SLU Men's Soccer Thread

[courtside]

22 minutes ago, Gremio14 said:

SLU was dominant in the first half last night.  The second half was another story.  I’ll keep it simple.  Take Berea.  Put him on SLU.  We win the game 3-0.  We have good forwards.  We just don’t have a guy like Berea.

Barea is one of the best scorers nationally. it also took him 5 seasons to get there. Five. he’s been good before this year. but it took him 5 to be this elite nationally. 

Missouri State has a well balanced team offensively and defensively. Their back 4 was good. They use Harlock, Shiraishi, to pressure with pace in addition to Barea. They score timely goals. That’s the difference with their team and season.

[Lord Elrond]

1-0 Billikens at Hermann, goal by Tanner Anderson. Fall weather definitely here, it’s downright cool here in the stands.

[Lord Elrond]

And just that quick it’s 2-0 Billikens! Goal by Max Floriani with 9 minutes left in the 1st.

[Lord Elrond]

2-0 at halftime, Jeremy Abbonnel hasn’t needed to make a save.

[Lord Elrond]

3-0 Billikens with 26 minutes left, goal by Matthew Wrobel. Billikens looking good.

[Lord Elrond]

4-0 Billikens, goal by Dillon Olsen. Billikens have only taken 12 shots, so 4 goals on that number of shots is excellent finishing. 

[Lord Elrond]

Now 5-0 Billinens, goal off a corner kick by Grady Easten. 4 minutes left, goals are raining down here at Hermann stadium. While it may warm my heart, the rest of me is getting darn cold.

[Lord Elrond]

5-0 final, best performance by Billikens I’ve seen in awhile.

[Pistol]

Those last 2 probably shouldn't have gone in. GW goalkeeper made a couple bad plays.

Nevertheless, good performance once they settled in after some sloppy stretches in the first 30 minutes.

[billikenfan05]

GW soccer is booty. This is an annual a$$ whoopin’. I enjoy these more than I should.

[courtside]

Big RPI opportunity for SLU at Dayton. The Flyers have the 2nd best scoring offense in the country, and, no team takes more shots. They play a fun style. 

Dayton plays a pretty traditional 4-4-2 formation with 2 stacks of 4. 

Caetano in goal. Sigurdsson and Kanyane at outside back. Both get forward often. Bremaud and Yeboah in the middle. In the midfield, Lijewski and Bonham in the middle with Melto and Seel on the wings. Again, Dayton’s outside backs and defensive midfielders get forward as well as anyone. 

Young but dyanmic scorers Armstrong and Bakken up top. Armstrong is on a tear of late finding space center top of the box. Dayton usually plays a short bench rotating dmids a little bit but not much else. 

Dayton can score in a variety of ways and they are good all over the field. But this is a game SLU can win on the road using its size and efficiency in transition. 

[SLUBALLS]

4-1 Dayton.  Second half. 71st minute. 

[willie]

1 minute ago, SLUBALLS said:

4-1 Dayton.  Second half. 71st minute. 

Wow

[Lord Elrond]

Inability to score goals when needed has plagued us all year, this game was just a butt whipping apparently 

[OkieBilliken]

Worst game of the Kalish era?

[Lord Elrond]

We travel to UMass for our first round conference tournament game on Saturday, Nov 9th at noon. No game at Hermann for the men until next season.

[slufanskip]

I switched over from the ladies game to a 1-0 halftime deficit. At 3-0, I felt I had the option of watching the rest of the game or dry shaving my entire body with a dull razor blade. On the positive side, I didn’t end up with as many nicks and cuts as I thought I would. 
 

1 word describes the game. Uninspired. And that’s not acceptable 

[Gremio14]

5 hours ago, slufanskip said:

I switched over from the ladies game to a 1-0 halftime deficit. At 3-0, I felt I had the option of watching the rest of the game or dry shaving my entire body with a dull razor blade. On the positive side, I didn’t end up with as many nicks and cuts as I thought I would. 
 

1 word describes the game. Uninspired. And that’s not acceptable 

I was unable to watch the game (Saturday nights are tough.). Stats indicate the malaise infecting us in the second half against MSU carried over to the full game against UD,

The only reason we escaped with a tie versus MSU was Abonnel played absolutely lights out.  Tough to ask a keep to continuously maintain that level.

