It’s an exciting time of the year. We’ve seen six weeks of action and 30 teams remain with one goal in mind – to win the PSAL Class A city championship. Coaches and officials will meet early Thursday evening to decide on the parings and brackets.
I couldn’t wait that long, so I created my own list of where each club will end up. Keep in mind, this isn’t what I expect the brackets to look like, but how, Ii was in charge, I would pick them.
Here they are:
1. Martin Luther King Jr. (12-0-0, Manhattan A)
2. Francis Lewis (10-0-2, Queens A East)
3. Columbus (10-1-1, Bronx A)
4. Tottenville (12-1-1, Staten Island A)
5. Lehman (9-0-3, Bronx A)
6. Stuyvesant (7-3-2, Manhattan A)
7. Beacon (8-4-0, Manhattan A)
8. James Madison (8-1-3, Brooklyn A West)
9. John Adams (10-2-0, Queens A West)
10. Curtis (11-2-1, Staten Island A)
11. Bayside (8-3-1, Queens A East)
12. Fort Hamilton (8-2-2, Brooklyn A West)
13. Bronx Science (7-4-1, Bronx A)
14. Susan Wagner (10-2-2, Staten Island A)
15. Erasmus Hall (9-2-1, Brooklyn A Central)
16. John Bowne (6-4-2, Queens A East)
17. Julia Richman (5-5-2, Manhattan A)
18. Newtown (6-4-2, Queens A West)
19. William Bryant (6-4-2, Queens A West)
20. Lincoln (7-3-2, Brooklyn A West)
21. Newcomers (5-5-2, Queens A West)
22. Cardozo (5-4-3, Queens A East)
23. Brooklyn Tech (5-5-2, Brooklyn A West)
24. Tilden (8-3-1, Brooklyn A Central)
25. Boys & Girls (6-5-1, Brooklyn A Central)
26. New Dorp (7-7-0, Staten Island A)
27. DeWitt Clinton (4-4-4, Bronx A)
28. South Shore (6-4-2, Brooklyn A Central)
29. FDR (5-5-2, Brooklyn A West)
30. Brooklyn International (5-5-2, Brooklyn A Central)
Since there are no crossover games and few non-league matches, soccer seedings are extremely difficult to create. I made these selections based on borough and divisional strength, and whom I feel is the better team based on quality wins and personal experience.
The top is a no-brainer. Three-time defending champion MLK went undefeated, at 12-0-0, in Manhattan A, arguably the city’s best division. Francis Lewis has won Queens A East four years in a row and is best suited, with his bevy of athletic finishers, to knock off the Knights.
Two-time Bronx A champion Columbus comes in third, Staten Island A winner Tottenville is fourth and Lehman, who finished second in the Bronx despite no league losses, is fifth.Obviously, I’m high on the Bronx, which was solid from top to bottom.
While the Pirates did lose their last matcch, to Curtis on Monday, Staten Island was the third best borough, in my opinion, in the city, behind Manhattan and the Bronx, and Tottenville handled that mine field with aplomb. Lehman, too, is talented and skilled up front and at midfield, although Pat Straw’s club does have questions in net with Mendim Gashi.
Stuyvesant, Beacon, James Madison, John Adams and Curtis finish off the top 10. The two Manhattan schools could’ve gone undefeated had they not faced one another and MLK several times. Madison was the best of Brooklyn, the city’s weakest borough, and Adams, two years removed from winning the ‘B,’ didn’t have a formidable foe in Queens A West, which explains the division winners’ low slots. The Warriors looked very impressive in handling Tottenville its first league loss on Monday. Coach Joyce Simonson’s club, which bowed out in the quarterfinals to Columbus last season, could make an extended run this November.
If not for a late-season injury to keeper Constantine Pougiouklidis, Bayside wouldn’t have dropped matches to Cardozo and John Bowne, and likely could’ve found itself in the top 10. But the young Commodores are nevertheless dangerous, now that Pougiouklidis is healthy. Ditto for No. 14 Susan Wagner, who has an elite keeper (Steven Shirokikh) and top-notch forward (Alfonso Castaneda), and can create havoc in the early rounds. I also like No. 17 Julia Richman. The Panthers play in Manhattan A, so they have experience against the best competition, and tied Stuyvesant twice.
By tomorrow night, we’ll know how right – or, to be more accurate – wrong I am.
