SLU Men's Soccer Thread

[Cowboy II]

-well, the #1 recruiting class from last year needs to pick up the pace, tonight would be a good start

[Taj79]

Wait ,,, we're not even #1 in the state?  How can that be?  

[courtside]

38 minutes ago, Cowboy II said:

-well, the #1 recruiting class from last year needs to pick up the pace, tonight would be a good start

Well, SLU just won 2 games in a row over top 25 caliber teams. 

I don't get caught up in recruiting rankings because I know which recruits can and can't play at what level regardless of recruiting ranking. I do know however there is some marketing and fan interest in it because I get asked about it sometimes.

2 of the best players on SLU's current team, redshirted their Freshman year. SLU's program is heavy on player development.

When SLU was an NCAA Quarterfinalist in 2021, 10 of 11 starters had played at least 1, often times more years in SLU's program. And only roughly 3 others off of the bench out of several had not already played at least a year in SLU's program.

Last year after 8 players from the previous season went on to play professional soccer, SLU had 8 new players that played in their first season at SLU. That team was an NCAA Round of 32 team that lost a close game to the eventual NCAA national runner up. 

This season SLU has 8 rotation players that are in their first season at SLU. A few more haven't been available. We'll see how they do and where they end up at the end of the season. They will get many more opportunities.

 

 

 

 

[ACE]

3 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Wait ,,, we're not even #1 in the state?  How can that be?  

I took a peak at their roster to see how in the hell any good athlete would go to Springfield. Not only do they have no players from the state of Missouri, they only have two American players on the entire roster.

[courtside]

1 hour ago, ACE said:

I took a peak at their roster to see how in the hell any good athlete would go to Springfield. Not only do they have no players from the state of Missouri, they only have two American players on the entire roster.

???

Sports are global as is life. 

Wait until you find out about a little basketball school in Spokane, WA that has been winning big since the 1990’s, with largely International players from roughly two dozen countries.

SLU Men’s Soccer has had 10 International players on its roster the past 2 seasons. Some of its best all time players from decades recent and long past, have been from other countries. 

SLU Men’s basketball currently has 5 International players on this year’s roster.

Missouri State has a good soccer team and good soccer program. Good for them. 

 

[Lord Elrond]

1 hour ago, ACE said:

I took a peak at their roster to see how in the hell any good athlete would go to Springfield. Not only do they have no players from the state of Missouri, they only have two American players on the entire roster.

What all the international players on NCAA teams shows is the value of a college education. In the US, the recent talk about NIL involved a lot of people saying players weren’t getting paid, and ignoring or downplaying the value of a college education. An international player on a club overseas who is good, but not good enough to go pro in their country, can come to the US, play a sport, get college paid for (or mostly paid for) and head back home with a US college degree in hand. Maybe they progress their game and continue to a pro career, but mostly not. But they do have that degree from a US college, which probably looks really great in their home country no matter what happens with their pro career.  Overseas they don’t do this at all, you might be a college student and play some games with your friends in your spare time, but there are no athletic scholarships and no organized inter-collegiate sports teams. A international player is one that sees the value in that college education which is overlooked here in the US.

For women’s sports, it’s even bigger.  There are far fewer opportunities for women overseas, and that US college education is also a way to get noticed by the pro teams and country teams in their home country.  In the 2023 World Cup, there were a large number of players on their country’s team who had played for or were currently playing for an NCAA team for example.

[ACE]

1 hour ago, courtside said:

???

Sports are global as is life. 

Wait until you find out about a little basketball school in Spokane, WA that has been winning big since the 1990’s, with largely International players from roughly two dozen countries.

SLU Men’s Soccer has had 10 International players on its roster the past 2 seasons. Some of its best all time players from decades recent and long past, have been from other countries. 

SLU Men’s basketball currently has 5 International players on this year’s roster.

Missouri State has a good soccer team and good soccer program. Good for them. 

 

???

Thanks oh great one. I get it. I didn't say it was a bad thing.

In fact, quite a good thing for them.