Regardless, let’s take down UMass…maybe we get lucky and someone else takes out UD….

[courtside]

On 11/2/2024 at 7:55 AM, courtside said:

Big RPI opportunity for SLU at Dayton. The Flyers have the 2nd best scoring offense in the country, and, no team takes more shots. They play a fun style. 

Dayton plays a pretty traditional 4-4-2 formation with 2 stacks of 4. 

Caetano in goal. Sigurdsson and Kanyane at outside back. Both get forward often. Bremaud and Yeboah in the middle. In the midfield, Lijewski and Bonham in the middle with Melto and Seel on the wings. Again, Dayton’s outside backs and defensive midfielders get forward as well as anyone. 

Young but dyanmic scorers Armstrong and Bakken up top. Armstrong is on a tear of late finding space center top of the box. Dayton usually plays a short bench rotating dmids a little bit but not much else. 

Dayton can score in a variety of ways and they are good all over the field. But this is a game SLU can win on the road using its size and efficiency in transition. 

By itself, it’s not a big deal to lose to a top 10 RPI team with the nation’s 2nd best offense. Every team has a bad game and loses games. Dayton recently defeated the number 1 team in the country 5-1. SLU hadn’t lost in 12 games. What it does is highlight other missed opportunities, and it adds to it.

…………SLU lost to Dayton in large part because it struggled to defend the speed and pace of Dayton in transition. SLU has a top 10 defense but it finally had a tough game. 

…………….

SLU started fine. Dayton had a good middle of the half stretch. When things were about to go into half time tied, Dayton made a play and they scored on a low margin goal. 

Sassine deflected a line drive wide service out of the air while running near post. Zonal marking (multiple problems with it on multiple goals) on wide service. Sassine was given a small step cushion and that’s all it took. One touch combination play in a crowded middle of the field and Bakken was able to get goal side on Townsend. he reversed the field

 wide far side to Buabeng.Sassine was a late half sub for Armstrong. They let him play in the 2nd half and he added another one.1-0

………………

Early 2nd half, Melto-Quiah scored a golazo from 22 yards. Maher’s clear wos headed wide to Sigurdsson, and he quickly crossed back to Bakken top of the box quickly to Melto Quiah left side. 3 quick passes to reverse the field. Melto Quiah had a few yard cushion just outside the 18. So he cut inside and he ripped an upper 90 far post laser. SLU’s back 4 wasn’t high enough. 

…………….

The 3rd goal was literally Abonnel dropping a routine near post Bakken corner kick that was in his bread basket. It rolled into the goal. Inexplicable. 

………………

Dayton’s 4th goal was wide service from the left side from Melto Quiah through traffic on the ground. Left flank run, the pass got through Floriani. Maher marked near post and Redmon back post but SLU’s 2 Dmids didn’t mark anyone and Dayton had 1 extra runner. One was positioning and one was a hustle play.

……………….

SLU got one back on an overlapping run from Redmon from Barnett and Lara. A Tanner rebound off of the post. And SLU was within 6 yards of adding 2 more after that.  Caetano came up big twice on Lara. 

……………..

Dayton’s speed on the wings and pace in transition was a challenge for SLU defensively. Bakken was good in the middle too. SLU was effective early using its size over the top but Dayton made the adjustment to play its back line deeper. 

……………..

Dayton was very good in the middle of the field with combination to turn it into transition. Speed and pace all over the field.

…………….

The defense has carried SLU all season. It’s going to have a bad game some time. Not a good time for it.

……………..

SLU will get another chance in the conference tourney.

……………..

Henry came up with a non contact injury as he slipped on a defensive transition play, and he was replaced by Redmon who missed many games with his own leg injury. 

…………….

SLU started 3 center backs again, moved Floriani wide. 

…………..

4-2-3-1 for both with expected personnel.

………….

[SLUBALLS]

Just looking at some data for fun from this year and last few years. 

2024 Draws

IU – Indy:      1-1; IU scored first then SLU scored later.

Lipscomb      2– 2; Scored first early, then Lipscomb scored twice on either side of half.  We tied in 83^rd minute.

