Men's soccer off to 8-0 start

So apparently men's soccer is undefeated and number 22 in the country? Anyone following this team at all?

Thomas Larson
So apparently men's soccer is undefeated and number 22 in the country? Anyone following this team at all?

Yes.

And Daniel Haber is the country's leading goal scorer with 13 in eight games.

Thomas Larson
So apparently men's soccer is undefeated and number 22 in the country? Anyone following this team at all?

I've been to three of the four home games so far (I missed Wofford). They're good in pretty much every area. Maybe could use a bit more bite in midfield, but they play nice stuff and they've been very successful.

I have been to every home game and they are a lot of fun to watch, other than the disturbing tendency to give up a soft goal early. Hartwick scored its only goal in a 4-1 game 21 seconds in, for example. That being said, watching Cornell then work to tie and eventually win is exciting. All the credit goes to the coaching staff I suspect, first for recruiting the talent and then successfully coaching said talent.

Really impressive considering how mediocre (or worse) the program was for many years.

Nice article about Daniel Haber from The Canadian Press.

The men ran their record to 9-0 with a 3-2 win over Penn in the Ivy opener.

Josh '99
The men ran their record to 9-0 with a 3-2 win over Penn in the Ivy opener.

Worst performance I've seen this year. Sloppy passing, way too direct, and terrible set pieces. But Penn didn't create many chances, and we won. Harvard away is next.

They got another Ivy League player of the week apparently. 9-0 now. Harvard not supposed to be good. 10-0 seems a real possibility.

Penn was 0 - 6 or 8 and gave us a scare so lets think about woofing....

10-0 it is as men's soccer takes Harvard 3-1.

I saw my first game of the year yesterday at Harvard. Frantic, opportunistic style of play; for most of game forwards were completely disconnected from midfield. But they finished their chances and the last 2 goals were beauties even if they were individualistic rather than team efforts. The defense and goalkeeping seemed just good enough against Harvard which looked to have a decided advantage in time of possession. If they make the tournament they'll find difficulty against calmer, more skilled teams that limit Cornell's route 1 offense and skew time of possession drastically against them, if yesterday remains typical of their play. But it is fun while it lasts.

From following @CornellSports, Harvard certainly seemed to dominate early, with Cornell scoring first against the run of play midway through the first half and Harvard tying it up just before the half. Then I had to stop following on Twitter. I'm relieved the second half went better.

Men's soccer tops Colgate 3-1 to go to 11-0-0. We were clearly the better team but it was a sloppy effort.

Can I change the name of this thread? I'm underselling them with "8-0."

This undefeated run has to end soon, right?

Thomas Larson
This undefeated run has to end soon, right?

DON'T SAY THAT WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT

-edit- That sounded angrier than it should have. Either way, defeatism is punishable by death. Yale is next, they're pretty mediocre.

Ben

Thomas Larson
This undefeated run has to end soon, right?

DON'T SAY THAT WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT

-edit- That sounded angrier than it should have. Either way, defeatism is punishable by death. Yale is next, they're pretty mediocre.

So was Chelsea last year, and they won the Champions League

According to this game report last night was carbon copy of what I saw at Harvard. Colgate

So this bend-but-don't-break defending and opportunistic scoring seems to be the modus operandi. If it's what your talent dictates, so be it.

The Princeton-Creighton game was on ESPNU last night and although Princeton lost in OT they look to be a pretty good side (Creighton is a ranked team). Those of you in Ithaca should go to that one for sure. Depending on what happens the week before at Brown the Princeton game will either go most of the way to sewing up the Ivy title or be a must win to get back in the race.

Ben

Thomas Larson
This undefeated run has to end soon, right?

DON'T SAY THAT WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT

-edit- That sounded angrier than it should have. Either way, defeatism is punishable by death. Yale is next, they're pretty mediocre.

I take it you don't believe in Bill Simmons reverse jinxes?

Ben

Thomas Larson
This undefeated run has to end soon, right?

DON'T SAY THAT WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT

-edit- That sounded angrier than it should have. Either way, defeatism is punishable by death. Yale is next, they're pretty mediocre.

Because threatening him with death sounds a lot less angry than hitting caplocks.

Ken70
According to this game report last night was carbon copy of what I saw at Harvard. Colgate

So this bend-but-don't-break defending and opportunistic scoring seems to be the modus operandi. If it's what your talent dictates, so be it.

The Princeton-Creighton game was on ESPNU last night and although Princeton lost in OT they look to be a pretty good side (Creighton is a ranked team). Those of you in Ithaca should go to that one for sure. Depending on what happens the week before at Brown the Princeton game will either go most of the way to sewing up the Ivy title or be a must win to get back in the race.

