Tulsa wins in penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation. The Golden Hurricanes will now face SMU in the championship on Sunday. Add Creighton to the pool of teams hoping for an at-large birth to the NCAA Tournament.
Congratulations to Tulsa. They have been playing pretty well the last few weeks and are looking like the team that was a preseason top 25. Here's to Tulsa winning the Tournament on Sunday and the Valley sending three teams.
I can't tell you how frustrating it is to totally dominate a game and to lose it in PK's. I suspect your fans know the feeling when the Jays played Bradley earlier. The reffing was the worst we have seen in both semi's. Very biased in favor of SMU and Tulsa. But so it goes. Now on to the NCAA's
I'd be interested to hear more about the officiating. The Peoria paper mentioned two calls that went against BU that would have resulted in PKs for the Braves in regulation (foul against Kreamalmeyer and Tomasso handling a ball played intentionally, off the feet, back to him) Anyone an attendance care to comment? And yes, I know how frustrating it is to lose a game you dominate - Damn Creighton - but BU has pulled that off a few times, so you take the good with the bad.
Bradley was robbed. I know exactly which 2 calls you are referring to. Incidentally, the refs were from Texas. Coincidence you think? College officiating is embarrassing.
Bradley is not a team I support. So why the hell would I cry? This is simply a non-biased observation about what took place at the game that I happened to attend. As a St. Louis supporter which I presume you are, this is a concept that you clearly don't comprehend along with all your your other "loyal dreamers" . Every time your Billikins show the world how utterly average they are, you snivel and whine and come up with rationalizations about why they really are a quality program. You don't deserve an NCAA berth. I hope the selection committee will see it the same way.
Is it just me or was that one of the most sloppy, boring games I've encountered in awhile? Let me know if I'm wrong, it could be because the cameras were garbage for the game and the commentating was a little bit silly at times. Let me know what you think.
I didn't think the game was all that crisp for SMU but, it wasn't close to one of the sloppiest or most boring games. In fact after Tulsa scored they had about a 10 minute run of play that made them look like a top-end side and some extended periods in the second half where SMU couldn't touch the ball. They possessed the ball well, fed the outside and sent in challenging balls. Tulsa's concentration cost them this match as, IMO, they played better than SMU. I don't know what you look for in an exciting game. You didn't like Drake/Bradley I or this one. While neither were spectacular I wouldn't have called either boring. I think you like a lot of scoring and if the game lacks 4-5 goals you aren't particularly pleased with it. I personally think a game that creates scoring chances from the flanks and other run-of-play is exciting. Tactical soccer is entertaining to me as well with teams trying to figure out the defense and looking for angles to attack.
Here is the MVC All Tournament picks: Ugo Ihemelu, SMU Ryan Latham's late goal lifted SMU to a 2-1 victory and automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Latham scored with 22 seconds remaining to lift the top-seeded Mustangs to the league championship. Ugo Ihemelu earned tournament Most Valuable Player honors in leading the No. 3-ranked Mustangs to the league title | Bracket Nov. 5 -- at campus sites #2 Creighton 3, #7 Evansville 1 | Recap | Box #1 SMU 2, #8 Vanderbilt 0 | Recap | Box Score Nov. 6 -- at campus sites #4 Bradley 3, #5 Drake 1 | Recap | Box Score #3 Tulsa 2, #6 SMS 0 | Recap | Box Score Nov. 12 -- Omaha, Neb. SMU 1, Bradley 1 (SMU, 5-3 PKs) | Recap | Box Score Tulsa 1, Creighton 1 (Tulsa, 4-3 PKs) | Recap | Box Score Nov. 14 -- Omaha, Neb. SMU 2, Tulsa 1 | Recap | Box Score All-Tournament Team -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Germanese, Vanderbilt Jon Watson, Southwest Missouri State Marc Burch, Evansville Matt Nickell, Drake Matt Wieland, Creighton Michael Krause, Creighton Cody Kother, Bradley Preston Good, Bradley Terry Boss, Tulsa Ryan Pore, Tulsa Brian McCurdy, Tulsa Israel Jones, SMU Ross Spencer, SMU Ryan Latham, SMU Ugo Ihemelu, MVP It's great we got one of our Omaha guys (would have picked a different one) on the team but I was really surprised senior defender Brett Rodriguez was left off the team. Man, what