IU Hoosiers 2016

Hoosiers undefeated in the Spring with an auspicious 2-0 win over a good Mexico side. Ballard!! Colin Webb comes up with two big saves in the second half.

 

Excerpted from the local paper:

· By Jeremy Price 812-331-4342 | jprice@heraldt.com
· August 11, 2016

Officially, the Indiana men’s soccer team boasts nine returning starters.

But at the first official practice of the 2016 season Wednesday, it felt like nearly twice that many to Hoosier coach Todd Yeagley.

“This will be the most competitive (year) for positions, since I’ve been back (as head coach) from a balance standpoint,” Yeagley said. “Almost every position has a player that’s much closer in the context of pushing that starter. That’s big. They know that. A player chooses to come here, because they want that. They could easily go somewhere and be more the top guy from Day One.”

Day One seemed a long-time coming for the Hoosiers, who with their combination of experience and talented newcomers, aim to better last year’s trip to the third round of the NCAA Tournament and a preseason No. 15 ranking.

“Day One, we look forward to it all spring, all summer,” said senior midfielder Tanner Thompson, who is on the preseason watch list with teammate Grant Lillard for the MAC Hermann Trophy. “Finally getting back out here, getting the 2-mile (run) under our belts and getting back out here playing soccer is always exciting. It’s good to see the new guys and everything.

“… We’ll see (about the ranking). It should be higher. It’ll get higher, I’m sure. The preseason rankings don’t matter too much, but I think it will rise up considering this group and the drive within the group.”

Thompson’s first three seasons have seen the Hoosiers end their season in the first round, second round and third round, respectively. But that’s rather unsatisfying at a place like Indiana, which last reached the College Cup in 2012.

“(Motivation) is as high as it can be,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of seniors on this team (seven), there’s guys looking to make things happen their first year, then there’s the middle class guys who want to make it a big year for the seniors. I’ve never seen it like this since I’ve been here, and we’re ready to get going and get some championships this year.”

Yeagley has no doubt about that hunger.

“They’re very hungry. You could sense it from the moment we were ousted last year in the sweet sixteen,” he said. “It was a really disappointed and upset locker room, not a, ‘Man, we made it so far, that’s great,’ but we felt we deserved better on the day. They know the margins are small and how much work it takes to get to that time (of year).

“It’s always been a motivated, focused group. I would say that’s always been a strength of our program, but I’d say we’re at a high point with that. That’s the result of some of our competitive upper classmen and some of the younger guys too. There’s not much we need from a motivation standpoint. This group is very internally motivated.”

Just ask sophomore Andrew Gutman, who was more the point about those championships.

“Obviously, the goal every year is to win a national championship, so I think that’s our main goal,” the Hinsdale, Ill., native said. “Then everyone has individual goals, but collectively we want to play the best soccer we can.

“… Last year we had a good team, but this year we’re going to be even better. We’ve got a lot of returning starters, people that weren’t fit last year are coming in fit. It’s going to be a good year.”

Besides Gutman and Thompson, Indiana also has returning starters Lillard, Derek Creviston, Billy McConnell, Phil Fives, Francesco Moore, Austin Panchot and goalkeeper Colin Webb. Webb is being pushed by Christian Lomeli, who had a strong spring, and other returning Hoosiers such as sophomores Jeremiah Gutjahr, Cory Thomas, Rece Buckmaster, Rees Wedderburn, Trevor Swartz and Jack Griffith, as well as redshirt senior Richard Ballard are among those bidding for more playing time, if not a starting slot.

That doesn’t even factor in incoming freshman such national high school player of the year A.J. Palazzolo, high school All-American Ian Black, Gutjahr’s former Indiana Academy teammate Spencer Glass or Belmont junior transfer Rashad Hyacenth.

“There’s competitiveness in the attacking positions. We’ve got good depth, but who’s going to separate themselves for more minutes?” Yeagley said. “No question the battle in the back (is worth watching) with returning players but some really talented newcomers or developing young players, like what Rece Buckmaster did in the spring at outside back is going to be a great challenge with Billy (McConnell). We look at what Lomeli did in the spring, and how that’s pushing our goalkeeping crew.

“Honestly, you have a young player like Spencer Glass, a very talented left back, but with a returning freshman phenom with Andrew (Gutman), and Andrew knows someone’s breathing down his neck a bit, even though both can play other positions.”

The biggest question mark might be replacing Femi Hollinger-Janzen in the attack, something Ballard did effectively in the spring and Hyacenth did successfully as an All-Horizon League performer. They’re not the only options, with plenty of talent available, though talent alone won’t decide some of these position battles.

“The ultimate goal is to get the best team on the field,” Yeagley said. “It’s not always putting out the best talent, but the best team we can assemble. It might mean tweaking a role a little bit, we haven’t gotten there yet.

“Our first game feels like it’s tomorrow. There’s so much we want to do and that’s where the staff has tried to pinpoint specifically what we want to get done.”

The Herald-Times

 

After a stumble out of the gate (losing to Loyola 0-2), IU beats Oakland fairly soundly (4-0) and then beats #6 UCLA 2-0 at the Ft. Wayne at the ShinDigz classic. Lotta new names in the lineup despite a large number of players coming back, including 7 seniors. Seniors Ballard & Fives, Soph Wedderburn, Frosh Black, and Belmont transfer Hyacenth (2 goals) have been doing the scoring. Two clean sheets for Webb. Should be very interesting!