[SLUBALLS]

Might have to wear the US jersey tonight after looking at MO State's typical lineup.  Intl flavor for sure as noted  : ) 

Other element is their overall age and class.  Of the starters who have had 3 starts or more (11 of them), average age is 22.4 years and class breakdown is 6 Seniors, 4 Juniors, and 1 Sophomore.  Experienced and mature team coming to Hermann tonight.  Love to see a win.

[TheA_Bomb]

54 minutes ago, ACE said:

???

Thanks oh great one. I get it. I didn't say it was a bad thing.

In fact, quite a good thing for them.

Eh seems like your backtracking from your xenophobic comments. 

[Lord Elrond]

4 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Eh seems like your backtracking from your xenophobic comments. 

I thought he was denigrating Springfield, MO more than anything….

[courtside]

46 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

What all the international players on NCAA teams shows is the value of a college education. In the US, the recent talk about NIL involved a lot of people saying players weren’t getting paid, and ignoring or downplaying the value of a college education. An international player on a club overseas who is good, but not good enough to go pro in their country, can come to the US, play a sport, get college paid for (or mostly paid for) and head back home with a US college degree in hand. Maybe they progress their game and continue to a pro career, but mostly not. But they do have that degree from a US college, which probably looks really great in their home country no matter what happens with their pro career.  Overseas they don’t do this at all, you might be a college student and play some games with your friends in your spare time, but there are no athletic scholarships and no organized inter-collegiate sports teams. A international player is one that sees the value in that college education which is overlooked here in the US.

For women’s sports, it’s even bigger.  There are far fewer opportunities for women overseas, and that US college education is also a way to get noticed by the pro teams and country teams in their home country.  In the 2023 World Cup, there were a large number of players on their country’s team who had played for or were currently playing for an NCAA team for example.

Florida State has one of the best teams in the country in Women’s Soccer this season. They have 7 International players.

As a program under their highly successful previous head coach, Mark Krikorian, they won 3 National Titles, and made the NCAA Quarterfinals or better, 15 of 17 seasons. They had many International players during his reign. They had 9 on their most recent national championship team from 2 seasons ago. (He’d still be there if it wasn’t for their AD. He’s now running the professional NWSL team in D.C.)

Right now roughly 5 Women’s players will skip college to play professionally, compared to about 30 annually for Men. But it’s going to become more of a thing as professional opportunities for Women increase, especially domestically.

St. Louis has a player right now. Alex Pfeiffer is the best player nationally in the 2026 class. I would be surprised if she didn’t re-classify as a 2025 player, skip college, and play professionally domestically. 

She scored all 3 goals for US U17 team’s 3-3 draw with Japan the other day. And she played up with older players leading SLSG to back to back ECNL National Titles at U16 and U17.

A few other national team level local players are going to go to college first, at least for now, 2 to Stanford, and one to Notre Dame.

 

 

[TheA_Bomb]

Just now, Lord Elrond said:

I thought he was denigrating Springfield, MO more than anything….

Nah dude is Xenophobic he can't even handle a Cuban sandwich

[courtside]

17 minutes ago, SLUBALLS said:

Might have to wear the US jersey tonight after looking at MO State's typical lineup.  Intl flavor for sure as noted  : ) 

Other element is their overall age and class.  Of the starters who have had 3 starts or more (11 of them), average age is 22.4 years and class breakdown is 6 Seniors, 4 Juniors, and 1 Sophomore.  Experienced and mature team coming to Hermann tonight.  Love to see a win.

You may be wearing the U.S. jersey while watching SLU’s Abonnel roll an outlet pass to Diego, up to Mads on the wing, who sends service in to Wrobel. All of them of course are International players.

Tofern came up big at times last year in goal. Suarez was one of SLU’s best players. You can go way back to Dipsy and Ibisevic or all the way back to the 50’s and 60’s.

………………

As for Missouri State’s team:

They are top 3 nationally in several defensive categories. They defend, they don’t give up many goals, and they don’t give up many shots. They held a very good Maryland team to 2 shots all game. In fact the most shots they have given up in a game this season is 5.

They are as you mentioned a very experienced group, whose strength is up the middle with its center backs, (Peck, Arcoverde) dmid (Denton) and attacking center mid. (Barea)

They play a 4-2-3-1 that often looks like a 4-1-4-1.

