Men's Soccer 2019

[mountainred]

Over the weekend, the men knocked off Akron in OT.  That's the second win this season over a national semi-finalist from last year, which sounds like justification for their own thread.  Just don't look at Akron orMichigan State's record this year.  I swear they met in the final four last year and that Akron is perennial power in the sport.

Still, for a program that has managed 4 Ivy wins just twice since 1999, including last year, it is nice to see.

[Trotsky]

Did something change?  A new staff, a great recruiting class?

[Al DeFlorio]

Watched four of their games (FDU, Canisius, Siena and Akron) and they do look for real. Actually fun to watch, and soccer is not high on my "fun-to-watch" list.  Unseeded Akron beat unseeded MSU 5-1 in the 2018 semifinals and lost 1-0 to Maryland in the championship game.

[scoop85]

Did something change?  A new staff, a great recruiting class?

John Smith took over a floundering team 3 years ago after being the top assistant on Stanford's NCAA championship team.  He immediately changed the culture and brought in some talented kids.  As in most sports we don't get the 4 or 5 star recruits, but he's recruited some 2 and 3 star guys who have really blossomed. The team plays an aggressive, pressing style and can dominate possession against many teams (see the 29-2 shot differential against Siena). The Ivies are always competitive, but we should be able to challenge for a title this year.

[Al DeFlorio]

Did something change?  A new staff, a great recruiting class?

John Smith took over a floundering team 3 years ago after being the top assistant on Stanford's NCAA championship team.  He immediately changed the culture and brought in some talented kids.  As in most sports we don't get the 4 or 5 star recruits, but he's recruited some 2 and 3 star guys who have really blossomed. The team plays an aggressive, pressing style and can dominate possession against many teams (see the 29-2 shot differential against Siena). The Ivies are always competitive, but we should be able to challenge for a title this year.

Outshot Syracuse 13-8 despite the OT loss.  As I wrote:  fun to watch.

[scoop85]

Did something change?  A new staff, a great recruiting class?

John Smith took over a floundering team 3 years ago after being the top assistant on Stanford's NCAA championship team.  He immediately changed the culture and brought in some talented kids.  As in most sports we don't get the 4 or 5 star recruits, but he's recruited some 2 and 3 star guys who have really blossomed. The team plays an aggressive, pressing style and can dominate possession against many teams (see the 29-2 shot differential against Siena). The Ivies are always competitive, but we should be able to challenge for a title this year.

Outshot Syracuse 13-8 despite the OT loss.  As I wrote:  fun to watch.

Yes, Cornell plays a style that is quite fun to watch. I was a soccer agnostic most of my life, but with my son adopting soccer as his favorite participatory sport (he's now a senior playing left wing on a high school team currently ranked #5 in Class A in New York State) I've come to really enjoy the nuances of the game.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Good to know.  I was thinking about going down to the game at Penn.  This makes it more worthwhile.

[ugarte]

a lot of the scoring seems to be coming from underclassmen too. last year the team faded late and missed the tournament after a fast start but i'm hoping for better this year. this site tracks our RPI: http://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/2019/07/cornell.html

[Trotsky]

I was a soccer agnostic most of my life, but with my son adopting soccer as his favorite participatory sport (he's now a senior playing left wing on a high school team currently ranked #5 in Class A in New York State) I've come to really enjoy the nuances of the game.

The more I watch it the more I like it, just like hockey and cricket.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I was a soccer agnostic most of my life, but with my son adopting soccer as his favorite participatory sport (he's now a senior playing left wing on a high school team currently ranked #5 in Class A in New York State) I've come to really enjoy the nuances of the game.

The more I watch it the more I like it, just like hockey and cricket.

Wow.  Someone else who watches cricket!

We are a cosmopolitan bunch, aren't we?

[Swampy]

I was a soccer agnostic most of my life, but with my son adopting soccer as his favorite participatory sport (he's now a senior playing left wing on a high school team currently ranked #5 in Class A in New York State) I've come to really enjoy the nuances of the game.

The more I watch it the more I like it, just like hockey and cricket.

Makes sense. All three are fast-moving, team sports.

[Trotsky]

I was a soccer agnostic most of my life, but with my son adopting soccer as his favorite participatory sport (he's now a senior playing left wing on a high school team currently ranked #5 in Class A in New York State) I've come to really enjoy the nuances of the game.

The more I watch it the more I like it, just like hockey and cricket.

Wow.  Someone else who watches cricket!

We are a cosmopolitan bunch, aren't we?

Got into it because all our local Indian restaurants carry Willow.

[RichH]

I was a soccer agnostic most of my life, but with my son adopting soccer as his favorite participatory sport (he's now a senior playing left wing on a high school team currently ranked #5 in Class A in New York State) I've come to really enjoy the nuances of the game.

The more I watch it the more I like it, just like hockey and cricket.

Wow.  Someone else who watches cricket!

We are a cosmopolitan bunch, aren't we?

I don't remember the number of times I've shared a CU hockey trip hotel with JTW and he had to wake up at 4:23 am to stream some cricket somesuch for old-ass ashes or whatever test trophy even though there were like 600 runs scored and still 3 days remaining.

To be completely honest, I want to like cricket. I even tried to learn about it my family's 1974 World Book Encyclopedia. What I learned doesn't jive at all with what I see when I try to watch it.

[Trotsky]

To be completely honest, I want to like cricket. I even tried to learn about it my family's 1974 World Book Encyclopedia. What I learned doesn't jive at all with what I see when I try to watch it.

My advice is put it on in the background and let it seep in.  It's sports wallpaper. Little by little it will start to make some sense.  Then it will become cool.  Then it will become fascinating.  As with any foreign language, just keep it running and let you head background process it.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I was a soccer agnostic most of my life, but with my son adopting soccer as his favorite participatory sport (he's now a senior playing left wing on a high school team currently ranked #5 in Class A in New York State) I've come to really enjoy the nuances of the game.

The more I watch it the more I like it, just like hockey and cricket.

Wow.  Someone else who watches cricket!

We are a cosmopolitan bunch, aren't we?

Got into it because all our local Indian restaurants carry Willow.

I wish my cable did.  I didn't even know about Willow until I was visiting my sister last month during The Ashes. She has it on her cable (although I'm pretty sure it was the first time anyone ever watched it on her TV).  A couple years ago, Eleven Sports was carrying cricket, so I got to watch some, but it appears it's all moved to Willow.  And all our local Indian restaurants have Bollywood movies running, not cricket.

I discovered cricket back in 1993.  I was at a chemical plant start-up in Taiwan.  Our hotel only had three channels in English: CNN, BBC World News, and Star Sports (from Hong Kong).  You could only watch the first 2 for about 15 minutes before they started repeating, so that left the third.  There was some test series happening at the time that was on Star Sports every night when we got back from work. I put it on as background noise, but eventually started paying attention.  Fortunately, a British co-worker had explained the basics of scoring to me, so getting the rest of it came rather easy.

FWIW, I also like Rugby (Union) and Aussie Rules Footy.