Soccer Stuff

[kwyjibo]

Former SLU soccer player Brian McBride at Fulham had a horrible injury (factured a bone in his knee) the previous weekend. McBride was named captain of the team this year and had just scored a nice goal when he was injured. Interestingly, there are 4 US national team former players on Fulham (McBride, Keller, Bocanegra, and Dempsey).

Somewhat Obscure Trivia: What undefeated team (so far this year in Europe) has two USNT players?

It was mentioned on the old board by Brian but I thought I would also comment on the fact that SLU is not favored to win the A-10 this year by A-10 coaches; Rhode Island is. This is interesting as SLU has got some top 20 rankings in national pre-season polls while Rhodey has not gotten any love there. I think the A-10 coaches are right though and the national polls reflect more on SLU's good season last year. SLU will be top 20 if they can score some goals but I am not sure where that is going to come from. I think (as usual) there is a lot of strength in SLU's midfield and backfield so obviously they are going to be able to play with anybody but I worry that SLU will be susceptible once again to teams with thinner talent that employ direct and counter-attack play.

Enjoy!

Blue Monday!

[Box and Won]

I went to Saturday's game against Northwestern. I thought we outplayed them for most of the game - NU got their only goal on a goal kick by the kid from Chaminade. Angus' goal was beautiful.

[slufanskip]

I was at the game also but got there late and missed SLU's goal. I got there just in time to see Northwestern's pk. Here are my thoughts

Like the last couple of years the transition from midfield to the forwards is poor, actually very poor. We still cannot string together any possession of the ball save the back line. We still want to just bang the ball long and try to make something happen, though we don't have the players up top to play that game. I will be disapointed if we continue to play a style that doesn't fit our team. With our strength in the midfield we need to work on maintaining possesion and play the ball through on the ground, either up the middle or down the wings. Barkledge was not impressive though it was only one game, he didn't appear to be the answer up front. Like KWYJBO said our defense should be solid, but I think we will still give up more goals than we should because our goaltending is average at best.

[SLUBALLS]

I was at the game also but got there late and missed SLU's goal. I got there just in time to see Northwestern's pk. Here are my thoughts

Like the last couple of years the transition from midfield to the forwards is poor, actually very poor. We still cannot string together any possession of the ball save the back line. We still want to just bang the ball long and try to make something happen, though we don't have the players up top to play that game. I will be disapointed if we continue to play a style that doesn't fit our team. With our strength in the midfield we need to work on maintaining possesion and play the ball through on the ground, either up the middle or down the wings. Barkledge was not impressive though it was only one game, he didn't appear to be the answer up front. Like KWYJBO said our defense should be solid, but I think we will still give up more goals than we should because our goaltending is average at best.

Skip, by the looks of the stats in the first half when I got there with nine minutes to go, it appeared SLU had taken it right at NW. I think it was something like 11 shots and 6-7 saves for the NW keeper. Other people around me said the first half was exciting soccer as well. Second half was very sedated; boring in my mind. Only thing that stood out to me was Charles Bryce's speed. Wow....he might as well have been at a track meet with some of those runs he made. I've heard through the grapevine that he's a walk-on Donigan wants to give a chance to simply due to his raw attributes. I think he was a teammate of Bellomy as well back in Texas.

Shots by period 1 2 Tot Saves by period 1 2 Tot

------------------------------- -------------------------------

Northwestern........ 6 1 - 7 Northwestern........ 6 1 - 7

Saint Louis......... 10 3 - 13 Saint Louis......... 1 0 - 1

[bluecrewfinance]

No matter how good the defense is, or how much you want to knock the goalkeeping, we won't win many games if we play through the attacking half of the field like we have since Vedad headed for Europe. Jimmy Holmes showed some finishing promise late last year, but he didn't have consistent minutes and didn't have much of a supporting cast.

I gues what I'm saying is...if we don't score (again) in these games, it won't matter if I'm in goal.

Those of you who were there...where did Holmes play?

[SLUBALLS]

No matter how good the defense is, or how much you want to knock the goalkeeping, we won't win many games if we play through the attacking half of the field like we have since Vedad headed for Europe. Jimmy Holmes showed some finishing promise late last year, but he didn't have consistent minutes and didn't have much of a supporting cast.

I gues what I'm saying is...if we don't score (again) in these games, it won't matter if I'm in goal.

Those of you who were there...where did Holmes play?

I'm not sure what people see in Holmes except potential at this point because he has not done anything to prove he belongs on the field. He is hurt again with a hamstring issue. I'm not knocking the guy because I want a forward who can pull off some finishing but at some point your potential slides as you lose opportunities to get in the game. Holmes has played very little thus far.

[slufanskip]

You beat me to the punch on that one about Holmes.

You can win with a very good defense, but imo our goalkeeping takes our defense down a notch.

Sluballs, I thought the kid you mentioned seemed athletic, but he looked to need alot of work. He had no touch and couldn't control a pass well enough to maintain possession. Which imo has also been a problem. It is hard to maintain possession when you have trouble gaining control of the ball.

It hurt to look at the top Mo HS players in the post this morning and see that probably the top 2 are going to Indiana. It also looked like 1 of the top 2 keepers may be going there as well.

College Soccer News had an article naming the top 100 incoming freshman to watch for the upcoming season. There were 5 players from the Metro area, not a one of them going to SLU. This is a major problem. SLU did have 1 player in the top 100 to watch. Casey Herd from Arlington Tx. I scanned the list quickly. so I may have missed someone, but the point is still the same.

This needs to change. We haven't had a National team level player since Tim Ward.

