Eh, losing him now doesn't hurt that bad since there's plenty of time to fill that spot in his class.
I think it varies too much from case to case to be able to know this for certain, one way or the other.
Less than a month to go.. Pre- season will be starting up soon.... Any interesing news about the team over the last few weeks, or those in the next few weeks ? ?
PRE-SEASON GETS UNDERWAY TODAY...........................GO TERPS.... First Stop Creighton 08-17-12.. next stop HOME against PSU.... 08-20-12...........GO TERPS
Ok awhile back I postged some concerns for Maryland program in the upcoming season. Now some reasons for optimism.. Sasho has eight starters back with no early defects (a rarity in today's game). With this program, they're goals are high. Reach the cup. They haven't the last two years. These seniors will be hungry. John Stertzer, Sunny Jane, Patrick Mullins is as good a threesome in the acc as anybody puts up. The attack should be solid. Jordan Cyrus up front will get minutes as well. The back four (with Kemp and Woodberry in particular) should be as strong as any group in the acc. Kyle Roach should be much improved after being thrown out there last year as a green frosh. Wydner Saint Cyr is a two year letterman. From all reports Alex Shinsky has looked very good in preseason and hopefully will show this year as to why he was one of the top two recruits in the country coming out of high school. IMO he's a big key to this season. Not expecting another Matt Kassel but if Alex can take control of the midfield in distributing on the attack, then that will help against defenses that surely will be marking Stertzer , Mullins and company much more closely without Casey Townsend not being around any longer. Sasho has some depth with this squad and as usual he has a very good frosh class coming in. It will be interesting to see if any of the incoming recruits (Ambrose? Edwards? Tschuma?) can get significant minutes. I would think a few of the frosh get minutes more and more by early October if not sooner. Playing at home is no gimmie for a "W" in the ACC but the terps do get UVA and UNC at home and that IMO for those two games should have Maryland feeling good going into those two with the acc foes coming to Ludwig. UNC in particular has had their issues with Maryland in the past and last year Sunny Jane never played against UNC because of red card. Keith Cardona - has makings of a very good goalie but his free kicks hopefully have improved. And for those keeping score on recruiting , Sasho ventures to the plains of Georgia for his first 2014 class commit as Daniel Rogers , a top 25 midfielder from Georgia United is a new Maryland terp. Good start for Sasho.
Actually, the haven't made it the last three years. The current seniors have never been to a College Cup. The last Maryland seniors to not make the College Cup at least once in their careers came to College Park in 1994.
Shinsky is more likely a wide midfielder. Dan Metzger would be a better comparison to Kassel (coincidentally both came from NYRB academy). Schillo Tshuma - will be known as Schillo by the end of September - is going to make immediate impact. He played for the DCU U23 team this summer and was instrumental to the team. Potentially Freshman of the year - ACC, nation. Future looks bright at Ludwig.
I was going to see "Shillo" play last year in high school when Episcopal was to play Dematha but the game got reschedule due to rain and couldn't make the rain date. Sasho doesn't throw accolades out on the frosh very often but he is reportedly very very high on this kid and the coach expects him to make an immediate impact. My thinking is does the talented youngester spring the upset and start up top with Mullins? Or does he become the first sub off the bench? Tschuma was only ranked #60 coming out of high school and yea throw those ratings out. But this guy has sort of flown under the radar on the incoming recruits nationally coming in when you read the soccer sites. Do we see a Rodney Wallace situation (much better player than adevertised coming in from the hs ranks?). Sure passes the smell test early on based on what I'm hearing. We'll see shortly with the schedule approaching.
Reportedly he can play striker and outside mid (an attacking outside mid ala Rodney Wallace).... As stated Sasho is very high on the kid.