 

 

 

[brianstl]

58 minutes ago, courtside said:

Florida State has one of the best teams in the country in Women’s Soccer this season. They have 7 International players.

As a program under their highly successful previous head coach, Mark Krikorian, they won 3 National Titles, and made the NCAA Quarterfinals or better, 15 of 17 seasons. They had many International players during his reign. They had 9 on their most recent national championship team from 2 seasons ago. (He’d still be there if it wasn’t for their AD. He’s now running the professional NWSL team in D.C.)

Right now roughly 5 Women’s players will skip college to play professionally, compared to about 30 annually for Men. But it’s going to become more of a thing as professional opportunities for Women increase, especially domestically.

St. Louis has a player right now. Alex Pfeiffer is the best player nationally in the 2026 class. I would be surprised if she didn’t re-classify as a 2025 player, skip college, and play professionally domestically. 

She scored all 3 goals for US U17 team’s 3-3 draw with Japan the other day. And she played up with older players leading SLSG to back to back ECNL National Titles at U16 and U17.

A few other national team level local players are going to go to college first, at least for now, 2 to Stanford, and one to Notre Dame.

 

 

This is the SLU Men's Soccer Thread.  Feel free to start a Florida State women's thread.

[courtside]

28 minutes ago, brianstl said:

This is the SLU Men's Soccer Thread.  Feel free to start a Florida State women's thread.

Lol. It always comes back to Women with you Brian. There’s no need to feel insecure about, and threatened by, strong Women. 

 

[SLUBALLS]

1 hour ago, courtside said:

You may be wearing the U.S. jersey while watching SLU’s Abonnel roll an outlet pass to Diego, up to Mads on the wing, who sends service in to Wrobel. All of them of course are International players.

Tofern came up big at times last year in goal. Suarez was one of SLU’s best players. You can go way back to Dipsy and Ibisevic or all the way back to the 50’s and 60’s.

………………

As for Missouri State’s team:

They are top 3 nationally in several defensive categories. They defend, they don’t give up many goals, and they don’t give up many shots. They held a very good Maryland team to 2 shots all game. In fact the most shots they have given up in a game this season is 5.

They are as you mentioned a very experienced group, whose strength is up the middle with its center backs, (Peck, Arcoverde) dmid (Denton) and attacking center mid. (Barea)

They play a 4-2-3-1 that often looks like a 4-1-4-1.

 

 

 

Just a joke dude.  And I don't need a history lesson on former int'l SLU players.

[Lord Elrond]

A 1-1 tie for SLU against tonight’s opponent, who we shall refer to as “Inter-Missouri State” in honor of the foreign representation on their team.  By the way, just how many frequent flyer miles do the Missouri State assistant coaches get on the recruiting trail, or is all the recruiting on Zoom call or something?  In any event, while SLU didn’t manage to get many shots, it felt like tonight it was due to the Inter-Missouri State defense more than anything else. SLU seemed to mostly match them or beat them in midfield. SLU got an early goal on a header off a free kick by one of our international players, Diego Konincks from Montfort, Netherlands in the 12th minute.  Inter-Missouri State got the equalizer on a goal from Michael Peck from Cornwall, England. (So you can say the US lost 2-0 in one sense. ) I thought SLU goalie Mason Hart had a good game.  On a less positive note, I can report that the vuvuzelas given away by SLU can make an absolutely eardrum rupturing noise when blown by kids in the confines of the Olive St parking garage.  The noise perfectly echos inside there.

[Taj79]

Eight games; seven goals now.  Can we get that up to one goal per game?

[courtside]

On 9/27/2023 at 3:05 PM, courtside said:

You may be wearing the U.S. jersey while watching SLU’s Abonnel roll an outlet pass to Diego, up to Mads on the wing, who sends service in to Wrobel. All of them of course are International players.

Tofern came up big at times last year in goal. Suarez was one of SLU’s best players. You can go way back to Dipsy and Ibisevic or all the way back to the 50’s and 60’s.

