SLU Women's Soccer Thread

[Lord Elrond]

I think our defense is up to the challenge, ought to be a fun game

[bauman]

On 8/22/2022 at 6:16 PM, Midtown Madness said:

Big special episode drop Wednesday for SLU Women's Soccer Fans.

Good job guys, but please Zac, no more tank tops!  Not a professional look.

[Pistol]

5 minutes ago, bauman said:

Good job guys, but please Zac, no more tank tops!  Not a professional look.

This would eliminate our young female demographic overnight. Sorry, but we need the numbers. Zac must maintain his heartthrob image - the tanks stay.

[bauman]

8 minutes ago, Pistol said:

This would eliminate our young female demographic overnight. Sorry, but we need the numbers. Zac must maintain his heartthrob image - the tanks stay.

I assume you are referring to the 8-11 year old age group as the demo Zac's tank top appeals to?

Go Lady Bills

[Midtown Madness]

18 minutes ago, bauman said:

Good job guys, but please Zac, no more tank tops!  Not a professional look.

Thank you.

Re: Tank Tops

1. That eliminates 50% of my wardrobe.

2. It was the women's soccer 25th Anniversary Tank and the only women's soccer specific item of clothing I own.

[Midtown Madness]

22 minutes ago, bauman said:

Good job guys, but please Zac, no more tank tops!  Not a professional look.

One last point:

Everything I do is aimed at breaking down that "wall of professionalism" of our guests(especially current coaches). I would much rather have them consider me an acquaintance than a media member/podcaster whatever other dumb titles are out there. I think that's how you get little cool moments like Katie saying  "b!tching" in our first interview and talk about them "sucking" because she was struggling to find an identity for the team.

[bauman]

8 minutes ago, Midtown Madness said:

Thank you.

Re: Tank Tops

1. That eliminates 50% of my wardrobe.

2. It was the women's soccer 25th Anniversary Tank and the only women's soccer specific item of clothing I own.

Everytime I hear Katie talk SLU soccer I am more and more impressed with her.  Not just her knowledge of soccer but maybe more importantly her leadership qualities.  We need to get her signed to a big-time, long-term contract.

I also like how she always seems to fit in some praise for C Allen

 

[Midtown Madness]

1 minute ago, bauman said:

Everytime I hear Katie talk SLU soccer I am more and more impressed with her.  Not just her knowledge of soccer but maybe more importantly her leadership qualities.  We need to get her signed to a big-time, long-term contract.

I also like how she always seem to fit in some praise for C Allen

 

I have been saying this a lot in the days following our call: I am starting to feel about Coach Shields the way Anne Kordes made me feel. I would go so far as to say she is probably a more effective leader. I love her, but Anne had her faults when it came to leadership.

[rgbilliken]

7 hours ago, Pistol said:

This would eliminate our young female demographic overnight. Sorry, but we need the numbers. Zac must maintain his heartthrob image - the tanks stay.

Confirmed (though i'm probably a few years past "young")

[Midtown Madness]

14 minutes ago, rgbilliken said:

Confirmed (though i'm probably a few years past "young")

17% Female on Spotify.

[slufanskip]

I just noticed this how the heck does Lindsey Heckel get named 1st team all conference as a sophomore and get left off of the preseason team as a Jr? The team has 4 forwards and just 3 defenders. Who are the idiots that decided this? 

[Lord Elrond]

1 hour ago, slufanskip said:

I just noticed this how the heck does Lindsey Heckel get named 1st team all conference as a sophomore and get left off of the preseason team as a Jr? The team has 4 forwards and just 3 defenders. Who are the idiots that decided this? 

In fairness to the voters, they can only select 3 defenders and 1 Goalkeeper. SLU plays 4 normally, Halverson, Heckel, Stram, and Houck, with Puricelli in goal. Both Halverson and Puricelli were selected, leaving only 2 spots.  The other two were Amber DiOrio from VCU, graduate student this year, and an excellent player. The other comes from a team not in the league last year, Alaina Abel from Loyola-Chicago, who was voted on the United Soccer Coaches Third Team All Midwest Region team. Hard to argue with the choices that were made, but plenty of time to change peoples minds with how well they play. I think who we have in Heckel (or Stram, for that matter) can measure up to them. 

[Lord Elrond]

For the teams, they actually select 4 Forwards, 4 Midfielders, and 4 Defenders, counting the Goalkeeper, because of the different lineups teams play (12 total). Some leagues select Goalkeepers as a separate category to themselves, but not the A10.

[slufanskip]

5 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

In fairness to the voters, they can only select 3 defenders and 1 Goalkeeper. SLU plays 4 normally, Halverson, Heckel, Stram, and Houck, with Puricelli in goal. Both Halverson and Puricelli were selected, leaving only 2 spots.  The other two were Amber DiOrio from VCU, graduate student this year, and an excellent player. The other comes from a team not in the league last year, Alaina Abel from Loyola-Chicago, who was voted on the United Soccer Coaches Third Team All Midwest Region team. Hard to argue with the choices that were made, but plenty of time to change peoples minds with how well they play. I think who we have in Heckel (or Stram, for that matter) can measure up to them. 