Cornell #16, Brown #19 in this week's NCAA poll. (Creighton #24)

Thomas Larson
Can I change the name of this thread? I'm underselling them with "8-0."

This undefeated run has to end soon, right?

Yes, you can change the name of the thread if you want to make it something generic like "holy shit when did Cornell get a soccer team?"

ugarte

Thomas Larson
Can I change the name of this thread? I'm underselling them with "8-0."

This undefeated run has to end soon, right?

Yes, you can change the name of the thread if you want to make it something generic like "holy shit when did Cornell get a soccer team?"

Cornell had a real soccer team that made the NCAA final four. Around the time Superman was a Cornell undergrad. Okay, it has been a while.

From here out all of the Big Red's games are basically must win, including today. Their chances of making the 48 team NCAA field depend mostly on winning the Ivy title, and its auto-bid. Just as in hockey and lacrosse the RPI plays a predominant role in selection for the teams not receiving auto-bids (about 26 at-large teams in this case). The basic formula is the same and there are bonus points for quality wins, and even draws, as well as negative points for bad losses, all based on the opponent's own RPI ranking.

As is sometimes the case in hockey, the Cornell soccer team has a very low SOS, even relative to its main Ivy rivals. Dartmouth's opponents, for example, have a combined W-L-T of 92-69-34 compared to the Red's 66-99-23. Princeton's rivals to date are 96-81-24 while Brown's are a more comparable 73-91-27. The selection committee looks very closely at non-league RPI for the at-large teams, particularly those on the bubble, and Cornell's non-league opponents were the weakest part of their schedule. There's no soccer equivalent of USCHO so getting a read on selection probabilities relies on the NCAA's own published RPI, which should appear for the first time next week. We'll have a better idea then as to "plan B".

Does the post season matter that much for Cornell in soccer? I'd say yes. While the Ivy title is clearly goal #1, getting to and going deep into the tournament is quite an accomplishment and is recognized as such. Last year Brown made the third round, the Sweet 16 out of 200+ Div 1 soccer programs. Results like that establish and validate a program, and make recruiting much more effective as in any sport. Being a year in, year out, nationally ranked team (like hockey or lacrosse, or Brown in soccer) is a trajectory Cornell could be on with their "new" coach, who's in his 4th year and starting to see the effects of his recruiting and system take hold. Who wouldn't want to see that?

Does the ivy league ever get at-large bids? I seem to recall that they do.

ugarte
Does the ivy league ever get at-large bids? I seem to recall that they do.

Four Ivy teams made the 2010 tournament.
[en.wikipedia.org]

I don't follow college soccer. Was that an unusually strong year for Ivy teams?

EDIT: In scanning the past few years' brackets, it seems common for multiple Ivy teams to make the tournament.

Cornell defeats Yale 3-0

ugarte
Does the ivy league ever get at-large bids? I seem to recall that they do.

The dynamics are the same as hockey: if your conference, including you, plays strong teams in its non-league matches and does well, and you have a decent record against your conference foes you'll have a high RPI and be well placed for an at-large berth. In soccer the Big East and ACC are the equivalents of the WCHA and Hockey East, but I think the Ivy League is a bit stronger in soccer than the ECAC in hockey. This year Cornell just happened to have an exceptionally weak out of conference schedule, and the other Ivies aren't getting many wins against their stronger non-Ivy opponents.

If Cornell wins the title and one of Brown, Dartmouth or Princeton win out except for their Cornell loss then one of those could get a berth, Brown in particular. But that's just speculation at this point, we'll know more about the at-large landscape when the first NCAA RPI comes out, maybe on Tuesday.

This guy over from the other coast does a pretty solid job trying to estimate the RPI. By his guess, we're 32 right now. You'd like us to be a bit higher, but a win over Brown would help out a lot next weekend. He updates very regularly -- already has today's result accounted for -- though not sure how accurate he is.

General Forum with four RPI-related links
All Teams' RPIs

Thomas Larson
This guy over from the other coast does a pretty solid job trying to estimate the RPI. By his guess, we're 32 right now. You'd like us to be a bit higher, but a win over Brown would help out a lot next weekend. He updates very regularly -- already has today's result accounted for -- though not sure how accurate he is.

General Forum with four RPI-related links
All Teams' RPIs

So I'll ask, does anyone compute a Bradley-Terry for men's NCAA soccer? Matt Carberry does it for MLS. [mattcarberry.com]

Thomas Larson
This guy over from the other coast does a pretty solid job trying to estimate the RPI. By his guess, we're 32 right now. You'd like us to be a bit higher, but a win over Brown would help out a lot next weekend. He updates very regularly -- already has today's result accounted for -- though not sure how accurate he is.

