kwyjibo Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 SLU was not ranked in any of the pre-season rankings but after beating Tulsa (projected to be decent) and Va Tech they are ranked in one poll. It happens to be the most important one, the NSCAA coaches poll. They are 15th. http://www.nscaatv.com/rankings/3139/NCAADivisionI/men/Poll1 They are not ranked by Top Shelf (top 30), College Soccer News (top 30), or Soccer America but get mentioned in the receiving votes area. I will not be updating the Soccer Times coaches poll because it may very well be defuncticated. For years I have thought that Soccer America was biased toward Saint Louis but now its the coaches that took notice of the Bills opening weekend. The Massey Computer Ratings has SLU at 17th but obviously the computer needs a few more games to make this more meaningful. The good news is that Louisville (beat Maryland), Creighton (beat Stanford and Santa Clara), and Indiana (tied Georgetown and beat Marquette) all had unexpectedly strong opening weekends (although all the damage was done at home) and SLU's schedule looks a little better. Nobody has any good wins in the A-10 outside St. Louis but hopefully that changes with more opportunities. Memphis had a weak start (losing to UAB 3-1 although it was on the road) so hopefully SLU can get a road win as they will need for any future tourney hopes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billslasttermdropout Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Excellent. Like the Jefferson's, we're movin' on up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBALLS Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Hopefully Tyler David can be ready to go before we hit some of our tough out-of-conference games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBALLS Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 SLU lost 4-0 away at Memphis. Three goals in early in first half. One own goal. Looks like Gienske got a red card. Definitely concerning to see this heading into a home game with Louisville next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billslasttermdropout Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 ouch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Strauss wrote a column on David Graydon this morning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WUH Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Strauss wrote a column on David Graydon this morning I am not a fan of Strauss, but I appreciate this column. I am glad that Graydon has found a home at SLU. Hard to believe that Coach McGinty is in his fifth season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBALLS Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 SLU up early in first half 1-0 on Louisville. Tyler David with header off corner. Looks like we are playing four in the back. Maybe five in the middle with Francisco and Saar at d-mids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBALLS Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Bills WIN 1-0! Good bounce back from the debacle in Memphis. Louisville was #6 in collegesoccernews.com recent ranking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Were you at the game? If so how about a report. How about you 13? Great to see the win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBALLS Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Wasn't there but caught it online. Some observations although the camerawork was about as piss poor as you can get. They either wouldn't pan with the ball movement or they were zoomed in too close on a few players instead of backing out to see the broader field. Annoying but....: SLU looked liked they were playing a 4-5-1 with Keskamp, Mannin, David, and Karcher in back. Otte was in goal. Across the middle, it looked like Bryce, Francisco, Saar, Graydon, and Lee. And Kristo was up top. Hard to really tell exactly. The field looked to be a mess and it was obvious the ball was slick. Players were taking care of the ball Saar was playing defensive mid and looked fantastic. Made more than a few great tackles or stopped plays from progress forward. Played disciplined and distributed the ball well. Louisville pressured pretty high but David and Manning looked in control under the pressure. Goal came off a corner with David making a diagonal run across the six and nicely redirecting the ball to the back post. Louisville finished with an 11-4 advantage in shots, including a dominating 7-0 edge in the second half. Louisville controlled most of the game. We could not get sustained pressure on them and were playing more of a counter attacking style in my opinion. When we did have possession, most of it took place across the back line. Kristo was a non-factor in my opinion but that may have been due to Louisville keying in on him. Bryce was making more of an impact. Louisville had several chances in the second half where I thought they had a goal. Poor finishing, blocked shots, and a couple good saves by Otte kept them out. They were on us in the last twenty but SLU stayed tight and committed to seeing the win out with great team defending. The one concerning thing to me was the disparity in the way Louisville had forwards who would go right at our defenders into the box with speed and skill. There was a killer instinct with their forwards that we don't seem to have up top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 Good win. I will not be updating the rankings because SLU was only receiving a handful of votes across all the polls. That will likely be different next week and will update. In the computer ranking (Massey) SLU is 28th after the Louisville win. Good news on the schedule is that Creighton and Indiana is off to great starts; Tulsa beat Virginia, and George Mason is off to a good start in the A-10 (VCU has a real tough schedule and is 2-2). The A-10 is as usual a pretty weak conference overall (the top teams are good but the mid to bottom teams are bad--the only good news is that Duquesne is winning their games). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 I was there, but SLUBALLS said most of it. I'll add a little more from what I saw later today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pelican Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 I was there, too. SLUBALLS pretty much summed it up. I feel we were in control the first half with much of the possession coming out of the backfield. Starr played very well. Tyler had a nice header off the corner. The second half seemed as if we played a prevent-style defense playing not to lose. The offensive scheme was hampered since we played back most of the second half. Kristo was marked up as always but also was forced to play more D than usual. Kristo and Hildago had a nice run in the last third of the second half. Hildago was hammered and a PK most likely should have been awarded. The shot differential was the most noticeable stat to me after the game as SLUBALLS stated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBALLS Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Forgot about the non-PK call. Couldn't believe that wasn't called. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.