I’m aware who SLU plays. Having just 3 defenders is just a silly allocation of the positions. Goalkeeper is a goalkeeper. I’ll change my statement from calling the people who decide the team idiots to the people who decided there should be 4 forwards, 4 midfielders, and 3 defenders idiots

[Lord Elrond]

3 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

I’m aware who SLU plays. Having just 3 defenders is just a silly allocation of the positions. Goalkeeper is a goalkeeper. I’ll change my statement from calling the people who decide the team idiots to the people who decided there should be 4 forwards, 4 midfielders, and 3 defenders idiots

Yeah, I’ll agree with that. 4 defenders, and GK in their own category sounds better to me too. 

[Lord Elrond]

And yes, that’s 13 for a sport with only 11 players at any one time, but with the way teams mix and match different position players in a game, I can live with that. What the heck, it’s just trying to show respect for good players, not win a math quiz.

[slufanskip]

41 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Yeah, I’ll agree with that. 4 defenders, and GK in their own category sounds better to me too. 

And if you’re deciding between 4 forwards and 4 defenders it should be 4 defenders. Is there anyone who plays 4 mids and 4 forwards? Well, I think my 5th grade team did in 1972

[Lord Elrond]

Alright, the weather forecast at noon said maybe some rain to the north, but nothing in the metro area. I’m going to get a random number generator and guess a forecast off of that. Accuracy in forecasting should be greatly improved…

[courtside]

On 8/22/2022 at 1:47 PM, courtside said:

Notre Dame week for SLU.

It will be every bit as challenging as the Arkansas game. 

Nate Norman in in his 5th season back at ND (former player there), and he has the Irish back in ACC Title games, Sweet 16, etc…the past few seasons. Recruiting has been strong, and they blend a nice mix of experienced All ACC players with some promising newcomers. and even a Keeper transfer.

Notre Dame is one of the many Power 5 teams that like to play 3 in back with 2 forwards. 

Two capable keepers for Notre Dame, included a Northwestern transfer. (Wood)

Very experienced back line with 5’11 size in the middle, Gaetino, who can also play box to box. Ronan on the left and Hudson (who likes to get forward often) on the right. Gaetino is the key in the middle, a very good player.

Two true Freshmen will likely start in the defensive midfield, Klenke, and Matriano. Notre Dame likes to play through them. Cannot let them control the middle of the field. These were highly coveted national recruits who have stepped in right away. Klenke is another 5’11 player with size but also athleticism who can het forward. Matriano is very good at connecting passes out ot the back.

Speaking of the. middle of the field, Kiki Van Zanten will need to be contained, skilled and speedy, who also can play wide left. She is one of the multiple ND players from the Eclipse Chicago program (SLU’s Julia Simon). Druzina and Martinez are solid are experienced on the wings, and include some USYNT experience.

Up top Wingate and Mercado can cause problems in a variety of ways. Mercado is very good in the air, set pieces, making runs. Wingate is a strong finisher, tough player. She can get between and behind defenders in space or as a target, and she can out physical them for space.

I would expect Korbin Albert, another Eclipse club player to be back getting a lot of minutes as she is a dangerous attacking player. 12 goals last year as a Freshmen. She recently played for the U.S. U20 team, and she missed the first few weeks of the season. Potential All ACC player. 

ND has a back line that plays through its defensive midfield, who either make long ground target passes inside to forwards or they also will form sideline triangles with their wings. 

For SLU, have to be rock solid in back, getting good two way midfield play, and, get some numbers behind ND’s defensive midfield, pinching the middle on defense from the wings, and pressuring the two Freshmen defensive midfielders.

………………….

Another big recruiting game, national attention game. If you are able to attend, similar to the Arkansas game. this is one you will want to see. Notre Dame recruits nationally, and they are back to being a Women’s Soccer power.

…………………..

I am not one for preseason polls or preseason individual player recognition, but they have some marketing value. RPI is what matters most as the season progresses. With that said, you will see SLU start to get well earned recognition as they get results over high profile teams. For example, Top Drawer Soccer has SLU at #23 this week after not having them in their top anything. (no one else did either)

Emily Gaebe who had a strong performance against Arkansas putting pressure on their defense all game, was named the Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of The Week.

……………………

It’s also time to root for fellow league teams’ success, as well as the success of head to head opponents when they aren’t playing SLU. 

 

 

And that'spretty much how things played out for Notre Dame.

Unlike Arkansas, a pressure first team, Notre Dame is a methodical possession team that still plays with pace in their attack. Great experience for SLU to see very different styles early, from two high caliber teams. SLU has two wins over Arkansas in three seasons. It's a more favorable matchup for them.

Notre Dame played well, using Gaetino in the center to thwart what chances SLU did have, and to play through Klenke and Matriano in the middle, as well as Van Zanten and Albert in the central attack. It went as expected for them, frequent one touch lossession combination play, at a high level. They're good. Lots of experience back from a Sweet 16 team, and immediate impact, box to box, defensive midfield additions.

