2021 Game Notes

[SimpleCoach]

Got time to take a look at WashU @ Hope tonight? 4:30 eastern/3:30 central. Should be telling in terms of where these two teams fall.

Game Link: https://www.youtube.com/hopeathletics

@Fishercats.  Sure.  That sounds like a good match up.  I liked both teams when I watched them.

[SimpleCoach]

@Fishercats.  Seem to have video issue during the game.  Then I went looking for a recording and its not on the website.  Sorry about that.  Will look to catch other games from both teams.

[SimpleCoach]

This is a recorded game from yesterday that I just got around to.

Wartburg v North Central Illinois
Wartburg
Bias? – I've had them on my fingers, and I've been to Naperville for a Chicago Fire game.

   1st half.  Nice stadium.
   Sometimes I think center backs know to move better without the ball then midfielders and forwards.
   Wartburg is trying to take advantage of being the home team.  Excited, but not terribly effective with the ball.  NC is being somewhat disciplined but is really rushing when it has the ball.
   NC being patient when they can, but forwards don't check back to the ball making it a long ball game eventually.
   If I were the head coach for Wartburg, I would arrange it so that one man constantly presses the left back, and a forward is ready to pick up whatever scraps come loose.  Would press real hard and even try to funnel the ball to him.  But no, not the coach.
   What is it with outside backs and poor passing?  This time Wartburg....
   Lots of unforced errors out of the back line for Wartburg.  Fortunately for them they can recover and make up for their mistake.
   NC #21 receives the ball in Wartburg half and floats a ball ahead of and between Wartburg players.  #7 runs on to it and with the keeper coming out, chips it over him for the goal.  Wartburg 0, North Central 1. 
   Wartburg back line is completely undone by the ball over the top.  Kind of surprising.
   Guessing about 30 minutes left.
   Wartburg looks haphazard on defense.  Rather than defending man to man, I think I would be covering space with the amount of players back.  Problem is that they are not terribly organized to make something like that work.  Let the player with the ball come at you .... That's if they can get the ball there.
   Yellow cards are starting to come out.  One for each team.
   If I were North Central, I would be all over the right back....
   Getting a little chippy.  Reckless and late challenges...
   Wartburg is trying to force it a bit.  Obviously want to get back level but are losing good opportunities with the ball because they were forcing it.   Poor distribution decisions.  Need to make North Central chase a little bit and feel more pressure in the back.
   Maybe 5 minutes left and Wartburg had their first real opportunity.  Stretched the defense, got the ball into the box, but shot wide.
   Towards end of the half Wartburg seems to have a greater sense of urgency, but still mostly ineffective in and around goal.  NC has been good at keeping the ball in front of them. 
   Two big central backs for NC don't lose any balls in the air.
   Silly NC foul outside the box for Wartburg.  Ball sent into the middle for a forward, NC center back tries to box him away from the keeper, who was getting the ball no problem, and manages to take him down.  Yellow card and direct kick.  Great opportunity for Wartburg to tie it up.  Literally on the 18.
   Wartburg shooter drives it on the ground into the wall.  Follow up shot goes out for a corner.  Wasted opportunity.  Close enough where I would challenge the keeper and just hit it to his open side.
   Half time.  Am done with this one.... Have firewood to stack.

[SimpleCoach]

Ohio Wesleyan v Ohio Northern
Ohio Wesleyan
Bias? – Played against both.

