USC leaves San Jose as College Soccer National Champions

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By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com

Over the first weekend in December, America’s four best women’s soccer teams converged inside Avaya Stadium, the home of the San Jose Earthquakes, for what turned out to be a spectacular event for the ever-growing sport. Georgetown, USC, West Virginia and North Carolina were the final four who made this year’s College Cup, all of which brought contrasting styles and abundant diversity to the “The Beautiful Game.”

With soccer legend Julie Foudy up in the broadcast booth and fans upwards of 6,000 intently watching above Avaya’s fan-friendly pitch, West Virginia was able to knock off 22-time National Champion North Carolina in the first Friday semi-final. In the nightcap, the USC Trojans took care of Georgetown to set up a evenly matched Sunday showdown featuring national team-level talent up and down both rosters.

Sparked by an unexpected header goal in the first few minutes of play, USC went into halftime holding a one goal lead, despite repeated offensive chances by West Virginia. In the second half, the levee finally broke as Canadian National Team star Ashley Lawrence sent a missile into the back of the net to pull things even in a suspenseful National Title Game. It didn’t take long, however, for USC to answer with a clutch, well placed goal of their own, as Katie Johnson placed the eventual game winner into the bottom right corner of the net. Just for good measure, Johnson stuck again with a top-shelf strike that West Virginia’s keeper had no fighting chance at. In the two Final Four games Johnson spent in San Jose, she racked up a total of three goals, two of which were game winners. Not bad for a player who has overcome a series of knee injuries and came into Sunday’s championship as a substitute.

The loss by West Virginia was taken especially hard for a group of young women who were arguably the more talented team on Sunday evening. A team proud of it’s diversity and international talent that has elevated its program to its best season in program history. Tears flowed on the field after the final horn, but the Mountaineers, led by Lawrence, were gracious in defeat in the post game press conference. Regardless of which side you were rooting for on Sunday in San Jose, no one can argue how bright the future is for Women’s soccer across the globe. The showcase on the field in San Jose spoke for itself.

Stanford set for Elite 8 showdown with Louisville

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Stanford is one win away from advancing to Houston, Texas and their second straight College Cup.

By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com

The defending National Champion Stanford Men's Soccer Team is one win away from a repeat trip to the 2016 College Cup. After a dramatic double OT win over Virginia in the Sweet 16, the Cardinal now head on the road to face the Louisville Cardinals. The match will air on ESPN3.com at 4pm PST. If the 5th seeded Cardinal can get past #4 Louisville they will face the winner of unseeded Virginia Tech and #2 Wake Forest. The other half of this year's college soccer bracket consists of unranked Providence V. #9 North Carolina and #3 Clemson V. #6 Denver.

Stanford is coming off their third straight PAC-12 championship and their 14th conference title in program history. This year's team is led by Foster Langsdorf (co-PAC-12 Player of the Year) and Tomas Hilliard-Acre (PAC-12 Defensive Player of the Year).

Louisville enters Saturday's match coming off a home win versus Notre Dame. Their best player, Tim Kubel is among the finalists for the MAC Hermann Trophy or the Heisman of college soccer. The defender ranks fifth nationally with 11 assists for Louisville.

(Video) Charlie Moore sets a Cal freshman record with 38 points against UC Irvine

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Cal freshman Charlie Moore exploded for 38 points in just his second game in a California uniform. The Chicago native put the Bears on his back in the absence of first team preseason all-American Ivan Rabb to lead his team to an OT win versus UC Irvine. Read more about Charlie’s story in this Section925 feature.

Section925 Podcast Ep. 142 - Football Insider J Torchio

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Big Game hero and Section925 Insider J Torchio returns to the Podcenter to talk about the 119th Big Game, Cal's bowl eligibility, and waxes poetic about what it means to participate in the Big Game as a Cal Football player. Also, this podcast marks the successful retirement of the ToodleLew movement and sign-off.

