I figured I'd give all you Furman haters something to chat about. Furman plays Clemson tonight in Greenville at 7 p.m. Furman will have the services of Drew Moor, who's been with the U-20s during World Cup preparation, but is now back due to the unfortunate postponement of the World Cup. Obviously Furman lost Rico Clark to the MLS and a couple of key seniors in Andy Kidd, Matt Foxhall and Anthony Esquivel, but it should be a competitive game.
this is true ... we did lose a lot, but i am very happy with our lineup tonight. srod, will you be at the game?? im looking forward to a well contested game. drew is a huge addition to our already stacked defense (the same defense returned that set TWO ncaa records last season. should be a good match. here is the projected starting lineup for the paladins: maslow cronin moor penn barbour murray villalobos dempsey windsor hoch raad dempsey is a little gimpy from a strained quad, but he should still start. ill be back on later tonight and give a report from the match.
Yeah, and Clemson didn't lose anybody..... Except their All-American goalie (Warren), top defender (Lewis), leading scorer (Westfield) and starting defensive and attacking mids (Brinksved and Tambosi). I don't want to hear any whining from either side, or else I'll turn this car around and go straight home!
final score: clemson 3 furman 1 clemson opened the scoring at about the 30 minute mark or so. played a cross, forward chested it down, and a midfielder half-volleyed it on his first touch. it was a laser, and maslow had no chance to save it. clemson also scored in about the 48 minute. a poor touch by a clemson forward, hanley came out sliding for what should have been an easy grab, but the ball slid through his fingers and a clemson player ran onto the ball and one-touched it into an open net. furman scored around 60 minute mark on a josh villalobos PK. drew moor made an attacking run and was fouled hard in the box. clemson ended the scoring at the 79 minute as a clemson player was holding the ball at the top of the 18, and then curled a left footed shot into the far upper 90. overall, clemson looked pretty good. they played really well possessing the ball, and worked it around to set up their goals. the first and third goals were amazing, no way they could have been saved. the second was sloppy, due to rusty hands. however, clemson didnt really have all that many scoring opportunities ... but when they did, they definitely capitalized on them. for furman, the first half, they dominated the play, especially in the midfield with dempsey and villalobos. furman had some amazing combination plays, and looked to be in great shape, just couldnt get a ball in the back of the net. i think that the first clemson goal kinda got us down. the second half, we were definitely tired out, only having three subs, and only one for the second half. for clemson, great play by nick rivera in the back. he organized the defense well and kept the furman attacks in check. i was very impressed with clemson's outside MF/D #24. he was extremely fast and wouldnt let our MF's get down the line, which is exactly what you have to do to beat furman. for furman, dempsey was amazing in the midfield. several times tooling the defender and then running by. he made several full field runs with the ball that were very exciting. once, he took a 1 v. 3 dis-advantage and beat the first two defenders, and was then pulled down by the third. villalobos played well and combined well with dempsey. cronin did a great job in the back, and moor played extremely well at D. he made several good runs from the back, and drew the penalty on one. i was somewhat pleased with tonight's performance. not too bad for a spring game. im definitely looking forward to what these two teams will do next season.
Good match report JBin! While the score is not what Furman was looking for, it sounds like the play was alright. Maybe a little rusty in goal. Goalkeeper play is definitely one of the things that goes when you don't get actual games for a long time. Well, let's hope Furman's incoming class has some scorers and let's hope that Dempsey matures as a soccer player and can lead this team.
Clemson and Furman Clemson played a good possession game tonight. Clemson lost several key seniors and also have 5-6 players on the injured list. Rivera is one of the recovering injured players and only joined the defense in the second half. Controlling the defense tonight was center back #15 Brannan with Gilstrap in the net, Kevins and Mattison on the sides.
IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY Geography didn't allow my presence at the game last night, but I got plenty of updates. Good report by JBinSC, although I never heard from anyone that Furman dominated play at any point in the game. Although the game from last season can never be played, I think this answers a lot of questions as to the strength of these programs and Clemson's continued dominance in-state. Also heard that Clemson has 2 incredible goals, one from Cutler and the other from Andre Borges. Good news for Clemson that these two are playing well together this spring as they will need to play well for the Tigers in 2003. Nick Rivera scoring a goal shouldn't surprise anyone as he has earned the reputation as the hardest working player on the field that has an intense distaste for losing. Good to see him back from Injury, hopefully his goal celebration was better than previous attempts, although expectations are never high for him there.
Of course FIXXER would go and make the comment, insinuating that Clemson is the most dominant in state. You even said it yourself, the teams did not play each other last season and ended up losing to the same team in the tournament. From the result, game report and all it looked like Furman had the better game against Stanford. So while, this spring result went in favor of Clemson, in my opinion, we'll still have to wait to see who is the state champ.