   Always loved this field, even when knocked unconscious.
   Quick break is the way to get at OWU.  Keep them from getting into their defensive shape beforehand.  Too much time and they will become a wall in front of you.
   Even at home they defend with 9, and one player up top.  Premium on the defensive side of the ball.
   On the attack, 4 attackers supported by 4 midfielders about 15 yards behind them.  Always have depth.  Makes it very difficult for ONU to win the ball and do something with it, without launching the ball up top.
   37 minutes left in first half.
   ONU seems to attack with 5 or 6 up top with 2 or 3 in 15 yards back.  Much less organized though.
   Trying to catch OWU off balance defensively, ONU are wasting balls by going long.
   ONU struggling to break OWU down.
   OWU is relatively anemic up top.  Not many chances so far, and not really getting to goal.  Large reason is because of the emphasis they place on defending.  Doesn't lend itself to having enough people up top.  Having said that, they have the talent to put the dagger in when they do get an opportunity.
   And ONU is a mistake away from giving away a goal.  A few mental breakdowns and miscommunications.
   OWU is very effective at not crowding the space of players who are on the ball.  Effectively spreading out the defenders and allowing their teammates to deal with one-on-one situations.
   Against a lesser team, this must be a killer.  Preventing a team from swarming probably throws a lot of teams for a loop.
   Think there were some video issues.  16 minutes remaining.
   Seems like something happened that the film jumped to 13 minutes, and a PK for OWU.  Big man #10 slots it home to the right of the keeper, who went left. Ohio Wesleyan 1, Ohio Northern 0.
   Interesting.  Now that OWU is up 1-0, they are much more cautious on the attack.  Now they sit 4 back, but they will press higher up the field.  Am assuming it is by design, cause Jay Martin is that good of a coach.
   Game just jumped to half for some reason.  So, think I will call it here.
   Ok.  Maybe not.  Just watched an OWU corner, and clearly, they have some plays on the corner.  This one isolated a man up top to head it back into the mix.
   #10 for OWU is a handful.  Real effective with receiving ball at his feet and either turning of holding it up and making a pass.
   ONU moving the ball better in the half, but just not able to get that next pass before they are closed down.
   OWU still is just always a play away from scoring. 
   With 28 minutes left, ONU is trying to get an attack going... but forgetting about defending effectively.  OWU getting closer.... More dangerous.  Meanwhile OWU keeper should get a fruity drink with one of those little umbrellas in it ...
   Think OWU is one, if not the most positionally disciplined teams I have watched since August.  Their weakness however is on the other side of the ball.  Don't see as clearly what they try to do on attack. Again, could be the game plan to be conservative because ONU is traditionally a strong Ohio team.
   17 left.  ONU keeps trying but can't.
   Something happened with the video and the second goal was not recorded.  On that note... Ohio Wesleyan 2, Ohio Northern 0.
   This time, I am out.

[SimpleCoach]

Moravian v Dickinson College
Moravian – John Makuvek Field
Bias? – I've been to Bethlehem, and I am a huge fan of the actor.

   This game is from September 4th.
   Dickinson keeper is a bit ... reckless coming off his line.
   Dickinson trying to work the ball.  More effective than Moravian.
   Moravian struggles with the ball early on.  But Dickinson keeps having defensive lapses that Moravian pounces on.
   Dickinson midfield chases the ball ... all three shift over to one side, then if the ball comes out quick, leaves defenders on their own.
   Dickinson owns a little more of the ball, but Moravian is growing into the game and is getting closer to the goal.
   Moravian center backs are vulnerable to pressure. 
   Nobody seems to like the referee....
   Moravian keeper in suspect.  Would start peppering him from distance.
   Attacks for Moravian seem to rely mostly on two players to work the ball as best they can.  Don't have the support and usually outnumbered.  One of them is skillful and works his way through the backs effectively.
   Lot's of flopping going on... from both teams.
   16 minutes left.
   No rhyme or reason to how Moravian defends.  Some guys just fill space.  Back four plus three midfielders, but the back line doesn't work in tandem with the midfield.  Kind of each doing their own thing.  Need to bait the midfield to move, then have someone run through between the defenders.
   If I had a dime for every time the announcer had to say "Ball over the top" when Moravian had the ball in the back and was looking to make a play ....
   Ok. Halftime at 0-0.  Will call it.  Maybe catch another more recent game for each.  If I had to call it now, I think Dickinson is the better soccer team, Moravian the better college soccer team.

[SimpleCoach]

Drew University v. The College of New Jersey
Drew University
Bias? – Had a number of friends attend and play ball there.