The Raiders enjoy a well deserved bye week, riding high at 7-2

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Dabbing on the AFC West (photo by Ezra Shaw) 

By Merlin Edwards III | @YosoyMEII

For years and years it seemed as if everything in the cosmos was working against the Oakland Raiders. It was the other teams and their owners hate of the Al Davis brand. It was the busts of draft picks and overpaying of aging free agents. Hell, it was even the referees who seemed to have a vendetta against the Silver & Black. Oakland hasn't reached the football mountain top since the 80's and the fan base has coped with it in different ways. A lot of fans using "the universe hates the Raiders," as a main argument. Well, that argument is no longer applicable.

For Raiders fans young and old, starting off 7-2 by beating the Denver Broncos at home on primetime Sunday Night Football feels magical. It felt like flying out of the stadium on a Silver & Black magic carpet in a whole new world. A world where Raiders fans can be confident that they will win big games. A world where Oakland has a franchise quarterback that can win games throwing for 500 or 200 yards. A world where the defensive line looks menacing and the offensive unit can slow down a top 5 defense with a Defensive Player of the Year. With the way this team has been playing, this is a world that the Raiders can live, thrive, and dominate in, for years to come.

In order to dominate the NFL, the Raiders will need to play like they did on Sunday against every other team they play. If the Raiders can execute a game plan and attack a defenses weaknesses like they did to Denver, they will be able to out coach and outplay everybody in the league not named Bill Belichick or Tom Brady. The coaching staff went into this matchup knowing they could have an advantage in the trenches and made a point to punch them in the mouth by running the ball early and often. It was no accident that Latavious Murray had his first 100+ yard rushing game of the year. Jalen Richard and Deandre Washington added a little extra burst and change of pace needed as well. Being able to run the ball so well against a defense that talented crippled Denver. They were no longer able to take advantage of their top tier defense against the pass because Derek Carr barely had to throw the ball! On top of that, the Offensive line was able to hold back the vaunted Broncos defensive line. Carr was only hit twice the whole game with one sack and one pressure. That's it. Von Miller was able to record that only sack and was quiet the rest of the day. Part of the reason Bill Musgrave (Raiders Offensive Coordinator) and the Raiders were so successful was because of the scheme that they were running as well as the quality of play. There were 6 offensive lineman on the field for more than 50% of the snaps and that is not seen much in today's NFL. Even though the Raiders consider themselves a throwing team, Musgrave was able to exploit a major weakness in Denver's defense and run all the way to a victory. Musgrave, however, wasn't the only coach who had a good day at the office.

Defensive Coordinator Ken Norton Jr. had his group humming on Sunday and it showed with a third consecutive week holding an opposing offense to under 300 yards. Kahlil Mack continued his resurgence as one of the leagues best pass rushers and he has brought this D-line up to a top sack-attack level. They have been hurrying, pressuring, hitting, and sacking the QB at a higher rate than we have all year. Part of that is because Mack has 5 sacks in his last 3 games, but the rest of the line is falling into place behind him. It is also helping the secondary out because, even without Sean Smith the past two weeks, they have been able to keep other offenses passing games in check. This is starting to look like a defense that is coming together and who knows what can happen after the bye week and when the team gets Aldon Smith and Mario Edwards Jr. back. Everything seems to be coming together for this team and they have a chance to really make a long suffering fan base proud.

The key to this bye week is just to get healthy and study up. The players should get a chance to look around the league and see their opponents live and enjoy some football before ramping it back up to play the Texans on Monday night. As long as everyone stays safe and healthy, this team is poised to make a playoff run. The sky is the limit and for the first time in a long time, rather than the world being against the Raiders it feels instead like it's their world to take.

The 6-2 Raiders arrive home for a showdown with Denver on Sunday Night Football

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Derek Carr had a record setting day for the Silver & Black last Sunday (photo by Brian Blanco)

By Merlin Edwards III

The positive changing of a culture in professional sports is a hard thing to. Going from good to bad isn't the most difficult thing, but when an organization has been bad for an extended period of time, gaining confidence of future wins is extremely challenging. When things are going bad, not only do the fans to believe the team will always loose, but it seeps into the front office and locker room of teams as well. In order to change bad culture, a lot of times a full overhaul is needed in order to succeed at a later date. Once that later date comes and the players and coaches all believe in themselves, the national media is the last to jump on the bandwagon. Sometimes teams, in any professional sport, need to produce a "signature win" in order to finally have arrived and be taken seriously by the league. The Oakland Raiders had one of those signature wins this past Sunday after defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-24.

