to say i think they are a very good team but look at there record outside of there dist. and outside of Div III(a weak
div).

First of all, it's quite a compliment to the STL program even having this discussion of whether a D3 team is even able to compete with the D1 champion. Much less if they are better, which I'm sure a number of folks would agree with.

Goat, I'm not sure how close you looked at STL's schedule, but the only D3 teams they played this year were either in district games or in playoff games. So talking about a weak D3 doesn't mean that much.

STL has always been up and down during the early part of the season with their eye on the trophy. The other factor which seemed to affect them was the fatigue factor.

If there was a playoff series between the three champions, with time in between matches to rest and concentrate on the next opponent, then I would go with STL.

[hdkjga]

Obviously everyone knows I will say Lafayette is the best team. With as competitive as D1 was this year, I don't think a state champion from another division can claim they are the best. St. Louis is a special case in D3 in that they played in a lot of tournaments, and played D1 and D2 teams. This is one of the reasons they were so good in the playoffs. If you look at the last four games by each team, Lafayette played some stiff competition and still looked like a championship team. St. Louis didn't play any competition until STA and then STA didn't do any special against top D1 teams. They tied Jesuit and that was about it. I think STA is a good team, I am not trying to knock them. I am just saying if St. Louis was D1 and Lafayette was D3, Lafayette would have pounded every team except STA and I still think they would have beaten them soundly. In my opinion, St. Louis was not a better team than Jesuit. I think St. Louis is just as good as Rummel, because Rummel relies a lot on their defense. As far as overall talent, Lafayette had it, they won state in D1 in a year that was stacked as far as teams go in D1 (there were 15 teams that could have made a run at the finals, unlike the other two divisions.) Lafayette held Jesuit scoreless on their home field, and held Rummel to just a PK. Lafayette's offense is just as good as it has been all year and their defense is playing much better. If Lafayette and St. Louis meet up, Lafayette would win. This is my opinion and probably the opinion of most people aside from St. Louis and D3 fans. Every now and then a D2 or D3 team will be able to claim they are the best team in the state, this isn't one of those years. Lafayette played solid all year, not just at the end of the season. They were ranked #1 or #2 in Division I all year long. They beat the 2 time defending state champs on their home field, won 33 games in a single season when the division was harder than it has ever been. They lost a total of 5 games and 2 were in OT or a shootout. Neither St. Louis nor Ben Franklin can say that. Also after St. Louis beat Lafayette on the Friday night, they then went and tied Cpt Shreve, and got beaten by the weakest team in the bracket. The loss to STM 4-1 right before playoffs also hurts their claim to overall best team.

[maddie86]

Lafayette is better than St. Louis

[Anonymoz]

I agree completely with hdkjga look at all of what Lafayette has accomplished this year, look at all the trials they've competed with. They've lost only 5 games and 2 were shoot outs or over time. They've won their district and division against 2 time defending champion on thier home turf. For people to just take away from what this team has accomplished is almost a discredit to so much this team has done. Lafayette has been consistently amazing all year and the few losses they have were scattered and well faught with the exception of the 4-1 St.L game. However look at what St.L did the next 2 games and you pretty much erase that game.
Lafayette is better than St.Louis, thats all there is to it.

[HSSoccer]

Maybe the real question should be: How come it took Lafayette so long to win a championship? Your comparing Lafayette to St. Louis. Lafayette has an enrollment of 2000 kids and a program with Select players throughout. St. Louis has an enrollment of about 500 kids and only a few select players on the roster. So my question is: How come it took Lafayette so long to accomplish what St. Louis and other teams have been doing for years?

[Footy365]

because it's a harder division. Laffy has to deal with schools as big or bigger with all boys schools like Jesuit and St. Pauls having rosters twice as large with most of the kids premier.

[McScruff]

There is no question that Lafayette probably should have won a championship before this year. I think that has been addressed on this board before.

But I don't get comparing the school's sizes...isn't that why they have different divisions? DI is much tougher to win than DII or DIII. I don't think that St. Louis would have won any championships either if they were playing in Division I. You are comparing apples to oranges.

The question of this thread was, could St. Louis beat Lafayette right now?

[soccerplayer4]

I'm not a D3 I watch all divisions evenly and I see all you trying to compare these two teams saying that Lafayette is better then STL and that STL wouldn't go far in the D1 playoffs b/c they have a much easier scheduale. The thing is though what evidence do you have to support that STL wouldn't do well in the D1 playoffs? I think they would do very well in the D1 playoffs and I dont see how people say they wouldn't when they beat the D1 champion and beat a team that tied the D1 runner-up.

[hdkjga]

I never said St. Louis wouldn't do well in D1, I said I don't think would have won state.

