Men's and Women's Soccer Openers

[golasalle]

Terrific season opening weekend for the La Salle Men's and Woman's soccer teams in sweeping Villanova. The women steamrolled Villanova 4-0 with two freshmen scoring all of the goals for the Explorers.

The men won in an exciting come from behind win 2-1. After trailing at the half 1-0 the Explorers got the equalizer in the 78th minute and the winner with less than 3 mins. remaining.

Congrats to the Explorers on a great start!

[jellybean]

Thanks for starting this thread.

I saw most of the Women's broadcast but missed the first two goals. Sounds like the first goal was a great offensive play and the second one sort of a gift goal due the the misplay of Nova GK. That said La Salle only allowed Nova one shot in the first half and dominated the play in their own offensive half of the field.

I was surprised how little problem the turf was for both teams for such a miserable day. Well I spoke too soon as the Nova defender slipped and fell trying to guard one of our players (Donovan). Donovan made a move past the defender went one on one with the keeper and put the ball in the net. About 5 minutes later, the same thing happened.

Looking at the starting lineup for the Women here is the breakdown by class.
FR- 3
R(FR)-1
SO-1
R(SO)-2
JR-2
SR-1
R(SR)-1

Substitutes
FR-2
SO-4 at least 2 former starters from last year's team
JR-1
R(JR)- 1

I heard talk that this FR class might be one of Paul's best. Future looks bright.

Interesting for the men's team, I see 7 JR's, 3 SO and 1 FR starter. One SR and 4 FR substitutes. 6 International starters and 3 International substitutes.

[jellybean]

I watched about 2/3 of the Villanova match and 1/2 of the Delaware State match. One thing that stands out with this team is the speed. Very much evident with the addition of the Fr. This team is not a big and physical up front. No more Bower or Haycock physically over powering the defender. This club will race by you. Also this team does not seem reliant on the long fast break kick. Rather the midfield controls the ball better and makes crisp passes which leads to run outs.

Defensively neither opponent could muster many shots. Both had a hard time getting the ball into their end of the field.

Could be an exciting season. I might be giving them the "kiss of death" but I see them favored in every regular season match.

[La Salle 08]

is that because of the unbalanced schedule and not playing St louis? I saw we were picked 6th in the A10 coaches poll preseason but agree that the team looked really solid in the first 2 games. I watched a bit of the Del State game on youtube mostly because I found out through a facebook post that I'm distantly related to one of the freshman.

[hykos1045]

Yes, that's right La Salle 08 . I  like the new covid schedule which is sort of like three separate pods. In so doing, they were able to eliminate air travel until the championship. Some teams will be playing St Louis three times and we don't see them at all. In the eastern pod, I expect La Salle/UMass will likely dominate, whereas St Louis and Dayton will likely beat each other up in the western division, and GW/VCU can duke it out in the southern pod. Among those six teams mentioned, only four can advance, so scheduling will definitely be a factor. 


Onto the topic of men's soccer, I'm quite impressed with the caliber of their recruiting. To be 1-1 on the road against Big East opponents, and to do it with only giving up 1 goal per game, is a very fine start for the young lads. Looking forward to their continued advancement in the A10 standings.

[golasalle]

Nice 5-3 win by the men yesterday on the road against Mt. St. Mary. Completely dominated play but fell behind early on a goal given up on a defensive lapse. Actually, all of the Mount's goals were on defensive mistakes (including the PK which happened because of a giveaway on the defensive end). Offense was humming. Outshot the Mount 20-10 and had 11 corners while conceding none.

On the whole, offense looks good but team will need to clean up some of the defensive lapses to be able to compete and beat the better teams they will play.

[jellybean]

Wasn't able to watch until after the score was 2-2. Golasalle is right in his recap. Let me add that we had one sequence where one of our players hit the left post and the ball caromed off the crossbar. Shame it didn't go in.

The Mount had one series where GK Werner made two outstanding saves.

PS the Mount announcer was awful to listen too.

[golasalle]

Feb 26, 2021 10:56:36 GMT -5 jellybean said:

The Mount had one series where GK Werner made two outstanding saves.

PS the Mount announcer was awful to listen too.

Good point on the Mount's GK and I forgot about the shot off the post.

I told my wife that the announcer had an incredibly annoying cadence. He used that tired announcing trope of loudly emphasizing a word in every sentence. I ended up turning the volume down.

[jellybean]

I thought the announcer was trying to imitate Kevin Harlan's voice and style.