………………

As for Missouri State’s team:

They are top 3 nationally in several defensive categories. They defend, they don’t give up many goals, and they don’t give up many shots. They held a very good Maryland team to 2 shots all game. In fact the most shots they have given up in a game this season is 5.

They are as you mentioned a very experienced group, whose strength is up the middle with its center backs, (Peck, Arcoverde) dmid (Denton) and attacking center mid. (Barea)

They play a 4-2-3-1 that often looks like a 4-1-4-1.

 

 

 

SLU 1 Missouri State 1

Hard fought draw. 4-3-2-1 for SLU. 4-2-3-1 for Missouri State, who credit to them, tweaked their formation multiple times during the game, and they were able to get a 5th player forward.

Peck was able to get forward on a set piece for an eventual goal. Yari gave SLU some challeges in the midfield. Denton almost had one off of a set piece in the 2nd. And Barea was good as expected. SLU waa able to get one early as Diego was able to get forward and finish a clear, on service from Redmond. And pretty rock solid back 4 for SLU, again.

3rd straight top 25 or better caliber opponent, and 3rd straight 4-3-2-1 with similar personnel and alternating keepers for SLU. 2 wins and a draw.

SLU RPI is now at 34.

 

 

 

[Lord Elrond]

Former Billiken players John Klein and AJ Palazzolo are on the St Louis City 2 roster, and they play a home playoff game at CityPark on Sunday against San Jose Earthquakes 2, so if anyone’s interested, go grab a ticket and head on over there. John Klein has started a lot this season and scored a  fair number of goals for City 2, and AJ Palazzolo usually comes on as a sub. If you haven’t seen a game, the level of soccer is pretty good overall, and if you haven’t seen CityPark this is a much cheaper way to check out the stadium than an MLS game.  They only open part of the stadium depending on ticket sales, and the concessions are limited compared to MLS games, but at $16 bucks a ticket it’s pretty reasonable for families. 

[Lord Elrond]

FYI, former SLU player John Klein had a goal which was voted MLS NextPro goal of the year, it was a bicycle kick goal on Sep 25th, giving him 13 on the year to go with 4 assists. You can see it here

https://www.mlsnextpro.com/news/mls-next-pro-2023-goal-of-the-year-john-klein

[Bay Area Billiken]

https://x.com/slumenssoccer/status/1708301484847243389?s=46&t=jikm5nKg-NlIUjy2c9C9zw

 

[Taj79]

Nine games, now nine goals.  Average up to 1/gpg.  Is this the soccer version of the Mendoza line?

[courtside]

3 hours ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

https://x.com/slumenssoccer/status/1708301484847243389?s=46&t=jikm5nKg-NlIUjy2c9C9zw

 

 

Good for Tanner. He’s been playing an end of half, end of game, middle of the half, minutes combined as the third forward up top behind Coppola and Wrobel, as Moore is unavailable. SLU has recently moved Gibbs and his pace to the wing from up top, a new position for him.

This has been in the more successful 4-3-2-1 system the last 4 or 5 games or so, as well as a 4-2-3-1, and a 4-4-2 prior to that. Previously he played both up top and wing. He was having some challenges with positioning and with defending the wing, which isn’t unusual in the college transition. 

He was the only attacking player on the field for SLU’s 2nd goal. The defense, Townsend forced the turnover, and laid it off to Dougherty, who ripped a point blank shot that was saved, and Tanner pounced on the rebound.

……………

Galen Flynn has picked up where Lane Warrington left off at both outside back and with dangerous long throw ins in the final third. Max Floriani is one of the best in college soccer at near post runs, back post flick on headers. Here is Mads Peterson with the finish:

https://x.com/slumenssoccer/status/1708282346036711915?s=46&t=TsCCkuE48YmnkWfoKqc_Ng

………………

Embracing the defense. SLU has given up more than one goal in a game just twice all season, and hasn’t done so in a month. 

……………

4-3-2-1 for SLU. 4-4-2 & 4-5-1 for Rhode Island.

…………….

Another win for SLU, combined with other results, has put the Billikens RPI at 25.

……………

 

[courtside]

SLU RPI after Sunday’s games, is 20.