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ccgeneral

#IUMS - 2017 College Cup

By ccgeneral, in Other Indiana Hoosiers Athletics

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Aaron    4,531

Aaron
Posted

Finally cleared our jinx round and get to Elite 8 for first time since 2012! First milestone win of the year where this team has finally done something most IU soccer teams of recent have not (only 3rd elite 8 since last National Championship in 04). Everyone in the crowd knew it to (great crowd by the way) and gave the loudest ovation of the season to the team as Muse took the goal kick in final 20 seconds. 

In terms of the match UNH gets major kudos. That is the best anyone has played against us this year. As I said in preview I was not sold on their D despite the good numbers but am now. They played the best D anyone has against us this year despite giving up 2 goals. They allowed seven shots all night which is maybe least I have ever seen us take when I have gone. Fortunately we converted 2 of the very few opportunities we did have (we had maybe 1 more good opportunity) which makes up for all the times we have had 30 shots in a game and failed to score. New Hampshire dominated second half and was even in first half. Fortunately our speed got to them the one time on the PK which was the difference. New Hampshire attack was not overly impressive but got us on a foul on the side just outside the box for the goal. They played the best game though in the Mid and on D anyone has against us this year. If I'm a New Hampshire fan (which I doubt they are many) they should be so proud of their team and I give them major kudos for leaving everything on the field but they just ran into a better team they were not good enough for. They maximized what was probably their best season in program history.

As for us not our best game but not our worst. Tonight was more about what New Hampshire did than what we didn't do. They had best game plan of anyone against us and executed to perfection. With that said unlike so many IU teams of the past we didn't panic and got a win against a well discipline team. The last 11 minutes were some of the best defensively of the season after their goal as we didn't even come close to giving them an opportunity to equalize. I was nervous when it happened but D more than rose to task as it has all year. Also I'm so proud of our team for breaking down the D and scoring in 1st 10 minutes when UNH was clearly content to park bus and play for PK's which was huge and set tone for game. 

Onto the Elite 8 against an MSU team who is much like New Hampshire (very good disciplined D and mediocre attack) but at much higher level. I'll post a preview later in week but game is Friday at 7pm and I will definitely be there as should anyone else around Bloomington or Indy. Along with Duke game in Bball early in week (be at that as well) biggest athletic event we have hosted so far this year and biggest Soccer match we have hosted since 04 Elite 8. Let's get to College Cup in front of our home crowd!

  

 

 

ccgeneral, Class of '66 Old Fart, ALASKA HOOSIER and 3 others reacted to this

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Aaron    4,531

Aaron
Posted
On 11/26/2017 at 9:57 PM, ccgeneral said:

Elite 8 all set. WF and Stanford meet again.

#1 WF vs #9 Stanford
#4 UofL vs #5 Akron

#2 IU vs #7 MSU
#3 UNC vs Fordham

1. WF vs Stanford is fascinating. Stanford has 2nd best D in country (besides us) and Wake Forest best offense. I expect it to go to wire with one team winning 1-0 with late goal but not sure who.

2. UNC vs Fordham is a dud. This is the one game where I fully expect UNC to trounce and is the only matchup where one team has a significant advantage.

3.  IU vs MSU is obviously a great matchup and I will provide the full preview later in week it deserves so I am not saying anything else.

4. UofL vs Akron is another heavyweight bout. Both teams have top 5 talent and I expect another game to the wire. Both teams have elite defense. Akron has elite O and UL less so but I still expect an even game as talent extremely equal and both compete at high level.

Overall we got probably the 7 best teams in the country who are very elite teams and 1 team who does not belong. Any of the 7 not named Fordham would be well deserving to lift the championship trophy and I hope its IU.

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Aaron    4,531

Aaron
Posted

I will preview this weeks game on Wednesday but first I had a little fun comparing this IU team to the previous 2012 National Championship team and I came away with pretty much every player on this team being the best at their position. I like this team a lot more but here is what I came up with. 

Comparing to 2012:

1. Defense I wouldn't trade Mehl, Lillard or Gutman for sure. I would probably replace Caleb Konstanski with Buckmaster but I am comfortable with either.

2. In goal I think Muse is the best we've had in terms of his freak athleticism but would feel comfortable with Soffner as well but edge to Muse.

3, In mid both teams were exceptionally strong. I'm certainly taking Moore, Dorsey and Thomas for sure. On the 12 team I loved Nikita Kotlov and Aj Corrado but was never a fan of Dylan Lax or Harrison Petts. With that said I would probably take Swartz, Dorsey, Thomas and Moore from current team and than throw Kotlov in for Panchot. Note if Gutjahr were healthy he would be in and Kotlov would battle Swartz for lasting starting spot but I am working with here and now for this excercise so Gutjahr is not available.

4. Forward I think Toye by next year will be as good as Zavaleta (remember Zavaleta only had 10 goals as a freshmen) but this compares 2012 to 2017 when Zavaleta had 18 so I am taking Zavaletta right now.