General Forum with four RPI-related links
All Teams' RPIs

Thanks for finding that. Note our SOS: 187 out of 204. And our Opponents Winning % is 198 of 204. Just brutal.

If we lose 1 game in the last 4, and using some quick and dirty math to estimate our final raw RPI, it looks we'll still be around 30th. Problem is we won't have any top 25 wins and just 1 top 50 (same process for the committee here as in lacrosse, except there it's counting wins against top 5, top 10 etc), and our SOS will still be worse than 100. Once the adjusted RPI is computed teams behind us in the raw RPI would jump ahead. Very bubble.

Ken70

Thomas Larson
This guy over from the other coast does a pretty solid job trying to estimate the RPI. By his guess, we're 32 right now. You'd like us to be a bit higher, but a win over Brown would help out a lot next weekend. He updates very regularly -- already has today's result accounted for -- though not sure how accurate he is.

General Forum with four RPI-related links
All Teams' RPIs

Thanks for finding that. Note our SOS: 187 out of 204. And our Opponents Winning % is 198 of 204. Just brutal.

If we lose 1 game in the last 4, and using some quick and dirty math to estimate our final raw RPI, it looks we'll still be around 30th. Problem is we won't have any top 25 wins and just 1 top 50 (same process for the committee here as in lacrosse, except there it's counting wins against top 5, top 10 etc), and our SOS will still be worse than 100. Once the adjusted RPI is computed teams behind us in the raw RPI would jump ahead. Very bubble.

Maybe so, but is it purely based on numbers our is there a selection committee with discretion? If it is the later I don't think a one-loss team will be kept out because of a perfect storm of a full schedule having bad years.

So, we are all Wofford (RPI 51) fans now?

They have some discretion, I think. Last year GA ST was 45th in adjusted RPI and jumped over 4 teams ahead of it to make the selection. Hard to decode exactly why other than their non-conference RPI (41st) being 11 to 35 places better than those others. They did play a lot of games against top 25, 50 etc but didn't do that well.

Princeton, with a 5-4-2 record, is right behind us in the RPI. Their SOS is 10. So far they've played 4 top 25 and 1 26-50 teams. Being unbeaten, untied only gets you so far if you're playing the weakest teams. But the SOS will improve for us as we play Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton, and get worse for the latter after they play Adelphi (1-11), Harvard, Penn and Yale.

And, as in the dying weeks of the hockey season, I'm rooting for every non-conference team we played to win out.

Official NCAA RPI ranking is out NCAA Adjusted RPI. Looks like this is the adjusted RPI since it differs from the raw RPI posted here Raw RPI

Princeton, Brown and Wofford are top 50

The Coach: Jaro Zawislan

Video for Brown game available at 3:30 Saturday for $8. A pop-up box at America One Sports said:

"Once we have tested the audio and video, and there are no issues, the event becomes "Live." At this time you will be able to purchase a single-event pass."

What a novel approach!

Brown scores in the fifth minute.

Al DeFlorio
Brown scores in the fifth minute.

By their fourth-string halfback?

1-0 Brown halftime

2-0 Brown on an own goal with 19 minutes to go.

I went to the Brown game, beautiful day, until the game started. First Brown goal result of very bad Cornell defending, a right back wiffing on a clearance allowing a Brown attacker to paste a hard shot at Pflasterer, who parried it out to the penalty spot only to have it struck hard past him by one of the several Brown attackers in the box. The Big Red defenders were on their backfoot whenever Brown found itself with the ball in their attacking third. And "found itself" is meant literally. The Brown team seemed to consist of just forwards and backs, Cornell controlled the middle of the field by default. Even the Brown fans around me were constantly muttering at how poorly their team held the ball in midfield. But their forwards put themselves in dangerous positions when they had the ball within 25 yards of goal. Brown got 4 or 5 attacking players in front of goal on every one of their few forays into that area, which were usually the result of a long ball or a deflection. That pressure, infrequent but intense, was what eventually caused the disarray that led to Cornell's own-goal late in the game.

Cornell's attack was consistently stifled by Brown's defenders, the best unit of either team on the field. Cornell put way too much focus on Haber, blind to other open attackers and playing to him even in the tightest of spaces. When he got the ball he mostly shot wildly, from distance. The Big Red didn't have more than one honest goal scoring opportunity all day.

