SLU Women's Soccer Thread

[courtside]

On 11/2/2024 at 12:14 PM, courtside said:

A10 Quarterfinal. Davidson.

The Wildcats like to play a 4-2-3-1. 
 

Probables: 

Smith in goal. 
Roumy and Snead at outside back. 
Mann (their leader in back) and Bestif at center back.

Pruitt and Barnes in the defensive midfield. Pruitt likes to play higher and she’s willing to shoot from distance. 

McCready and Lyons on the wings. McCready is a size and pace wing who has an extra gear and makes frequent long diagonal runs. Pak is a playmaker in the middle. And Whiddon is a true Freshman target forward up top. Moody is also a front four attacker.

There’s some opportunity to play up the middle on the ground, and reverse fields diagonally wide in space in the outside back positions. Davidson is organized, plays hard, and can match physicality. A strong turnaround season for Piechnick in her 2nd year, with a mix of young players and a few veterans.
 

A minimum 5-0 game that ends up 2-0. Winning is what matters most. Tons of chances created, many were very high level. Strong game from Larson. (Several very nice plays in the middle of the field.) 

McCready had her chance down the right flank, and she had Emily off of her line but she put it off target. But that was just 1 of a very few chances for Davidson. SLU’s defense has given up 1 less goal so fsr this season that last year’s team at the same time.

SLU’s RPI improved to 30 after the game combined with other results. And it stayed there after Sunday’s results. They are on track to end up in the mid 20’s or better as previously mentioned as long as they win  their next 2 games. 
…………….

SLU is 6th nationally in goals against average.

SLU is 20th nationally in scoring offense.

SLU is 9th nationally in corner kicks per game.

SLU is 17th nationally in shots per game.

…………

RPI

Penn State 7

BYU 24

Xavier 28

SLU 30

UMass 44

Dayton 50

St. Joe’s 132

[courtside]

 

A10 Semifinals.

Saint Joseph’s plays a 4-2-3-1 with a very deep back 6. They are physical, well organized, and they can be difficult to break down. They play for the occasional quick transition counter, and they do that through combination play with Nevins on the wing, Fisher in the middle and Hanrahan up top. Cappelletti is a big strong 6’ keeper that needs to be forced to move more often. It’s an opportunity to build from the back, through the middle, then reverse fields wide, using the width and depth of the field. Diagonal balls over the top in space to move the defense front back and side to side. Spread them out. Send size defenders forward as offensive targets. Limit on half turnovers and mistakes.

SLU will also likely play a 4-2-3-1, with a forward as one of their defensive midfielders. They may switch to a 4-1-3-2 as needed.

SLU will enter the game as the 30 RPI team. Saint Joe’s is 134. SLU is projected as a 5 seeded NCAA Team, potentially hosting a game, then playing a neutral site game. That’s if they win their next 2 games and they don’t get under seeded.

………………….

Big 10 Conference Tourney Semifinals will be played Thursday afternoon at City Park. 3 of the 4 semifinalists played in the Pac 12 last season. USC vs Rutgers. UCLA vs Washington. 

………………….

[Lord Elrond]

Billiken goal 21  min in on a cold night at Hermann. Julia Simon gets the  goal. Nice job by the Billikens, keeping the ball in the Hawks half.

[billikenfan05]

7 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Billiken goal 21  min in on a cold night at Hermann. Julia Simon gets the  goal. Nice job by the Billikens, keeping the ball in the Hawks half.

One of the stranger goals you’ll see 

[Lord Elrond]

1-0 at the half, Billikens lead. I would like to see another goal, but I’ll take the lead.

[Lord Elrond]

Coach Manella keeps the whole St Joseph team out on the field at half, its only 50 out here after all…

[Lord Elrond]

UMass gets a goal in the 89th minute against Dayton, 2-1 UMass 

[Lord Elrond]

UMass defeats Dayton to advance to the title game

[Pistol]

17 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

UMass gets a goal in the 89th minute against Dayton, 2-1 UMass 

 

16 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

UMass defeats Dayton to advance to the title game

Great news.

[Lord Elrond]

2-0 Billikens, goal in the 63rd minute, Emily Gaebe assisted by Hannah Larson

[Lord Elrond]

2-0 Billiken win, UMass comes into town Sunday Noon for the Championship 

[courtside]

18 hours ago, courtside said:

 

A10 Semifinals.

