Soccer: SLU vs MO St

[SLUBALLS]

Nothing much to report as the game was literally a battle between both 18s with little exciting offensive play. Some notes from memory:

- Lineup was different this go around: Shack in goal; Briggs at LB, Van and Dice at CB, Brown at RB; Roeckle at LM, Sito, Robson, and Newport at CMa; Mags at RM; Estes up top. Definetely a lineup we haven't seen much before. Our wide middies were certainly not of the Wynn/Diraimondo/Patterson type and didn't generate much although Mags had a nice look in the first half and Roeckle did serve in a couple dangerous balls in the second.

- Briggs sucked at left back. He didn't really get beat but his distribution was horrible....most of the time it was a long ball which became a turnover. He looked uncomfortable out on the wing.

- Newport was a nice surprise in the middle, working his butt off to provide an outlet and doing a good job of maintaining possession.

- Sito was a non-factor. I wasn't sure why he wasn't seeing more of the ball. You knew Newport was out there but Sito was a ghost.

- Second half saw Adnan and Sweetin come on. Sweetin is a player - while not an outright physical presence, he's got speed and skill which makes him stand out. Adnan worked much more off the ball but if we are going to serve long balls to him as a target, he needs McBride to come back to town to show him how to time his jumps to win the ball.

[bsheldon]

As bad as our LB was--he looked great compared to our RB in the first half. (neither were stellar) a coupleof old soccer guys in the stands next me kept saying, "The wing backs are terrible. They aren't doing anything constructive." He settled down a bit and got better as the game wore on, but the play was on his side of the field for most of time in ther first half and about 75% of the time he touched it--we lost possession. He made one real nice long ball forward, but beyond that, it wasn't good. I was shocked he returned for the second half. He played much better after the break, though.