Yeah, I noticed that, too. Generally, we are playing a very soft zonal defense. That side of the field was VERY soft. What happened to McCain BRF
I can tell you that ND was very disappointed they didn't win the game Saturday. They have a number of very dangerous players and will not be shut out much this season. The finishing was less than clinical: hence, they had to settle for a tie. Finley has Will Bruin type finishing ability.
So a road opener against a consensus top 10 team, returning a ton of talent, and you shut them out....could certainly think of many worse ways to start a year. This is a young team, that went into ND (with a crowd Bobby Clark called the best he has seen during his time at Notre Dame) and found a way to keep a clean sheet and grind out a result, not sure why there is so much pessimism. Give all the young pieces some time to gel, and give them time to figure out where goals will come. its not going to happen overnight, and the group has only been together 3 or 4 weeks, all these new pieces and players playing in new spots are gonna take time to come together. Teams like Louisville have a big advantage this time of year because they return so many of the same key pieces from the previous years team.
there was an article about corrado and vollmer in the ids today. http://idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=82594
Nice win for the Hoosiers last night against SLU. They were easily the better team. IU generated lots of action in SLU's penalty area and it paid off three times. SLU's goal just sort of happened and was against the run of play. I believe that IU was ready for halftime just a little early. Lots of alums back in town, made for a good tailgate. BRF
Good stuff all around from the Hoosiers. Got my Hoosier Army shirt this weekend. We really dominated Dayton today.
I went to the game against ND in South Bend last week, and came out wondering who for IU might be able to score a goal. Looked like they could have played for a week without scoring. Nice to see 9 on the board in 2 games.
Me, too. However, the Hoosiers just dominated against the undermanned Flyers. We just rained 'em in. IU's midfield cut through theirs like warm butter and ended up w/ multiple chances inside the area. This was one of those games where, after the half, everything was working for a really loose team who were able to enjoy themselves. Someone mentioned that ND was a "consensus top-10" team. I think this weekend puts that to rest. As for the Hoosiers, I think we'll know how good they are after the weekend of Sept. 16. BRF
Perhaps they should be but, after watching them twice this weekend, they are still far away from being achieving the potential some are suggesting.
Agreed 100% but let's not knock the performance based solely on the modest talent level of Dayton. The willingness and focus, the choice to dominate and not step off the gas, the fun, the intensity, etc. were there in both games this weekend (well, maybe not so much in the 2nd half SLU). Those aren't qualities this team has shown in the past several seasons. I don't know how that will translate in terms of wins and losses as the season progresses, but it's nice to seem some attitude and enjoyment on the field again. And Zavaleta is a revelation - his goal, assist, and card against SLU are the soccer equivalent of a Gordie Howe hat trick. Hoosiers haven't seen a player (patience, precision, vision, toughness) like him in far too long.
careful with this. he has looked very modest when paired against experienced and athletic center backs (esp against duke and notre dame). against smaller/less athletic/younger cb's he has done well though.
A revelation to who? He was a very highly ranked recruit and was at Bradenton for two years. Everyone and their mother knew about him.
I attended both matches. We looked pretty good. I also saw the match a couple weeks ago vs. ND, and wondered where the goals would come from. The last 4 games have answered that. I think IU and ND are just very closely matched. I will note that all 3 goals against us this weekend were scored from headers. Bucknell has a couple of 6'4'' dudes, and caused havoc in the penalty area on corners, free kicks, and even long throws. This surprised me a bit, b/c Meyer and Konstanski are fairly big and strong. Denver's goal was scored in run of play, but by a big strong dude who just beat the defense. I'm guessing other teams will take note. If I was an opposing coach, I sure would. Zaveleta looks good. He needs some time, but I think he'll replace what we lost when Bruin left. All in all, I think this will be a good season, but not sure we're ready to compete for a title quite yet. Hope I'm wrong. But things seem to be heading in the right direction.
thanks, mike. i noticed our lack of size against ND. if i'm remembering correctly, i didn't think we were ever going to win anything off a corner or free kick because they were so much bigger than we are.
Konstanski is listed at 6'0'', and he's a big strong guy. Meyer is 6'2'', and Estridge is 5'11'', which is good size for an outside defender. I think that Yeagley needs to spend some time working on defending set pieces. We're never going to dominate in the air, but we could certainly lose some tight games on bad aerial defending.