Neither team distinguished itself. If anyone saw the Maryland-UNC match broadcast on ESPNU the night before you'd have to conclude that the game on Stevenson field Saturday was more akin to a high school match than to the game Maryland and UNC were playing. If you weren't a fan of Brown or Cornell you would have been thoroughly bored.

As expected, Cornell's raw RPI ranking didn't change by more than a place or two as a result of losing to a 10-1-2 team, it's still about 30th. But they're on the edge of the cliff.

Cornell wins in OT, Brown tied by Yale. Cornell up by 1 point over Brown with 1 game to play, and control their own destiny next week at Columbia. Brown at Dartmouth next Friday night, game on FoxSoccer. If Dartmouth wins Cornell has Ivy title no matter what happens at Columbia. If tie in Hanover then Cornell can tie. If Brown wins Cornell needs win.

Columbia is currently 2-2-2 in the Ivies and 4-7-4 overall. Let's Go RED!

Man, I want to find a way to get to the game at Columbia!

ugarte
Columbia is currently 2-2-2 in the Ivies and 4-7-4 overall. Let's Go RED!

Man, I want to find a way to get to the game at Columbia!

"By MTA NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY: Broadway-Seventh Avenue IRT Local ("1" train) north or south to 215th Street, then walk two blocks north and cross Broadway at W. 218th Street. OR 8th Avenue IND Express ("A" train) north to 207th Street (exit at north end of platform - 211th Street), then proceed north to 218th Street." - Columbia men's soccer page.

Long range forecast: daytime temp in high 50s decreasing to mid 40s at night, 0% chance of rain, wind below 10 mph.

They'll be playing for, or may have already won, their first outright title in 35 years.

I'm more talking about "convince my wife that this isn't a waste of scarce money/time."

ugarte
I'm more talking about "convince my wife that this isn't a waste of scarce money/time."

Just trying to encourage you, they may need every voice they can get.

And I think it's free admission, so all it will cost is about $20 each way on the subway! (I remember when it was $.15)

Ken70
And I think it's free admission, so all it will cost is about $20 each way on the subway! (I remember when it was $.15)

"You see this quarter? It used to be a nickel."

Kind of cool to the see the Dartmouth


game-winning goal on YouTube. Wish they'd put up more highlights. Anyone there to see it in person?

Thanks for posting that. Great move by Regan down the left and around the defender on the goal line, and nice, patient work by Haber to get the good cross in. That winning move was better than anything I saw them do in 90 minutes at Brown.

We're rooting for Dartmouth tonight, in case anyone was wondering, although a tie will do.

Ken70
Thanks for posting that. Great move by Regan down the left and around the defender on the goal line, and nice, patient work by Haber to get the good cross in. That winning move was better than anything I saw them do in 90 minutes at Brown.

We're rooting for Dartmouth tonight, in case anyone was wondering, although a tie will do.

A tie would move Brown into a nominal tie for first, though we'd still have the game remaining against Columbia.

Brown - Dartmouth was, in fact, tied the last I checked.

Five minutes into overtime right now. Dartmouth win gives us a share of the league title at worst.

Dartmouth wins in OT

dag14
Dartmouth wins in OT

Which means we win at least share of Ivy League. Also get the NCAA bid from the Ivy Leaguue because we beat Dartmouth head to head.

Men's soccer beats Columbia 1-0 to win the Ivy outright for the first time since 1977. Congratulations are definitely in order!

dag14
Men's soccer beats Columbia 1-0 to win the Ivy outright for the first time since 1977. Congratulations are definitely in order!

NCAA field is going to be announced today at 5:30 PM ET.

nyc94

dag14
Men's soccer beats Columbia 1-0 to win the Ivy outright for the first time since 1977. Congratulations are definitely in order!

NCAA field is going to be announced today at 5:30 PM ET.

We host Syracuse first round. If we win, travel to VCU. Not sure when the game will be played.

Cornell hosts 12-6 Syracuse in first round game. Winner gets 14th seed VCU in second round. Seems like a decent draw, and the home game is nice. I assumed we would get screwed and be forced to play a road game.

Apparently Ivy League soccer is highly regarded so hosting is not as unusual as it might otherwise seem to those on this forum who were in pre-school when Cornell last went to the tournament. I on the otherhand remember the last outright Ivy Championship and the guys who played on that team....

Syracuse is a great draw. On first look, and I may be wrong, they look like the lowest ranked (NCAA RPI) at-large team in the tournament. Only common opp. was Colgate: they won 6-0, we won 3-1. They've played some very good teams (ND, St. Johns, Louisville) but lost them all. If (big IF) we move on VCU is a lot better 2nd round draw than Brown got: Maryland. Brown is not going to the 3rd round this year.