Maryland plays Creighton tonight in an exhibition and Penn State on Monday in another friendly. As expected Christiano Francoise is on the official terps roster. True frosh from New Jersey. His speed will get him on the pitch early for the terps. Tman
I saw the Maryland exhibition game against Creighton last night that ended in a 3-3 draw. A friendly contest and I believe from Sash’s view point he got what he wanted out of this game . There were many more positives but a few negatives also to keep the veteran coach grossing. First thing that hit me watching the stream feed is Sasho started Tschuma "Schillo" up front and Mikey Ambrose at outside back. He also started Jordan Tatum in goal. How much do we read into that? Not too much. I remember he started Marquez Fernandez in the first exhibition game last year. I do believe the Alchemist, Sasho that he is, wanted to expose the two frosh as much as possible to highly regarded opponent in a hostile crowd before they start facing live bullets. The kid Ambrose is a tough physical player who 's going to be very good *he actually he is now*. He got a yellow card last night on a Creighton player who looked like he was breaking away towards the box. His play afterwards (despite the yellow card) was still a physical nature. Schillo is crafty the ball. I'm looking forward on Monday to see this kid up close at Ludwig against the Nitty Lions. Will one or both kids start in the opener? We'll see.. Maryland got up 2 - 0 early but Creighton answered and tied it. Two things to remember in this game. Sasho substituted in this game like no end and I think he had the bus driver playing holding mid in the second half. All 3 goalies played. Players were playing in all different spots like Wydner Saint Cyr playing attacking mid and Jordan Cyrus playing holding mid. Sasho was experimenting and I believe he'll tinker again with combinations again on Monday with Penn State. Elmber Bowliwich didn't substitute nearly as much as he was tinkering with a couple of subs as he's trying to replace a number of top flight seniors that left his program. Something to ponder. Creighton scored all their goals on either set pieces or on corners. Granted Sasho was experimenting but he will be working the kids hard on defending those set pieces. He started Ambrose, Kemp, Roach and Woodberry in the back. There were a few instances that I thought I was watching the replay loss to Louisville in the NCAA tourny where Creighton would WD40 the ball away from a Maryland player and then the Creighton mid and or defender would line a direct connect a pass to the Creighton Forward and Maryland would only have 2 defenders back. Maryland pushes forward so much that it leaves them a bit vulnerable on the counter. The argument on this of course a good defense is maybe a better offense and that's how Sasho likes to play it. I don’t' think Penn State (Monday friendly) is as good as Creighton so I don't think we 'all be able to read too much on the defense until next week when a rematch comes about with the Louisville Cardinals. I would think Maryland will have some dry powder loaded and cocked ready for the Ville after what happen last year. Different Ville team this year (rebuilding a bit ) but a good test in the Opener.
I went to the Penn State Maryland game last night in a lousy rainy night. Here's what caught my eye from the scrimmage.... The two frosh Christiano Francoise and Schillo Tschuma are both scintilating that will indeed help Maryland. Francoise was a sub for Sunny Jane. To be honet on this 45 minutes of vieiwing of the first half (and I didn't see the 2nd half) Francoise reminds me of Sunny Jane. Francoise is a powerfully built clever dribbler in the midfield. Sasho had him playing outside mid. I'm not certain on Francoise long range shooting skills but he can break down defenses and I believe will be a welcome and lethal option for Sasho. This guy on the attack is pretty devastating for defenses where coaches will have to scheme for when he comes off the bench. Schillo (as JoeSoccerfan has pointed out) is a very wise player as he plays with a maturity. He flashed brilliance at times last night and Penn State had like two or three defenders on him when he was attacking with the ball. Mikey Ambrose, as stated before, plays with an edge (some will say his play borders "chippy" but he adds a toughness to the terps to the terps defense. He's started two games now so is that a precursor for the Ville opener next Sunday. Stay Tune. First half Penn State 1 - 0. Maryland controlled most of the play. Penn State score was a misplace in the midfield and the Nits connected with the two forwards for a wide shot against Jordan Tatum and whala Penn State 1 - 0 for half. Maryland had the better play, more corners, more possession but soccer is like this. I saw a mis play in the midfield on Friday when Maryland played Creighton and same thing happend *misplay* in midfield that led to a score for the opponent. That's something the Maryland mid field will have to clean up. Have to mention that Helge Leikvang looks like will be Marland's designated corner kick specialist. He placed three beautiful corner kicks in the first half and though there were no scores, the ball placement was a thing of beauty. Maybe someone will comment on the second half....Next stop Louiville for real next Sunday.
