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#IUMS @ Notre Dame

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I think a very serious question needs to be asked if IU wants to be very good or elite like it was during the Jerry Yeagley era? I think Todd is a good coach and the team is very good but not elite. Maybe this is good enough and messing with what we have now could make things a lot worse. This reminds me a lot of IU basketball in the 90's. Not what it was in the 70's and 80's but still very good. After firing Knight (which I was 100% for given his off court behavior so we can remove that part in this discussion) we made things a lot worse. We could certainly do a lot worse than Todd Yeagley and maybe messing with what we have now is a bad idea if it leads us to what happened to basketball post-Knight. However, we could also do slightly better if we got a coach on the level of Notre Dame and Louisville but that's hard. I'm not sure what the answer is but thought I would throw this out here. 

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I think a very serious question needs to be asked if IU wants to be very good or elite like it was during the Jerry Yeagley era? I think Todd is a good coach and the team is very good but not elite. Maybe this is good enough and messing with what we have now could make things a lot worse. This reminds me a lot of IU basketball in the 90's. Not what it was in the 70's and 80's but still very good. After firing Knight (which I was 100% for given his off court behavior so we can remove that part in this discussion) we made things a lot worse. We could certainly do a lot worse than Todd Yeagley and maybe messing with what we have now is a bad idea if it leads us to what happened to basketball post-Knight. However, we could also do slightly better if we got a coach on the level of Notre Dame and Louisville but that's hard. I'm not sure what the answer is but thought I would throw this out here. 


That was their first loss of the season and he's won a national title. I don't think you're ever going to see a run like Jerry had. Things have changed.

Who are you gonna hire?

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21 minutes ago, RBB89 said:


That was their first loss of the season and he's won a national title. I don't think you're ever going to see a run like Jerry had. Things have changed.

Who are you gonna hire?

Again Maybe this is enough. I don't necessarily expect a run to the title every year but while we have that 2012 title we are certainly no longer elite. I expect us to be 1st or 2nd in the Big Ten every year in the Big Ten flipping Maryland which is not happening. We also besides the great 2012 run (which came after a good but not great year) have not made it to the college cup any other time since jerry Yeagley left in 04 and only past sweet 16 once.

We struggle to get top forwards. We build an elite midfield, solid d and goalie but besides Zavaletta and Bruin we struggle to field top flight forwards for 12 years. Soccer is certainly a game of randomness but seeing David Goldsmith on Butler or Jon Gallagher last night makes me amazed at how hard we have had recruiting elite scorers. Heck even the Indy 11 have turned around this year by bringing in a stud named Eamon Zayed who is a scorer to replace a well past his prime Kleberson which has keyed the turnaround. Either Todd isn't trying as hard as he needs to with recruiting great forwards or he is not getting what he thinks in what he is recruiting. While I admire Hyacinth and love his athleticism and enthusiasm the reality is he is to slow for this level which constantly kills us on counter attacks and fast breaks in our attack. He also has a hard time creating his own shot. Even Femi was a bit wild with the ball as our previous forward and lacked strength at times. We need a forward in the mold of Zavaletta or Bruin to take the next step. 

Again we are very good team and maybe my expectations are to high and I need to except this as the new norm. I certainly enjoy watching this team but we have been caught or past by Notre Dame, Louisville and Akron in the region. It's a question I struggle with whether we need to be happy with the very good we have or expect even more.    

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8 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

I'm curious why are offense is just so bad. 

Im not in the fire the coach camp. But I think our AD needs to be asking why our offense is so spectacularly stagnant. 

See my post directly above about Hyacinth and how we struggle to field dynamic forwards like other teams and you have your answer. This team doesn't have a dynamic scorer like every good offense does which is the main problem. I also didn't mention Ballard who is great at putting in junk balls off of scrambles and cleaning up but certainly doesn't create his own shot. You can tell he is a transplanted midfielder. Lastly Tanner Thompson who is my favorite player is like a point guard who is great at setting up people and can create shots from the mid by juking people out of their shoes but he is not the one playing up top who is suppose to score most of your goals (Hyacinth in our case and I have laid out his problems above).    

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Yeah I have been an average IU soccer fan most of my life, and didn't get really into it until my freshman year in 2014. I sit at every game and we usually dominate time of possession, shots, and corners, but just can't score. We have an elite midfield and a very good back line. Collin Webb is great in goal and Lomeli is outstanding as well. My freshman year we weren't as terrible on offense, Andrew Oliver could make a lot of things happen, and Patrick Doody's ability to throw into the box set up a lot of offense as well, but the last two years we have been horrible offensively. I was never a huge fan of Femi because he was poor with ball control, but Hyacenth makes me appreciate what Femi could do. Next year we should have am extremely talented team once again, but without Tanner Thompson and Richard Ballard I have no idea where any goals are going to come from.



We do have Griff Dorsey and Justin Rennicks committed for next year. Both play forward and College Soccer News Ranks them as the 20th and 21st best recruits in the country

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3 hours ago, RBB89 said:


That was their first loss of the season and he's won a national title. I don't think you're ever going to see a run like Jerry had. Things have changed.

Who are you gonna hire?

I'll play. Who wouldn't take this job?

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2 hours ago, NoahW35 said:

Yeah I have been an average IU soccer fan most of my life, and didn't get really into it until my freshman year in 2014. I sit at every game and we usually dominate time of possession, shots, and corners, but just can't score. We have an elite midfield and a very good back line. Collin Webb is great in goal and Lomeli is outstanding as well. My freshman year we weren't as terrible on offense, Andrew Oliver could make a lot of things happen, and Patrick Doody's ability to throw into the box set up a lot of offense as well, but the last two years we have been horrible offensively. I was never a huge fan of Femi because he was poor with ball control, but Hyacenth makes me appreciate what Femi could do. Next year we should have am extremely talented team once again, but without Tanner Thompson and Richard Ballard I have no idea where any goals are going to come from.