Ken70
Syracuse is a great draw. On first look, and I may be wrong, they look like the lowest ranked (NCAA RPI) at-large team in the tournament. Only common opp. was Colgate: they won 6-0, we won 3-1. They've played some very good teams (ND, St. Johns, Louisville) but lost them all. If (big IF) we move on VCU is a lot better 2nd round draw than Brown got: Maryland. Brown is not going to the 3rd round this year.

Actually there were four common opponents:
Binghamton: W 1-0
Colgate: W 6-0
Cal State Fullerton: L 1-3
Hartwick: W 1-0

We won all four of those games by scores of 5-0, 3-1, 2-1 and 3-1 respectively. Brown definitely is done in the second round if they beat Drexel. Agreed that Maryland kills them.

dag14
Men's soccer beats Columbia 1-0 to win the Ivy outright for the first time since 1977. Congratulations are definitely in order!

Fall sports have not been Cornell's domain lately if ever. That said, women's cross country won Heps for the second year in a row.

nyc94

dag14
Men's soccer beats Columbia 1-0 to win the Ivy outright for the first time since 1977. Congratulations are definitely in order!

Fall sports have not been Cornell's domain lately if ever. That said, women's cross country won Heps for the second year in a row.

...and they're competing in the ncaa championships in louisville this saturday - first time in 11 years. they were ranked as high as #8 in the country at one point - now #16

Crazy that Redcast is only providing audio, what would it take to get a camera over there?

phillysportsfan
Crazy that Redcast is only providing audio, what would it take to get a camera over there?

Special dispensation from the NC$$. In the fine print of the REDCAST subscription it notes that tournament games will not have video (due to I believe licensing and rights, they lawyers can probably explain it better). Exceptions have been made (Women NC$$ hockey games from last season), but in general we don't get video for tourney games (league or NC$$).

Ah I guess that makes sense, kind of pathetic thouh when the NC$$ does not offer a video option

I think the issue is that there's no setup at Berman for an online feed. The NCAA actually requires that video of NCAA tournament games be streamed for free.

1-0 Syracuse early in the second half.

[suathletics.syr.edu]

Says free streaming. I can't get it on my iPad, but worth a shot.

So we lose, 1-0. Disappointing end to a remarkable season. Damn, to lose to SU of all teams!

Brown up 1-0 on Maryland about a third of the way through. Can't imagine they can actually hold on though.

Streaming video: [ulive.cbssports.com]


EDIT: Maryland ties it very late in first half. Amazing strike. Not Zlatan amazing but pretty damn good.

EDIT: Maryland buries a set piece in the 90th minute to take the lead.

EDIT: Fulltime, 2-1 Maryland. Still, Brown did our league proud.

Can't miss this at CornellBigRed.com but vote for Daniel Haber for the Hermann Trophy Award.

Surprised no one posted this already, but Daniel Haber signed with Maccabi Haifa of the Israel Premier League.

Men's soccer junior striker Daniel Haber signs 2.5 year contact with Maccabi Haifa FC of the Israeli Premiere League. Story to follow.

— Sun Sports Dept. (@DailySunSports) January 7, 2013

Here's an article: [maccabi-haifafc.walla.co.il]

Haiku bot is best bot of all.

ESPN piece on Bruce Arena and Dave Sarachan.

Weder
ESPN piece on Bruce Arena and Dave Sarachan.

Thanks. Nice article. A few quotes:

“Arena sees black and white, and I see color,” Sarachan said. “Where there might be color and gray, that’s where I can fill in the cracks; give him more information, maybe open a door that he thought wasn’t there

“I hire people to complement me, because I don’t need people to come in and tell me how to run a team,” Arena said. “They need to complement and support what I do. Everyone is quite aware of who I am, and sometimes I am a person with a rough edge, so to have someone around who is a little smoother is good, too.

“Dave’s a very personable guy and that continues to be his strength. He’s personable with the players and that’s a good quality to have.”

I read this just afer hearing Scott Simon interview Bobby Knight, he has a new book, on Sat AM NPR. Scott asked him about the problems with his temper, especially his last few years at IU. His response was to first sugest that Scott may not know what he's talking about. Then he shifted to how he didn't get along with his superiors and implied they made it difficult for him.

It's so nice o hear from someone who can acknowledge that he has faults. A nicer way to leave the AM thoughts about sports.

There was an update on Daniel Haber a couple days ago. He finally got into a match for Maccabi and scored a goal. Only two matches left this season though.

[the11.ca]