   Nice stadium, having been there in the past.
   Drew is on the front foot, trying to get something going on the attack.  Only five minutes in but TCNJ just not connecting.
   TCNJ has a seemingly very lazy forward.
   Drew is doing a better job of moving off the ball.
   First real opportunity for TCNJ, 10 minutes in, comes off a foul from about 24 yards out.  Shot goes straight into the wall.
   Honestly, I would have expected more in the ten minutes I've been watching from TCNJ.  Great school, excellent facilities ... would have thought the talent it brought on would be ... more?  Doesn't play with purpose or definition.
   Meanwhile Drew is working the space and give and goes in a much more coordinated fashion.
   See Drew drawing first blood.  Just needs that last pass to connect.
   TCNJ only presses with the one forward.  Ends up sitting deep to defend and really can't mount anything serious on the attack because they lack numbers.  If I were the Drew head coach, I would be purposely spreading they as wide as possible and just slot balls in between defenders.  But, not my gig.
   Drew laying siege to the TCNJ 18.  TCNJ strategy is to kick and hope to give them some sort of reprieve.
   Drew showing some patience on the ball.  Target man up top works into positions to receive the ball and hold it up for runners.  Also try to get their center mids involved with the ball at midfield rather than push them up so high.  TCNJ lets them have at it.
   Any opportunities from TCNJ are long range shots that don't seem to unsettle the goalkeeper.
   Drew target man looks for his teammates to make runs off the ball.  Comes with varied success.
   And like that, ball is sent out wide to winger who drives a ball across the 6, and #6 buries the ball thanks to some lazy defending.  Defender let himself get beat to the ball.
   Drew 1, College of New Jersey 0
   Goal stirred TCNJ a bit more.
   And like that, foul from 40 yards out, TCNJ floats a ball to the 12, where #23 is left unmarked.  Keeper gets caught in no man's land and #23 heads the ball and manages to land in the back of the net.  Drew 1, College of New Jersey 1.  2 minutes left in the half.
   And with that, Halftime all tied at 1.
   My reaction to TCNJ is like the one I had with North Central and Catholic U.  I was expecting a lot better.  Think both those teams are better versions of TCNJ.  Perhaps conversation for another day for schools that are not as good as they should be.
   Anyhow, I'm out.

[Ejay]

   Honestly, I would have expected more in the ten minutes I've been watching from TCNJ.  Great school, excellent facilities ... would have thought the talent it brought on would be ... more?  Doesn't play with purpose or definition.
   Perhaps conversation for another day for schools that are not as good as they should be.

Yup.  I had thought TCNJ would be a good option for my son.  Very good school with nice facilities (although soccer has moved back to the football field - leaving the small stadium field to the field hockey team).   TCNJ was a great program in the past so I'm not sure what happened to them.  Son was turned off after meeting with coach and team.  Coach has zero personality, and the players only wanted to talk about how they're the academic leader of the NJAC while all the other NJAC schools are safeties.  Such a shame.

[SimpleCoach]

Yup.  I had thought TCNJ would be a good option for my son.  Very good school with nice facilities (although soccer has moved back to the football field - leaving the small stadium field to the field hockey team).   TCNJ was a great program in the past so I'm not sure what happened to them.  Son was turned off after meeting with coach and team.  Coach has zero personality, and the players only wanted to talk about how they're the academic leader of the NJAC while all the other NJAC schools are safeties.  Such a shame.
[/quote]

I have heard this before as well.  And I do remember when they were contenders back in the day.  Interesting how programs can take a turn for the worse when there is so much going for it.  Didn't know they moved out of the small stadium.  Wonder why anyone would want to play in a football stadium.  Am on a mission to get soccer programs to push for their own homes wherever they can.

[Gregory Sager]

Yup.  I had thought TCNJ would be a good option for my son.  Very good school with nice facilities (although soccer has moved back to the football field - leaving the small stadium field to the field hockey team).   TCNJ was a great program in the past so I'm not sure what happened to them.  Son was turned off after meeting with coach and team.  Coach has zero personality, and the players only wanted to talk about how they're the academic leader of the NJAC while all the other NJAC schools are safeties.  Such a shame.

