courtside

5 St. Louisans were represented in the Stanford vs Michigan State Elite 8 game. 4 starters. Stanford Freshmen Caroline Birkel and Lilly Freer. Michigan State Senior Maggie Illig. Sophomore Kayleigh McPherson, Freshman Addison Baldus. Caroline Birkel was a top 10 national recruit, and several year USYNT goalkeeper in multiple age groups. She was the ACC Goalkeeper of the Year as a Freshman. She played club soccer for Scott Gallagher (SLSG). She won 2 ECNL National Titles at U16 and U17. She attended MICDS but she did not play high school soccer. Lily Freer was a club teammate of Caroline Birkel. She played the central defensive midfield. A very highly recruited player, She is an example of an under ranked player at the club level. But coaches know. Lilly played one year of high school soccer at Alton High School before playing club only the next 3. Maggie Illig was a First Team All Big Ten Center Back for Michigan State. That’s a long way from initially being a D2 recruit out of high school and club ball. Once Grand Valley State head coach (Jeff Hosler) received the Michigan State head coaching position, he brought Maggie with him to East Lansing. Maggie was a Megan Link recruit. She played high school soccer at Troy Buchanan. And she played club soccer at Sporting STL, now STLDA. She played in 81 games at Michigan State, starting 66. Two Sweet 16’s, and an Elite 8, and 2 Big Ten Championships. All Region player. Kaleigh McPherson, a Sophomore has been a two year starter in the central defensive midfield for the Spartans. She was also an SLSG club player who played up in the 05 age group. She played one year of high school soccer at St. Dominic High School, before playing club only the next 3 seasons. Another Megan Link recruit. Addison Baldus, a 6 foot center back, helped lead her team to 2 high school state titles at O’Fallon High IL School. And, she played in several Girls Academy Final Fours, winning a national championship with Lou Fusz Megan Link recruit.

Lol. Next rime you may want to also include the posts and messages sent towards me by the same person. Good luck with that. This is what people post that are unable to post the topic. 3 games today. 5 tomorrow.

College Cup Final Four in Kansas City, Friday: Stanford vs Duke Florida State vs Vanderbilt or TCU ……………… End of an emotional and resilient season for Washington. Starting goalkeeper Mia Hamant was diagnosed with a rare Kidney Cancer in April. (RMC) playing for Mia, the Huskies went out and won both the Big Ten regular season title, and they won the Big Ten Conference Tournament too. Washington won the Big Ten Tourney title just 3 days after Mia sadly passed away after her 7 month cancer battle. Mia was 21 years old. Mia attended every game. She was an Academic All District performer, and the Big 10 Sportsmanship Award Winner. In 2024, as a starter, Mia recorded the 3rd lowest goal against average in Washington program history., 0.66. She was 3rd in the country in save percentage/ she made 75 saves. A Corte Madera, Bay area native, Mia was also a softball player at the prep level. In the NCAA Tournament, the Huskies went on to defeat Big Sky champ Montana, SEC Champ Arkansas, and ACC power Virginia, before falling in the Elite 8 at Duke.

Bryant scout Bryant is very good. Their only two losses this season were to defending national champion, Vermont. The Bulldogs will often play a 4–2-3-1 with a willingness to tweak it. Bryant can and does adapt their style of play to their opponent. They can play a wide open offensive game. They can also play effectively in a closely guarded style. They have one of the better offenses and one of the best defenses nationally. But they defend first. They like to build wide and play through their two dynamic wing players, Mamadi Jiana, and Jaime Amaro, especially Jiana. If they can’t build from the back centrally, which is also something they do, they will reverse the ball uo the line with long balls to Jiana. Those end up as quick wide service or quick combination centrally with Rodriguez and Pitarch Bayot. Paco Fernandez and Santiago Blasco Gomez control the middle. Fernandez is a playmaker there. Many teams try to take away Pitarch Bayot and the central midfielders, which allows 1v1 matchups wide and in space for Jiana and Amaro, etc… Their back line is effective at supporting set pieces. Talabi is particularly dangerous on set pieces. There will be plenty of testing of SLU’s outside backs wide down the line. Bryant will also move players around on the field in different positions, as does SLU. Wings will switch sides, forwards with drop to midfield. outside backs will slide over to center back. Talabi, Dias, Jacobs, Merritt anchor the rock solid back. Carvalho is another good experienced keeper with 6’5 size. Bryant is an older experienced team. 22 players are Seniors or Graduate students. Many are their starters and best players. Deep team, they have 2nd 11. Umar scored his first goal of the season in the win over Seton Hall. Seton Hall is very defensive style of team that does not bring high pressure. They were willing to let Bryant have the ball at midfield. They forced Bryant to play the lines and width of the field by overloading and collapsing the middle. Bryant is also a defensive team that will play possession in that type of situation. But they will play other styles depending on how the game and opponent presents itself. They are used to cold weather games on turf in the New England area and the Northeast. Conditions will be relatively mild, all things considered, for the game. ……………… The team took 2 flights Friday. We were happy to be part of the different groups hosting players for Thanksgiving. ………………