 


We do have Griff Dorsey and Justin Rennicks committed for next year. Both play forward and College Soccer News Ranks them as the 20th and 21st best recruits in the country

 

Rennicks should help eventually. Here's a little more info on him then what I posted in the commits thread. Looked into Dorsey a bit, but haven't found to much yet. Both usually start on the #usmnt. 

http://www.revolutionsoccer.net/players/justin-rennicks

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19 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Got to find some offense.  In 11 games we've only scored 14 total goals and in 4 of our games we didn't score any goals.

Thompson/Ballard with 8 and they are gone after this year. Swartz with 2. Next year could be like '13. Buckle up.

Tommy might land bigfoot before Toddy gets a striker.

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i dont disagree with the general tone of this thread, especially the frustrations about the offense.  it's clearly true that we havent had a premiere striker since zavaleta, and it does kinda feel like indiana soccer is gravitating toward becoming something like ucla basketball.  like a parent and their kid though, we're biased and tougher on our program than others.  we're also spoiled by one of the greatest eras of dominance in the history of college sports.

"we have been caught or past by Notre Dame, Louisville and Akron in the region."

the notre dame-indiana rivalry has met every year since 2001, and it's notable that nd won the last two matches.  however, the 18 games they've played in that span is basically even at nd 9:8 iu, which includes nd 1:2 iu in the ncaa tournament.  since 2004, iu's first year without jerry yeagley at the helm, the two programs' postseason success looks like this: quarterfinals-- nd 3, iu 3... college cups-- nd 1, iu 2... national championships-- nd 1, iu 2.  notre dame's national championship in 2013 is also their only college cup appearance in program history.  meanwhile, indiana is 28-10-2 in the all-time series record and has 18 college cups and 8 national championships.  so i disagree that they've passed us in any way, and i certainly disagree with the notion some iums fans have that notre dame has suddenly made us their *****.

in regard to akron and louisville, here is their postseason success since 2004: quarterfinals-- akron 4, lville 3... college cups-- akron 3, lville 1... national championships-- akron 1, lville 0.  louisville and indiana have met every year except one since 1999, which is as far back as iuhoosiers.com schedules will go.  the 17-game record in that span is lville 4:12 iu, which includes lville 0:1 iu in the ncaat.  so louisville isnt quite on our level, but akron is definitely on our level in the 21st century.  akron and indiana have met 8 times since 2003.  the record is akron 5:2 iu, including akron 1:0 iu in the ncaat, and they've won the last 4.  zips have our number.

it's fine to argue that perhaps college soccer's most prestigious program should have a better postseason record in the last decade, that it seems like we're declining, that we're no longer elite.  without doing the research, just keep in mind that as the the sport of soccer has become more and more popular in this country, college soccer has steadily become more and more competitive since the godfather's reign.  lets be honest, a lot of his games were like barcelona vs indy eleven.  i expect iums to contend for a b1g title and get to the ncaat every year, play one of the most brutal schedules in the country, and prove to be a tough out by avoiding letdowns and upsets in the ncaat.  we've consistently done that for the most part, 2014 being the standout year we didnt.

how are we defining 'elite'?  because i doubt (again, without doing research) you're going to find more than a handful of programs in the country that have a better resume in the last decade.  akron could be one of them.  i'd bet that if you talk to college soccer experts and coaches nationwide, the general opinion would be that indiana is either still elite or on the edge of it.

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Post mortem on Tuesday's loss to ND from the Indiana Daily Student - Josh Eastern

IU Men’s Soccer looking to bounce back following ‘disappointing’ loss

It’s time to reset. IU (6-1-4) had a chance to follow up a home win against No. 7 Butler with an even more impressive result on the road at No. 2 Notre Dame, but failed to even come close.

Tuesday was a night to forget as IU suffered its worst loss to Notre Dame in program history. Now, the Hoosiers can turn their attention to Penn State, who comes to Bloomington on Saturday night.

IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he wasn’t worried about his squad’s performance Tuesday, rather, he was disappointed. The No. 6 Hoosiers had a chance to prove themselves and make a statement on the national stage, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

“We’ll move on quickly,” Yeagley said. “That game is not going to hurt us in the big picture, it’s just one. Everything seemed to be a bit off — it happens sometimes.”

Three points from this match would go a long way toward moving them back up the conference standings, as Penn State and IU both enter the contest tied at fourth place in the Big Ten with six points.

Senior defender Derek Creviston said following the loss Tuesday that achieving normalcy at home Saturday will be good for this team.

“We’re going to have to learn from this one and put our eyes on Penn State,” Creviston said. “We got a lot of work to do and hopefully we can put some goals away and put them in the back of our net.”

As for Penn State (4-5-1), the Nittany Lions come in with a -2 scoring differential, having allowed 15 goals while knocking in 13. They also have yet to win on the road in four opportunities. Still, Penn State did defeat IU in their previous meeting in September of last season in State College, Pennsylvania, 1-0.

If there is one man for IU to key in on, it is senior forward Connor Maloney. He was the named First Team All-Big Ten in 2015 and Big Ten offensive player of the year in 2014. Thus far in 2016, Maloney has four goals and three assists in nine matches.

The six regular season matches left on the schedule feature just two non-conference opponents, with a road trip to Louisville next Tuesday and a home game against Saint Louis on Oct. 25.

IU is still a team that hasn’t necessarily been able to put it all together quite yet. They have shown the potential in the Butler match, but also the disappointment against Notre Dame.

Yeagley has talked previously about having two seasons combined into one with the conference and the nonconference. Saturday’s match against Penn State gives IU a chance to set the bar for the rest of the season in the Big Ten.

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