Derek Carr and the Silver and Black came ready to play in Tampa Bay and were able to steal yet another away game, and this time there is no way they should have won. It was not a pretty win, by any stretch of the imagination, if anything it was beyond ugly. After setting an NFL record for penalties in a game with 23, no NFL team should ever be expected to even compete in that game, let alone win. Not only did they give up 23 penalties, but it was for a total of exactly 200 yards. The Raiders gave up 2 football fields worth of yardage and still were able to pull out a win. The circumstances that this team overcame cannot be ignored. It seemed as if they played a pretty good game if there weren't so many penalties. Heck, Winston didn't even pass for more than 200 yards, which means Oakland had more penalty yards than the Bucs had passing yards. Wow. It really is a shame that there were so many flags; we'd actually be talking about a really good Raiders win where the defense played better than they have all season. Instead, that locker room's main concern is toclean up the yellow laundry. The only thing this team can do after a win like that is brush it off, be thankful you came out with a "W," and hope that the seemingly complete game you played (other than the penalties) can be carried over to this next week's game. The Raiders are going to need it.

For the first time since the early 2000's (we've been saying that a lot this season) the Raiders will host a Sunday Night Football game against the hated Denver Broncos. Not enough can be said about how important this game is. Both teams are coming into this game at 6-2 and the winner will take sole place atop the AFC West division. The Raiders will not only put a choke hold on first place with a win in this game, they will put the rest of the league on high alert as well. As if it wasn't enough for Derek Carr to throw for 513 yards passing (new Raiders record), a win against the arch rival Broncos will also cement Derek Carr in serious MVP talks. However, accolades and recognition is not what this team yearns for. Wins are, and it will take a valiant effort from all sides of the ball in order to come up with a win and move to 7-2.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Raiders need to do a couple things to help their chances. First and foremost, Kahlil Mack and the Raiders defensive line needs to get after Trevor Siemian and put him on the ground. The Broncos offensive line is decent, but it is attack-able. Even though the player that Mack got 5 sacks against last season won't be playing, Kahlil needs to get at least 1.5 sacks in order for the defense to succeed. If Siemian has time to sit back in the pocket and assess the defense, it will mean major trouble. Denver's starting running back will be out and the Raiders will have an upper hand in the run game, but if Siemian does not feel pressure he will throw it all over the yard with a good completion percentage and beat the Raiders. This game will not be a shootout and the Raiders need to keep Denver under 25 points in order to pull out a victory. The Broncos defense is just that good.

Derek Carr will need to follow up, arguably, his best game of the season with a very good performance again. The defense that Denver fields is the best in the league and there is a reason they just won a super bowl with a mediocre offense. The Raiders do catch a break with Denver's #1 DB, Aqib Talib, hurt with a bad back, but they still have Chris Harris Jr. and Bradley Roby who would be #1's on most other teams. The Raiders need to attack the run game and let that set them up for passes throughout the game. This will be a relatively low scoring game and it is key for the short passing and running games of Oakland to get going early. If they can keep the defense guessing with good yardage running plays and short to medium yard passing plays, it will hopefully lull the Broncos to sleep and open up the long throws when you need them most, late in the game.

If the Raiders can stick to the offensive game plan and keep Denver from scoring enough to turn this game into a shootout, they will pull out a huge win. They need to put together a full 4 quarters of football or else this game could get ugly. It will be a hard hitting, hate filled, nut buster of a game, but what else can a Raider fan ask for than meaningful football against Denver on a national stage for first place in the division. Get ready for a doozie.

My prediction: Broncos 21, Raiders 17

(From the Sec925 Archives) "Coming Up The Pipeline" - A's Prospect Addison Russell enters Spring Training as the one to watch

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By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com

In four years at Pace High School, just outside of Pensacola, Florida, Addison Russell hit a cool .460 with 37 home runs. Living on the Alabama border, it only made sense that the Auburn Tigers would end up extending a scholarship offer to Russell. And at the time, the 6’0” 195 pound shortstop had full intentions of going to school. The oldest of 4 siblings and the owner of a soft-spoken, humble personality, it made sense that even a talent this large could use a few years of seasoning in the SEC.