[diehardexplorer]

Feb 27, 2021 8:56:33 GMT -5 jellybean said:

I thought the announcer was trying to imitate Kevin Harlan's voice and style.

kevin harlan is the best.

[jellybean]

I like Kevin Harlan. I don't like poor imitators.

Glad to see interest in this thread.

[jellybean]

Sorry for the late update.

Sunday night was another brutal weather match. I didn't see the wet turf as having any impact.

Only saw the first half because the video feed did not work so I went to bed. Before that I give Drexel a lot of credit. They won the battle of possession time and field position in the first half. Maybe 55-45%. They have a nice team.

Heart skipped a beat when Drexel put a shot on goal where our keeper tried to smother the ball on the wet yurf. It squirted out and SLOWLY rolled wide left. Dodged that one.

I'm not a fan of long passes to empty space. I saw very few of them in the first two games but saw 6 in the first half. It's a wasted possession. Just like empty possessions in basketball.

On to league play.

I looked at the MSOC schedule and they have a tough one. I believe all opponents are top 100 or close to it. It will be a great challenge for them.

[hykos1045]

Coaches polls came out for Tuesday 3/2/21.

Men's opponent Seton Hall (3-0-1) is ranked 29th (receiving votes). Losing to the Pirates, 1-0 on the road was an indicator of La Salle's increased competitiveness.

The La Salle women were regionally ranked 6th, behind VCU at 3rd, and St. Louis at 1st in the Atlantic regional poll. Both St.Louis clubs are 17th ranked nationally.

The men will be starting a series with Drexel, Saturday at 5pm.
The women are on a two week layoff as their upcoming match at Fordham is postponed. With NJIT also being inactive this weekend, I wondered if their match might get back on the schedule but there has been no indication of that, and their original game was listed as canceled rather than postponed.

[golasalle]

Men’s soccer continued their hot start with a 3-1 home win over Drexel. Very evenly played match overall but the Explorers were able to take a quick lead in the 4th min. on a goal by Junior Nare, his third of the season. La Salle may have something special in Nare. His second goal was a highlight worthy finish after making a great move on the Drexel defender.

Conference play begins Saturday with a home match against Rhode Island.

[jellybean]

Excellent recap golasalle.

let me add there was a sequence late in the second half in front of the La Salle goal. It was like a pinball game. Werner made a point blank save from inside the six yard box. The shot almost knocked him over.

I thought the second goal from Junior Nare was one of the most incredible plays I've ever seen. The youngster is very talented and fun to watch,

I thought the hustle and determination on the mid field was one of the keys to the game.

[hykos1045]

Women's soccer picked up a key 2-1 victory over division frontrunner Massachusetts on Saturday. Louketis hammered in a goal from 35 yards out, and McGroarty followed with another second half insurance goal that would become decisive. Both players now have five goals on the season.

Sunday, April 11th, at 1:00pm the women will face St Joe's down the road in a match that will likely have A10 tournament implications.

That match is OPEN to spectators so get yourself down to Hawk Hill for the season finale!

[hykos1045]

I chuckled to myself when I overheard someone at the msoc game tonight tell his wife/girlfriend that "La Salle won the last time these two teams played." It was not wrong, however, La Salle extended its unbeaten streak to THIRTEEN against the Hawks tonight (11-0-2). You almost have to go back to when I was in school to find the last setback in the archives.

As we had seen with basketball, the A10 MSOC schedule has been amended. UMass will visit La Salle on Saturday evening for what may sort of amount to a play-in game for the A10 tourney. It appears necessary to add the game for balancing because La Salle and UMass had both been scheduled to play Rhode Island, but those games were canceled due to COVID. And since La Salle and UMass tied the last time out, it still needs to be settled on the pitch which team could be eligible to advance to the A10 tournament. (If they tie again, UMass still has the edge in winning percentage.)

[golasalle]

Apr 7, 2021 22:36:55 GMT -5 hykos1045 said:

I chuckled to myself when I overheard someone at the msoc game tonight tell his wife/girlfriend that "La Salle won the last time these two teams played." It was not wrong, however, La Salle extended its unbeaten streak to THIRTEEN against the Hawks tonight (11-0-2). You almost have to go back to when I was in school to find the last setback in the archives.

