Men's Soccer 2019

[SLUBALLS]

1.  First goal has more to do with the two attempted slide tackles which were piss poor decision-making; stay on your feet!  The defense stayed compact in the box, keeping a shot from the top difficult.  Just pin-ball type situation with the low hard cross.

2. Agreed.  Schulte probably feels the same way.

3. That first attempt at the clearance and failure screwed up everything and got the line off balance.  Then Wilkinson steps up to and misses a tackle, leaving the goalscorer completely wide open.  I think Schulte thought the defender (one who slipped and recovered to try to block the shot) had a legit chance to block the shot.  But quality finishers finish period.  Schulte looks as if he thinks the guy will go near post vs far given his first movement once shot is fired, maybe because of the way the defender was closing down the shooter.

[moytoy12]

A proposal to split men's soccer across fall and spring semesters. 

 

[Pistol]

That absolutely needs to happen.

[billikenfan05]

Just a point of fact a large faction of the NCAA coaches have been trying to push this proposal for the better part of a decade.

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, moytoy12 said:

A proposal to split men's soccer across fall and spring semesters. 

 

While this is a current tweet, this is old news.  It's been discussed for quite some time.  I wonder if this April 2020 vote is for real or only hoped for. 

[billikenfan05]

59 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

While this is a current tweet, this is old news.  It's been discussed for quite some time.  I wonder if this April 2020 vote is for real or only hoped for. 

Yep that's what I said.

[Box and Won]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Just a point of fact a large faction of the NCAA coaches have been trying to push this proposal for the better part of a decade.

What's the reasoning behind it?

[billikenfan05]

22 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

What's the reasoning behind it?

The main reasoning is eliminating midweek games. They have cited both injury and academic reasons for this. It also moves the sports most important games from the dead of winter. Also to make it more similar to the European schedule. 

[Clock_Tower]

Club soccer has always been played in both the fall and the spring. Then club soccer appeared to take a break in the fall to allow the boys to play for their high school teams and then resume club soccer in the spring.  Now elite Club teams prohibit their players from playing high school soccer in the fall and instead continue to play and train with their club team presumably in the fall and spring.

But what do the college players now do in the Spring?  Mostly pick up games in the Spring and Summer with their former club teammates?  Some college practices and scrimmages ?  but I do not think anything near the level of what the NCAA teams could provide with both fall and spring soccer practices and games and certainly no comparison with professional soccer. 
I have always heard that our youth soccer is on par with the rest of the world but that the rest of the world passes us up at age 17, 18 and 19 and that our college-age kids left left way behind in the dust. 

[slufanskip]

30 minutes ago, Clock_Tower said:

Club soccer has always been played in both the fall and the spring. Then club soccer appeared to take a break in the fall to allow the boys to play for their high school teams and then resume club soccer in the spring.  Now elite Club teams prohibit their players from playing high school soccer in the fall and instead continue to play and train with their club team presumably in the fall and spring.

But what do the college players now do in the Spring?  Mostly pick up games in the Spring and Summer with their former club teammates?  Some college practices and scrimmages ?  but I do not think anything near the level of what the NCAA teams could provide with both fall and spring soccer practices and games and certainly no comparison with professional soccer. 
I have always heard that our youth soccer is on par with the rest of the world but that the rest of the world passes us up at age 17, 18 and 19 and that our college-age kids left left way behind in the dust. 

I can tell you skill wise the youth here isn't on par with youth in Europe 30 years ago. 

[Clock_Tower]

51 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

I can tell you skill wise the youth here isn't on par with youth in Europe 30 years ago. 

Yeah. Not buying that. I have read too many articles which say otherwise. In fact I have read articles where the US is ahead of the rest of the world until age is 16, 17 and 18 which is why the National team is reworking it’s feeder system at the high school level

[slufanskip]

1 hour ago, Clock_Tower said:

Yeah. Not buying that. I have read too many articles which say otherwise. In fact I have read articles where the US is ahead of the rest of the world until age is 16, 17 and 18 which is why the National team is reworking it’s feeder system at the high school level

Buy what you want. I can tell you I attended youth practices in Holland in the late 80's and the speed of play and technical abilities of those kids was amazing. 

[hmart23]

2 hours ago, Clock_Tower said:

Yeah. Not buying that. I have read too many articles which say otherwise. In fact I have read articles where the US is ahead of the rest of the world until age is 16, 17 and 18 which is why the National team is reworking it’s feeder system at the high school level

Well I would assume 16 and 17 are still considered youth players. So if we're really behind there then our youth system is still behind. We win these youth tournaments somewhat frequently and  alot of it is due to athletic ability.  The problem is we lose at the National level. An we lose for a reason and it's not because we just all of a sudden forget how to play at the age of 16. If we struggle then, there's some sort of development thats missing. Just my thoughts. 