This was all before Billy Beane made young Addison his first round selection in the 2012 Draft. For years, Beane has avoided high school players like the plague, deeming an 18-year-old simply too much of a gamble to invest millions in. The last time Beane has selected a high schooler in the first round was 2001 when the A’s took Jeremy Bonderman 26th overall. Before that, you have to date back to 1996 when Eric Chavez was picked in the first round out of high school.

Not only was Beane forced out of his comfort zone by picking someone so young, so early, Billy also had to negotiate with super-agent Scott Boras in order to sign Russell. 2.6 million dollars later, Russell, and his seemingly infinite upside, was property of Oakland.

While Big League scouts have most often compared Russell to current Detroit Tigers infielder Jhonny Peralta, A’s fans could also comfortably compare Russell to the beloved former Oakland Athletic, Miguel Tejada. Blessed with a sturdy, compact build, to go along with exceptional bat speed, foot speed and arm strength, Russell possesses everyting one would need to be a breakout Major League star.

Peralta and Tejada, both eventual steroid offenders, possess(ed) the type of five-tool talent that is so coveted in young position players. By all accounts, Russell has all five tools in his quiver, and to the extent that he is the best prospect the A’s have had in their farm system in recent memory.

Scouts have marveled at the way the ball jumps off Russell's 19-year-old bat

In Russell’s first season in the minors last year, the 19-year-old started at shortstop for the Single-A Stockton Ports of the California League. After a slow start, Russell finished the season with 17 home runs, 10 triples, 21 stolen bases and a .275 average. The stat line was good enough to earn him the Rookie of the Year in the Cal League, as well as a trip to the All-Star game in New York City to participate in the Futures Game. By year’s end, Russell was on the field with the AAA Sacramento River Cats getting his first taste of professional playoff baseball.

As Russell turns 20 on January 23rd, he heads into his second year of spring training scheduled to start the year playing for the A’s Double-A affiliate in Midland, Texas. There, while he continues to accumulate invaluable professional at-bats, A’s fans will keep a close eye on their prized possession down on the farm.

“At the minimum he’ll be at the Double-A level (in 2014),” A’s general manager Billy Beane recently told CSN Bay Area. “A kid with that kind of talent, once you get to that level, anything can happen from there.”

“He’ll have the opportunity (this spring) in major league camp to assert himself before he gets to the minor leagues,” continued Billy Owens, A's director of player personnel. “There’s no timetable. People always want to make predictions, but I think his play on the field will dictate predictions.

As you may recall, Oakland's 2011 first round pick was Sonny Gray out of Vanderbilt. And we all know how that panned out. The rookie turned in a masterful Game 2 performance in last year’s Playoffs, throwing eight scoreless innings and earning himself the starter’s role for the subsequent pivotal Game 5. Granted, Gray was 23 when he took center stage for the A’s, but it is still in the realm of possibility that Beane and manager Bob Melvin would decide to bring up Russell to play shortstop for the A’s by the middle of the summer. Jed Lowrie has proven to be a step slow as a Major League shortstop. And moving Lowrie to second to make room for Russell could turn out wonderfully, assuming Russell continues his rapid development.

Coming off back-to-back playoff seasons, one couldn’t blame Billy Beane for keeping things status-quo. But, when you consider how competitive the AL West has become (most recently with Robinson Cano coming to Seattle) change is constantly necessary for the A’s to stay ahead of their deep pocket competitors. Expect part of that change to come in the form of a once-in-a-decade shortstop, by the name of Addison Russell.

"Addison is a 19-year-old with so much upside, not only talent-wise but his work ethic. His tools are all there," Bill Richardson, Russell's former Manager, explains to MLB.com. "Shortstop is such a premium. You get a good shortstop, and when you have that guy, it makes things a lot easier on your club. He might be one of the most talented players in this league. He knows what he wants, and there is no doubt in my mind he will make it. How soon is what it is."