Absolutely love the fact that MD is going to UL to play an OOC game. I think it's great that top NCAA D1 Mens soccer teams try and play other top teams, not just coasting by on their conference SOS.
To be honest withyou, I wasn't as impressed with the game as Tman. Md passing was at times, very sloppy, and the midifield seemed dis-engaged. The ball moved around the back four for minutes at a time.. with no clear intent for an attack. The second half was more of the same... lots of possession by Maryland, very little organized attack. PSU kept the pressure high for most of the game. The 2 goals for MD came very close together, towards the end of the match.. both on fairly individual efforts. Like I said on the PRe-season results page.. very difficult to gauge anything from this performance... Other than the 2 PSU goals came from "mis-play" between the defense and midfield... leading to opportunity for PSU... Neither goal was actually created by field play from PSU... they were both via let-downs, primarily by the Holding midfieled, for MD.
HOF Sasho wants to get a new, privately-funded stadium within 5 years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...09ac402-eaf2-11e1-9ddc-340d5efb1e9c_blog.html
So in a Top Drawer soccer article, Sasho pulls a page out of the Brasil soccer press that luvs to heap on the yellow canaries with this quote, "If we don't win the ACC or NC this year, the season will be considered a failure". Talk about doubling down on your team but hey I luv it and yea Maryland is really good. I'm not ready yet to say this squad is as good as the 2010 squad that somehow loss to Michigan at Ludwig. That was a season to this day that if you corner Sasho (and moi whose been following this program for 15 years) I believe he would tell ya that was still the most disappointing loss his Maryland squad ever encountered. I can see that game to this day (being in the stands) and wow.... never thought Md would loose to the Wolverines. Would of lost my arse in Vegas on that one. Going forward, no doubt Maryland has all the pieces to make the run but so about 5 to 6 other squads. But I do believe Sasho is challenging his squad with his quote. It's kind of nice not to hear the so called coaching "speake" where "Yea we got a chance to be pretty good, or we're a young team and we have some kids that grow up". A breath of fresh air with the quote from the cagey coach. The one thing Terrapin coach has going in is maybe he has more depth with this squad than any team in the country. If a kid or two doesn't play well, he can sub quickly and often and he can send a message. Still I need to see this squad at the end the season how they're doing. Not so much at the beggining because they usualy come out like a house on fire. Injuries, accumalations of yellow cards, suspensions, catching a hot opponent at the wrong time or just the cruelty of the game to loose 1-0 is all part of the Tarot cards. The crystal ball gets a wee bit clearer come Sunday night with the opener. Tman
Another article, this time from the Washington Post, where Sasho calls for championships ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...beb298-ed5f-11e1-866f-60a00f604425_story.html
Someone said something about Maryland traveling to Louisville for Sunday - that's not happening. It's a home game. Can't wait to be back behind the goals.
You know I like Top Drawer web site but their list of the top 20 players in the ACC is out there now and no Sunny Jane. All I can say is "WOW"..... That kid may be the best player in the country and he's not on the list.... Somebody over there TDS better get a closer look at that guy. tman
Rob Ziegler has done us all a huge favor by developing his TDS site, but a lot of the lists they post are a bad gimmick and shouldn't get past the editor, let alone be originated by the editor himself.
2-0 at Half for Maryland over the Ville. What caught my eye more than anything is Sasho starts three true frosh in the lineup, Mikey Ambrose at outside back, Dakota Edwards (MVP in the Birmingham All American game for the east - he's good) in the back and no surprise Schillo Tschuma up front. He substituted Christiano Francoise (this guy I really like) up front with Patrick Mullins and Francoise was creating havoc. For the goals,.... Schillo Tschuma scored the first goal and Dan Metzger (off the bench) connected for the 2nd goal. Tman.
3-0 Final for Maryland over the Ville. Touted frosh Dakota Edwards got hurt and was taken out so we'll have to see how bad that is. Metzger, Schillo, and Stertzer scored for Maryland. Game was a bit closer than the score for sure as the Ville controlled alot of the possesion.