As we had seen with basketball, the A10 MSOC schedule has been amended. UMass will visit La Salle on Saturday evening for what may sort of amount to a play-in game for the A10 tourney. It appears necessary to add the game for balancing because La Salle and UMass had both been scheduled to play Rhode Island, but those games were canceled due to COVID. And since La Salle and UMass tied the last time out, it still needs to be settled on the pitch which team could be eligible to advance to the A10 tournament. (If they tie again, UMass still has the edge in winning percentage.)

Nice win last night after a couple of difficult matches. As Hykos points out, needed the win to stay alive for the playoffs. Excellent match to watch as the teams went back and forth with La Salle finally breaking through late in second half and getting in insurance goal to seal it.

Didn’t know the dominance over St Joe(PA) extended that long but great to see it!

[hykos1045]

Looks like with Fordham women's win over St Joe's last night they have overtaken La Salle in the wildcard standings. I could be all about schedule imbalances if this were a normal year, but it is not a normal year. And the fact of the matter is Fordham beat us head to head, and that's what it might come down to. You play the hand you are dealt.

[hykos1045]

After the pandemic shortened the women's soccer season of eight conference games instead of the usual 10, and four qualifying teams instead of the usual eight, it would mean that there was little margin for error for teams from the start. A goal here or there could make the difference between a 2-seed in, versus a 5-seed left out.

On game days, winning has long been sort of business as usual for the Paul Royal coached soccer team at La Salle University. If you look back at all of his years, especially the last decade of dominance, I can only recall a rare handful of "must win" type games that have ended in defeats. After losing two early matches on late goals, our women's team never gave up on themselves, and pulled together two impressive victories in each of their last two matches, against formidable opponents on the road, improving to a 4-2 record. But as our team's road matches against two conference opponents were canceled because of the most unfortunately timed COVID pauses, we officially ran out of time to get to 5 wins. This put us on the brink of elimination.

In the wildcard standings, Fordham had gained a crucial head-to-head advantage over us, plus Dayton, VCU, Davidson and GW were all capable of ending the year with 4+ or more wins. After the final whistle in our season, La Salle had defeated the Hawks on an own goal (deflection off a corner), and word came back that Dayton had lost its concurrent match which I assumed would end their season, while VCU was subjected to yet another opponent's COVID pause, and Davidson and GW tied each other. Any one of these four teams just needed a win to stay ahead of us and clinch the final A10 berth, but no one would get the necessary fifth win. La Salle had suddenly been given new hope! I was elated for them. I was also happy for VCU's return to success. But assurances from the league were not forthcoming, and anyone's renewed expectations for either of these teams were unfortunately short lived.

When the final press release came from the league several hours later, it showed that Davidson (4-2-2) and Dayton (4-3-1) had made the final cut, while GW (4-3-1) and VCU (4-2-1) were left out of the field based on "established tiebreakers" (unspecified). La Salle (4-2) wasn't even mentioned in the release. The A10 has never allowed its selection procedures to have all that much transparency, to be honest. So this part was not unusual. However, SIDs, coaches, and broadcasters are usually able to predict their status based on past precedents. This year, additional variables from the new format caused the A10's methods to become vague and subject to much more intense scrutiny than usual from all sides of it.

The part that's immensely frustrating for La Salle (as well as VCU) is that the two games which were canceled because of opponent's COVID testing were ruled "no contest." Yet these results are effectively being counted the same as forfeit losses, for all intents and purposes. We're ranked as though we finished 4-4, not 4-2. That's not just unfortunate, I call it a travesty. These players are deserving of more consideration from the league.

However, I will go back after all of this, and say that it was so gratifying to be able to follow a season at all, albeit one that was shortened. I did even get to go to several matches this year for both the men's and women's sides, and since we had missed the chance to see basketball in person, I relished this opportunity. La Salle did have a great run this year, and it would have been awesome to have seen our chances against the likes of VCU/Davidson, UMass, and St Louis in the championship.

Every season comes to an end. Considering that our season did end on the "high note" of beating the Hawks, I find some consolation in that. No grudges will be kept, only motivation for the fall season. And because of the delayed start to this year, now it's only four months away instead of the usual nine. There's also next year, my soccer-loving friends, next year!

[diehardexplorer]

Apr 15, 2021 22:12:35 GMT -5 hykos1045 said:

After the pandemic shortened the women's soccer season of eight conference games instead of the usual 10, and four qualifying teams instead of the usual eight, it would mean that there was little margin for error for teams from the start. A goal here or there could make the difference between a 2-seed in, versus a 5-seed left out.