Feeling right at home inside the A's dugout. (photo by Susan Slusser)

The Raiders look for a Florida sweep vs. the Bucs on Sunday

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DeAndre Washington and the Raiders are looking more and more like a title contending team. (Photo by Rob Foldy)

By Merlin Edwards III

A lot of NFL teams are subject to having a good week and getting their hopes up, just to be brought back down to bad football earth. Others go down in the dumps just to be brought back up. Just look at the San Francisco 49ers, they started out on a major high, winning in week 1 against the odds, but haven't won since. The Oakland Raiders, luckily, have the opposite of that problem after week 7. What a difference a week makes. After getting beat down at home by the Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders bounced back and played arguably the best game they've played all season against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Jaguars aren't world beaters, or even a great team for that matter, but they do have talented players and were projected to be able to compete for a division title this year. Those hopes, however, seem to be a bit of a pipe dream at this point. After losing their first 3 and winning the next 2 before losing to the Raiders, they have yet to show any type of positive consistency. Their defense had played relatively well and it took a good game from Oakland's defense in order to slow down a previously serviceable offense. Jacksonville's receivers are very fast, but also big, and it played well into the Raiders game plan in the secondary. They were able to limit the big plays from receivers Robinson and Hurns and kept them in front for short gains. This was huge in slowing the Jags down because they live off of the big play and chunk yardage.

They don't have the best running game, but the Raiders were able to slow that part of their game down as well. Finally, the Oakland Raiders defense came to play and were able to hold another team under 20 points. Even though that is not how to describe a great defense, it is a start to describing a decent one that looks to be getting better for the future. It may have been underestimated how long it would take for all of the new faces to gel together and maybe this long trip in the sunshine state will bode well for this defense going forward.

Seeing the defense play so well seemed to boost the offense as well. They flashed again and Crabtree showed up for yet another huge game. He leads the league in catches for first downs and for good reason. Carr always seems to look his way, and despite the consistency of that 3rd down connection, Crabtree always finds a way to get open. Cooper played well too but the story of the day was once again Michael Crabtree. It looks like Raiders fans get to see the type of plays where Carr is flushed out of the pocket, only to throw on the run (off of one foot) 35 yards and find Crabtree to convert a 3rd and long on a consistent basis. Wow. While big plays like that are important, the running game is what helped set that up last week and the Silver and Black will look to depend on their running game again in Tampa Bay.

After getting Latavious Murray back, the running game for the Raiders looked much better. The Jags have a good defense and even though nobody went crazy for a 100 yard game, they used the run to set up the pass. In this next game against the Buccaneers, look for the Raiders to have a very similar game plan. Murray and the other backs need to get short yardage on early downs to set the team up for short 3rd downs. Giving Carr short 3rd downs will be beneficial for both running the clock and keeping the Bucs offense off of the field, but it will also keep the game from being a shootout with really high scores. If there is anything we have learned from the season so far, it's that the Raiders win when then score 33 or more points. That should be a given for an NFL team, but when the defense has been so bad, there's not much a team can do but to keep trying to flat out outscore other offenses. In order for the Raiders to win this game soundly, they must score early and often and not have to rely on the defense to make plays or create turnovers at the end of the contest.

The defense did play much better last week, but they are now playing a better offense and a better quarterback. Jameis Winston is not in the elite group of quarterbacks in the NFL, but he can make plays, and when given the opportunity, he can, and will, beat you. The Raiders match up well with their receiver corps since they are another team with big guys. That is why the Raiders signed big corners though, to try and combat the trend of bigg-ER receivers. Sean Smith and David Amerson need to keep getting better and play like they did last week in order to slow down a red hot Mike Evans. Jaquizz Rodgers had a great game against the 49ers last week but he can be stopped and the Raiders should be able to do that this week. If they play another sound game on defense, Oakland will win this handily. If the defense is leaky and gives up big plays and 25+ points, then the Raiders are in trouble. Look for Kahlil Mack to continue his upward trend and get another sack while leading the defense to a good day. Crab and Coop will come to play again and the Raiders win in a close one.

