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1 minute ago, RUBillsFan said:

10 seed is a little disappointing given some of the rankings (#2 on Top Drawer, #6 on College Soccer News, and #8 in Coaches Poll).  I guess the #14 RPI pulled us down.

Assuming they get past LIU, Maryland (#19 on Top Drawer, #16 on College Soccer News, #12 in Coaches Poll and #22 in RPI) seems like a really tough draw in the 2nd round.

There are 48 total teams and the 16 seeded teams get a bye.  I'm not sure if this is how it actually works, but if the teams are all ranked #1 - #48, you'd expect the 1st round to be #17 vs #48 with the winner playing #16, #18 vs #47 w the winner playing #15, etc.  Since SLU is #10 that should make Maryland #23 and #42 LIU.

IMO SLU is getting screwed twice here: they're slightly under-seeded at #10 and their likely 2nd round opponent Maryland is very underrated at #23.

Agreed, feels like we got boned here. Marshall, Pittsburgh, and New Hampshire were all ranked above us - 4th through 6th - and each lost their conference tournament games. You'd think that moves us higher than 8th by default. 

 

10 seed seems offensive. 

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5 minutes ago, Bills By 40 said:

Agreed, feels like we got boned here. Marshall, Pittsburgh, and New Hampshire were all ranked above us - 4th through 6th - and each lost their conference tournament games. You'd think that moves us higher than 8th by default. 

 

10 seed seems offensive. 

Then let's kick some Eastern butt at Hermann in Rd 2

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Just now, billikenfan05 said:

I believe it will be a home game no matter what. 

Logically, totally agree. Why would they give the lower seeded winner from the previous round the home field advantage over the higher seeded team who had bye? Totally illogical unless there was a field availability or travel issue. When coupled with SLU's crazy-good attendance throughout the season, seems even more like a no-brainer.

But I just haven't heard that all teams with round 1 byes are guaranteed home field in round 2 (nor that this is official in SLU's case.)

Any soccer experts know the reason why teams who received round 1 byes in previous years did NOT get home field in round 2?

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On 11/15/2021 at 8:05 AM, courtside said:

I think SLU has a good chance for a top 8 National seed today. We’ll see. Not a guarantee. Anything can, and does happen. Washington, Oregon St., Georgetown, Notre Dame, Duke, Tulsa, Kentucky, are some of those in the mix with SLU. SLU’s RPI will be about 14 or so. That will be a bit higher than some of the other contenders. SLU had no losses, and swept regular season league and tourney titles. But some others have some signature wins as well as some common opponent wins etc…8th in the Coaches poll last week doesn’t hurt as it is part of the several criteria considered. 

A-10 Conference Tourney Final: SLU found ways to advance in the conference tourney when SLU wasn’t as efficient as it can be, and, will need to be moving forward . It’s that time of year. But overall well done. It’s difficult to go a full season and conference tourney without losing a game.

Two goals, both from head ball clears to the top of the box. Start of the game needed a little more urgency. Simon unmarked on Parker’s rebound. And Buendia hit a one timing a clear back in traffic through screens that found the corner. 22 shots, 12 corners. You’d like a 3rd or 4th. But you take it. 

Becher, Klein, Schulte, Vaughn, Niece all tourney team. 

 

 

 

Pittsburgh and Clemson were the other two teams. Kentucky and SLU took 9 and 10 instead of perhaps a 7 and 8. It was close. SLU’s seed is fine. Some fun potential big name opponents out there as well. Perhaps UCLA or UCSB can get past Duke. Shades of the 2006 College Cup at Hermann. It couldn’t possibly be colder than that weekend. 

Pittsburgh has a 7-0 win over Duquesne. (Season opener).

They won at Big Ten Tourney Champion Penn St. (1-0)

They were able to get into the ACC Conference Tourney semis. (So was Clemson) If Pittsburgh had lost their OT game vs Virginia Tech, maybe they would have slid down a little more.

Clemson has a 4-0 win over #13 overall seed FIU. 

Both Clemson and Pittsburgh won their regular season ACC divisions. 

SLU will host the Maryland/LIU winner at 2pm Sunday.

