In support of that, the MVC has a nice soccer culture with many teams succeeding in the NCAA Tournament: Bradley made the final eight in 2007. Drake made the final eight in 2008, Creighton made the final eight in 2008 and is a regular threat for a deep run. SIUE is not far from being another of those teams. SLU fans would be wise to take SIUE seriously as a threat on the pitch and on the recruiting trail.
Karma will prevent Kalish from doing anything. He postures with them before they even get released. At least thats the image he has to us in the club world.
7:00 vs Northern Illinois tonight at Hermann. Should be a good first game for us. I think our early season schedule is going to pay off as long as we can stay healthy and stay motivated. I think we should be able to grab a top 2 seed for the conference tourney and hopefully having it at home can push us through to the NCAA tournament. If we could steal one against Akron, Indiana, or Notre Dame, it would go a long way for an at-large bid and seeding in the tournament.
2-1 Northern Illinois upends the Billikens Uhh...not what you call a good start to the season. Did anybody else think Adnan was absolutely lost out there? Just a quick observation. This team is in trouble...they could be looking at 0-6 straight in the face (Florida Gulf Coast no slouch). No depth and the depth they have up top looks lost.
Saw this one on the computer. Agree not a good start. They will need to be a lot better or 0-6 may be a real possibility. It didn't seem McGinty had much energy toward the game until the final 5 mins. Anyone agree or disagree?
I think Alex Johnston was brought in at half ...but yes, not much off the bench. Is Roach hurt? Heard a couple different stories... I did think McKee brought in some nice energy for the 5-10 minutes he was in. Good crowd though..perfect night for soccer.
It's the Peter Principle. McGinty may be a terrific assistant, but as a head coach, he's a novice and way too erratic.
We had an unlucky week for mids. Roach got a knock, Sweets went in a cast and Devo transferred. So, with all the inexperience in the middle, we need Chad at CB with Blake, not out wide ... especially going into Indiana tournament. Hopefully, Roach will be back.
This may be the one time in history i agree with you. Adnan was horrible as well as cristo if the ball isnt at his feet. Any ball that was hit over their heads they would just stand there, completely embarrassing. This team is a joke without Sweetin and Roach up top. The defense isnt terrible but chad needs to play center back and maglasang or beau needs to play right back. However, overall this team is struggling for talent. I don't blame MM because he is really only responsible for one class, this freshman class which honestly isnt bad. Hidalgo and Ray lee are players but need people to pass them the ball. The field was atrocious again with players shanking passes everywhere. Thank god briggs wasnt out there. This team will go 0-6 with possibly getting a draw in one of the games. Sad to see where SLU has gone. No talent anywhere anymore. Northern illinois dominated the game at times which truly is sad. It will take years for this team to turn around. Cristo and Adnan are completely awful together. I keep comparing them to dado and vedad which I should and its unbelievable how soft and lazy they are. Going to be a terrible year for SLU if sweetin and roach are out for an extended period.
Completely agree on Chad at CB and Mags at RB. Need Sweetin and Roach back and definitely need to leave Lee and Hidalgo in when they come back. Kristo and Adnan refused to make an aggressive run and we don't have enough ball skills or passing skills as a team to break down the defense any other way. Absolutely need Roach and Sweetin back soon. We'll be lucky to get a draw in these first 6 games.
tough schedule coming up this weekend with the classic but hey if we can nip an early one, on one of these teams, (who might be over confident) it would be a great result. ND and IU played to a scoreless stalemate the past weekend, so they both will most likely come out flying, especially in front of the IU faithful this weekend. hopefully roach will be back to play some of his old boys this weekend... go slu.
Is Mags hurt as well? Johnston isn't playing much either; nursing an injury? We started five freshman and two sophomores.....not a recipe for success unless you are starting the class that had Vedad, Johnny D, Grazier, Matteson, etc. Love to get more color on the game as well as player thoughts. I do like this freshman class overall, absent Kristo whom I keep wondering what the hype was about with this kid. Really miss Sweetin and Roach out there as many have said. They bring leadership and savvy on the pitch.
McGinty probably helped with some recruiting in Virginia or at least has some connections. Why don't we look there for anyone?
ND dominated IU on Saturday and should have won 3:0 at least. Just couldn't finish. I think SLU will beat IU, bit have trouble with ND.
Are you serious. Why in the heck would someone living on the east coast not go to a big east or acc school. You have to recruit regionally if you SLU. SLU has very little to offer all over the board. If your a top 100 recruit living on the east coast, every big east, acc, big ten school is after you. Thats like saying SLU is going to steal a california kid from going to UCLA or Cal, and do not even try to tell me the california kids in the past were recruited there because they werent. Midwest is the and probably texas are true possibilities now until SLU gets back to becoming a consistently ranked team.
Ok i wasn't even thinking about that really. I'm still stuck on the idea that kids want to come to slu for soccer, but it really isn't the case anymore.
Yea, I mean that pitch works if your ranked every year. Here is SLU's soccer pitch now, come join an unranked team that plays in the A-10 and oh yea tuition is around 45,000 a year. I do believe that McGinty has pro connections and can play that card but so do a lot of top 25 coaches.
There's also the cost. With only 9.9 scholies available, players still have to pick up the tab of a lot of school since very few get full rides. If you live in Virginia, it's likely cheaper to go to a state school and pay in-state tuition even if you don't get a nickel of aid then to go to a private school where you might get half of a scholarship, if you're lucky (and really good). Academically, SLU has a good rep in the Midwest. But it doesn't resonate in the East Coast, where there are myriad schools just as good or better, many of which cost less. (To be clear, I'm not suggesting SLU is a bad school. Far from it. Just that it's academic reputation isn't so stellar that it's worth the extra cost, especially to kids and families away from the Midwest. For a kid from Virginia or the Carolinas, SLU is no better than state schools like James Madison or UNC-Charlotte and those cost far less in-state.) Unless a private school has an elite program or is elite academically, it's very difficult to get kids to choose to go there from afar when there are cheaper options as good or better that are closer.
Great win for the Bills over the Irish...2-1 in O.T. Would love to hear why all the cards were issued...either way, great result !
I like that AJ and Mags got some playing time...and kudos to AJ for the gamewinner!! It doesn't make sense to have them sitting on the bench for an entire game. McGinty subbed more this game and I think it helped. Congrats to the Bills for the win against a ranked team. Fridays game against Indiana was a disaster. Manning is too inexperienced to be playing the center back position. Two of Indiana's goals were the result of his defensive mistakes. I would prefer to see Vandegriffe in that spot. At least the Bills won't be 0-6 like some posters predicted.
slu defense played better than first two games. In 32 min rf scored on a rebound given up ns. In 56th min ag scored on a rocket, and about 30 secs later away from the ball rf was fouled by cm and retaliated with a headbutt winning him a red card. nd played a man down from then into the 2 overtimes. nd dominated offensively in the 1st half and without the red card we probably at best tie the game. sorry, got to go.