So what we come away with a depth chart of:

Defense: Mehl, Lillard, Gutman and Konstanski 

Midfield: Moore, Dorsey, Swartz, Thomas and Kotlov

Forward: Zavaleta

Goalie: Muse 

So basically in my mind 8 of the 11 positions are better on this team. How do others think the teams stack up?

In conclusion I don't know if this is team is holding a trophy in 3 weeks but in my mind it is certainly better than the 2012 team and probably the best collection of players we have fielded since 04 championship. I thought this team was special from the moment I watched Dorsey, Toye and the new freshman against Louisville in Grand Park in August and nothing yet has changed my mind. Now lets finish this spectacular season with a title! 

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Aaron    4,531

Aaron
Posted

Preview time.

Let me start by saying I have watched or been at every game this year besides Santa Clara and the 2 opening games in South Bend. MSU was far and away the third best team on the schedule talent wise after Notre Dame and Maryland (who faded late but is still talented above all else). They are very much last year’s IU team with a really good D that slips up every so often and an offense that can have big games but is a little low on scoring usually. The one difference is their forwards Sierakowski and Jones have all their goals at 8 and 7 each respectively and they get almost 0 goal production from their midfield. By contrast our top 3 scorers that produced 17 goals were out of the Mid last year with Hyacinth not being a Big Ten level forward which is why we had the scoring issues we did. With that said the same general idea with just 27 goals scored in 19 games for MSU while giving up 12. We were at 30 and 16 last year by contrast but that’s pretty similar. Basically this year’s version of IU is taking on last year’s version of IU more or less. That basically means we have a 2017 top 5 IU team taking on a top 10-15 team (I am not referring to seeding here) talent wise which is pretty equal in soccer. With that said besides UNC, the other 2 games have equally talented top 5 teams facing off in UL Akron and Wake Stanford so we got a much better matchup than 2 of the 4 games with a team we are very familiar with.

Apparently we are undefeated at home this round in our history according to an article by Jeremy Price in HT. I fully expect a 1-0 win by one team or the other and think it will probably be us given the home field advantage but you never know. I expect us to get 10-15 shots with 2 or 3 legitimate opportunities and at some point put one home. I expect them getting 5-10 shots with 1 or 2 really good opportunities they don’t convert. With that said it is soccer and anything can happen.

There is one difference though from many previous games this year that will change for the better from here on out. So often we see teams park the bus against us. MSU and any college cup team besides Fordham has the talent to not park the bus (they are perfectly capable of playing very good D with their normal 4-5 defenders like we do) so I don’t expect anyone from here on out to play for a tie leading to more opportunities for the other team and a better game overall.  

Weather for forecast for now looks decent for this time of year with temps around upper 30’s and dry (this means though I will be fully bundled up with gloves and not posting except at halftime and after game). I hope many in Bloomington and Indy area are able to come out with it being the first time we have hosted this round in 13 years. I am hoping for a crowd of 3,000-4,000 which will be second behind Notre Dame Game earlier in year. Note you can’t play with numbers in postseason so if we want a crowd of 3,500 let’s say you have to have 3,500 tickets scanned at gate. In regular season you can artificial inflate the numbers a bit which is why 1,500 was announced crowd last weekend as 1,500 people came through gate. In regular season that same crowd would most likely be inflated and announced to 2,000-2,500 which is why a stadium can look fuller in the postseason for NCAA games but attendance announced lower. I do believe the Notre Dame game was so full they used the number of tickets scanned at gate (around 4,600) and am curious how close we can be to approaching that this weekend given the stakes.

Update: Here is Todd Yeagley's weekly media availability (https://www.hoosiersportsreport.com/). He said a lot of good things but one thing that stuck out is he is hoping for a sellout Friday (6,500). That seems ambitious and doubt we get it but love that he is pushing for it. As I said above I would be thrilled if 3-4,000 show up. I also dug up our last Elite 8 attendance in 04 and it was 3,567 and expect something around the same although maybe the advent of social media pushes that number up a bit higher.     

Go Hoosiers!            

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Aaron    4,531

Aaron
Posted

Briefly going into tonight's game here are "Aaron's" power rankings for both teams left in tourney and the season's top 20 so we get a feel what we are dealing with (this is a combination of RPI, Rankings, Talent, Teams Statistics and Record). Note in my mind top 10 are pretty equal talent wise to IU (besides Maryland who I had a really hard time ranking as they are top 5 talent but played terrible down stretch) than their is a gradual drop off from 10-20 and all teams are a step to a half step below IU and rest of top 10.     

Remaining 8 teams in tourney:

1. Wake

2. Stanford

3. IU

4. UNC

5. Akron

6. Louisville

7. MSU

8. Fordham

 

For the season:

1. Wake

2. Stanford

3. IU

4. UNC

5. Akron

6. Louisville

7. Clemson

8. Notre Dame

9. Virginia

10. Duke  

 

11. Georgetown

12. MSU

13. Western Michigan

14. Maryland

15. Butler

16. Michigan

17. Wisconsin

18. SMU

19. Air Force

20. FIU 

 

 

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