 

 

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9 minutes ago, courtside said:

Pittsburgh and Clemson were the other two teams. Kentucky and SLU took 9 and 10 instead of perhaps a 7 and 8. It was close. SLU’s seed is fine. Some fun potential big name opponents out there as well. Perhaps UCLA or UCSB can get past Duke. Shades of the 2006 College Cup at Hermann. It couldn’t possibly be colder than that weekend. 

Pittsburgh has a 7-0 win over Duquesne. (Season opener).

They won at Big Ten Tourney Champion Penn St. (1-0)

They were able to get into the ACC Conference Tourney semis. (So was Clemson) If Pittsburgh had lost their OT game vs Virginia Tech, maybe they would have slid down a little more.

Clemson has a 4-0 win over #13 overall seed FIU. 

Both Clemson and Pittsburgh won their regular season ACC divisions. 

SLU will host the Maryland/LIU winner at 6pm Sunday Night.

 

 

I was telling my ten year old son and his friend on Friday when they were complaining about the cold on Friday, that it was nothing compared to 2006's final game.  There was literally chunks of ice in the stands. Sunny but damn, damn cold.  I still remember my feet feeling like bricks walking back to the car after the game.  But I will say it was a fun game between UCLA and UCSB on an unusually cold December day.

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7 minutes ago, SLUBALLS said:

I was telling my ten year old son and his friend on Friday when they were complaining about the cold on Friday, that it was nothing compared to 2006's final game.  There was literally chunks of ice in the stands. Sunny but damn, damn cold.  I still remember my feet feeling like bricks walking back to the car after the game.  But I will say it was a fun game between UCLA and UCSB on an unusually cold December day.

I was also at that game. I lived 3 years in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I still think that was the coldest 2 hours of my life. You were sitting on metal stands with your feet resting on ice. I don't remember the temp but I'm sure it was no higher than the single digits. The semi's got postponed due to weather. And some of the players UCLA and UCSB were in their normal uniforms without even long johns. They were way tougher than me. I remember as soon as the game ended my brother and I went straight to Sweet Tomatoes on Watson for soup. 

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Other memories of that are:

  • The warming tarp they put over the field so it would not freeze.
  • Volunteering that Friday night for the tourney while Virginia played.  I was working a  tent behind the north side goal.  Clearly remember VA having the biggest forward I had ever seen in this one German kid.  
  • UCSB's coach telling a sub in the second half to keep attacking UCLA even though UCSB was leading late and it would have been prudent to pack it in to win the game.  The coach ("Van" something) decided the best defense was offense and it worked.
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27 minutes ago, Billiken Rich said:

Just got an email from SLU to "help break the Hermann Stadium Attendance Record"  Out of curiosity, is that something you can "pay at the door."  Thanks

At the games I have been too this year (4), yes. Last Sunday, I jumped on Ticketmaster as I was walking in to avoid any line.

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On 11/15/2021 at 2:55 PM, SLUBALLS said:

Other memories of that are:

  • The warming tarp they put over the field so it would not freeze.
  • Volunteering that Friday night for the tourney while Virginia played.  I was working a  tent behind the north side goal.  Clearly remember VA having the biggest forward I had ever seen in this one German kid.  
  • UCSB's coach telling a sub in the second half to keep attacking UCLA even though UCSB was leading late and it would have been prudent to pack it in to win the game.  The coach ("Van" something) decided the best defense was offense and it worked.

Wasn’t there a case of food poisoning for UCLA on their flight back? Something about the boxed lunches they got en route to Lambert? Diana Koval (former ASID) mentioned something about that a few months after we thawed out.

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1 hour ago, courtside said:

Sharks over Turtles.

LIU 1 Maryland 0 Final

Glorious strike in the 89th minute from Assane Ben Fall. 

LIU will play at SLU Sunday at 2pm. 

So much for my post about Maryland being under-seeded.

It’s never good to be playing a team that has nothing to lose because they weren’t supposed to make it this far anyways, but I’d still prefer the LIU matchup vs SLU instead of Maryland.

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Funny, saw the the Bills play LIU in Brooklyn back in October, 1979. The one and only time we played them. Specifically scheduled a meeting in Manhattan that day with enough time to make it over to the LIU campus to catch the late afternoon game.

They played in the heart of downtown Brooklyn The field was boxed in by surrounding large buildings with little or no out-of-bounds area. Field appeared small.  Little or no place to sit with no stands.