[Clock_Tower]

http://m.startribune.com/as-u-s-sits-out-soccer-world-cup-poor-player-development-is-blamed/485052331/

Getting back to the topic of change to the college soccer season, this article is spot on. 
 

But yes, 16 and 17-year-olds are part of youth soccer and yes youth soccer has a lot of improvements to make. No doubt about it. Too expensive, too much travel, too many games, not enough skill development and general play of the game informally and who our best players will be are too political, too focused geographically and chosen too early and to the exclusion of others.  But yes, the college season format is also part of the problem.  Just look here in St. Louis, our kids start in 100° weather and finish in 30° weather only three months later. The season cannot be extended too much because of the date school starts on the one end and cold weather and snow together with grades and finals on the other. The focus is all on games being played  - 2 to 3 times a week in the Fall. The remaining nine months are not properly used and development lags. 

[Clock_Tower]

15 hours ago, slufanskip said:

Buy what you want. I can tell you I attended youth practices in Holland in the late 80's and the speed of play and technical abilities of those kids was amazing. 

Yes.  Not disputing your observations.  But go watch the better Scott Gallagher practices here locally and you will be equally impressed.   My kids are no longer play soccer, much less play club soccer, but my relatives are.   Scott Gallagher coaches and the Club itself prefer to play games and scrimmages within their club -- not the other competition.   Gallagher constantly watch, evaluate and move players "up" and "down" for the good the player(s) and the team(s).   Gallagher teams prohibit their kids from long kicks, athletic chases of the long kick and then easy goals.  Call it the English style, American youth soccer style... whatever you want, but that is not allowed at the top Gallagher teams.   Instead, it's all about ball control, short, quick touches and going to open spaces to use the whole field.  And one of the lead coaches/administrators of Gallagher soccer was our own Kevin Kalish.

My daughter is now playing high level volleyball but I still recall as if yesterday, that player you all have seen and know --  the girl who grew early and alot compared to her piers, the one without ball skills but who could sure throw her elbows and use her then superior size and speed to literally run over the defenders and score.  Instead, this girl was praised and rewarded with extra playing time by our terrible youth Club "coach". Yes, our 11 years old teams won alot of game - who cares and so what. And yes, our "coach" probably to this day believes he is a good youth soccer coach who would have won more - if only he had better players.   Player development?  No, that "coach" doesn't know what that is -- other than to lure new girls from other teams each year while cutting an equal number of his current players.  3 years later, that girl no longer even played soccer.  No regrets for us - as we had too many conflicts and volleyball was chosen instead.  And all of this from the "rival" club to Scott Gallagher -- though Gallagher has no rival.   There is the right way to play soccer ... and then there is everything else.

Even with all the problems of U.S. youth soccer, we still have so many good, talented, and skilled players - who have been trained the correct way.    But our kids - aged 17 and older - need to better development, and the new proposed NCAA soccer changes will go along way toward this.

[courtside]

A 1-0 win at Duquesne for SLU. Devin Boyce with the game winner. If SLU can defeat Fordham at home next Saturday, they will be regular season A-10 Champs, as they hold the tie breaker over Rhode Island with a head to head victory. Otherwise Rhode Island will be conference Champions. (They finished league play with a 2-0 win over Davidson tonight. They have a non-conference game with Denver next weekend)

Conference tourney is at Fordham.
 

[courtside]

SLU is 30 in this week's RPI. A win Saturday at home (7pm) vs Fordham wins the league. A tie or loss puts them at 2nd place and 2nd seed in conference tourney, which is at Fordham. It is a men/women's home split double header Saturday as the women open A-10 conference tourney play hosting Duquesne at 1pm. 

[slufanskip]

Does anyone know if I can bring my dog to the game on a leash obviously

[billikenfan05]

10 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

Does anyone know if I can bring my dog to the game on a leash obviously

I’ve seen it done.

[slufanskip]

2 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

I’ve seen it done.

Thanks. I was thinking I had seen them there before also. I've taken him to baseball but there's no ticket or "entry" area in baseball

[Billiken Rich]

2 hours ago, slufanskip said:

Thanks. I was thinking I had seen them there before also. I've taken him to baseball but there's no ticket or "entry" area in baseball

Just get him one of those vests.  Then you can fly with him and shop with him too.....

[philliken]

Bills trail 1-0 at half. We reeeeealllly need to tie this one up in the second 45.

[courtside]

Final: Fordham 2 SLU 0.

Instead of winning the A-10 Title at home with a win, the loss puts SLU at tied for 3rd. Fordham entered the game with an RPI of 165. It was just their 6th win of the season. 

[billikenfan05]

Dogsh!t performance really. Tried the same thing over and over and couldn’t break through. 

[TheChosenOne]

On 11/1/2019 at 9:07 AM, slufanskip said:

Does anyone know if I can bring my dog to the game on a leash obviously

Out of curiosity, did you end up bringing your dog?