It’s not a both sides thing.

Lol.

Gaslighting distractions 101. This is what people do that can’t discuss the topic or facts. If you want to post something, post it.

Projection is alive and well. Jealousy and cutting corners. You can have one but not the other. Otherwise you will just repeat the same cycle like a malignant narcissist until the end of time, manufacturing imaginary rivalries out of thin air. It’s your jealousy, that causes you to follow around my posts on the board. I read and post in a handful of threads here. It’s your cutting corners as to why you don’t have the content to post more information. So, you essentially have to choose between being jealousy and cutting corners. Jealousy and cutting corners is what led to you and Pete plagiarizing in the first place. I will give you the same advice that I gave Brian. Maybe spend less time doing the above, and maybe spend more time building relationships with coaches, players, families, SLU admin, boosters, school board, those that fly people to games and other events, etc…if you are jealous of information provided by others. And that information is free, no monthly fee, no advertisers to promote, no people or titles to promote. No podcast bot, No additional podcast handles. Just sharing information for anyone and everyone, even for the same few trolls and haters. Seems like a steal for everyone here. That’s why I’n here. Geldmacher and Brian are big boys. Geldmacher lied. He made up a story out of thin air. He then lied two more times about two additional things. Many others posted in those threads too, and on those topics at the same time. I didn’t mention any of them because they didn’t fabricate stories. They simply posted the topic. You would rather believe his lies because your jealousy is getting the better of you. Some others would quietly rather have the truth. If Geldmacher keeps lying, I will keep pointing it out. No one is forcing him to make up stories and “alternative facts” as another poster mentioned. That’s more of a question for Geldmacher It’s interesting that the same few people keep mentioning Brian’s last name. I keep saying Brian because that is Brian’s username. I think even Brian would tell you that the cat has been out of the bag for many years now. It’s okay. Brian brought all of it upon himself. Like you, he can’t help himself with his petty posts. Maybe you can help Brian be more supportive of SLU’s Women’s sports teams, since you're buds and all. That’d be great. You would have thought that would have happened by now after 25 years. Every good faith poster is welcome regardless of level of knowledge or interest in a topic as long as they respect others and the topic. Seems simple enough. Some things are bad. Fabricating stories is bad, sexism is bad, xenophobia and racism are bad, and so on. I will probably point out those things too if and when I see them here or elsewhere. It’s also pretty easy to ignore posters or threads too. I read, and, I post in, a handful of threads here. Imagine if I posted 20% of what I know instead of 10%. Imagine if I decided to post information in the Men’s basketball threads. So again, it’s jealousy and cutting corners. You post in a lot of threads and you even have your own threads. I’m not in those threads chasing your posts. You keep coming to me. Maybe ignoring posters or threads would help you. Maybe putting in the work it requires to build long term relationships with the above mentioned people to obtain more information would help you. Maybe just focusing on the topics regardless of other posters would help you. Otherwise you will just keep repeating this never ending cycle. Your choice. Just like it was last month, last year, and before that etc…What’s the old saying? Few things are less productive than complaint without change. Changing with new information happens every day in life. It’s a very normal thing. So you have to ask yourself, are you here for SLU Athletics, or are you here for a one sided imaginary competition in your head with me? Enjoy the Santa Clara game.

