SLU Soccer 2017

[SLUBALLS]

For those that care:

• Caught the UMKC and KY exhibition games.
• Overall a lot of guys got playing time and I think there is certainly some new talent who have shown well.  There has been no standard lineup used thus far so play was very inconsistent at times.  Lots of freshman mistakes, miscommunication, poor ball movement, poor player movement, poor touches, etc.  Again, if McGinty was simply looking for who can hang and play at this level right now, he got plenty of insight the last three games.  The difference between those that couldn't and could was startling at times.
• Who stood out:  Matteo Kidd - played through the middle; very Eric Sweetin like but more dynamic; not #10-esque like Graydon was but may get there.; constantly showed for the ball.  Ben Barkley - played up top; simply looked very comfortable out there on the ball; willing to go at people; played quick; moved off the ball well.  Saadiq Mohammed - He came on in the second half in the KY game and it was clear he was different from others on the field.  Almost won in the last seconds on a free kick header.  He will be a guy we need to get the ball.  Patrick Wilkinson - played central mid and again, even though he was a freshman, simply showed really well - quick, intense, made good decisions, etc.  By the way, those four were on in the second half and you could sense the change in the play of SLU as they dominated KY.  Sasha Otte - Made a hell of a save in KY second half on a break-away one-on-one.  He can be a difference maker in terms of keeping us in games as long as the backline can do its job too.  Patrick Saar - I'm a little conflicted on him.  He seems to be a dangerous player but at times he simply looked out of control. 
• Negatives:  Again, with all the new faces and changing lineups, it's hard to pinpoint outright negatives that may  be issues the whole year.  One item that I did notice was, absent the second half of the KY game, the central midfield was simply not a creative bunch, dictating play, opening up the game, etc. Now some of this could have been due to the forward line not showing well for the ball.  But we had a lot of lateral or back passes vs balls played forward to feet or space that unlocked the opponent's back line.  Also, I do have a concern about our back line....absent Leinnart, who only played in the UMKC game when I went, nobody looked dominating back there.  Eric Davies will likely see time on the flank but I think the backline may be susceptible this year.  And the will be tested early this year because.....
• We have one hell of a start to our schedule starting with Syracuse on Friday.  And talk about a non-conference schedule.  Not sure how anyone can claim a tougher one:  Within the first seven games, we play the #1, #2, #4, #12, #18, and #23 ranked teams per collegesoccernews.com's 2017 preseason rankings.   All six will  be at Hermann so if you want to see high quality soccer, just head on down there.  SLU will be tested thoroughly.  A 3-3 record would be respectable.

[Old guy]

Sluballs, is Sasha Otte Ghanian by any chance? I had a friend in grad school from Ghana with a last name Otto. 

[Taj79]

German.  His brother/cousin was a goalie for NC State a few years back.

[Old guy]

Thank you Taj

[Tilkowsky]

Losing to UMKC 3-0 is not a good sign.

UMKC finished last year with an RPI of 197.

Their record was 2-12.

3-3 non-conference.

They will be lucky to be 1-5.

[HoosierPal]

Thanks SLUBalls for the recap. I wasn't at any of the three exhibition games, but looking at the box scores, yes, Coach was doing a lot of experimenting.  Looking forward to watching Kidd in some upcoming matches.  Also noted that Kentucky was a NCAA tourney team last year.

Noticed that TrollPants crawled out from the bog to comment.  I'm not interested enough in the comment to take him/she/it off of Ignore.  But I guarantee you it is negative; still upset about being cut as a Soccer Manager.

[SLUBALLS]

Yea, the ignore function is handy.   The more disappointing part about the UMKC game was not the first half.   The fact is it was our C squad at best, with new players, freshman, and plenty of potential to allow UMKC into the game.   Anyway, the frustrating thing was the second half saw the better players play and we couldn't get one in.   But, regardless, I am looking forward to the season, hope SLU can pull out some good wins against quality opponents, and get SLU back in the rankings picture again.  If not and if this is another down year, I am not certain McGinty will get another year.

By the way, the stadium has a bit more color with big signs all around fence lines.  Looks really good.  Now we just need a complete revamp : )

[Pistol]

On ‎8‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 8:46 AM, SLUBALLS said:

• We have one hell of a start to our schedule starting with Syracuse on Friday.  And talk about a non-conference schedule.  Not sure how anyone can claim a tougher one:  Within the first seven games, we play the #1, #2, #4, #12, #18, and #23 ranked teams per collegesoccernews.com's 2017 preseason rankings.   All six will  be at Hermann so if you want to see high quality soccer, just head on down there.  SLU will be tested thoroughly.  A 3-3 record would be respectable.

