2018 NCAA Women's Goalkeeper Rankings

Available video attached to each goalkeeper. If known highlights of a goalkeeper are not linked, please head over to the contact page to submit them.

Seniors

1. Lainey Burdett (Arizona)
2. Ella Dederick (Washington State)
3. Alison Jahansouz (Stanford)
4. Vera Varis (UCF, Finland)
5. Cosette Morche (Texas A&M)
6. Arielle Schechtman (Georgetown)
7. Kaelyn Johns (Dayton)
8. Paige Simoneau (San Jose State)
9. Rachel Lusby (Portland)
10. Sarah Le Beau (Auburn)

Bill says: The senior class takes a massive blow with Ella Dederick tearing her ACL back in September, which likely makes her draft status drop considerably. However if Dederick can make a full recovery, don’t be surprised to see her name pop up again next year as she’s displayed the ability to play at the next level. Jahansouz and Burdett look to headline the draft class, earning second and third team All-Pac-12 honors, respectively. Schechtman was named Goalkeeper of the Year in the Big East and after an undefeated regular season run with Georgetown, she could very well hear her name called next January. Going back to the start of the season, the stars aligned to see Lusby and Simoneau fight to a 0-0 double shutout at the tail end of August.

Juniors

1. Mikayla Krzeczowski (South Carolina)
2. Jalen Tompkins (Colorado)
3. Jaelyn Cunningham (Illinois)
4. Rylee Foster (West Virginia, Canada)
5. Sandy MacIver (Clemson, England)
6. Mandy McGlynn (Virginia Tech)
7. Haley Smith (Illinois State, Canada)
8. Amanda Fitzgerald (Fairleigh Dickinson)
9. Megan Bonelli (Marshall)
10. Teagan Micah (UCLA, Australia)

Bill says: If you’re compiling a shortlist of top goalkeepers in college soccer, you have to consider Krzeczowski. The 1st-team All-SEC goalkeeper has kept offenses at bay, allowing just 10 goals in 19 games. MacIver missed the start of Clemson’s season as she was a little busy finishing third in the U20 World Cup, saving a penalty or two along the way. Mandy McGlynn served as the backup for the American U20 side this past World Cup but perhaps more notably, led her college side to their first NCAA Tournament win since 2015. Unfortunately Foster and Smith weren’t able to suit up for Canada this summer as they failed to qualify for the tournament, but the two combined for 44 starts and 31 goals allowed, giving confidence to Canada’s future goalkeeping core.

Recently the NWSL has announced that underclassmen can be drafted. However with how tough it has been for goalkeepers to crack into the league in the past, it seems unlikely a goalkeeper will leave early.

Sophomores

1. Kaylie Collins (USC)
2. Brooke Heinsohn (Duke)
3. Emily Alvarado (TCU, Mexico)
4. Hillary Beall (Michigan)
5. Jennifer Wandt (Baylor)
6. Laurel Ivory (Virginia)
7. Lysianne Proulx (Syracuse, Canada)
8. McKinley Crone (Oklahoma)
9. Sydney Schneider (UNC Wilmington, Jamaica)
10. Sofia Manner (Stony Brook, Finland)

Bill says: Collins locks down the top spot with All-Pac-12 honors by having performances all season as she did against LSU this past weekend. Beall rebounded well from sustaining an injury that removed her from the U20 World Cup to starting the final ten matches for Michigan, allowing just 11 goals over that period. While it was a 2-0 loss, Alvarado showcased her abilities through her eight saves against Texas A&M, giving fans and opposing strikers just an idea of how much of the goal she can cover. Schneider was a crucial piece in helping Jamaica qualify for their first World Cup ever, keeping a shutout in an upset victory over Costa Rica.

