Finally, Soccer at Home

[soccerfanatic]

Finally, a home game.

The road weary Bengals return home this weekend for the first home game since the season opener against Utah State. It has been a long, tough haul, with a 1-4-1 road record. Time to return to the home turf and defend their 13-game home undefeated streak.

The team is older and wiser than when they left. The experience was extremely good for the large number of young players on the team. Only two players with more than one year of experience with the Bengals saw any playing time (until Jana Boehler made her first appearance since the opener last week.)

The team has been playing stronger every game. BYU was the first game since the opener that the team came out hard and fast. The team has looked better almost every game since their last win (at Air Force,) but they do not have any wins since then to show for the effort. However, they should be in top shape by the time conference play rolls around.

Defensively, the team is allowing only slightly more shots per game this season (almost 17 per game compared with 15 last year) but is allowing 1.21 goals per game compared with 0.77 last year. This is slightly deceptive though, as last year the team allowed exactly thee same number of goals (9) through the first seven games as they did last year. Plus, they have accomplished this with our veteran keeper out of action and playing two different freshmen in the lineup. If the defense continues to improve this year, they should be on par with the excellent defense ISU put up last season.

Offensively, the team is still getting their rhythm. Coordinating a offense takes learning each other’s moves, and over half of the offensive team never played together prior to six weeks ago. Of the six players on the offense front, only two were starters on the team last year. True, the offensive production is less than half of last year’s output through the first 7 games, but last year Coach Gibson started 11 veteran players in the first game of the year and by game 7, only two freshman had worked their way into the lineup. This year, Coach has been starting 4-5 freshmen almost every game. These players will need time to work up to speed… and that is what pre-season is all about.

So, even though we would all like to see more success for the team, I haven’t written these girls off. They will still accomplish some amazing things this season. And I am really looking for to the first home game since August 22nd this Friday.

 

[isusid]

Hey, win two this weekend and they are at 4-4-1 with three non-conference games left...they will be just fine.

ISUSID

 

[isunorth]

Cant say that it was the most impressive soccer I have seen. ISU's present record is 2-5-2 with the real possibility of going 2-8-2 by the end of 10/3. The big Sky is still a toss up because it appears no BSC team is doing that well outside the BSC (looking at the competition).
ISU still has a the capacity to make it to the playoffs given the BSC but like last year Sac State got beat 7-0 vs Stanford the league isnt that good.
Given the leagues ability I think we have to look beyond how the team is playing but maybe start questiong the coaching staff. Some of the play and positioning Friday was not good. The coach it appears is trying to play a system that she doesnt have the players to play. Not that they are bad players but the 2 cant meet. She doesnt have the speeders defensively to play the high game and she ends up playing long ball on the offensive side or getting lucky on an in the box scramble. I was a big support of this staff because of the 2006 win but it appears that it may have been more about those players than the staff, I could be wrong but this year and last are indications that we are going the wrong way.

 

[isusuperfan]

OK, I'm calling you out on this one. How many underclassmen do we have, ISUnorth? Oh I don't know...14!!!
With only 3 seniors! And 5 juniors! Give us some time here!

 

[isunorth]

Ross Ill take the call out
We must first look at why (really why) we had so many leave last year. I believe on campus or in a private setting you may get a answer that may not be that flatering that goes back to the coaches. Also I don t buy the underclassmen talk UC Davis had 4 Seniors, Boise State had 3 seniors , Utah State had 6 Seniors and we beat them. This is getting negative but the the staff appears either not have done their home work in recruiting, communication or in systems because they are not getting results and they should. These appear to be talented players. who have played most of them at the top levels in the club area that in some areas is better soccer than BSC soccer.
Ill throw this out but Ill also duck and cover - has the staff like the rest of the programs thrown in the towel or are they looking else where due to budget cuts etc. Newlee left for the reasons you could see Gibson leaving (has she already left in mind?).
Again Iam being negative but Soccer was a shinning star in the progam and it appears to be a flickering light. Ross have them throw some gaseoline on it- get it going. :mrgreen:

 

[isusuperfan]

What do you mean by "get it going"?

I know soccer was a rising star. I read all the headlines of our past glories. We're just in a lull right now, but that will change.

Ali is very dedicated to this team, budget cuts or not. I feel it, and I see it. She drives her teams to succeed. She doesn't strike me as a quitter, and neither does Hideki or Lindsey.

 

[isusid]

At what point does losing last year's leading scorer to an injury or the goalkeeper with the greatest single season in school history factor into anyone's thinking? That was an awesome tie today down a player to a team ISU was 0-3 against all-time. The team is fine.

ISUSID

 

[soccerfanatic]

I had great fun reading the blogs by ISUNorth and Ross as they duked it out over the soccer team last week. Both made some great points. Like ISUNorth, I find myself wondering what is the matter with this team. Like Ross, I still have great hope for them as they mature and I would like to blame much of the problems on bad luck. Unfortunately, it is not all “bad luck.”