Saint Joseph’s plays a 4-2-3-1 with a very deep back 6. They are physical, well organized, and they can be difficult to break down. They play for the occasional quick transition counter, and they do that through combination play with Nevins on the wing, Fisher in the middle and Hanrahan up top. Cappelletti is a big strong 6’ keeper that needs to be forced to move more often. It’s an opportunity to build from the back, through the middle, then reverse fields wide, using the width and depth of the field. Diagonal balls over the top in space to move the defense front back and side to side. Spread them out. Send size defenders forward as offensive targets. Limit on half turnovers and mistakes.

SLU will also likely play a 4-2-3-1, with a forward as one of their defensive midfielders. They may switch to a 4-1-3-2 as needed.

SLU will enter the game as the 30 RPI team. Saint Joe’s is 134. SLU is projected as a 5 seeded NCAA Team, potentially hosting a game, then playing a neutral site game. That’s if they win their next 2 games and they don’t get under seeded.

………………….

Big 10 Conference Tourney Semifinals will be played Thursday afternoon at City Park. 3 of the 4 semifinalists played in the Pac 12 last season. USC vs Rutgers. UCLA vs Washington. 

………………….

 

SLU 2 Saint Joseph’s 0

4-2-3-1 for both as expected. 

The game went about as expected. Good pace throughout from SLU. Not particularly sharp very early. But that quickly progressed and improved throughout the game. Deep back 4 from St. Joe’s as expected, collapsing the middle. Lots of space between their front 4 and back 6, and at times just their back 4. But SLU had them on their heels much of the game.

…………

SLU won most 50/50 balls time and time again in the middle of the field. Play up the middle, and reverse the ball wide, spreading out the defense using the length and width of the field. Other times outside back triangles up the line, Target passes and layoffs to play through balls in space. Many different successful approaches.

………..

The big St. Joe’s chance happened very early in the 3rd minute. Hanrahan had her chance on a breakaway off of a mishit clear in the 3rd minute of the game. Stopped by Puricelli who came near the top of the 18 to make herself bigger and she cut the angle. That was mostly it. 
…………

Goals were a 2nd, 3rd chance opportunity and a nice combination play goal. Simon to Gaebe in transition left side. Big save from Cappelletti who played well. 2nd chance to Schwartz top of the box, her initial shot was finished by Simon after deflecting off of Kim. These are some of the goals needed from Simon that she has scored in her past stops. Another goal: Larson made a strong diagonal run, then she moved wide and found Gaebe across the middle of the box for 2-0. One time finish. 
………….

Four different headers from Gaebe who had 2 additional high level shots inside the 18, just wide and a big save. Kim wide service in transition, flick on Larson header to Gaebe. And Gaebe 1v3 and a big save from the keeper. Stram had 2 point blank chances off of set pieces, one knocked off of the goal line and another shot lifted over the bar. Spectacular save by Cappelletti on Miller’s low shot to the corner. Full extension from the 6 foot keeper. Miller was strong on the ball in the final 25 yards, not giving it up until being able to make a better play. Sawyer had a few runs down the left side and again a big stop on one of them low near post

Getting a goal midway through each half takes pressure off of getting the first one, as well as getting a cushion. 

Very strong defending from the back 6 for SLU. High level distribution and getting forward from SLU’s defensive midfielders, especially from Le. Many pinpoint distribution passes and trailer runs. 

2nd 11 did well in combination later in the 2nd half. 

……………..

Nationally:

SLU now has a top 5 goals against average defense. 

SLU is top 15 in scoring offense. 

SLU is 7th in corner kicks per game.

SLU is at the top 15 in shots per game.

Gaebe is top 15 in total goals and top 20 in goals per game. 

……………….

UMass and Dayton are pretty even teams that had similar RPI’s, UMass was slightly better heading into their game. With their win at Dayton, UMass improved their RPI to 35. UMass leaving the A10 is unfortunate for soccer.

With its win over Saint Joseph’s, SLU improved its RPI to 25. 

Another championship opportunity for SLU Sunday, seeking its 7th straight conference tourney title.