On game days, winning has long been sort of business as usual for the Paul Royal coached soccer team at La Salle University. If you look back at all of his years, especially the last decade of dominance, I can only recall a rare handful of "must win" type games that have ended in defeats. After losing two early matches on late goals, our women's team never gave up on themselves, and pulled together two impressive victories in each of their last two matches, against formidable opponents on the road, improving to a 4-2 record. But as our team's road matches against two conference opponents were canceled because of the most unfortunately timed COVID pauses, we officially ran out of time to get to 5 wins. This put us on the brink of elimination.

In the wildcard standings, Fordham had gained a crucial head-to-head advantage over us, plus Dayton, VCU, Davidson and GW were all capable of ending the year with 4+ or more wins. After the final whistle in our season, La Salle had defeated the Hawks on an own goal (deflection off a corner), and word came back that Dayton had lost its concurrent match which I assumed would end their season, while VCU was subjected to yet another opponent's COVID pause, and Davidson and GW tied each other. Any one of these four teams just needed a win to stay ahead of us and clinch the final A10 berth, but no one would get the necessary fifth win. La Salle had suddenly been given new hope! I was elated for them. I was also happy for VCU's return to success. But assurances from the league were not forthcoming, and anyone's renewed expectations for either of these teams were unfortunately short lived.

When the final press release came from the league several hours later, it showed that Davidson (4-2-2) and Dayton (4-3-1) had made the final cut, while GW (4-3-1) and VCU (4-2-1) were left out of the field based on "established tiebreakers" (unspecified). La Salle (4-2) wasn't even mentioned in the release. The A10 has never allowed its selection procedures to have all that much transparency, to be honest. So this part was not unusual. However, SIDs, coaches, and broadcasters are usually able to predict their status based on past precedents. This year, additional variables from the new format caused the A10's methods to become vague and subject to much more intense scrutiny than usual from all sides of it.

The part that's immensely frustrating for La Salle (as well as VCU) is that the two games which were canceled because of opponent's COVID testing were ruled "no contest." Yet these results are effectively being counted the same as forfeit losses, for all intents and purposes. We're ranked as though we finished 4-4, not 4-2. That's not just unfortunate, I call it a travesty. These players are deserving of more consideration from the league.

However, I will go back after all of this, and say that it was so gratifying to be able to follow a season at all, albeit one that was shortened. I did even get to go to several matches this year for both the men's and women's sides, and since we had missed the chance to see basketball in person, I relished this opportunity. La Salle did have a great run this year, and it would have been awesome to have seen our chances against the likes of VCU/Davidson, UMass, and St Louis in the championship.

Every season comes to an end. Considering that our season did end on the "high note" of beating the Hawks, I find some consolation in that. No grudges will be kept, only motivation for the fall season. And because of the delayed start to this year, now it's only four months away instead of the usual nine. There's also next year, my soccer-loving friends, next year!

you're a better man than me hykos.  imo, the a10 put the screws to la salle once again. 

both mbb and wsoc ended up being penalized because both teams did a great job of following covid protocols and staying healthy.  because of that, mbb was hosed out of the 11th seed and a more favorable first round matchup when the league decided to not follow the seeding guideline they published 2 weeks earlier and award gw that spot.  in the long run, it didn't really make a difference as that team was not going to advance anyway, but it was the point of the matter.

and then wsoc has two games cancelled because of the other schools having covid pauses.  so la salle, with the second best winning percentage in the entire league is left out of the a10 tournament because of that. one of those games was an almost sure win against rhode island who won 2 matches the entire season.  la salle wins that game they end up with 15 pts and the wildcard.

[hykos1045]

Well, technically they're the third best rate behind 1-SLU / 2-UMass rather than second, but your point is not lost on me, diehardexplorer.  Thank you. I know I'm not just being a homer in saying that very poor discretion was used by the league commissioner and associates in having this play out in such a way. I was livid when the seeds came out, but I have since edited my reaction down and tried to find a silver lining in it. This was a GREAT year for them despite the conference's inability to recognize it with a bid to the conference tournament. A top three record in conference, and 7-2-0 overall is the best percentage finish of recent years. No doubt the canceled games were the most ill timed. The team definitely gave up a slight bit of its early season edge and momentum as certain key matches became postponed indefinitely. They would have been winnable games, but even if losses or ties, they could have been useful because some of your best learning comes from those early season matches that challenge you or get away from you.

[hykos1045]

Feb 24, 2021 10:11:28 GMT -5 jellybean said:

I might be giving them the "kiss of death" but I see them favored in every regular season match.