Bills won that game 1-0.  

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LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn merged a few years ago. They split their sports locations. Soccer is based out of Brookville, in Nassau County.

Michael Mordocco has A-10 assistant experience at UMass, as well as deep NCAA runs as an assistant at UConn. He played at UConn just after SLU coach Kevin Kalish, and, he won a National Championship there as a player. SLU assistant Kris Bertsch was on staff at UConn just after Mordocco.

Some of their players that will get immediate attention are Emil Jasskelainen, Demetri Skoumbakis, Assane Ben Fall pairing up top. They have a solid midfield.

Jasskelainen (son of Jussi) has 15 goals. Very dangerous anywhere around the 18 out to 25. Good size, technically on the ball. He was bottled up often by a good Maryland backline until he broke free early 2nd half with a rocket and save and he banged the rebound off of the crossbar. First team all conference.

Skoumbasis is the NEC Keeper of the year. He has two road A-10 shutouts this year. He has stopped several PK’s in big moments. 

Against Maryland, LIU tried a 3-5-2, and they were successful with it doubling the wings, and clogging the middle, limiting final third chances for the most part.

Maryland and Sasho Cirovski prefer to play a 4-3-3. (They were 4-4-2 diamond) They played 3 in back often this year to get players forward. He’a always tinkering. But the achilles heel for Maryland this year was final third inconsistency. Effort and possession, but sloppy at times. Some people like to throw around the term possession a little bit loosely. Possession doesn’t mean much if you aren’t doing anything with it. They facilitate wide wing back with Richardson often. They got away from it in the 2nd half. 

Final third finishing has been the issue with Maryland this year. Experienced solid backline. Bender is an elite midfielder, but finishing up top and from the wings has been inconsistent. They had a few looks including a double header late off of a corner. LIU was able to play up the wing, make a diagonal run, cut back as the defender overplayed the ball. And he hit a perfect shot from edge of the box.

After playing 8 behind the ball in the first half, defending very well in back, limiting chances to harmless few, LIU opened up its counters a little more in the 2nd, and, they were the better team later at times, as the game went along in an even 2nd half.

I would expect LIU to try a similar formation at SLU Sunday. So far lots of starters playing lots of minutes hasn’t affected LIU. We’ll see this weekend.

Of note, Jasskelainen went down on a late tackle, (both late after the play, and late in the game) and then he re-injured his leg, a few minutes later blocking a shot in the box. He left the game shortly before the winning goal.

Maryland would have been a more attacking, direct, opponent, and a higher profile big name opponent that many prefer to face. But part of post season is playing anyone and everyone to advance, wherever, whenever. 

UCLA won a fun, festive (tortillas were flying) local derby with UCSB in Westwood. UCLA tied it in 86th minute. They won it in OT. Two attacking teams. They will play at Duke. Winner of that game gets the winner of the SLU/LIU game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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SLU 5 LIU 1

Early diagonal balls for SLU over the defense, switching fields to open up the LIU midfield. It didn’t take long to open up the game, and to make LIU change up a bit. LIU never had a chance to play the formation or style they wanted.

4th minute, Vaughn gets a ball wide and sends a nice diagonal ball far side of the box for Klein who settles and finishes. 1-0.

17th minute, Palazzolo wins a ball in the defensive midfield, back heels, turns, gets past another player, sends it wide of the box to Parker service to Klein again, far post header finish. 2-0. 

21st minute, Parker sends one into the box, Becher draws several defenders, as he often does with the ball in the box, patient, lays it off for Buendia for the finish. 3-0

23rd minute. Unlucky for SLU. Very poor call gave a free kick outside of the box for LIU. Shot deflects off of a jumping wall and redirects to the far corner 3-1.

47th minute, Schulte launches a long ball, defensive header flicks it on and Becher wins a 1v1 battle, heads it past the defender and toe pokes far post. 4-1 Back breaker goal there. 

70th minute, Komodi corner headed out to Palazzolo top of the box, settles and volleys upper 90, left foot. One of these games, the opposing team will learn not to leave AJ all alone center at the top of the 18 on corners. Hopefully not any time soon. 5-1.