I attended the match as well since I was fortunate to be in the area visitng some friends but I do have to dispute some of Jbin's match report. The 1st and 3rd goal for Clemson were amazing and the keeper couldn't do much about either. Clemson's 2nd goal was a very bad goal, but if I remember correctly, Villalobos hit a pretty bad PK that the Clemson keeper probably should have saved. As for Furman dominating possession especially in midfield, I don't remember domination. Lots of feints/ fakes and acts from Dempsey/Villalobos, that may have looked good but resulted in nothing. The Clemson keeper made one save on a free kick and he didn't even have to leave his feet for it. Overall, an outstanding match to watch. I give the edge to Clemson who had most of the possession and opportunities and obviously had the better of them on the scoreboard which is all that matters. Definately sets the stage for next year, which I think everyone is looking forward to.
in the first half, furman possessed the ball extremely well, moving forward many times. it was not until the second half that clemson started winning the possession battle. and as far as "poor PK that the keeper should/could have saved" ... please let us not go into the shoulda, coulda battle. drew woulda scored that goal had he not been taken out, hanley coulda handled that ball cleanly, dempsey woulda tooled the third defender and probably the keeper as well had he not gotten pulled down. so let us please not pull the hypotheticals. i might say on the first goal, the clemson player coulda leaned back too far and hit the shot high or the third goal could have gone wide. these are stupid to say about the clemson team, so please dont say them about the furman players. clemson won, enough said. i am fine with that. i had to swallow my pride last night, and i did. however, this is just a spring game. lots of people played that wouldnt play in a fall contest (for both schools), and a lot of guys were rusty from the three months off (for both schools). so lets just wait until the fall and hopefully we will be able to play and rekindle the in-state rivalry.
I guess I thought this was a forum to express opinions. didn't know you woulda get so defensive. If I had known I shoulda/woulda/coulda taken some of my inflammatory remarks (facts) out of the message and I coulda simplified things. Clemson 3 Furman 1 Hopefully, Furman has some incoming faces that can help them or it coulda be tough to "rekindle this in-state rivalry" oops- shoulda left that last statement out.
Srod- It sounds like I need to apologize for insinuating that Clemson is the dominant team in the state. So I do apologize. Now I would like to state with no hesitation that Clemson is the best college soccer team in the state of South Carolina. Period. Your argument is that both teams lost to Stanford? Clemson made the quarters, Furman didn't. I don't want to hear any "well, the game reports said..." That's a bunch of crap. I could tell you that Stanford's coach made the comment that his team's game V Clemson was the best game that his team played all season. But it doesn't matter, b/c a loss is a loss...Let's say it's like golf, the "skins" from the regular season carried over and Clemson cleaned up...Don't tell me about who you lost from the season b/c Clemson was harder hit with losing Warren, Westfield, Lewis, Bringsved, and Tambosi. Point is that Clemson has players year in and year out that step up and that is what happened. Oh, by the way. If anyone has a video tape where Furman dominates possession by actually KEEPING possession in a game vs Clemson, I would love to see it. It ain't out there...Keep whacking it boys
dtails, you would be correct in your thinking about the forum. express away. i too, will throw in my two cents worth. please refer to the final paragraph of my last post, there you will see that i admitted that clemson played the better match last night. i did, however, get a little upset when you started throwing what if's around like it was your job. yes i will defend my boys when someone tries to take something away from them ... wouldnt we all. as for dempsey and villalobos faking and feigning without accomplishing anything, perhaps you are forgetting when villalobos shook a guy so hard that he fell right on his butt, and then josh proceeded to go right around him, or maybe you are forgetting when dempsey tooled three clemson defenders in a row and had to be taken out to avoid the embarrassment of making their keeper look like an idiot (ask soren johnson).maybe dempsey should talk to some of the clemson players and tell them what it feels like to score against stanford. as for new faces, doug allison has always been one of the finest recruiting coaches in the country and i am sure that his new class with not disappoint. speaking of new faces, do the tigers have any more second-tier recruits coming in this year. it would be awesome if they could improve on their 4-8-5 record. come back when yall are ready to battle with the big boys ... until then, our bags are over there, can you grab them for us??
my apologies for the double post, seems like fixxxer and i were posting at the same time, so i would now like to address his comments. i still think that we are unable to declare an official "SC State Champion" and will not be able to until after this fall. given that furman and clemson did not play this season, to say that either team was better than the other would be unfair. i was at the furman/stanford game and listened to the clemson/stanford game, and still i do not feel as though i could make a declaration because the two teams never squared off against each other. 'nuff said about that ... we will see this fall. furman did possess the ball very well in the first half of the game last night. had i filmed the game, then i would send you the tape. im pretty sure that dempsey could possess the ball against the whole clemson team by himself. to say that clemson was harder hit losing warren, lewis, westfield, bringsved, and tambosi is also reaching a bit. furman losing griffin, simo, clark, esquivel, kidd, foxhall, hill, and stone is not so easy to overcome. unfortunately the two teams were unable to play last season, but i assure you that this fall's matchup will not disappoint.
