You're right. At the time I posted it looked like PSU had it wrapped up, but evidently scored an own goal, leading to the tie w/ OSU. Bushue got hurt early, stayed in and then got banged up again. Never came back. Joe was looking at his knee. BRF
Any comments on our last few games?? It seems we have fallen into a "get the ball to Eriq" offense without any goal support from others......while our defense is being beaten at inopportune times and Luis is acting like the Luis of the past 3 years. We will not be competitive in either the Big Ten or NCAA tourney unless we have other goal scorers and Luis and the defense show up big..........
i think missing bushue is the big problem. he tends to sit in front of the back line and break up play and distribute the ball. they've moved petts back to sit in that spot, but he isn't quite as good that far back on the field. with bushue in there, kotlov and petts were further up the field to give zav some help. bushue could distribute the ball to any of the 3 of them to go forward. now, petts especially and kotlov to some extent have to go back to get on the ball, and it leaves zav isolated up top.
Noticing that Bushue has played in every game but the last one vs NW...........when did he hurt himself, and will he be able to come back to play in B1G /NCAA tourney??
Shoulda/woulda/coulda. We had NU where we wanted them, then botched a 1 on 4 situation and they tie it up. After that we scrambled/hustled, did whatever we could, but the ball wouldn't go into the net (sound familiar?). As people have mentioned above, we've gotta do more than pass the ball to Zav (altho that's a tempting option). Every time we advance the ball up the flanks, good things happen. More of our mids need to go AT defensive players (you're never more vulnerable as a defender than when backing up). In addition, we can't have these defensive lapses. We are otherwise a solid defensive team. So we head into the B1G tourney seeded 4th and, if we win on Wed, play PSU (#1 seed). BRF
what time do we play wednesday? it looks like we would play the first game friday if we can beat mstate wed.
They decide those things at the last minute (obviously). It depends on the host's seed. They (the host team, NU) tend to play last on Wed in order to attract more fans.
Weird. For some reason they have IU in third place in the B1G. However, UM beat us and has the same conf record: Big Ten Overall Team Record Pct. Pts. Record Pct. Penn State 3-1-2 .667 11 9-4-3 .656 Northwestern 3-1-2 .667 11 10-4-4 .667 Indiana 3-2-1 .583 10 11-4-3 .694 Michigan 3-2-1 .583 10 8-8-1 .500 Michigan State 3-3-0 .500 9 8-9-1 .472 Wisconsin 1-3-1 .300 4 6-7-4 .471 Ohio State 0-4-1 .100 1 6-9-2 .412 (Through games of Nov. 3) Shouldn't we be 4th?
They fixed it: Big Ten Overall Team Record Pct. Pts. Record Pct. Penn State 3-1-2 .667 11 9-4-3 .656 Northwestern 3-1-2 .667 11 10-4-4 .667 Michigan 3-2-1 .583 10 8-8-1 .500 Indiana 3-2-1 .583 10 11-4-3 .694 Michigan State 3-3-0 .500 9 8-9-1 .472 Wisconsin 1-3-2 .333 5 6-7-5 .472 Ohio State 0-4-2 .167 2 6-9-3 .417 (Through games of Nov. 4) IU plays #5 MSU at 1pm CST.
link to B1G tournament info: http://www.nusports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/12-m-soc-big10-tourney.html
Just had an email correspondence w/ an AAD from NU. He told me that btn.com will be streaming all three quarterfinal games. The "watch" links on the site above have been updated to reflect that. THIS is the link for IU vs MSU. BRF
they're available online for the low low price of $15/mo or $120/year. i don't know why i assumed we could watch fo free.
Yeah, and I paid it...so, how was the game? Just check my previous report on the IU vs MSU game. It was pretty much the same except that we didn't start (or end) well this time. Offensively, people need to step up. I will say that MSU's goals were nice, but we were once again second to the ball most of the afternoon. We're a little nicked up right now, so that may have taken its toll, but we just lost twice to a team that lost three of its starters to injury this year. They showed us how it's supposed to be done. BRF
thanks for the report. i am anticipating a trip to bloomington next thursday evening after the loss yesterday. hopefully we can pull it together.
So at what point is it reasonable for IU fans to ask "we fired a coach who had won an NCAA title for THIS?" And, if Todd had a different last name, would he be feeling more heat?