I have heard this before as well.  And I do remember when they were contenders back in the day.  Interesting how programs can take a turn for the worse when there is so much going for it.  Didn't know they moved out of the small stadium.  Wonder why anyone would want to play in a football stadium.  Am on a mission to get soccer programs to push for their own homes wherever they can.

It's simply not feasible for a lot of D3 schools -- perhaps even most of them -- due to space and/or financial considerations.

I'd love to see North Park get a soccer-only stadium, but the chances of it ever happening are extremely remote. The three wealthiest schools in the CCIW (Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, and Augustana) each has a soccer-only stadium, but Carroll, Carthage, Elmhurst, Millikin, North Central, and North Park all lack the room for one. And the only school of those six that I think has the financial resources to pay for enough extra land to create a soccer-stadium footprint and then to construct one on it is North Central, and I'm pretty sure that NCC's big athletics donors are tapped out after paying for the school's new indoor track & field facility.

And keep in mind that this is the CCIW we're talking about, which is one of the better-resourced D3 leagues in the midwest. Good luck with persuading the more impoverished D3 schools in this part of the country to build soccer-only stadia, even if there's enough empty land in the vicinity of the campus for them to possibly acquire. Higher education is in a period of retrenchment now, with student-age demographics declining in the U.S. and an uncertain economic climate making the people who run institutions of higher learning wary about sinking a lot of money into something like a soccer stadium. In the bigger picture, a soccer stadium probably doesn't bear much perceived value to the student body as compared to, say, a new science building or a student rec center.

The two UAA schools in our neighborhood, Chicago and Wash U, both play men's soccer on football/soccer hybrid fields as well -- and we're talking about two schools that have endowments of $10 billion and $8.5 billion, respectively. (Chicago also has grass soccer fields laid out in their baseball/softball/lacrosse space.) But I doubt that there's any interest in building soccer-only stadia at either of those schools (although perhaps WUPHF knows something that I don't regarding Wash U's plans in the athletics resource development sphere).

[SimpleCoach]

It's simply not feasible for a lot of D3 schools -- perhaps even most of them -- due to space and/or financial considerations.

I'd love to see North Park get a soccer-only stadium, but the chances of it ever happening are extremely remote. The three wealthiest schools in the CCIW (Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, and Augustana) each has a soccer-only stadium, but Carroll, Carthage, Elmhurst, Millikin, North Central, and North Park all lack the room for one. And the only school of those six that I think has the financial resources to pay for enough extra land to create a soccer-stadium footprint and then to construct one on it is North Central, and I'm pretty sure that NCC's big athletics donors are tapped out after paying for the school's new indoor track & field facility.

And keep in mind that this is the CCIW we're talking about, which is one of the better-resourced D3 leagues in the midwest. Good luck with persuading the more impoverished D3 schools in this part of the country to build soccer-only stadia, even if there's enough empty land in the vicinity of the campus for them to possibly acquire. Higher education is in a period of retrenchment now, with student-age demographics declining in the U.S. and an uncertain economic climate making the people who run institutions of higher learning wary about sinking a lot of money into something like a soccer stadium. In the bigger picture, a soccer stadium probably doesn't bear much perceived value to the student body as compared to, say, a new science building or a student rec center.

The two UAA schools in our neighborhood, Chicago and Wash U, both play men's soccer on football/soccer hybrid fields as well -- and we're talking about two schools that have endowments of $10 billion and $8.5 billion, respectively. (Chicago also has grass soccer fields laid out in their baseball/softball/lacrosse space.) But I doubt that there's any interest in building soccer-only stadia at either of those schools (although perhaps WUPHF knows something that I don't regarding Wash U's plans in the athletics resource development sphere).

@Gregory Sager, totally get the landscape and the challenges for many schools.  And in some respects the multi-purpose field makes the most economic/space sense.  I get this is mostly a case by case basis, but have to start somewhere ... But for the Grace of God, there go I.