My Prediction: Raiders 28, Buccaneers 24

The Raiders look to get back to their winning ways on a road trip to Jacksonville

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By Merlin Edwards III

It is quite astonishing how often old sayings can be applied to everyday life. When someone has the personality that the glass is, in fact, half full, they truly are optimists and see the best in everything and everyone. In this election year it sure would help if a lot of people put the shoe on the other foot to see other perspectives. Well, the Raiders and their fans got a full dose of the saying "when it rains, it pours," after taking a beating against the Kansas City Chiefs.

While it was quite literally pouring down rain on the field, it was raining even harder on the Raiders players. After a great drive to start off the game with a touchdown, the offense looked worse than it has all season. They went no-huddle in their first drive while driving right down the field and scoring with ease. It seemed to be a good sign for the game to come. Boy, were Raiders fans wrong. Once the ball was in the endzone the first time, they were only able to score one more field goal in the first half which completed their scoring for the day. The running game was extremely stagnant and could not be relied on. Carr was forced to throw the ball a ton in the rain which he actually had moderate success with, but the offense goes how Carr goes and he did not have a good game. It was a game where fullback Jamaze Olawale should have been utilized as a ground and pound back and he didn't even get one carry! Teams do just get outplayed sometimes and Andy Reid is now 16-2 coming off of a bye, but there is just no excuse to get beat down like that at home. Raining or not, Andy Reid or not, bad defense or not, that is a game that could have been won if the offense showed up at all.

The Oakland defense was not good either. There is something going on with this scheme that is not working for the personnel that the Raiders have. Ken Norton Jr. is a great motivator, but it may be proving that he is in over his head with scheming against other top notch coordinators. Don't get me wrong, the players are to blame too; not filling the right gaps, not communicating and bad spacing will always end up bad for a defense. At the same clip, there is NO WAY that Kahlil Mack should be lined up against a wide receiver on the outside, which happened twice last Sunday. This defense needs utilize its players correctly. Whether that is going to 4-3 looks or blitzing more, it is something the coaches need to be creative with. There is too much talent to squander it. The entire team needs to use the long road trip (staying in Florida for 2 weeks) to get themselves together and become closer as a family before coming back home to a very tough stretch. 

The game against the Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday is not going to be an easy one. Black Bortles and the weapons he has, is nothing to underestimate. They have small, fast receivers just like all of the teams who have torched the Raiders in the passing game. Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns are both great players who can speed past anybody in our secondary. And that's not even mentioning the young speedster Denard Robinson.  In this case, this could actually work well for the Raiders. Against an Alex Smith ran offense in the Chiefs, the key was to shut down the short and intermediate routes. The Raiders couldn't do that at all which is why they got beat down. Against the Jaguars, however, that is exactly what this defense needs to do. They cannot let the Jags throw over the top and get big chunks of yardage. That is their bread and butter and will keep attacking over the top until it works. Keep these small receivers in front and stop them for short gains and it will frustrate that offense. They don't have much of a running game so look for the Raiders to actually be able to hold them back a little on the ground. This can also be a Kahlil Mack breakout game. Bortles loves to sit back in the pocket like a statue and wait for his quick receivers to finish their long developing routes. Mack must take advantage of how long he holds the ball and get him on the ground. If the defense plays like they have recently, though, this will end up being a shootout, which isn't the worst thing for this Raiders offense.

Derek Carr is showing (sans last week) that he can be an elite QB in the NFL and this week, he needs to take another step forward. The defense hasn't been reliable and has consistently given up a ton of yards and points. The Jags defense isn't great though. Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper should have a field day with this secondary and both should end up with a touchdown. This could be the game where we get a top notch performance from both receivers in the same game for the first time all year. The running game needs to have some production. Even if only to keep the defense guessing. If any of the 4 backs they have can get going, the Raiders could win handily.

This will not be an easy game for the Silver and Black, but they should be able to win in yet another, nail biter of a game at the end. Carr will lead the team at the end of the game for a touchdown to lead the game and the Raiders win a close one.

 

My Prediction: Raiders 35, Jaguars 32