Very efficient finishing for SLU, which is what they’ll need next weekend. Very accurate passing. Poise on the ball. Clean game. The game was physical and spirited, which is playoff soccer. 

Schulte

Murana, Keller, Niece, Vaughn

Leeth,  Buendia, Palazzolo, Parker

Klein, Becher

This is what we talked about prior to the season when thinking SLU had a chance for a special team this year. Difference making finishing, depth with a 2nd 11, transfer adds, Freshmen, etc…with an already experienced, strong backline, keeper etc…1st 11.

Duke is good. But so is SLU. Duke will play a more direct attacking style, which SLU prefers. They are battle tested. It should be a fun game.

SLU was 4 minutes away from a home game against UCLA, (attacking style team) but Duke finally broke through while UCLA was playing with 10, for 2 goals late to win it. SLU would need a win, and, a Washington home loss to Indiana to get one more home game. (Might want to put in some extra seats behind the goal if SLU played IU. 

Sweet 16 is set. 

Great crowd and atmosphere for a college soccer game at SLU today. 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, courtside said:

SLU 5 LIU 1

Early diagonal balls for SLU over the defense, switching fields to open up the LIU midfield. It didn’t take long to open up the game, and to make LIU change up a bit. LIU never had a chance to play the formation or style they wanted.

4th minute, Vaughn gets a ball wide and sends a nice diagonal ball far side of the box for Klein who settles and finishes. 1-0.

17th minute, Palazzolo wins a ball in the defensive midfield, back heels, turns, gets past another player, sends it wide of the box to Parker service to Klein again, far post header finish. 2-0. 

21st minute, Parker sends one into the box, Becher draws several defenders, as he often does with the ball in the box, patient, lays it off for Buendia for the finish. 3-0

23rd minute. Unlucky for SLU. Very poor call gave a free kick outside of the box for LIU. Shot deflects off of a jumping wall and redirects to the far corner 3-1.

47th minute, Schulte launches a long ball, defensive header flicks it on and Becher wins a 1v1 battle, heads it past the defender and toe pokes far post. 4-1 Back breaker goal there. 

70th minute, Komodi corner headed out to Palazzolo top of the box, settles and volleys upper 90, left foot. One of these games, the opposing team will learn not to leave AJ all alone center at the top of the 18 on corners. Hopefully not any time soon. 5-1.

Very efficient finishing for SLU, which is what they’ll need next weekend. Very accurate passing. Poise on the ball. Clean game. The game was physical and spirited, which is playoff soccer. 

Schulte

Murana, Keller, Niece, Vaughn

Leeth,  Buendia, Palazzolo, Parker

Klein, Becher

This is what we talked about prior to the season when thinking SLU had a chance for a special team this year. Difference making finishing, depth with a 2nd 11, transfer adds, Freshmen, etc…with an already experienced, strong backline, keeper etc…1st 11.

Duke is good. But so is SLU. Duke will play a more direct attacking style, which SLU prefers. They are battle tested. It should be a fun game.

SLU was 4 minutes away from a home game against UCLA, (attacking style team) but Duke finally broke through while UCLA was playing with 10, for 2 goals late to win it. SLU would need a win, and, a Washington home loss to Indiana to get one more home game. (Might want to put in some extra seats behind the goal if SLU played IU. 

Sweet 16 is set. 

Great crowd and atmosphere for a college soccer game at SLU today. 

 

 

 

Nit picky but I hate when someone calls a shot like Belchers a toe poke. It sounds like such a lucky un soccer play. He actually hit that ball with his laces exactly as he should have. I know you didn't mean it to come across as it does to me, and to many it probably doesn't, just a strange pet peeve of mine when it's not actually a toe poke. 

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10 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

Nit picky but I hate when someone calls a shot like Belchers a toe poke. It sounds like such a lucky un soccer play. He actually hit that ball with his laces exactly as he should have. I know you didn't mean it to come across as it does to me, and to many it probably doesn't, just a strange pet peeve of mine when it's not actually a toe poke. 

I understand what you are saying. But the term isn't meant to be negative or lucky. That may be more of a personal preference of choice of words. Many goals of that terminology are what i would consider great skilled goals. It was a great goal and strong, skilled, individual effort from Simon. David Carson took a nice photo of the finish here:

 

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