 

IU v UNM. Really even game. It appears that UNM has a good GK (as do we).

 

Goalllll! Tanner Thompson slots a PK in the 90th minute.

 

Somehow we allowed UNM to get one last chance on goal 11 sec after the PK. Evidently it was a good save by Colin. I'm too old for this.

 

Forgive the cross-post, but I find this interesting:
A.J. Palazzolo, 2015 NSCAA National High School Player of the Year, got on the pitch for the Hoosiers tonight. Interestingly, he came on as a forward rather than as a defender. Where have I seen that strategy before???
#Zav

 

the word 'depth' is very heavily overused in sports, but this year's iums squad has it. i'm looking at the roster right now ordered by jersey number. i'm not exaggerating when i say #1-19 could be a starter, and would undoubtedly be at a vast majority of d1 schools. then lomeli is #30, so thats 20 players any other program would love to have pushing and making each other better. it could be a big year. looking forward to the game tomorrow night versus another perennial powerhouse, cardinal. i saw penn state already took them down. good for our rpi.

 

Well, it wasn't pretty, but the Hoosiers got the win against Cal, 2-1. Cal scored first on a rocket from about 30 yds out. It took a deflection on the way and got past Webb. In the second half our offense got on track. First goal was really nice, from Ballard w/ a nod on by Hyacenth and then a very nice finish by Swartz. Then Thompson made a nice cross which Hyacenth headed in. Some good urgency in IU's play. When we possess, we possess with intent. Not much laying off and/or knocking the ball around. We're going for goal.

 

Wow - horrible officiating. It was all about him. A very soft yellow followed by another soft yellow on Grant Lillard and he was sent off in the 43rd minute. We played a man down for the rest of the game. The actual foul totals were 18-5 in favor of Stanford - that's more telling than the score, a 0-0 tie. IU's McConnell was actually punched in the groin by a Stanford player. Creviston lost a tooth when he was elbowed in the mouth during play. No Stanford players sent off...

This will have a big effect on our RPI and, of course, Lillard will not be able to play against Md on Friday.

I hope center Jurisevic enjoyed his "game" - I can't imagine he'll get many more (at least I hope not) - certainly not at IU.

BRF

 

boy, do we miss femi. at least i miss femi.

this game was a great representation of american youth soccer. when the game ended, i felt i wasted 2.5 hours of my life. such an ugly, boring game that didnt really feel like soccer. getting a draw with a man down for a majority of the game vs stanford though, even when this is clearly a down year for them, isnt something to hang your head about.

our offense is too reliant on feeding hyacenth. he's not fast or perceptive enough to make effective runs or good enough with hold-up to play through him. our best possessions came from building out of the back and combination play between the backline and midfield. our playmakers are in the midfield; they need to act like it and play with more composure, connect with each other...not just see hyacenth has a little space, feed him and hope something positive happens from it. it never did.

gutjahr was pretty quiet last night. needs to assert himself more if he wants to be an impactful 8. buckmaster looks like he'll be a good player as an upperclassman. i liked thompson and ballard's showings too. hyacenth worked hard, just didnt do anything. if i were yeagley, i'd move hyacenth to the bench, ballard stays on top, make thompson a free running 10 as he plays like that anyway, and put someone on the right -- buckmaster, panchot, or wedderburn maybe -- who has the positional discipline to give us width.

i had no problem with lillard's first yellow. it was clearly retaliation for the nut shot. the ref cant penalize what he doesnt see, but has to penalize what he does see. like everyone, i thought the second one was too light for a second yellow, but lillard has to be smarter than that. it looked to me he beat the stanford player to the ball and had time to clear it or take a touch with momentum toward the sideline instead of into the player to perhaps take the foul instead of give it. he knew what he was doing -- a really stupid thing to do knowing he's on a yellow, and as a result he let his team down.

unfortunately it looks like lillard's knack to make costly mental errors hasnt improved. every game i've seen he makes one or two. it's a shame he doesnt have the mental game to match his physical game. i hate to say it as an iums fan, but he's overhyped. "best cb in college soccer," "top 5 player in college soccer," yea...no. i dont see a significant pro career in his future. someone will undoubtedly give him a chance because of his size and prowess in the air, and i certainly hope he proves me wrong here. i dont want to make it sound like he's a liability. he's a competent 1:1 defender as well. just not a next-level player and just doesnt quite have it between the ears.

 

Kids having to play 48 hours after playing another game two weeks into the season with only a two week preseason ???? Even the best and most season pros would not produce a quality under those conditions....but 18-22 year olds are expected to play at a high level ... 2nd game of a tournament usually lends itself to a sluggish performance. Mental and physical fatigue leads to poor touches and poor decisions.

 

thats a fair point, but i'm not just speaking of this game, and that isnt a valid excuse for his particular decision that gave him the second yellow.

reading what i posted a second time, i'm probably being too harsh in my criticism of a college player. an amateur player. i dont want to be that kind of fan. my bad. i'm of course rooting for lillard and the rest of the players on iums.

 

Thoughts from last night.

- Tanner Thompson is fun to watch
- Both teams should have finished with 10 men
-IU dealt well without Lillard
-Stanford should have kept the tempo high and were a bit too passive in their possession
-IU fans were calling one of Stanford's players the "N" word multiple times and that's disgraceful
-All in all playing two games with Stanford going to OT in both of them IU in one should show that we need to change the season to the academic calendar. Please NCAA!

 

No. And I was close to the student section all game long.