SLU didn't play enough as a group, had some positioning challenges, as well as execution issues. Credit to Notre Dame for some of that. Some of it was self imposed.

3 down, 15 to go before conference tourney time. The grind, player development, individually, and collectively as a group is the fun the part.

.............

Good draw for Loyola with Wisconsin, and, good dub for upcoming opponent Xavier, coming back to defeat Louisville. ......Another one, TCU defeated Santa Clara 7-0. (national title and final four the past few seasons.) So, tough nights can and do happen for many teams.

 

[Lord Elrond]

18 minutes ago, courtside said:

And that'spretty much how things played out for Notre Dame.

Unlike Arkansas, a pressure first team, Notre Dame is a methodical possession team that still plays with pace in their attack. Great experience for SLU to see very different styles early, from two high caliber teams. SLU has two wins over Arkansas in three seasons. It's a more favorable matchup for them.

Notre Dame played well, using Gaetino in the center to thwart what chances SLU did have, and to play through Klenke and Matriano in the middle, as well as Van Zanten and Albert in the central attack. It went as expected for them, frequent one touch lossession combination play, at a high level. They're good. Lots of experience back from a Sweet 16 team, and immediate impact, box to box, defensive midfield additions.

SLU didn't play enough as a group, had some positioning challenges, as well as execution issues. Credit to Notre Dame for some of that. Some of it was self imposed.

3 down, 15 to go before conference tourney time. The grind, player development, individually, and collectively as a group is the fun the part.

.............

Good draw for Loyola with Wisconsin, and, good dub for upcoming opponent Xavier, coming back to defeat Louisville. ......Another one, TCU defeated Santa Clara 7-0. (national title and final four the past few seasons.) So, tough nights can and do happen for many teams.

 

Very accurate summary, I think. It did look like the Billiken’s just couldn’t connect at all, definitely execution issues to work on.  The good news is that they play Kansas City on Sunday. The Roos just don’t look good statistically in their games this year, the one head to head matchup was with Drake, which they lost at home to 1-3, while we beat Drake 4-0 at Drake.  The Billikens need to use this game to improve their execution on offense.  I guess Beach and Brinkman get the chance at more minutes with Houck unavailable due to the red card.  Just curious, can Houck even stand on the sideline during the game? 

[courtside]

On 8/26/2022 at 12:05 PM, Lord Elrond said:

Very accurate summary, I think. It did look like the Billiken’s just couldn’t connect at all, definitely execution issues to work on.  The good news is that they play Kansas City on Sunday. The Roos just don’t look good statistically in their games this year, the one head to head matchup was with Drake, which they lost at home to 1-3, while we beat Drake 4-0 at Drake.  The Billikens need to use this game to improve their execution on offense.  I guess Beach and Brinkman get the chance at more minutes with Houck unavailable due to the red card.  Just curious, can Houck even stand on the sideline during the game? 

UMKC or Kansas City Roos is a game for SLU's KC players, KC recruiting commits and targets and their families to attend. Although a few have a game of their own at the same time elsewhere. The Kelly family has been kind enough to host the team in recent years. 

SLU has roughly 10 current recruiting targets across 3 club teams in that area. SLU will land a few. (A few have already taken a visit to SLU for an early season home game)

KC's coach Jess Smith, (friend of the program) was Brinkman's Summer Ball Coach with Kaw Valley. Kelly and Stram played with KC Current II. (where SLU commit Ashley Koch's coach was an assistant this Summer) Bri Halverson also has played club ball in KC over the years.

SLU essentially plays 3 Center Backs and 1 outside back based on best personnel. Houck can play across the back line, but she has been playing right back. SLU will play Beach and Spaete there. Nicholas will play some on the left with Bri. (Bri is better in combination play on the right side, but SLU likes to put Bri on the ledt with Katie on the right) Brinkman has played center back since the Spring. Just to get time she could play some outside back, but the preference is center back. She played outside back last year. Hiatt will also play center back. She can also play in rhe defensive midfield. 

So, Beach, Stram, Heckel, Halverson.

Spaete for Beach. Brinkman and Hiatt for Stram and Heckel. Nicholas for Bri.

 

[Lord Elrond]

For those who want to watch the game without going to KC, looks like no ESPN+, the only way to watch is through the computer at Roos All Access, 

https://kcroos.com/watch/?Live=224&type=Live

 

[Lord Elrond]

Slow first half for the Billikens, but they got going in the second half. That was a tough own goal by KC, I thought that defender was playing a good game, until she mis-placed the clearing shot. As I’ve said before, for a round ball a soccer ball takes some really strange bounces sometimes. 5-0 is a solid win. I am curious just how many hometown friends and family of Caroline Kelly’s showed up, that was a lot of noise when she scored that goal. Good for her.  Next up Missouri State in Springfield.

[Pistol]

SLU up 1-0 at Missouri State after about 30 seconds. Emily Groark with the goal.

[Taj79]

3 - 0 halftime.