I'd take 3-3, no question, but how likely do you think that is?

[Tilkowsky]

22 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Thanks SLUBalls for the recap. I wasn't at any of the three exhibition games, but looking at the box scores, yes, Coach was doing a lot of experimenting.  Looking forward to watching Kidd in some upcoming matches.  Also noted that Kentucky was a NCAA tourney team last year.

Noticed that TrollPants crawled out from the bog to comment.  I'm not interested enough in the comment to take him/she/it off of Ignore.  But I guarantee you it is negative; still upset about being cut as a Soccer Manager.

Never wanted to be Soccer Manager - don't know where you got that.

 

unfortunately you are a typical SLU soccer fan - not willing to call for McGinty's firing since he has been a disaster as a coach.

What has it been seven years and three NCAA tournament appearances?

My how the mighty sure have fallen and the standards have sunk to new lows.

That is not negative that is reality.

[prebilliken]

23 hours ago, SLUBALLS said:

Yea, the ignore function is handy.   The more disappointing part about the UMKC game was not the first half.   The fact is it was our C squad at best, with new players, freshman, and plenty of potential to allow UMKC into the game.   Anyway, the frustrating thing was the second half saw the better players play and we couldn't get one in.   But, regardless, I am looking forward to the season, hope SLU can pull out some good wins against quality opponents, and get SLU back in the rankings picture again.  If not and if this is another down year, I am not certain McGinty will get another year.

By the way, the stadium has a bit more color with big signs all around fence lines.  Looks really good.  Now we just need a complete revamp : )

Agreed on all fronts. Thank you for the recap. Oh how I would love for SLU soccer to be good again. 

Cool news on the stadium, I wish we could get more than one instagram post highlighting the changes. 

[prebilliken]

Something else I just realized, all these games against such stiff opponents are at home. It will be interesting to see if the boys can capitalize. Let's Go Bills!  

[cheeseman]

1 hour ago, prebilliken said:

Something else I just realized, all these games against such stiff opponents are at home. It will be interesting to see if the boys can capitalize. Let's Go Bills!  

Will they have to do a return game like in basketball?

[prebilliken]

4 hours ago, cheeseman said:

Will they have to do a return game like in basketball?

I have zero idea on that. I know that there was an article about the schedule a while back, I'm sure I can find out. 

[philliken]

Tough one to swallow tonight. SLU went up 1-0 on #8 Syracuse in the ~72nd minute. Our Memphis trasfer Krupp scored. Syracuse tied it up in the ~81st minute and won it on a golden goal in the 95th.  Good effort against a great team, but when you're up late at home, it hurts to lose an opportunity for a marque win. Another chance on Sunday night against Mich St.

go Bills!

[prebilliken]

5 minutes ago, philliken said:

Tough one to swallow tonight. SLU went up 1-0 on #8 Syracuse in the ~72nd minute. Our Memphis trasfer Krupp scored. Syracuse tied it up in the ~81st minute and won it on a golden goal in the 95th.  Good effort against a great team, but when you're up late at home, it hurts to lose an opportunity for a marque win. Another chance on Sunday night against Mich St.

go Bills!

That is tough. 

Thank you for the recap. Were you there tonight? Outside of the loss, how did we look? 

[philliken]

Couldn't be there. Was following online so can't speak to how we 'looked'. The online updates were pretty sporadic, which was frustrating to say the least. Especially since there were zero updates from our goal until the 90th minute. Was waiting for the W only to see we were headed to OT. Rest of info came from box scores and the write up on slubillikens site.

[Tilkowsky]

9 hours ago, philliken said:

Tough one to swallow tonight. SLU went up 1-0 on #8 Syracuse in the ~72nd minute. Our Memphis trasfer Krupp scored. Syracuse tied it up in the ~81st minute and won it on a golden goal in the 95th.  Good effort against a great team, but when you're up late at home, it hurts to lose an opportunity for a marque win. Another chance on Sunday night against Mich St.

go Bills!

A shame they lost. Not a good sign that they couldn't close up shop and get the win.

[Billy Ken]

I understand why men's soccer schedules a tough nonconference schedule BUT I have no idea why they do it with this current program??? Last night was depressing to say the least. One of the most demoralizing games I've ever been to. The A10 isn't the ACC or even the MVC as far as "tougher" soccer conferences go. The goal should be to build teams capable of mowing through the A10 as a given each year and win conference tournament then you don't have to worry about being a punching bag because of RPI. I keep hoping for things to get better but the more lost seasons the more this program keeps sliding off to being more and more irrelevant. That's not just my opinion that's what the majority of former SLU players think as well. Hope things turn around soon.

