MIAC 2014

[gustiefan04]

SJU's style is undenialbe. They've played this way for years - and its been effective at times. I vividly remember calls from the bench by Haws Sr., telling his players to, "Get your hips Dirty." At the end of the day, it's an effective game plan against a lot of teams.

GAC, or anyone else playing SJU, knows what to expect coming into a match and need to be better prepared to deal with it...

Soccer, in America, in the 80's was a very different game than it is today. Not really a fair comparison, IMHO.

[GarbageGoals33]

I was talking to a parent as well as former Johnnie soccer captain in the 80's and current GAC Assistant Dean of Students (https://gustavus.edu/profiles/sbennett) Steve Bennett and long story short SJU has not changed a thing from the 80's til present with how they approach each game.  Work hard, kick hard, run hard, and tackle hard.  I have played with and against several former SJU players and it is really unfortunate that they let their talents depreciate in Collegeville.

Current GAC seniors conference record (regular season only): 27-3-4
Quite the feat for SJU to hand the Gusties a loss...

I wouldn't consider this a down year for the MIAC quite yet, the only poll that matters is the one a the end of the season...  I do think this GAC team has Elite 8 talent, they have potentially the best forward combination in the region with Tollefsrud and Brown, additionally their midfield is excellent with a couple of all-region talents in the middle (Lilly and Adams).  The one issue for GAC is their backline is just good, not great.  Rumor has it that defending is an important part of soccer.  I am excited to see how the remainder of the MIAC season plays out.

[repete]

Current GAC seniors conference record (regular season only): 27-3-4
Quite the feat for SJU to hand the Gusties a loss...

Or two ...

I don't doubt it that the style is basically the same. I thought they played a bit more settled -- at least against like-talented or lesser teams -- during the last couple of Coborn seasons.

Running hard, working hard and tackling hard are all fine by me. Kick hard? If that's dumping deep balls ... it's not for me. But a dedicated individual can improve his skills in any system.

I'll be watching plenty of MIAC games, but from the Eastern games I've seen live so far, Salisbury, Chris Newport and, of course, Messiah are a level above. If York ever finds scoring, it will be there as well. GAC or whatever teams emerge might have a softer region.

[GarbageGoals33]

Regular season... (losses to St. Olaf 2011, CarlEton 2012, No one in 2013, and SJU so far in 2014).

Coborn was a player that helped add a dynamic to the SJU teams that they flat out didn't have in previous years.  He was a player that had solid technical ability and he could drop a dime from just about anywhere on the field.  But, they still played Johnnie ball while he was there...

Messiah will almost always out talent their opposition.  The other teams you mention have all been excellent over the last 5-10 years, so I am sure they bring quality as well.  There are rarely "easy" games in NCAA tournament regardless of region quality.

[repete]

Hate to admit it, but after doing a nice job possessing against Mac, SJU gave up an embarrassingly  bad tying goal and seems to be in a stretch of kickball. Nice to have the broadcast finally though.

[jimmy92]

Oles are cruising in conference and it should be a good battle with Gustavus this coming Saturday. Skrip and Undlin are looking strong up front.

[jimmy92]

Gustavus scored very late to tie the Oles. St. Olaf was unlucky to have an obvious handball penalty missed by the refs in OT. I don't think either team played to their potential to be honest.

[GarbageGoals33]

I didn't see much of the game, the online feed was terrible.  I did see the St. Olaf goal though, looked like an absolute cracker. 

Both of these teams have the potential to do good things.  One issue in Minnesota is the playing conditions, when you play on a field as garbage as the field at St. Olaf there will not be pretty soccer played.  The later in the season they play the worse off it is for everyone.  I prefer a grass field, but, field turf is really the only way to go in October and November when you are playing in the MIAC.

Sounds like GAC had a couple of great opportunities to score in regulation and OT.  The game was statistically close, except for corners, which were very lopsided in favor of the Gusties.

[gustiefan04]

I caught about 15-20 minutes of the match before the video feed would no longer work.

St. Olaf scored a great goal early. Then the feed was gone.

[repete]

Pretty nice OT free kick earned Carleton 3 points in Collegeville in a game that was pretty even all the way through. Cammarota was clutch for CC as SJU had a 9-3 edge in second half shots but it took a bad foul three minutes into OT.

Hamline over UST was a bigger surprise, however.

[Medicated Pete]

  No video on the Wartburg - St. Olaf match..

[knighthawk]

Here's the Wartburg-St Olaf stream:

http://wartburgknightvision.com/

and stats:

http://www.sidearmstats.com/wartburg/msoc/xlive.htm

It's 2-0 Wartburg nearing halftime.

[repete]

Just so happens that a 50-hour biz trip back to Minny included a visit to the SJU-UST game. Wanted to see how those Johnnies would goon it up on those poor Tommies.

Didn't see much of that at all. Pretty average game physically with a couple of hard-working teams. Softer than a lot of eastern/mid-atlantic games I've seen. Maybe I missed something. It was called tight and the center did a decent job maintaining control. Game seemed a little slow for one played on turf and neither team was that sharp. Some of the teams I've seen with speed could drive either of these squads crazy.

Miles-Stockman played quite well in spurts and seemed to embellish a bit to get a second-half PK, which was initially stopped before he banged in the rebound. But at times it seemed the best offense for the Tommies was to let him run, entice half the defense into ballwatching and wait for runners. SJU was very wary of him and rightly so. 

[GarbageGoals33]

A tightly called game answers all of your "goon it up" questions.  I am interested in who officiated the match, it isn't listed in the box score.  Stockman-Willis is a solid player, the issue is he has almost no one around him. 

The Tommies have really disappointed this year.  They've shown they can hang with pretty much any team (see Loras), but they have also shown they could lose to just about anyone (see Hamline).  The MIAC playoff race for the #5 and #6 spot is going to be very tight between MAC, Augsburg, and UST. 

They are all 3-3-1 with the following schedules remaining...

MAC: GAC, Concordia, SMU... All home games.  MAC should be getting in at the 5 seed.

Augsburg: GAC, St. Olaf, @ UST... Ouch

UST: St. Olaf, @CarlE, Augsburg...


In a perfect world both Augsburg and St. Thomas will steal some points from St. Olaf so GAC would win or share the MIAC title. 

The Augsburg @ UST match to end the regular season will likely determine who sneaks in as the 6-seed, should be a good one.

[gustiefan04]

GAC with an ugly result this weekend at MAC, putting themselves in a position where the AQ will be only way into the NCAA's...