is that about? He was dominant on defense and in the air on Friday in just about every phase of the game and was our best guy in the back. Pore could not do a thing against him. Not even close. If Warming was limited to 2 nominations, it's pretty amazing he would overlook Brett yet again. Does not square with the quotes he gave in a recent article. We will sure miss Brett next year. And if Warming had to have an Omaha player on the team, I would have thought Vince Odorisio would have been his pick. He is all over the field and works really hard and makes things happen. And Andrew Peterson was every bit as good as Wieland. Krause looked good at times and scored. But he also missed a wide open shot that would have sealed the game. Why doesn't this factor into selections? This whole process sure has me wondering what goes on. Now I am usually the first person to support our local guys---- but fair is fair. I saw a lot of Omaha fans at the game today. Kinda surprising since the Jays were eliminated. Tulsa actually looked pretty good today for many parts of the game and could easily have won. SMU really had to pull it out at the end and I guess I have to give them credit for that. I hope Tulsa gets in to the NCAA but they are probably on the bubble because our league rarely gets the nod when compared to some of the other west coast and east coast leagues. It'll be interesting to see how SMU does in the NCAA's. They were having a hard time scoring on other than set pieces for the past 5 or 6 games until the last part of the game today. Go Jays and let's hope we get a good draw tomorrow. They appear to be a lock for an at large selection.
What a wild ending. Tulsa seemed to have things in control and then SMU hits for two late goals. Tough way for TU to go out and I wonder if they'll get an at-large bid. Creighton's stadium looked sweet. I've been to several of the better college soccer stadia - Virginia, SLU, Portland, Stanford, Maryland, Indiana and UConn - and that looked as nice as any I've seen. And, a good crowd considering it was two neutrals playing. Big ups to Creighton for getting the stadium built and doing it right and to the folks of Omaha for coming out.
and wait until the luxury suites and seating above are completed. All biases aside, this is the top facility in the country. Too bad the Jays will not have as many NCAA home games as it appeared they would have just a couple of weeks ago when they were ranked #3 in a couple of polls. On the other hand, they have a history of performing well on the road.
The only thing that hurt this game was the fact that Tulsa couldn't build up an attack at all the entire second half. Goddard had one good shot, Pore couldn't get the ball facing the goal, and there weren't many quality chances other than the goal. It looked like some of the players were in slow motion a lot of the time. I have to come out and say it everyone, Mynor Gonzalez is garbage. I've watched him play the last two years now on several occasions, and if I have to hear the announcers talk him up again about being on the Guatamalan national team, I'm going to puke. This guy is not good, and was mostly at fault for the Pore's goal when he got torched on the sideline then stabbed to try to block the shot but didn't come near it. He's slow and just a poor 1v1 defender, Ugo needs to teach him a thing or 10. The ending would have been a lot more exciting if Tulsa got the goal, because SMU pounded them most of the game and nearly the entire second half with maybe a minute of downtime. I feel like everybody who was watching that game knew SMU was going to win. The first goal was a rip, but Boss should come up with that save, it was a shot from 20-24 out that skipped twice before it went in. I don't care how fast a ball is rolling, if you don't have time to position yourself to get on the end of that one, you need some practice. Latham's goal was pretty solid after it trapped it on his chest and tucked it away. It wasn't a solid strike by any means, and wasn't pretty either, but it got the job done. Boss was screwed on that one because anytime someone is in the center of the goal with a defender right in front of them blocking the keepers view, it's hard for a keeper to adjust and come up with a save on a play like that. Tough break. Does anybody else find it embarassing that the two teams in the final are both leaving the conference next year and they got in our final this year? Does that mean the MVC is going to be weak without them? I have some opinions on this, but no time to comment right now.