Sunday, November 12, 2023 matches

Revenge tour complete. Marshall avenges both losses to Kentucky 2=0 and WVU 5-2.

THE DYNASTY CONTINUES!!! ⚽️💚🏆 pic.twitter.com/OVSHr8cudE

— Trace Johnson®️ (@Trace_Johnson94) November 12, 2023

 

IU beats PSU 1-0 for the double (treble if you count the tailgate win).

 

Am East and Big East both had extra time upset wins (and I say that advisedly).
UNH outshot Bryant roughly 3/1but couldn't get one to go.
https://unhwildcats.com/sidearmstats/msoc/summary

 

I watched the Georgetown v Xavier match, which was relatively exciting for a 0-0 match. Georgetown had more possession, but both teams had good scoring chances, and the match could have gone either way.

The PK shootout concerned me, if it’s indicative of a new trend, as 12 kicks were taken and Xavier’s players did something that was (at least borderline) unsportsmanlike on all 12.

 

What did they do?

 

I not sure I can communicate this well without the benefit of a video, and the ‘official’ Big East video, which does show all 12 PKs, really only gives a taste of what I saw.

The main idea is that in my view a PK shootout should be conducted a certain way, without undue delay, without theatrics, without shenanigans, without either team mouthing off to the other. I try to remember that cuts both ways, so that I don’t excuse my own team(s) when they behave badly.

I thought Sunday’s shootout was interesting, though maybe it’s just a variation on a theme. Nothing that you haven’t seen before, probably, but as several of Xavier’s successful shooters did something similar, it was a clearly coordinated effort, not spontaneous.

The essence was delay of the opposing PK takers - a well-known stratagem - but I felt Xavier took things too far.

Xavier went first. Six players shot, five of them scored, and after they scored, a couple retrieved the ball from the goal with their hands and carried it away. (You can see this once fully on the video, once partially).

Each time this happened, the referee blew his whistle and the Xavier player tossed the ball disdainfully aside, behind the goal to the fence. Not far away, it was more the attitude, but creating a slight delay and slight inconvenience for the incoming opposing shooter.

Meanwhile, the Xavier GK stayed off the field until he was summoned, and he was in no hurry to get in position. All of his (successful) shooting teammates wandered in his direction, intercepted him, encouraged him, and delayed his entry. The referee became impatient but never cautioned any Xavier player.

Another time or two the Xavier GK moved toward the spot, was told to get on his line, etc. but the cumulative effect of all this was delay. A number of times you could see you could see the Xavier GK running his mouth, but that’s a topic in and of itself.

Again, we’ve all seen certain antics from GK’s in this situation. {At least he wasn’t doing cartwheels.}

Once on the line, Xavier’s GK took his time getting to the ready position (not captured by the video). You can only see this as a particular strategy - which I think to this extreme is unusual - on the final kick (that he saved, in part in my opinion not because the kicker was ‘frozen’ but because the kicker was confused).

Note that imo standing to one side (on the line) is not unfair. It was the overall delaying tactics from start to finish (and the whatever we can get away with attitude) that bothered me.

I’ve probably lost my audience at this point. Maybe ‘you had to be there.’

I mentioned cartwheels and that really happened some years ago. I’ll look for a link, I think it’s in the Referees Forum.

I'm not sure what the Referee might have done differently here. Allowing a Georgetown player to kick (pass) the ball into an undefended net would have been dramatic.

Watching in person, long before the final result, I felt that Georgetown was playing straight up and Xavier was bending the rules to their advantage. Xavier won, but they might well have won playing it straight, without the delays and extracurriculars, etc.

 

@TimB4Last I watched this game too, and I have to agree, it was a fun game that had me not sure who to root for but the antics at the end did not make me think as highly of Xavier as I had during the game.