[speaking of new faces, do the tigers have any more second-tier recruits coming in this year. it would be awesome if they could improve on their 4-8-5 record.] not exactly sure what you are refering to with the numbers, unless you are discussing Furmans formation if they ever want to beat the Tigers [come back when yall are ready to battle with the big boys] the big boys huh. don't know who you are speaking about, but it must be the Tigers. might want to check the record book before you go spouting off. since they started playing (67) it is Clemson 26 Furman 4 and one tie. since 93' that record is Clemson 6 Furman 2 until Furman gets some results this is nothing more then a rivalry based on geography, not based on competition [until then, our bags are over there, can you grab them for us?? ] I don't know if you have anymore room in those hands. I mean carrying around Dempsey's (soccer) ball bags must be pretty heavy.
Whatever The words Furman and possession have never gone together. I talked to a friend of mine who evidently filmed the game to show to his club team and he is working on getting me a copy. I will watch it, but I've seen enough Furman games to know unless they have undergone a major overhaul, they are not a possession team. OK- The stae champs thing. Evidently you don't think the spring game means anything. Normally, I would agree, but I know both sides really wanted the result in this game and both sides played for it. Fine. But you also must remember that Clemson is the defending state champ and until someone takes that from them, they will remain state champs. I probably need to remind everyone of how a 9 man Clemson side defeated a full Furman squad in double overtime at Furman to retain the title. So, that being said, Clemson remains state champs.
Yeah, till the quarterfinals! Sorry, man, I couldn't resist! Have those visits to the sports psychologist that Trevor was talking about after the Stanford loss started? What about getting "different" kind of players like he talked about after another Elite Eight meltdown? Don't ge me wrong. There's a reason it's called the "Elite Eight" so I don't want to take anything away from Clemson getting there and getting there consistently. But, I would much rather Clemson coaches players and fans concern themselves with clearing the quarterfinals hurdle than worrying about Furman or who is the de fact state champ. I know rivalries are the lifeblood of sports and the smack talk on this board is certainly entertaining and lively - perhaps the liveliest in college soccer when you toss in the 'Cocks. But, NCAA teams are judged by what they did in the post-season and Clemson needs to take the next step. Oh, and because they made it further in the tournament than Furman, I don't see how any rationale and objective person could say they didn't have a better year than Furman and, since they tragically couldn't play each other, that postseason performance really should be the barometer of which team was better.
Furman v. Clemson i have several issues to address, much activity on the boards while i was in class. 1. dtails, i was referring to your princeton tigers who's 4-8-5 record included wins over legendary powerhouses such as lasalle, harvard and yale. congrats on the season ... got any freshmen coming next year to help turn that season around. 2. fixxxer, this was a spring game. while both teams wanted a good result, it was a spring game. a good time to get minutes for some guys who havent really played all that much. and without a full roster and with some bumps and bruises, i think the teams, well at least furman, was just lokoing to get some 11 a side action instead of short-sided scrimmages. 3. sandon, thanks for the clemson blast. i am always ready and willing to see someone blast on the tiggers. im not gonna talk to much trash about the elite eight, because we have only been there once versus uconn (handball ... ask srod), but with the way stanford was playing, it was gonna be tough to beat them no matter who you are. it could have easily been clemson/stanford in the sweet 16 and then stanford/furman in the elite eight, with the same result for each. i am glad, though, that you pointed out "that postseason performance really should be the barometer of which team was better." if we are only talking about the NCAA tournament, then clemson's 2-1 won/loss record matches furman's 2-1 record. so i guess the two teams are equal ... guess we will have to wait until the fall to determine the SC State Title!
Re: Furman v. Clemson No, it doesn't. Clemson got a bye into the second round, Furman did not. Period. If you're gonna look at wins in the NCAAs, Clemson's "bye" into the first round should count as a "win" in terms of who did better in the post-season. The facts are pretty straight forward. Furman was eliminated in the round of 16, Clemson in the quarterfinals. There's not much debate about who went further. Therefore, if you're using the postseason as a barometer then the Tiggerrs had the better year. Period.
Furman v. Clemson whoa, sandon ... easy, buddy. i was just trying to make a joke to lighten the mood on this obviously intense thread. everyone is getting so heated about a spring game, i think that we need to back off and take some perspective of the situation. it was a SPRING game!
on the radar? Clemson has a player from my hometown named JD Brooks. Has anyone seen him play or does he rarely leave the pine?