[Billiken Rich]

Gotten a bunch of emails from the Billiken ticket office today.  $5 b-ball tickets and $5 Wsoc tickets.  Just got one with complementary women's soccer tickets.  I'm guessing the next offer will be to pay me to go to the game?  Maybe a free beer or two?  Anyway, the price is right at free so I'll have to see if I can talk my lovely wife into some Urban Chestnut and some soccer....

  

[courtside]

 

UMass.

UMass plays a 4-2-3-1. It sometimes will look like a 4-1-4-1. 

They start their best attacking player, Recinos, in the defensive midfield. She moves up when UMass presses. This is something they do with a lone striker, Groff, and the. It’s a stack of 4 behjnd her. 

Recinos is undersized but skilled, two footed, and quarterbacks the midfield. She can also fi ish as she knows how to find space in and near the 18. It’s effective to have specific size and pace player shadow her.

UMass is a physical team with some size in the attacking third. Groff, the Pedolzky sisters, Pinkus off of the bench, all have good size as targets, and Pinkus has some pace for pressing. Ryan will push up at right back. Peric is their big traditional center back. UMass has had lots of turnover at left back in part due to injury. When they lead games; they move Groff to left back. Otherwise Schultz and a few others will play there. Mendoza is a lefty keeper. 

Hislop and Lemond have some pace on the wings. It’s effective to play outside backs high near midfield against them. This will help negate the wide build up that UMass likes to play offensively. UMass scores some of the time on set pieces, 2nd, 3rd chances, when plays break down. 

In the first meeting, UMass was successful collapsing the middle back 6 of their defense. SLU’s diagonal runs were often met with a crowd of shot blocking defenders near the top of the 18. A counter to this is to play over the middle 4, then wide to the corners using the length and width of the field for service. This is how SLU scored its goal against them the previous meeting. SLU will look to push the pace at all times, speeding up the game.

Both teams have a lot to play for beyond a championship. UMass is a bubble team on the good side of the bubble for now. SLU is playing to secure on paper, a middle number NCAA Tourney seed. SLU is considered a 5/6 NCAA Tourney seed at this time. 

RPI will be 25 entering the game for SLU. 38 entering the game for UMass.

[Lord Elrond]

The weather is great, just a little breezy here at Hermann. Very light traffic

[Pistol]

Teams are taking the field and suddenly the sound has dropped out of the ESPN+ feed.

[Pistol]

No Izzy Luebbert today - she was hurt in the previous game.

[Lord Elrond]

Garbe scores in the 13th minute, 1-0 Billikens

[slufanskip]

10 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Garbe scores in the 13th minute, 1-0 Billikens

Larson sends the ball about 25 yards to just outside the box center of the field between 2 UMass defenders. Gaebe out hustles them to the ball makes a dribble or 2 to her right to create space and places the ball low just inside the left post. 
 

Nothing to do with the goal, just an observation but Julia Simon has played her best soccer as a Bill over the last few games

[Pistol]

8 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

Larson sends the ball about 25 yards to just outside the box center of the field between 2 UMass defenders. Gaebe out hustles them to the ball makes a dribble or 2 to her right to create space and places the ball low just inside the left post. 

Nothing to do with the goal, just an observation but Julia Simon has played her best soccer as a Bill over the last few games

What a vintage Emily Gaebe goal. Ball was dropped into a triangle of UMass defenders and Gaebe still got there first and made something of it.

And yes, Simon has been excellent lately.

[slufanskip]

Any future physical hustle play by a Billiken should be referred to as a a Hannah. (!after both Sawyer and Larson) 

The hustle award for a season if the have one should also be called the Hannah award

[Lord Elrond]

Dang, Billikens let in an equalizer on a cross, 1-1 tie 37th monute

[Pistol]

2 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Dang, Billikens let in an equalizer on a cross, 1-1 tie 37th monute

UMass got a few of those dangerous crosses in a short span. Unfortunate, as SLU dominated until then.

Now Houck is down after taking a knee to the head on a good slide tackle to stop UMass.

[Lord Elrond]

1-1 at half, they’ve had better chances than UMass, but need to take advantage 

[Lord Elrond]

Katie Houck made it back in after sitting out a few minutes. She seems fine.