UC Davis was one of the most frustrating games I have ever watched. Not only did the team lose the lead, but by the end of the game, the players seemed to have lost every last shred of self-confidence and team morale. A huge chunk of any sport is attitude, and I see a team that sometimes looks beaten and depressed. We saw great fire in this team in the exhibition game and in the Utah State win. They came out flat in the Air Force game, and Coach’s strategy of showing disappointment and challenging the players to step it up in the second half worked great. The whole team and bench was fired up for the second half and we saw some great soccer.

For some reason, when the team went to Colorado College, they did not understand that they were playing a top soccer program. Personally, I thought they played a fantastic game on a field where CC never loses. Because they are a very small liberal arts school, the girls thought they were supposed to run all over CC the way they did with NW Nazarene. The problem is, despite being small, CC is a soccer powerhouse. They have been to the final four three times. They are ranked ahead of such western powerhouses as Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. The team left Colorado with their heads hung low rather than excited that they had given a top team just about all they could handle. (Note: the CC fans were totally shocked at how strong ISU played. They expected to see their team run all over this Podunk team from southeastern Idaho, How ironic!)

The flatness they felt in Colorado reached an all-time low with losses against Boise State and Idaho, two teams they easily have the talent to beat. Since then, the team has looked like they have lost some of their love for the game. One of the things that the 2006 team seemed to have over this year’s team is the confidence that they can win and the excitement of the challenge. I remember the way that team would stand on their benches screaming and cheering-on their teammates through spectacularly exciting soccer matches. I think what this team needs more than anything else is a shot of enthusiasm and a morale-boosting pill.

Hopefully, the Wyoming game may have been just what the doctor ordered. Stepping up and playing a tough Wyoming team down one player and giving them all they could handle through two overtime periods showed the fortitude of this team. The defense did a fantastic job in shutting down last year’s Mountain West Conference leading scorer and MVP, Tamika Wilson. This gutsy performance may prove to be a major building block in helping this team reach its potential.

As for the coming week, talk about tough! First, we play a Pepperdine team ranked 12th in the west (ahead of BYU, Washington State, Arizona and Arizona State) and then a San Diego team ranked nationally in the top 20, and we play both games on the road. No one would expect our 162nd ranked Bengals to walk away with two wins next weekend. However, the chance to play against talent at this level will give ISU the chance to really prepare for the upcoming Big Sky play. Let’s just see the team come out and give it their all, and walk away knowing they could compete with the very best. It is a long road from here to the NCAA tournament and this team needs to start taking pride in every step they take that moves them in the right direction rather than focusing so much on the W’s and L’s.

As for ISUNorth’s previous comments on coaching, I am not quite sure what the problem is. It may be that the team does not yet understand the coach’s offensive scheme. It may be that they are not capable of playing it. Or it may be that the scheme is just not effective for this team. It is frustrating to watch the whole team suck into the middle of they field and to see no one on the midfield wings. It is especially frustrating to see the defense or midfield put a ball forward only to find that the defense is 15-20 yards in front of the nearest Bengal. I notice that other teams always have at least one, if not two or three forwards lined up with Miller and Henage on the defensive line ready to make a run on the first through-ball. Today, I would look down on the field and see all of our offense 20-30 yards from midfield trying to help out on defense while four Cowgirls defenders just sat back on their side of the field waiting for a potential play to develop. Our defense is capable of holding. We need offense. This team has to be ready to attack. If we can’t take more than 4 shots per half, it is unlikely that we will win enough games to even make the Big Sky Tournament.

Wow! I write too much. But it is nice to have a place like this to blow off a little steam, even if hardly anyone else will ever take the time to read the whole thing. Heck, even my own daughter never reads my comments. (Thank goodness. She would be embarrassed to death.) Anyway, great game today, Bengals. (I was especially impressed by the great defensive performance of both Megan Stainbrook and Christina Beseris today.) Keep working hard, team. And hold your heads high. Success will come!

 

[isunorth]

Fanatic again keen insight
You are correct as I watched Fridays game the team has no shape and I believe they have the talent but not the system and I dont think the loss of Buehler or Eves would have made much of a difference. We dont play by statistic - Fanatic understands that. The system needs to change to meet these players capabilities. I am on the coaching staff because of the following, we are not meeting the potential the team should have looking at the personnel that ended last season and was recruited, 2008 should have been a really good year, Players left on mass and I think there is more to that storyv(players from Ohio State stayed right superfan), older players leaving left a huge hole for this year, because of this the coaches had to scramble to get '08 recruits when they should have been getting '09 , its still not a big squad in numbers. Even at the begining of this year we thought they would do better.The system doesnt match the players (discount BYU she played everyone back) and Fanatic was right the players appear to be getting down look how they warmed up Sunday.
This looks like a good group of young players with some pretty good resumes but if it aint working and I will suggest 2-5-2 or(2-7-2) isnt then somethings wrong fix it. Again to the 2 players out other teams get injuries too (Eves wasnt supposed to be here) and Buehler with a knee injury we dont know what it will be like in the future.
Iam frustrated because I would hate to lose one of the few bright spots we had here at ISU

On another note we say goodbye to Idaho with AMIS/ON situation we are moving south - so do I become ISUSouth now. Goodluck Ill miss the games - hope to see a few when I come back now and again.