The only way you can compare them is by on field playing and they both beat each other by 3, so you goto common noteworthy opponents( I am sure you can add how many times they each beat a weaker D3, D2, or D1 team, but I chose to cut out the teams that wouldn't make top 20 overall.)

St. Louis

beat BM 1-0
beat Vandy 2-1
tied Cpt. Shreve 2-2
lost to Vandy 4-6
lost to STM 0-3
lost to STM 1-4

Lafayette

beat BM 2-1
beat Vandy 3-0
beat STM 3-0
beat STM 2-1
beat Cpt. Shreve 3-0
lost to BM 0-1

notable performances against top D1 teams by St. Louis....4-1 win over St. Paul, and 3-4 loss to Catholic BR.

[goat]

HSSoccer said:

Maybe the real question should be: How come it took Lafayette so long to win a championship? Your comparing Lafayette to St. Louis. Lafayette has an enrollment of 2000 kids and a program with Select players throughout. St. Louis has an enrollment of about 500 kids and only a few select players on the roster. So my question is: How come it took Lafayette so long to accomplish what St. Louis and other teams have been doing for years?

because they played in a dist. with acadiana a two time state champ. and a team that has played in the finals 4 of the last 8 years. thay also play in Div. I. jesuit, rummel, BM, CL, acadiana, catholic of br, st. pauls , northshore just to name a few, are teams that would probably all make the finals in Div III. your arguement doesn't hold water. think about how many kids attend jesuit, bm, and rummel compared to lafayette.

it is just a fact div1 THIS YEAR is much tougher than Div III

[goat]

i was just reading to see what was up

HSSoccer said:

Maybe the real question should be: How come it took Lafayette so long to win a championship? Your comparing Lafayette to St. Louis. Lafayette has an enrollment of 2000 kids and a program with Select players throughout. St. Louis has an enrollment of about 500 kids and only a few select players on the roster. So my question is: How come it took Lafayette so long to accomplish what St. Louis and other teams have been doing for years?

[Hooligan]

Of all the teams which Vandy played (nearly all the big dogs except Brother Martin) I'd have to say that Laf, Stl, and Jesuit could beat each other on any given day. All three went thru a slight funk at some point in the season and worked their way thru it. But overall, I'd have to say Vandy is better than all three...


Just kidding.........my money would go with Jesuit only because they seemed to be the hardest to beat. Congrats to Lafayette, BF and StL because they have the trophy.

[McScruff]

um...didn't Lafayette just beat Jesuit? I might be confused, but...

[Hooligan]

If we use the last team that won approach, then this discussion is moot and Mcscruff is not confused.

The only consensus "best team" would be the one who ran the table undefeated. Maybe any one of those teams who beat or tied Lafayette should be declared as the best. Obviously, no one will agree with that.

My opinion is based on seeing those teams over the whole season and I believe Jesuit has a slight edge on Lafayette and St. Louis as the best team. I didn't see Lafayette vs. Jesuit, but from what I hear, the game was fairly even throughout the bulk of the match.

My opinion does not have any bias as I don't root for any of the three. Can you say that Mcscruff?

Just another point of view to consider........

[McScruff]

well, when you said that Jusuit was the hardest of the three to beat and Lafayette just beat them on the road, then I don't know how you could say that Jesuit is the hardest of the three teams to beat. The game was very well played on both sides, but Lafayette had better chances and controlled considerably more of the action in the first half. If the Jesuit keeper hadn't been so good, it could have been two or three to zero at the half. Anyway, Lafayette won and that's all that matters.

[McScruff]

So are you saying that Lafayette got lucky?

[Hooligan]

No, I recognize Lafayette's winning TEXTTEXTthatTEXTTEXT game and probably deserving. But that was one game of over thirty that each team played, unfortunately the only one where they met each other.

Like I said, if you go by the last game then Laf, STL, and BF should all be equally considered the best. But, after playing and watching the teams all year long, Jesuit would be the one that I would not want to play. The championship format does not address the season performance in determining the champion, only the final game. Do the first 30+ games count for anything?

So today, Lafayette is the best in DI, BF in DII, and STL in DIII. Why discuss any more?

[Bish]

I went to St. Louis, and my opinion may be biased, but yeah, I think Lafayette would probably beat St. Louis if they played right now. Mainly because of St. Louis's weak defense.

McScruff said:

I don't think that St. Louis would have won any championships either if they were playing in Division I. You are comparing apples to oranges.

Maybe you weren't around or weren't following soccer during the 97-98 St. Louis State Champions seasons, but they could definitely have won the Division I title. They beat Jesuit, Acadiana, the two state champions from those years, and went over to Texas and beat Strake Jesuit, the Texas state champions, all in the same year. They were in the national top 10 in the 97-98 season.