First off, better to have loved and lost and all that.... There are over 200 programs that would love to be where Indiana is right now. Secondly, I thought IU was evenly matched with Marshall in terms of skill. But Marshall just seemed far more athletic and much bigger and I can't ever remember that being the case with an Indiana team, especially given the way the Yeags have used redshirts and emphasized experienced players. Clearly, the international players are older and just more physically developed. They may not be better players in 2-3 years, but they're coming in older and more physically mature and it showed. It used to be that the elite American college players could make up for this gap in physical development because they were usually better players. But now, almost all of the elite domestic talent never sets foot on a college campus and is either in Europe or an MLS roster and the ones that do come to college leave soon. I mean, Jack Maher, Aidan Morris and Josh Penn would've made a big difference in a scoreless game. That's the new reality for college soccer. Not saying you can't win with domestic talent - it's not like Marshall was blowing out Georgetown, UNC and IU and those games easily could have gone the other way. But it's much for harder for the programs that go mostly with domestic talent to win against teams loaded with older players from abroad who have finished growing.
Exactly... Indiana was wiped in the 2nd half. It's a U23 team playing a U20 team for the most part. Bezerra, Celentano, Maher, Endeley, Goumballe who are the key players for IU are freshman or sophs ... all athletic but just not physically up to the challenge of 5 games in 15 days. That being said, Marshall was great, and older internationals or not, Chris Grassie has to be commended for what he was able to put together in a short time. I thought Pitt, Seton Hall and Marshall were the best teams in the games I watched and all have the same MO, with the same international model and all got good in a hurry. D1 becoming much more like D2 now, and in spite of the loss of top American players to the pros, the level of the game is still pretty good.
This year's IU team had a young group regardless of the age of the opponents. Nevertheless, IU has been very good all year (1 loss? against NW). Perhaps, it's my reading of this thread, but my impression is that this is sour grapes. Please don't complain about intl players for months like someone (and I can't recall who) after ND handball against MD in PHL. I'm not trying to call anyone out. I know that no one is claiming that Marshall (or any of the other teams that engage many international players) is cheating. I have no objection to the schools that go out and find good international players. As long as they are educating these players and not cheating by having them be students in name only, good for them. Coaches are paid to win. If they can find better players overseas (or under a rock or anywhere else), good for them. It's not as easy to scoop up players at the airport. There are a ton of international players in college soccer that aren't very good. Of course, coaches have to run a clean program (graduating kids, not embarrassing the AD with scandals, keeping fans happy, nice to not lose too much money). So, coaches have a choice on where to find their incoming classes. Some schools won't let transfers, restrictions on scholarship - I know of a local school that uses minority scholarships to get AA students into a majority caucasian university. If your school won't let your program do this, tough, tough cream puff. Life's not fair - moving on.
JoeSoccerFan- well said. The use of international athletes has been going on for over 40 years in XC, Track and Field and Women's Tennis to name a few others that I know of. As long as it is allowed under the rules, I can only see this becoming a larger trend. I am also very familiar with Seton Hall Men's soccer and the team had a very strong international make-up under previous coach Gerson Echeverry but did not have NEARLY the success the "Big Swede" is currently having. A lot of homework goes into picking up the international kids. My beef is with the age and physical maturity of some of the international players-I watched first hand my 19 year old son go up against 22-26 year old teammates and had a hard go of it.
As for the sour grapes yes I do think about it, without being hostile. After one match I checked out a D2 roster that had 14 from a particular country. That was just the start to their foreign numbers dominance. I think it would be good if a ten total -per team- number were arrived at in D1, without being put in writing. If you saw the ending to the girls FSU match with the penalty shootout spilling over on the men's time, it was quite a contrast. Yes it's a different game but the champ Santa Clara girls had largely a domestic roster. But SCU is in a cosmopolitan area and Marshall is not. "Herd" undoubtedly did what they have to do.
I think Yeagley tactically didn't have the boys attacking or pressing enough. They were chasing the ball with no purpose, which tired them out. If they are going to chase, they might as well press. I know he was fearful of the counter, but watching the game, Indiana players were faster and would be able to get back on the counters and Marshall didn't seem willing to do quick counters. The fact is, if Endeley doesn't hit the post, Munie doesn't miss an open header, Maher isn't offsides and miss an open followup, or Bezerra doesn't turn the ball over which ended up providing Marshall another possession starting on the Indiana half to win, Indiana would be National Champs. Marshall overall was the better team, but Indiana definitely had their chances.
Have some unfinished business back in Bloomington, the leg is feeling stronger each day @IndianaMSOC #RoboLeg 🦿 pic.twitter.com/Zq9znzmHtt— Spencer Glass (@Spencer_Glass21) June 3, 2021
IU's fall schedule is out. They only have B1G matches listed. Is that it or will they fill in other games later?
It would be nice to get down to a game this fall. My oldest started playing this spring so she's a little more into the game. She's definitely still more into concessions at this point though.
MD has announced full capacity in the fall ---- well until the resurgence of the Delta variant that will spread throughout society in the fall.
I have the Maryland v Indiana game on my calendar (Oct 31), which I hope to attend, but there's a question I must ask. What's the use of Trine?
I believe so. I just looked him up on TopDrawerSoccer and his rating is about the same as Victor's. Luka is bigger than Victor - 6'2", I believe. One other thing is that TDS has his graduation class listed as 2022. This is different than other sites that showed it to be 2021.