Freshmen

1. Claudia Dickey (North Carolina)
2. Hensley Hancuff (Villanova)
3. Brooke Bollinger (Florida State)
4. Mackenzie Wood (Northwestern)
5. Lauren Brzykcy (UCLA)
6. Meagan McClelland (Rutgers)
7. Lydia Kessel (Vermont)
8. Samantha Estrada (SMU)
9. Zoe Clevely (Pepperdine)
10. Sydney Martinez (South Florida)

Bill says: Dickey split time with senior goalkeeper Samantha Leshnak but should be in position to take the starting spot for 2019. 6’3” Wildcat goalkeeper Hensley Hancuff looks to build off her freshman year that saw notch six wins in ten appearances. Northwestern’s season ended on a 1-0 loss to NC State but could have been a much larger scoreline had it not been for a number of Wood’s goal-denying saves. Martinez jumped into the starting role with USF without much of a hiccup, going 14-4 through the regular season, reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Past Collegiate Goalkeeper Rankings

2015: Preseason and Final
2016: Preseason and Final
2017: Preseason and Final
2018: Preseason

cover photo from the University of Arizona

2018 NCAA Men's Goalkeeper Rankings

Available video attached to each goalkeeper. If known highlights of a goalkeeper are not linked, please head over to the contact page to submit them.

Seniors

1. Todd Morton (Delaware)
2. Rashid Nuhu (Fordham, Ghana)
3. Bobby Edwards (Mount St. Mary's)
4. Briley Guarneri (Colorado Mesa, D2)
5. Jimmy Hague (Michigan State)
6. Hendrik Hilpert (Syracuse, Germany)
7. Dylan Castanheira (Columbia)
8. Luis Barraza (Marquette)
9. Henry Stutz (Holy Cross)
10. Sawyer Jackman (UIC)

Bill says: We were all spoiled last year after we saw four goalkeepers selected in the first 21 picks of the 2018 MLS Draft so don’t expect a repeat as this class’ talent hails a little farther off the radar. While Morton and Edwards’ respective schools struggled to put together consistent performances, they have the size and mechanics MLS scouts are looking for. Nuhu should impress others with his feet, possessing the best distribution skills in the class. Barraza holds the possibility of a Real Salt Lake homegrown contract but spent the summer with in Chicago a few months ago. Guarneri notched 54 wins and 37 shutouts in his four-year career with Colorado Mesa, relying heavily on his Tim Melia-esque ability to track down a ball no matter the situation.

Juniors

1. Dayne St. Clair (Maryland, Canada) **
2. Jimmy Slayton (Hartford)
3. Parker Siegfried (Ohio State)
4. Jacob Harris (Colgate)
5. Wallis Lapsley (UC Davis)
6. Drake Callender (California)
7. Carlos Caro (Howard)
8. Sawyer Gaffney (Davidson)
9. Andreu Cases Mundet (Wake Forest, Spain)
10. Mertcan Akar (Old Dominion, Germany)

** - graduating early

Bill says: Most of the junior goalkeepers return from the preseason rankings although there are some newcomers. It looks like Canada’s top young goalkeeper won’t be returning next fall and with the CPL gearing up for their inaugural season, we could see him playing sooner than later. St. Clair (Red Bulls U23s) and Slayton (Ocean City) continued their success after spending the summer with prestigious PDL sides. While Siegfried holds a possible homegrown option with the Crew, the MLS side still doesn’t have a proper USL affiliate, which could complicate things down the line.

Sophomores

1. Chase Vosvick (Loyola Maryland)
2. Ben Hale (Furman)
3. Will Pulisic (Duke)
4. Trey Muse (Indiana)
5. Matt Freese (Harvard)
6. Carson Williams (Villanova)
7. Will Palmquist (Denver)
8. Colin Shutler (Virginia)
9. Noah Lawrence (Cincinnati)
10. Miha Miskovic (Northwestern, Serbia)

Bill says: Out of the four classes, the sophomores stand out with the most depth. Vosvick is in the running for top goalkeeper in all of college soccer. FC Dallas product Ben Hale has quietly done very well at Furman, maintaining a sub 1.0 goals allowed stat line through his first two years starting for the Paladins. Thomas has transitioned well from Watford’s academy system into three-time national champions’ set up. Despite splitting time with senior Nick Gardner, Will Palmquist won first-team honors within the Summit League.

