Well, time to start the Q49 anew... We have 11+ new recruits/transfer. It'll be an interesting season. Here's a podcast of Mike Glascott's interview of Coach Kevin Robson: http://www.wgclradio.com/2019/02/glass-in-the-morning-02-01-19/ Still no word about the spring schedule other than that the Mexico game will probably be away. BRF
we lost a lot of experience over the winter. there will be lots of holes to fill this spring. next fall should be interesting. link to the recruiting class announcement: https://iuhoosiers.com/news/2019/1/23/indiana-mens-soccer-announces-2019-recruiting-class.aspx
IU's first open spring game was against DePaul. We won 1-0 on a goalazo by Ian Black. He has scored 5 goals total this spring. Caulfield in net for the first half and Gruber for the second combined for the clean sheet. The alignment for IU could only be described as "fluid." Guys were moving all over the place. From what I could figure out, Maher and Kleyn played mostly at center back. Sometimes Glass played left back, sometimes left mid. Palazzolo played D mid and Yeagley got lots of time in the middle of the field. Weaver, who transferred from E'ville, also got a lot of time on the field. The lads go off to Mexico for two games during spring break and return to play their only home game against Lipscomb on April 7.
Bill Armstrong Stadium to receive new north grandstand A request to replace the north grandstands at Bill Armstrong Stadium was unanimously approved by the trustees. The existing grandstand facility, which opened in 1983, will be demolished and replaced by a two-story structure for the IU Men’s and Women’s soccer teams and Little 500 bicycle race. The facility will have locker rooms, a lobby, a team room, a warm up room, coaches offices, bicycle support space, conference rooms and public restrooms. Construction on the $7 million project will begin this summer and be completed by June 2020. The project will be funded through private gifts ***new field being put in now as well. Will be ready for pre-season.***
The first time I heard about this, it sounded like the stands on that side weren't being replaced. Is that the case? I've said this before, but I feel like the stadium lost some of the good atmosphere when the band and student section moved to the north stand.
The smaller stands across from the stands that hold the press box are being torn down for the new facility and I think there will be rebuild stands The soccer team will be mostly self sufficient with the new building....I believe there will be new stands on that side as well but I can't remember the rendering I saw when I was there.... Field will be complete for fall season.... then construction starts after fall season for the new building with it being ready for fall 2020.
Big things coming at Armstrong Stadium!#Q49 #GoIU ⚪️🔴 pic.twitter.com/PUqgeo1TGN— Indiana Men's Soccer (@IndianaMSOC) May 15, 2019
Played Bowling Green last night - 3-30 minute periods. The only time the putative starters played was the second 30. Predictably, all 3 IU goals were scored in that period, by Endeley, Warr, & Schmidt. Warr's goal was a rebound off a Schmidt shot from a narrow angle. I was right behind it - wouldn't want to have been in front of it. UoL will be a different story tomorrow night. BRF
The IU - UoL exhibition rematch didn't go as well as the previous one, although the weather was much, much nicer. A UoL forward got behind our defense early, beat the keeper and easily slipped the ball in. Need better communication in the center of the field. We countered when Endeley beat the UoL defense w/ speed and got off a good shot which was parried away by the GK. Warr once again cleaned up the rebound for an easy goal. UoL went ahead for good with a nice goal off a corner. Black almost cleared it off the line, but it was ruled a goal. One of the reasons for the difference was that the UoL players definitely wanted this one more and were prepared to do anything it took. One outcome of this was something like 6 yellows - in an exhibition game. They were deserved and there could've/should've been more. I hope our new guys learned what level of urgency they will need in order to win. We did not impress in our ability to get to second balls and UoL started winning more and more of the balls in the air. This contributed to their second goal. It should be mentioned that we substituted quite a bit in the second half and that might have led to some of the issues cited above. Looking forward to returning to the friendly confines of a beautifully renovated Yeagley Field against DePaul. BRF
Fascinated to see what type of team the Hoosiers have this year. They lost so much talent, almost an unprecedented amount between seniors and underclassmen leaving, for a contending team and it's basically a completely new team this year. There is still talent, because it's Indiana. So seeing what becomes of that talent will be fun to watch as well as a test of Yeagley's coaching chops.