[kmbilliken]

How long has the current coach been here? It seems they have been about the same for a while without much upward movement. Is this no longer a program that can attract a top coach or are we not willing to pay the price to get one?

[Tilkowsky]

McGinty has been at SLU seven years.

This is his eighth season.

They have been to the tournament twice.

Not a good record at all.

Problem is they can't recruit against Power 5 conferences.

Good coaches know this and that is why really good coaches don't want to come to SLU.

The fact that McGinty is still here shows the school's administration doesn't really care about soccer. McGinty should have been gone three years ago.

 

 

 

[Clock_Tower]

14 hours ago, Billy Ken said:

I understand why men's soccer schedules a tough nonconference schedule BUT I have no idea why they do it with this current program??? Last night was depressing to say the least. One of the most demoralizing games I've ever been to. The A10 isn't the ACC or even the MVC as far as "tougher" soccer conferences go. The goal should be to build teams capable of mowing through the A10 as a given each year and win conference tournament then you don't have to worry about being a punching bag because of RPI. I keep hoping for things to get better but the more lost seasons the more this program keeps sliding off to being more and more irrelevant. That's not just my opinion that's what the majority of former SLU players think as well. Hope things turn around soon.

What skills of players and style of play will mow down the A10  each year other than building the best program you can - best coach, best recruits...?  What skills are needed to mow down the A10 as opposed to beat Top 20 teams? Compete with ACC?

Did SLU basketball do this?  Is Coach Ford and are Goodwin and French A10 guys?  Seems like they are best available who happen to be competing in the A10  

Pretty obvious to me that McGinty is better at running his program than Jim Crews was but that he is  no Bob Warming.  A change is long overdue 

 

 

 

 

i

 

 

[Clock_Tower]

5 minutes ago, Tilkowsky said:

McGinty has been at SLU seven years.

This is his eighth season.

They have been to the tournament twice.

Not a good record at all.

Problem is they can't recruit against Power 5 conferences.

Good coaches know this and that is why really good coaches don't want to come to SLU.

The fact that McGinty is still here shows the school's administration doesn't really care about soccer. McGinty should have been gone three years ago.

 

 

 

Akron is not a Power 5 school. Other examples too.

Of course Power 5 have bigger budgets and advantages but not every Piower 5 coach and program is good 

I do not believe McGinty is  even the top soccer mind in town much less a top 20 coach nationwide.

[slufanskip]

I'm also of the mindset that a change is due. However, I wouldn't be just assuming this is a dead year due to 1 game against a top school that we lost in overtime. I didn't see the game so maybe the score was much closer than the game. Any idea's on who we'd want if a change was made. I've always been a Kevin Kalish fan but my understanding is he wouldn't be interested. 

I was completely on board with the McGinty hire it just hasn't produced the results I'd like. I'm not even sure the results match the talent

[Tilkowsky]

2 hours ago, Clock_Tower said:

Akron is not a Power 5 school. Other examples too.

Of course Power 5 have bigger budgets and advantages but not every Piower 5 coach and program is good 

I do not believe McGinty is  even the top soccer mind in town much less a top 20 coach nationwide.

Since 1989 only three non-Power 5 schools have won the NCAADivision I Men's Soccer Championship.

Santa Clara, UC Santa Barbara, and Akron. 

I am not just talking about competing like Akron does, I am talking about winning the whole thing. Something SLU hasn't done since 1973. They haven't been to College Cup since 1997.

The idea about winning the whole thing has vanished from SLU.

Akron also has a football program, I would bet their soccer budget is bigger than SLU's.

[Tilkowsky]

2 hours ago, Clock_Tower said:

What skills of players and style of play will mow down the A10  each year other than building the best program you can - best coach, best recruits...?  What skills are needed to mow down the A10 as opposed to beat Top 20 teams? Compete with ACC?

Did SLU basketball do this?  Is Coach Ford and are Goodwin and French A10 guys?  Seems like they are best available who happen to be competing in the A10  

Pretty obvious to me that McGinty is better at running his program than Jim Crews was but that he is  no Bob Warming.  A change is long overdue 

 

 

 

 

i

 

 

It honestly shouldn't take that much talent to consistently win the A-10.

If I remember correctly SLU was the only A-10 team to finish with a sub-100 RPI last year.

That means the conference isn't very good at soccer.