Freshmen

1. Justin Garces (UCLA)
2. Andrew Thomas (Stanford, England)
3. George Tasouris (Grand Canyon, Cyprus)
4. Giannis Nikopolidis (Georgetown, Greece)
5. Adrian Fernandez (Oregon State, Spain)
6. George Marks (Clemson)
7. Christian Miesch (Stony Brook, Switzerland)
8. Quantrell Jones (UMBC)
9. Sam Ilin (LIU Brooklyn)
10. Ryan Curtis (Sacramento State)

Bill says: For those worried about international talent squeezing out the American player, don’t look at the freshmen class. Universities across the country have done an excellent job at identifying talented, young goalkeepers from all over Europe while the 1999’s and 2000’s were a little thin for the US. Garces, Jones, and Marks carry USYNT-filled resumes but all experienced their ups and down throughout the freshman season. Stanford (Matt Frank), Wake Forest (Dominic Peters), Ohio State (David Abonce), and UCLA (Cameron Douglas) possess talented freshmen who sat the bench but could resurface down the line, although with full rosters it may be a while until we hear from the MLS academy products again.

Past Collegiate Goalkeeper Rankings
2014: Final
2015: Preseason and Final
2016: Preseason and Final
2017: Preseason and Final
2018: Preseason

cover photo from bluehens.com

2018 NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge

If you're on your phone, click here to see the standings in a pdf.

The Deadline to play is
1:00 PM (ET) Thursday, November 15th.

Welcome back to Everybody Soccer's fifth annual NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge. Last year Top Drawer Soccer’s own JR Eskilson and Travis Clark finished first and third, respectively, showing off their dominance in collegiate soccer expertise.

2018 returns and all the scores are reset as we gear up for a new bracket challenge. Admission is free and the only prize is bragging rights. Student-athletes and the elderly are all welcome to play!

What Is the NCAA Tournament?

Every year NCAA soccer concludes their season with a 48 team tournament. 24 conference representatives are selected by either winning their respective conference or tournament. The remaining 24 spots are filled by teams earning at-large bids, regardless of conference affiliation. The first round features 32 teams facing off while the second round introduces the 16 seeded teams who were given a bye past the first round.

Click here to see the 2018 bracket
A printable version can be found here

What Is the Bracket Challenge?

The bracket challenge is a free-to-enter competition with no prize to allow student-athletes to play. Simply make your predictions on each game in the national tournament then submit it before the first game kicks off, on Thursday afternoon. The winner will be determined by who scores the most points. You can score a maximum of 176 points total (32 each round, except the first which is only 16). The rounds are weighted as such:

Round 1 - 1 point (16 games)
Round 2 - 2 point (16 games)
Round 3 - 4 points (8 games)
Quarterfinals - 8 points (4 games)
Semifinals - 16 points (2 games)
Final - 32 points (1 game)

How to Play

There are a couple of different ways to submit a bracket.

1. Fancy, Interactive Google Doc - I have created a fancy interactive tool through Google Docs but unfortunately does not work on phones. (You can only use it on a desktop or laptop computer.) 

• Click here to go to view the bracket template.

• You will not be able to edit the spreadsheet unless you download the document. Underneath "2018 NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge Template" in the top left, click

  • File > Download As > Microsoft Excel (.xslx)

• The spreadsheet will download to your computer. Fill out column D, the blue and green cells. The rest of the document will automatically update itself. The spreadsheet has formulas to double check accuracy and spelling, so make sure you end up with smiley faces in the purple column.

• In the green column at the top, enter your name, state or country you represent, bracket name (can be anything serious or silly), and your twitter handle to appear on the scoreboard.

• Email me the file at: everybodysoccer@yahoo.com or tweet me @letsallsoccer

• If something goes terribly wrong or you mess up the document, just go back to the link to re-download the document and start over.

2. Edit a Blank Bracket and Send It Over - You can either download the bracket and edit it on your phone or computer. The bracket is fairly clean so writing on it may be easier for you, depending on your phone. You can email me the final product at everybodysoccer@yahoo.com or tweet a picture @letsallsoccer.

Click here to view the printable bracket

3. Draw It on a Napkin, Etc. - If you're having trouble downloading the bracket, you can always write down all your picks on a napkin, take a picture of it, and send it my way. It doesn't matter if you write it in crayon or spell it out with macaroni art, as long as I can read each pick, you're in!