I think you have to question the narrowness of IU's talent base. This season, they have 31 goals and 18 assists from Indiana kids, plus 1 goal and 6 assists from nearby Illinois kids. And from the rest of the planet? 0 goals, 0 assists. The Hoosiers do have a starter from AZ and a GK from St Louis, but if you compare them to other nationally competitive programs, they're drawing from a very small pool.
THIS isn't worse than what freitag was putting on the field after jerry's kids were gone. the question is really "is todd good enough to get us back to where we want to be?"
Oddly enough, Freitag never had a season where IU's final RPI was outside the top 10. In contrast, Yeagley's first two years were #12 and #15, and there's a good chance they'll be outside the top ten again in 2012. Not that I necessarily disagree with you. The RPI isn't the end-all, be-all, and you see a lot more of the Hoosiers than I do. But I find the pattern interesting, anyway.
The comparison between Freitag and Yeagley is interesting but incomplete........Freitag had several years after Father Yeagley retired to establish himself and did not do enough in the eyes of the program ( see previous name, namely) to continue. Yeagley is in his third year, and most of the kids starting he has recruited, so he has no one to blame but himself, but it may take another 1-3 years before IU returns to regular visits to the College Cup........coaching changes in program of national prominence can lead to "down" years for a while ( see IU Basketball........not the best comparison, I know, but). Yeagley needs to extend his recruiting base outside the area and hopefully will do so..........but there are more good programs around now that weren't around before ( Akron, Butler, Louisville, SIU-E, UIC, and the resurgence this year - somewhat - of SLU, just in Bloomington's back yard). Of course, all of this might be moot if IU and Freitag had beaten St. John's at their place in the quarterfinals a few years ago after being up 2-0 with less tham 20 to play..........worst bunkering I've ever seen...........
Sorry but you blew it when you used the basketball comparison. That program was completely destroyed by KS and NCAA violations, which led to a mass exodus of players. When the TY took over he had a good team in place. I will give you there are better teams around now than there were many years ago and but I would not include Butler, UIC or SIU-E in those. They are respectable programs but I they are not in the same class as IU and certainly don't have the facilities or budget that IU has. U of L is, Akron always over achieved when KL was there and when he left they stepped up the funding for that program. There were many things taking place behind the scenes that led to MF losing the job and he was in a no win situation. With sr looking over his shoulder and jr on the bench
Agree with the basketball comment............have no soccer comparison in my mind for now (SLU maybe??). Substitute ( or add ) Notre Dame, Northwestern, and Creighton into the mix ( all have beaten or tied IU this/last year) and you have more teams to spread the wealth in the midwest.........still doesn't relinquish the coach from recruiting outside the area, though. Agree that MF was in a no-win scenario.............but he MUST have known that from day 1..........and it STILL doesn't wash the stomach acid away from 2008.........
Not more teams, just different teams. Evansville used to be a power. So did SIU-E. Eastern Illinois was once a national power along with Michigan State and Saint Louis was always there. Cleveland State was a regular in the NCAA Tournament in the 70s. Wisconsin-Milwaukee was very strong for a few years and of course Wisconsin was really strong in the early 90s, culminating with their national title run in 95. And Akron did just become good when Caleb got there. They were runners-up in 86 and were strong in the 70s and 80s. They weren't the 800 pound gorilla they are now, but they were still very good. The point is, there were always other strong teams in the Midwest for Indiana to compete with, they're just different than they are today. So it's not like Todd has some unfair task that didn't present itself to Indiana when his dad was the coach.
Very good point........... Interesting to compare this to the 2003 NCAA title winning squad ( under Yeagley the Elder) Grabavoy - New Lenox IL O'Rourke - Columbus OH Plotkin - Lisle IL Moor - Dallas TX Nolly - Littleton CO Robson - St. Peter's MO Meek - Corona Del Mar CA Chirico - Conerus NY Tudela - Evansville IN Yates - Ft. Wayne IN Peterson - Portage MI Zayne - Orland Park IL Dieterle - Elgin IL Hayden - Louisville KY Dias - Louisville KY Shinabarger - Ft. Wayne IN (apologies to Greg Badger and David Prall, Mike Kuklenski, Chris Pomeroy , and N Scherpenisse, but I could not find their hometowns)