Comfortable win against DePaul. Warr cleaned up in front of the goal again, Black had a *blast* from about 25, and Kleyn scored a nice header.
Well, that was something. We played about 30 minutes of good soccer and somehow pulled out a win. Pitt dominated the rest of the play and without herculean efforts by Caulfield (and the post), we would have gone down. Pitt was having their way w/ our D on the left. Pitt also did a better job in the air and had remarkable pinpoint passes over the top to their forwards. It almost seemed like we were waiting politely for them to trap the ball before challenging. We were also mostly ineffective in the air, although we did score a nice tying goal when Maher got on the end of a corner and Black cleaned up the rebound. We are still getting knocked around. Pitt had twice as many fouls as we did. The report says, "They got physical, gave as good as they got, better actually, and eliminated one-on-one mismatches." I wish it were as definitive as that. We're going to have to prepare ourselves mentally and physically for this type of treatment because it'll continue. As it was, Endeley got behind a tiring Pitt D in the second half and took care of business. After going down 2-0 in the first half, No. 2 @IndianaMSOC rallied back to send the game to double overtime where they completed the comeback victory over Pittsburgh! pic.twitter.com/O8oyk87SAK— Indiana On BTN (@IndianaOnBTN) August 31, 2019
Well, that was disappointing. Heavy rain postponed last night's match to 1030 on Monday 9/2. Free entry, no BTN.
This was sort of a "lather, rinse, repeat." There were a lot of similarities between the Pitt and UCLA games. UCLA's midfield passing and possession is really good and it resulted in their 53rd minute goal. Luckily, Caulfield kept us in the game with some spectacular saves both before and after Bezerra scored from about 18 and evened it up. He's an excellent GK. Palazollo had a nice diving header that was well saved by UCLA's GK. We started getting the better of the play during OT and forced a corner. Glass somehow squeezed a low cross into the box. Muni heeled it toward goal at the near post, bounced it off the keeper, and the rebound fell to an oncoming Maher at the far post: Game. Over. ⚪️🔴 pic.twitter.com/hElkDPOtdP— Indiana Men's Soccer (@IndianaMSOC) September 2, 2019 I hate OT... BRF
Well, we did it again. Gave up the first goal, this one in the 6th minute on a corner. Then we tied it up on PK for a hand ball in the box at the 28th minute and finally won in OT. We did win in the first OT this time, so perhaps we are improving. Caulfield once again came up big a couple of times. It also featured a lot of fouls by Denver and, although there weren't as many in the previous two games, Denver received 4 yellows. Two went to their captain, who was retired in the 48th minute. Despite our numeric advantage, we were unable to score until the 98th minute. Black scored a brace and Schmidt had the assist on the golden goal. It has been pointed out that we have yet to lead during the first 90. Have I mentioned I hate OT? BRF
Really impressed with IU's start. To lose all that talent from last year and still be 3-0 and to win three straight OT games shows a lot of character. Sure, they could just as easily be 0-3-0 or 0-0-3 but they're not. They've grinded. And what's scary is they will likely be much better in November.
I considered taking my 2.5 year old up to ND today, but then I saw the forecast. Nope. Hopefully the boys can pull out a win... in regulation.
Light rain, nothing like last Sunday where we had torrential rain and would get a lightning strike every 20 minutes or so - just enough to postpone to Monday.
Yeah, we got to preview it at Assembly Hall during the Adidas Classic last week. It was very moving for those of us who have followed Yeags and IU soccer. There were a lot of good interviews from former coaches, players, and adversaries. It was gratifying that they interviewed Mike Freitag. It was very enjoyable.