Send in brackets to:
everybodysoccer@yahoo.com
or
@letsallsoccer

Deadline Is 1:00 PM (ET)
Thursday, November 15th.

 

Resources

RPIs and Schedules - Dan Gaucho has a great site for all your RPI and scheduling needs.

Media Coverage - Top Drawer Soccer has multiple articles on the tournament, rankings, and players to watch for.

History - Take a look at each school's history with the tournament. Teams were given points for how many rounds they went (Round Pts) and if they held a seed (Seed Pts).  "+/-" is gauging if they overperform or underperform in the tournament given their seed history.

Lastly, here are a few stats on how far average seeds advance in the tournament. Second seeds are the most successful while 14 seeds (who start in the second round) only advance half the time.

Performance by Seed
avg number of rounds completed, 1 to 7

1 - 4.2
2 - 5.7
3 - 4.3
4 - 3.4
5 - 3.8
6 - 3.3
7 - 3.3
8 - 3.9
9 - 3.5
10 - 3.0
11 - 3.1
12 - 3.1
13 - 2.9
14 - 2.5
15 - 2.6
16 - 3.1
unseeded - 1.7

cover photo belongs to Tony Quinn

Three Underrated Premier League Goalkeepers

cover photo from Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

It’s fairly well known by this point that English Premier League is filled with great goalkeepers, including the likes of de Gea, Ederson, Alisson, Cech, Kepa, and Pickford. However there are only so many headlines to go around, meaning a number of goalkeepers are left out in the cold when it comes to coverage. Some don’t deserve much more attention but here are three who are not only proving why the EPL is the best goalkeeping league in the world but why they deserve a little more face time.

Rui Patricio

Photo from 90min.com

Patricio would likely be getting a little more press if it weren’t for Alisson and Kepa’s transfer fees that dwarfed the news of Patricio’s arrival with Wolverton. Surprisingly enough, the lack of coverage isn’t from an uncompelling storyline. For starters, Patricio had a strong World Cup run this summer, reaching the round of 16 before being knocked out by Uruguay. It was a nice change of pace for Patricio, who at the time had recently requested his contract to be terminated with Portuguese club side Sporting CP in the midst of a truly bizarre set of altercations, included fans attacking Sporting players and staff.

Early into the season, the Portuguese international has successfully led Wolves to the top half of the table. Through eight starts, seven matches have been determined by one goal or less, yet Wolves have picked up at least a point in each of those seven. Saves on long-range strikes against Raheem Sterling and free kick denials on Fred are exactly why recently promoted Wolverton will avoid an expected relegation battle.

Alex McCarthy

It’s not an easy life being the goalkeeper for one of the worst defenses in the league but McCarthy is doing what he can for a club that was one of the front runners to see relegation at the start of the season. McCarthy possesses a lightness and mobility not found in most Premier League goalkeepers, which pairs well with his scrappy approach to the position. Unfortunately, it hasn’t mattered too much as Southampton are conceding multiple 1v1s and shots within the 18 every weekend. Despite a recent strong performance against Wolves, it was another familiar defeat for Southampton.

McCarthy could admittedly use some work on his 1v1 situations as his current approach hasn’t yielded much success this season. So far he’s managed to hold off Angus Gunn, the Manchester City product who arrived at Southampton on a £10 million transfer fee, but after conceding eight goals in the last three games, McCarthy might have to remind the manager why he deserves the number one spot.

Lukasz Fabianski

Photo from Newham Recorder

A 33-year-old goalkeeper is never a sexy pick but the Polish international - who is still playing for his country as of last weekend - has rebounded from four straight losses with strong performances against Everton, Chelsea, and Manchester United. He’s allowed three goals in the last four Premier League games, including a shutout with some key saves against Chelsea.

Fabianski is a no-nonsense goalkeeper who is willing to fight in the trenches to make a save. Perhaps he’s not the most agile goalkeeper but he more than makes up for it with his determination to keep the ball out of the net. It’s unclear how many years Fabianski has left in him but as of right now, he’s keeping stride with the best the league has to offer.