[SLUBALLS]

You beat me to the punch on that one about Holmes.

You can win with a very good defense, but imo our goalkeeping takes our defense down a notch.

Sluballs, I thought the kid you mentioned seemed athletic, but he looked to need alot of work. He had no touch and couldn't control a pass well enough to maintain possession. Which imo has also been a problem. It is hard to maintain possession when you have trouble gaining control of the ball.

It hurt to look at the top Mo HS players in the post this morning and see that probably the top 2 are going to Indiana. It also looked like 1 of the top 2 keepers may be going there as well.

College Soccer News had an article naming the top 100 incoming freshman to watch for the upcoming season. There were 5 players from the Metro area, not a one of them going to SLU. This is a major problem. SLU did have 1 player in the top 100 to watch. Casey Herd from Arlington Tx. I scanned the list quickly. so I may have missed someone, but the point is still the same.

This needs to change. We haven't had a National team level player since Tim Ward.

I'm assuming the Top 2 you are talking about are Bruin and Meyer. Haffner is also a top notch recruit going as well. The goalie you speak of is Soffner. Its certainly a coup that Indiana pulled off to get those guys. What I know is that these boys - Haffner, Bruin, Meyer - wanted to play together, had a chance to do it at a top notch program, and jumped at the opportunity. I know SLU went after at least two of them but from what I understand, Dongian didn't do anything wrong in not signing these guys. He was fighting an uphill battle and lost to a program that had more recent success than SLU. Our lack of success in the wake of Vedad, John, and Ward leaving has certainly hurt our credibility as a top-notch program and has had to of impacted our ability to get top players. Plus there are so many programs out there that no one would have dreamed 7-10 years ago would be having as much success as they are having. The competition for the elite player is that much tougher these days.

From what I understand, Bryce is a Donigan project. Yes DD sees the lack of touch but also sees a kid that could be great because of his raw athleticism, speed, size, and desire to want to get better. As a coach, it is so much more fun to develop a kid with raw potential and desire than to take a kid who's near his peak and try to squeak out just a bit more. Supposedly Bryce is PT major. Hope he can handle the workload of the program while improving his game.

[slufanskip]

I don't know specifically about those 3 guys. They are who I was talking about. I do know we missed them. We missed all 5 of local players that CSN put in the top 100 last year. It seems clear to me that we are not doing a good job of keeping the top tier Stl kids at home. It has been a problem the last few years and our results on the field the last few years show it.

I agree with your thoughts on Bryce.

[Box and Won]

Northwestern even had three St. Louisans in their starting lineup the other night.

[courtside]

Northwestern even had three St. Louisans in their starting lineup the other night.

The first half was good soccer for an early season game, on both sides. The 2nd half was not. Northwestern first of all is a very solid team and played hard and well. It wasn't Cupcake St out there, it was a top 25 team.

There were positives and negatives. Barklage set up 2-3 high level scoring opportunities out of the attacking midfield position early that were not finished by teammates. He later moved to left mid in 2nd half and wasn't a factor. He will do very well in a creative attacking midfielder role for SLU. He didn't have a lot of space to work with, showed flashes of his talent early.

Depth on the back line an issue. Gasparovic is a solid reserve player but not a starter. His penalty was the reason for the tie instead of a win, but that aside, he is the weak link in back. And, with graduation of Benne, Spiess, and Guffey, lose some size and strength back there as well, and depth. The 3 other starters in back are very good, high level players. Disbennett will play in goal which is more comforting than Kaufmann but he hasn't played a quite some time against high level teams. Marty Hutton is helping out the keepers which is a good thing.

SLU is a broken record from the past couple of years, solid back line, solid midfield, ....but they still don't have a couple of elite level finishers. So, margin for error is small, and a silly foul and penalty kick can tie a game for a road team who is working hard and playing solid.

I would disagree about SLU being any worse than last year, they will be similar...and imo that is better than Rhode Island but we'll see what happens as the season moves on.

Jimmy Holmes and Bobby Wilmering didn't dress due to injury. I would like to see Wilmering play on the back line instead of Gasparovic when healthy. Depth is thin there, so Ream will likely not be playing as much in midfield or elsewhere.

SLU was never going to get Tommy Meyer...due to Indiana allegiance, but they had a shot at Will Bruin and came up a little short.

SLU can do better than what they have been past couple of years, stabilizing as an NCAA team, a conference title team, but 1-2 round NCAA exit team. ....but with the wrong people they could also do worse.

6 solid very good starters, with small margin for error where SLU can play with almost anyone, but doesn't ahve the couple of forwards to distance themselves from other good teams. Just haven't brought in kids good enough for this level of competition.

Bryce is a project, good size, great speed, much needed on SLU's team, but little else. ....but his upside is higher than some of the forwards already on the team.

Angus' goal was first class.

[bluecrewfinance]

ok, when I typed Holmes last night, I meant Hayes. I sat next to Holmes in Sociology 101 last fall (which was awesome to take as a senior, highly recommended) and that's just what popped into my mind.

Hayes, unlike Holmes, did show some flashes of finishing ability and good breakaway speed on the flank. Most of the time, I hated to see him coming off of the bench behind Patterson. Hell, at least Hayes is FIT.

So, apologizing for my gaff, has Hayes been playing?

[slufanskip]

Hayes looks to me like he will be a solid player.

[TheA_Bomb]

I'll be at the game on FRI. Last time we beat SMU in Dallas and they then went on undefeated to the final four. We need to win this one and then go undefeated. It would be nice. We're getting quite a few DFW players on the roster so there should be some SLU fans there.