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Zink

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Posts posted by Zink

  1. Altidore did have a 'stomach ailment' that put his status in question earlier in the week (I think he missed a practice, too), but looks like he's good to go today. I'm with you guys, I don't get the Altidore haters. He's a big part of US Soccer's future.

    With Findley unable to go, I'd also like to see Dempsey slide up front with Altidore and Edu take his midfield spot. I would have to think after the disallowed goal Edu is a guy you want on the field.

    Does anyone know a good spot downtown to sneak out and catch some of the game? My office is at Broadway and Chestnut.

    gomez, edu and bornstein all in the starting lineup:

    altidore - gomez

    dempsey - edu - bradley - donovan

    bornstein - bocanegra - demerit - cherundolo

    howard

  2. 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.

  3. I think they are going way too stingy on this project.

    I like the idea of developing the surrounding area of the Med Campus, but I think the track and intramural field is a little out of place. I'd rather see a nicer student center and apartments for graduate students, med students, and even upperclassmen who are in Doisy College.

    I am a big believer in SLU making a big investment in buying up a warehouse either behind Reinert somewhere on Forest Park Ave. or somewhere in the Valley under the bridge. This could fit in with the Chouteau Greenway project that may happen in this area. They could really use additional training facilities, a track, tennis courts, and Field Hockey fields.

    The image of the track had no stands and no indoor facility for bathrooms, concessions, and storage. If they want to have track meets there they are going to need more than they are showing there. They need a shot put area, javelin area, storage for pull vault pads, long jump area, etc. I'm assuming the artists diagram was very preliminary, but as shown, this isn't impressive even for a high school facility.

    I really doubt it will get nearly the amount of use on that end of campus as it would somewhere closer to the main campus. I would estimate that it will get 1/8 as much use. And the astroturf athletic field in the middle of the track is a WASTE OF MONEY. The grass intramural soccer field on the corner of Laclede and Vandy has really come along. Now the grass has established itself, its quite a nice facility. Most students show up 5 minutes late to intramural games. If they move the intramural soccer field so that its a 15 minute walk from campus most students won't show up. Think practical. These are college students we are talking about.

    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.

  4. wow. i take that back. maybe it was offsides. i did not know that they line refs put the flag up.

    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).

  5. I agree wtih most of what you are saying but sorry you haven't watched enough of Altidore if you think he is a target forward. He NEVER handles any type of pressure well when his back is to the goal. Did you see the Turkish players dismantle him when he had his back to him? He literally goes limp when someone is on his back and loses just about every head ball that comes his way from downfield. Remember Brazil in the Confederations Cup? Buddle has to serve this role.

    Torres.... I like what he brings in but you have to take into account that what he will be able to do at five-five versus a central midfield pairing of Gerrard and Lampard. They could make him look like a little kid out there and completely shut him down.

    If I'm going into the England game, I'm thinking about one thing: keep the goals against down as low as possible. To do that, you need two things: strong defense and just enough up top to keep the English defense honest. I'm more worried about the set pieces for England more than anything else. We have looked incredibly shaky on set pieces; recent example being Cahill running right past Dempsey for his goal off a corner kick during last weekend's friendly. If we can't handle the smallest guy on the field on a corner kick, what are we going to do with Crouch?

    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.

  6. I'd rather see Findley come off the bench late and use his speed to stretch the defense when it might be more tired. Dempsey seems more comfortable in the midfield and seems to be more of a playmaker there. I like Buddle up top with Altidore.

    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)
  7. Maybe he wants to win and didn't feel like he could do that at Toledo. Leaving a poor team to come to a team where he sees a chance to win doesn't mean he's satisfied to be a role player. Maybe he feels he's good enough to be a leader on a winning team.

    And hopefully he is.
  8. why do you assume he'll be content to be a role player?

    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.

  9. sounds like KC, which could be good or bad depending on your perspective.

    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.
  10. So I see on Scout SLU has three players listed that appear to be unsigned at this point.

    Majok Majok, that is old news.

    Kevin Noreen, a four star PF from Minnesota ---- interesting.

    Calvin Godfrey, a two star PF.

    Scouts don't show any of these as signed yet, but of course that doesn't mean they haven't. But not sure we need another forward as much as a guard. Of course we do have 5 scholarship guards and Paul Eckerle.

    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

  11. I know that RM does not save schollies, but in this case, could we really add anyone who would not have a 100% chance of getting recruited over? Jett, Loe, Evans, and McCall are being pretty much added to this team at the end of this year.

    JJ, JS, JR, and FJ are being replaced and it would really take some more really terrible luck if we had more than 3 injuries next year. The way I am looking at the line up is...

    WR

    CE

    CS

    KC

    KM

    with CR, RL, and BC coming into spell the big men and MM, Jett, Evans, coming into spell the guards.

    When you look at it like this we could use another slasher guard (Femi-like) or a 3-ball shooter.

    Is there really someone unsigned at this point who we think could help? I am thinking thThe chance is pretty small. Thoughts?

    -Nick

    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.
  12. all of the news channels said it was a student-athlete dorm, but grand forest is not just for athletes, there are a lot of non student athletes that live in those apartments. people need to stop making assumptions until all of the facts are known

    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.

  13. 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.

  14. Out of the big 3 recruiting sites (Rivals, Scout, ESPN) ESPN has the lowest pedigree and is almost definitely the worst when it comes to recruiting information. But, I like how people only mention that site when talking about ratings with Jett, because it is the one most favorable in regards to his rankings.

    Billikan,

    If you had been paying attention you would have noticed that ESPN revamped their rating scale after the 2008 recruiting class so it is just silly to compare players' 2008 ratings and 2010 recruits' ratings.

    I am very skeptical that Jett truly had an offer from Baylor at the time he committed to the Billikens. Keep in mind that Jordan apparently had offers from Texas Tech and Cincinnati according to some sources.

    I will make either or both of these bets with people:

    1) Jett does not start a game unless KM is hurt

    2) Jett transfers before his four years are done at SLU

    Jett appears to be a good finisher, strong and a good passer. But he also appears to be a poor shooter, which was an are JJ helped in last year.

    I guarantee that Jett does not put up significantly (more than one point per game or so) better stats than JJ did.

    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

  15. Like Cody, he may not be a great natural rebounder and may take some time adjusting to the physical U.S. game.

    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.
  16. I could take that guy....with the help of 108.

    Zink-it is relevant, didn't mean it to come out that way. I will be interested to see where he ends up, I think Willie has a much higher ceiling.

    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

  17. I'm guessing no program is 100% clean, even Butler and SLU. Some are worse than others. Butler seems to be a great program, but I know less about them than I do Duke.

    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

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