[WUPHF]

But I doubt that there's any interest in building soccer-only stadia at either of those schools (although perhaps WUPHF knows something that I don't regarding Wash U's plans in the athletics resource development sphere).

Washington University is way too enamored by the historic Francis Olympic Field (and the Francis Field House backdrop) to move soccer elsewhere.

I believe the briefly considered it after purchasing the Christian Brother High School property.  They do get a lot of fans in the stands who just happen to be walking by and that would not happen at the other campus.

I believe Case Western Reserve has a separate soccer-only field that doubles as a recreation field for intramurals and such.  I may be wrong though.

[SimpleCoach]

 

Because I have nothing better to do with my life, I went back and looked at some of my game notes and noticed I make a lot of references to passing and if a team is wasteful or efficient with their passes.  And being that I am thinking of these things, I went back to those games and took a look at two 5 minute stretches for particular teams to see just how efficient they were with the ball.  Now, there are 100 different variables at play, but I tried to look at what I would deemed to be competitive games.

Game One

First 5 minutes
29 Total Passes; 9 bad passes that resulted in turn overs.
Second five minutes
4 Total Passes; 1 bad pass that resulted in a turn over.

Game Two

First 5 Minutes
21 Total Passes; 2 bad passes that resulted in turn overs.
Second Five Minutes
18 Total Passes; 4 bad passes that resulted in turn overs.

By my rudimentary stats, game one had about a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of good passes to bad passes.  Game two was more like 9:1 or 7:2 ratio of good passes to bad passes.  Would say that there was a level of consistency in game two that game one clearly did not have.

Now differences between the two games?  One I would define as a Top 75 game, and game two a Top Ten game.  In each game, the team I watched won.

Going forward may try to do this non-scientific exercise for each team to identify what I believe to be a pattern, but with no real basis in numbers.  Again, as I stated in my first post, this is an exercise in trying to prove my own thoughts on the game, wrong.

Not sure it says much about the game yet, but definitely says a lot about me ...

Added after original post - Managed to take a look at another game.

Game Three

First 5 Minutes
43 Total Passes; 9 bad passes that resulted in turn overs.
Second Five Minutes
15 Total Passes; 5 bad passes that resulted in turn overs.

5:1 or 3:1 ratio of good passes to bad passes.  The team I watched I would say is a Top 50 team.

[Gregory Sager]

But I doubt that there's any interest in building soccer-only stadia at either of those schools (although perhaps WUPHF knows something that I don't regarding Wash U's plans in the athletics resource development sphere).

Washington University is way too enamored by the historic Francis Olympic Field (and the Francis Field House backdrop) to move soccer elsewhere.

That is an awfully attractive backdrop for a soccer game.

Don't think I've ever seen a backdrop for a soccer game that compares to Washington & Lee's, though.

[jknezek]

But I doubt that there's any interest in building soccer-only stadia at either of those schools (although perhaps WUPHF knows something that I don't regarding Wash U's plans in the athletics resource development sphere).

Washington University is way too enamored by the historic Francis Olympic Field (and the Francis Field House backdrop) to move soccer elsewhere.

That is an awfully attractive backdrop for a soccer game.

Don't think I've ever seen a backdrop for a soccer game that compares to Washington & Lee's, though.

Watt Field is a heck of a facility. Soccer specific, natural grass, stadium feel with the fence and stands, Blue Ridge in the background, upper class housing right there... The whole outdoor athletic complex has cost a fortune in the last 25 years, but the facilities are amazing. I haven't been back since the new indoor and rebuilt indoor facilities opened over the last couple years, but from what I hear they don't take a backseat to anyone either.  I guess it's easier when you are drowning in endowment.

[WUPHF]

That is an awfully attractive backdrop for a soccer game.

Fun CCIW fact: that part of the gym most visible housed the original 1904 gym.  They considered hosting Olympic related basketball games on Francis Field, but moved them indoors due to the weather.  The Olympics hosted both a YMCA and college basketball class.  Hiram defeated Wheaton (IL) for the Gold.