La Salle         0-0; SLU shots 16, La Salle 7, SLU 14 CKs, La Salle 3

Charlotte:     0-0; SLU shots 9, Char 2, SLU CKs 7, Char 3

Fordham:       2-2; SLU scores two in first half; Fordham scores two in second with tying goal in 88^th minute

VCU:             1-1; SLU Scores early.  VCU ties late (73^rd minute).  SLU shots 16 to VCU’s 4.  10 CKs for SLU, 1 for VCU.

MO State:    0-0.  SLU shots 7, Mo 10. SLU CKs 0, MO 5

 Four draws were at home.  3 games of no goals at all. Came back from deficits in two games to tie. Two games we gave up late goals to tie the game.

 Season-to-season

2024 to date  (7-3-7) Stats:  29 goals for; 13 Given Up; 1.7 goals per game; 0.76 given up; 13 shots per game vs 8 allowed.  SOG 41%

2023 (8-4-5) Stats:  29 goals for; 17 Given Up; 1.7 goals per game; 1.0 given up; 12 shots per game vs 11 allowed.  SOG 44%

2022 (12-5-3) Stats:  40 goals for; 24 Given Up; 2 goals per game; 1.2 given up; 13 shots per game vs 12 allowed.  SOG 41%

2021 (16-1-4) Stats:  52 goals for; 18 Given Up; 2.5 goals per game; 0.86 given up; 15 shots per game vs 9 allowed.  SOG 48%

 Trends: Wins downs, Ties up.  Losses lower since '22. Goal production down.  Goals given up down.  Goals per game down, goals given up down. Shots taken fairly flat-ish, shots given up down. SOG % down.  We aren’t getting the quality shots nor the finishing like we did in '21.  Defense is actually holding up well though based vs offense.

 

[courtside]

Indy, Lipscomb, La Salle were “bad” draws. 

Charlotte, Missouri State were “good” draws.

Charlotte and Missouri State have 2 of the better defenses nationally, hence your lower shot stat from those games. SLU had almost 50 shots vs the above 3 other teams for example.

Fordham and VCU were both draws due to later game horrendous PK calls. (I am not someone who speaks often about refs)

Ties are up in part because the NCAA stopped playing regular season OT after the 2022 season. 

Defense ahead of the offense because they’ve more successfully recruited snd developed defensive players than offensive players. 

Some of the best scoring chances in a game sometimes aren’t shots at all. 

SLU gets another chance against a high level team this weekend. All American Alec Hughes (49 career goals and counting) and UMass.
 

[Billikenbooster]

1-0 win over UMASS in OT!

[SLUBALLS]

3 successful PKs for SLU. UMass with two PK misses and one saved.  Way to grind this one out. 

[courtside]

 

George Mason

The Patriots play a traditional 4-4-2, not unlike what SLU used to play. Very balanced team, well coached, organized, unselfish. Richie Costanzo has had a quick 3 year building process blending youth, experience, and a few transfers. Domestic and International. 

George Mason will build from the back where they have several high level distributors in thei back 6. They get good spacing and use the length and width of the field, often building wide on the wings, playing overlapping runs and combination play with short interior passing wide of the box. 

Not an overly big team. Not an overly fast team, just solid all around. Good depth and pace on the wings. Opportunity to build through the space in the middle. Need a strong game from the middle 3 from SLU. 

Gonda is a big target up top. Eliuda is a defensive midfielder playing next to Montava, that can get forward. Clain and Sereno on the wings. Wachsman a fellow Chicagoan provides pace next to Gonda. Maestre and Jordi Sanchez at outside back. javi Sanchez and Lemoine in the middle. Salvado is unafraid to come off of his line and get involved in the buildup in goal. Janssen and Prioli provide depth up front.

George Mason is a team roughly similar to SLU with how they play and how they approach the game. Another tough, even matchup for a spot in the A10 Final. 

……………..

At times SLU played as many as 8 defenders against UMass in large part due to injury and unavailability, and in some part tactics. 

Floriani and Maher at center back. Redmon and Leatherman outside. Easton and Townsend. Seth and Lara wide. Fournier in the middle. ward up top. Holloway at multiple spots. Depth with Andrew, Tanner, Jackson. 

[Lord Elrond]

Individual honors for Billikens

A10 Goalkeeper of the year - Jeremi Abonnel

First team All A10: Seth Anderson, Max Floriani

Second Team All A10: Luis Lara, Joey Maher

A10 All Rookie Team: Drake Fournier, Gershon Henry

Luis Lara also was to the All Academic Team