Maybe spend less time bashing your SLU Athletic Department colleagues, superiors, players, families, coaches, boosters, here. There’s not a lot of honor in that Brian. For someone that has worked in the SLU Athletic Department the past 25 years, you sure are last to know about a lot of things there. Maybe spend some of the time you spend here, building better relationships with the above mentioned people, and you wouldn’t be last to know so often. As for the mentioned topic, the reasons he gave were incorrect. The relationship with the coach was incorrect. The style of play of multiple schools was incorrect. His speculation was 100% off base. You even work some of the SLU Women’s Soccer games. But almost all of your posts here are about only the Men’s team.

Jordan was asked to change positions out of need. She is an attacking wing/forward. She switched to outside back on defense in order to help the team. No fuss. Team player. Not only that, she spent this past Summer in Colorado playing Summer Ball, just to play with and against high level players, to improve her game at a new position. Some were USYNT players, Jordan has been one of the leaders on SLU ‘s team. She is often one of the players who hosted SLU recruits because they were in good hands with Jordan. She also was asked to live with and mentor multiple new SLU players too. She is also an excellent student, All District Academic Team. Jordan was a stand out player at Scott Gallagher and at Collinsville High School, a highly decorated player. She gave SLU a rotation player, and depth at multiple positions. New roster limits mean more difficult situations. Illinois State is an on the rise program with newer HC Raleigh DeRose. She was a long time assistant at Brown, including when SLU played them a few seasons ago. Good luck to Jordan. It’s a chance to play more. Good get for Illinois State.

Yes to your first sentence. Both things are true. You project your discomfort with females in many posts under multiple accounts. Watching Women’s professional soccer? Try SLU Women’s Soccer first. This is a SLU message board. Good people. Good program. Plenty of room on the bandwagon for everyone. Other SLU (and Men’s) Women’s sports too.

Try paragraphs next time @TheA_Bomb Did you create your account in good faith? Do you troll in good faith? Is being sexist in your post here and many elsewhere posting in good faith? You have a strange discomfort with females that you project often here. Good faith? Geldmacher fabricated a recruiting story that you gullibly believed. Is that good faith? When it was pointed out to Geldmacher that exhibition games don’t count as non-conference games, he considered counting them anyway instead of simply conceding. Fact. Is that good faith? That’s a lot of words for you to say Indiana did not in fact “Park the Bus” against SLU in September. Teams play a wide variety of strategies when taking a lead in games. Exhibit A is SLU. SLU plays different games different ways for different reasons. They will play Bryant much differently than they played Indiana. Now, had Geldmacher not made up a recruiting story out of thin air,………. had he not try to establish alternative facts about non-conference, games,…………had he not oddly posted that he ignores my posts while responding to many of my posts…………….. and had he genuinely posted his opinion about how teams play when leading games, there would have been potential for more productive discussion.

Baylor announced that Head Coach Michelle Lenard is receiving a contract extension. She has been a candidate with some of this cycle’s openings. Sweet 16 team this year. it took a few years but she has it going at Baylor in her 4th season. Recruiting is good. They landed two good local St. Louis players that SLU recruited, 2026 Grace White, and 2027 Leah Roberts. Prior to Baylor she was the successful head coach at D2 Dallas Baptist for 14 years .

You forgot to use the word tenuous. You’re slipping. Horns down. Yes, I am opposed to plagiarism and intentional misinformation. No one is forcing people to do those things. I was good enough to point it out. People are entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. Those are two different things. You were one of the gullible people who were duped. But instead of approaching that person you would rather let me live rent free in your head. And here I was going to post some new Men’s hoops information. But I’ll save it as demand is just too high elsewhere again. Thanks again for being a faithful reader and for bumping those threads. Your posts, are what people post, who are unable to discuss the topic.

The funny parts are some people’s reactions who lack the critical thinking skills to change with new information. You duped them. They keep coming back for more. That’s a nice little snapshot of some of America right there.