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gomez, edu and bornstein all in the starting lineup: altidore - gomez dempsey - edu - bradley - donovan bornstein - bocanegra - demerit - cherundolo howard

Talked with a friend on the track & cc team and apparently the track will be finished for the spring season, there will be concessions & bleachers and it will have the necessary pits for field events (we will be able to host meets). That's the good news. however, he said that in the plans he saw, the field was grass... my bad about the earlier fieldturf info, but our club soccer captain was told at meetings that it would be fieldturf. so i'm not sure what the final product will be.

The vandy field is still terrible and only gets worse as each year goes by. they have resodded the field once a year for the past four years (probably expensive, but i don't know the actual cost). It is grossly inadequate, especially if slu doesn't want to properly maintain it throughout the year. They are putting in a FieldTurf field (rather than astroturf) at the new complex which is a great surface, very durable, practical and generally cost effective. Field hockey, club sports and intramurals would all be able to use this type of field without needing to worry about how badly it rained or how torn up it is (major problems with a grass field). It would be a bit odd if pits and other field implements are not placed within the complex, although i'm not sure if this is for anything more than practice at this point. Upgrades will have to be made if it is to be a venue for competition (concessions, etc). Also, it is sad that we lack on campus tennis courts, and seems as if they would be rather simple to plop down somewhere around campus.

there wasn't an offside reported in the post game info. bob bradley and donovan both indicated they were never told what the call actually was in post game interviews. either way, there was no offsides, as the only player who could have possibly construed as being offsides (bradley) was also being fouled and was not part of the play!!! great goal by edu, great service by donovan, terrible call by the ref. there could have been at least 3 different penalty calls on the play too (dempsey was in a headlock, jozy was wrapped up and bradley was the recipient of a bear hug).

the Brazil match is anecdotal evidence in support of the exception. I've seen altidore play for the past few years and he basically posts up his defender in the final third. he's also good at turning from that position and going toward goal. he's good in the air as well. he's not always the best distributor back to his midfield support, but he does hold the ball, shields well and plays well with the other forward (especially when it was he and davies). he has also recently developed the ability to get by his man with the dribble, making him a better all around contributor up top. he and buddle could play well together, but with bradley's infatuation with speed i see findley getting the nod. however, recent media speculation states that buddle doesn't perform well as a sub (whereas findley can), and that fact alone may garner him the start. all in all, our forwards have all been finding the goal lately, which is a promising sign for our tournament chances, regardless of the pairing bradley chooses. torres can't compete physically with most midfielders, but height is relatively unimportant in central midfield (makelele, pirlo, xavi & iniesta all succeed as little guys in the center of the pitch) - he'll be using his feet most of the game. the English midfield will probably outplay whoever is in there. we are going to have to counterattack to win the game and defend for 90 min, any possession we have will greatly improve our chances, and torres is a great ball possession midfielder (*for an American). IF our backline comes together, this will be a dangerous team.

Buddle and Altidore provide the same skills (target forward) as one another, and will probably not be on the field together. I see findley as the starter along with jozy (unless he can't play bc of injury). First game, we'll probably see buddle start and altidore come in to provide a late spark, see how healthy he is (only if we need a goal). Think of Gomez as a (very) poor man's Inzhagi - little apparent value or skill, but he finds the back of the net - and he'll probably see the least min of any attacker who made the team. Midfield, certainly donovan, dempsey and bradley will be on the field,and the fourth will be a wildcard depending on which side of the bed coach wakes up on that morning. edu or clark if he wants to focus on counterattacking, torres, feilhaber or holden if he wants to play a possession game. I think we're better if we don't have clark or edu in there, and would rather wait until we are trying to protect the lead to give them time. In back, boca will be on the left, spector on the right and then demerit in the middle with gooch (if healthy). If he can't play, i wouldn't be surprised to see goodson in there, as he has played the best of our back-up defenders lately. Bornstein has played himself onto the bench, and cherundolo might play if bradley doesn't trust goodson enough and then move bocanegra into the middle. Beasley hopefully stays on the bench the whole time (see WC '06, CC '09), barring injuries. Howard is the man in goal, not sure why we brought 3 keepers, although it seems to be a common trend lately (i would have rather brought another forward, such as ching)

RM says that Jensen is recruiting a big-time European player. Any ideas on who that might be?

And hopefully he is.

Just reading into his willingness to give up the go-to role on a bad team, sit out a year and then come in to a team where he won't be the most talented player. I could be wrong, but it just doesn't seem like something a guy who thinks he's a superstar would do.

To me he sounds like what we all wanted JR to be, but he has actually proven his ability to do that at the D-1 level. Also seems like he'll be content as a role player on a winning team.

i don't know where the "attack" description came from. seems like a complete fabrication at this point, from what i know about the situation

According to ESPN he is a good student, Gatorade POY in Minn. and rated 92. Sounds like a guy we wouldn't mind having Noreen, that is

The Majoks are both still available, although I couldn't see us adding two bigs, as we all of a sudden need a guard. But crazier things have happened.

He's carrying my fantasy team

Good info, I'll just add-on to it: It's also not a dorm, rather they are groups of apartment buildings. The assault probably happened outside, and could easily have been committed by non-students. However, lots of students were out and about last night, not all of them sober... I think it is too early to make judgments about what exactly happened and who did it, especially with little to no evidence that SLU athletes were involved in any way.

Now tell me: Which one is Andre Miller, which one Jordair Jett? Also, both are 6'2" and weigh 200lbs...

Anthony Virdure, on the all-frosh team is a legit player. I've seen him ranked as high as top-40 by some sites in his class. My younger brother has been playing against him since 6th grade, and this kid could hit pull-up 3's even at that age. He looks like he'll get taller too (big hands, feet & long arms), is a tremendous athlete and a very nice person. Not necessarily saying we need to recruit him, but he'll play D-I ball and probably at a high level. Wouldn't mind seeing him in Billiken Blue if he continues to develop as expected.

Bottom line is that RM has wanted this guy for 2 years. You have to think he'll be able to contribute in a significant way at some point in his career. I'm guessing he'll never avg over 10pts but will drop dimes like a mad man. On a related note, I believe he will win the Most-Often-Compared-to-Andre-Miller Award (a secret post-season honor handed out by Rickma), and thereby decrease the amount of time required to become intoxicated while playing the Billikens.com drinking game

CR's pretty close. once a game at the 16 minute mark in the first half. every time

This was the only thought in this post i didn't think was spot on. We're kind of projecting the stereotypical soft foreign big man image onto Rob Loe, and while it may often be accurate, having watched Loe's play for NZ at the U-19 tourney, he is excellent at finding his man and boxing out on the defensive glass (as can be seen in the highlights on the FIBA website). I am really hoping he continues to be as fundamentally sound in this aspect of his game, and see no reason as to why he wouldn't.

np. Yeah, if willie beefs up a bit, he'll be a little smaller but still have decent size, plus possess superior skill and athleticism, imo. hope he can add to his already impressive abilities

Just thought that given the rumors about Willie, it was relevant.

Larry Sanders, VCU's big, is entering the draft.

Note a local guy who some people had wanted at SLU just got into trouble. Hopefully this is not indicative of his character, but still, not good press for someone looking to get back into elite level college basketball. http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=431019

French Guiana? They wouldn't want to be left out