Cornell soccer 2024

2 minutes into the season and we’re looking great, I know we’re just playing Marist but this is encouraging already.

chimpfood
2 minutes into the season and we’re looking great, I know we’re just playing Marist but this is encouraging already.

Johnson scores off of a corner, deflecting a shot from the top of the box. Got the first corner after putting one of the crossbar early. A second goal about 15 minutes into the period on a perfect through ball to Harris who finished clean to the goalie's right. A third on a beautiful individual effort from Ka as he broke a defender's ankles in the box and put the ball right where Harris did inside the post. 3-0 at the half. I think Freidberg had to make one save (or more accurately interfered with a good cross.)

Yikes, Andrew Johnson gets a red. Really poor for one of our best players to do that in a game that we already have won and with a tough game against Georgetown up next that he now won’t be able to play in.

Damn. 5 minutes into the second half, after another good scoring opportunity for the team, Johnson gets a straight red card. Down a man with 40 to go and it's one of our best D men.

~32 minutes left and Marist is unsurprisingly attacking and putting a ton of pressure on. A shot in the box deflected away by a defender and another that deflected straight down from the crossbar that apparently didn't cross the line despite pleading from the Red Foxes.

Good win overall. Looking at the team, I’m very confident in our front and back lines but the midfield doesn’t seem to have the depth and talent to match. I’m hopeful for a good season and look forward to seeing how they look against a strong opponent in Georgetown next week.

Cornell ties it up 1-1 with Georgetown in the 47th minute. I would love to stream this but unfortunately I am just having to track this one on live stats.

Once again, Georgetown takes the lead and Cornell levels the score, I’m really missing out on this one.

Tie, we’ll take that all day, great start to the season.

Highlights here: [youtu.be]

Cornell up 3-2 on Penn state in the second half, can’t watch again because it’s not on espn plus. 2 Alex Harris goals, this would be a big win.

3-2 W, nice result. The rest of the Ivy aside from Penn is looking quite weak though so we will more than likely have to win the Ivy to make the NCAA tourney.

Highlights from Penn State game.

dbilmes
Highlights from Penn State game.

11-minute highlight reel is a nice length.

Cornell received 5 votes in the coaches poll, ranking them 28th. And that poll was not considering their win yesterday.

Cornell is trailing 2-1 at Albany and Harris just put one off the crossbar from the spot with a little over 20 minutes to go. Ugh.

ugarte
Cornell is trailing 2-1 at Albany and Harris just put one off the crossbar from the spot with a little over 20 minutes to go. Ugh.

And just as I hit send, Harris ties it up!

The crossbar stole the win from us a couple times. Albany isn’t a terrible team so can’t get too worked up over a game like that. At least we stay undefeated and come home now.

2-2 final. Aiden Martin hit the crossbar/post off a gorgeous play with about 5 minutes left, and Cornell controlled most of the last 30 minutes. But not our best performance for sure. Albany played tenaciously and had some skill. I think this was our first game this season on artificial turf, and we clearly struggled adjusting to the speed of the ball on the carpet.

ugarte

ugarte
Cornell is trailing 2-1 at Albany and Harris just put one off the crossbar from the spot with a little over 20 minutes to go. Ugh.

And just as I hit send, Harris ties it up!

We put another shot off the crossbar with five minutes left and the game ends in a 2-2 tie. (I thought I sent this before lol)

Cornell remained unbeaten with a 3-0 win Tuesday night over Bucknell. We outshot Bucknell, 22-1, including a 10-0 edge in SOG. No goals for Harris, although he did assist on our final goal. Two goals for Alioune Ka. I didn't watch the game, but based upon comments from the Cornell coach, it sounds like stellar play from the Bucknell goalie kept it a 1-0 margin until late in the second half.

Yeah Bucknell’s keeper was really good. Bucknell never even had a chance so it was an easy win. I do think our finishing needs work though, Harris had a fantastic chance that he sent straight at the goalies feet and we had 10 high quality shots on goal to just 3 goals. The last goal also came with just 5 seconds to go and it was 1-0 the majority of the game so I need to see them build safer leads earlier against bad teams.

chimpfood
Yeah Bucknell’s keeper was really good. Bucknell never even had a chance so it was an easy win. I do think our finishing needs work though, Harris had a fantastic chance that he sent straight at the goalies feet and we had 10 high quality shots on goal to just 3 goals. The last goal also came with just 5 seconds to go and it was 1-0 the majority of the game so I need to see them build safer leads earlier against bad teams.

True, but in the 1st half Harris had what looked like a sure goal that the Bucknell goalie got a hand on and deflected it off the post. What was encouraging last night is that Bucknell isn’t a terrible team and yet they never got close to a real dangerous scoring chance.

1-0 win over UMBC. Definitely could’ve had 3 or so but I’ll take it. It hasn’t beed obvious yet because our defense has been good and we’ve been playing weaker teams but friedberg is the real deal.

chimpfood
1-0 win over UMBC. Definitely could’ve had 3 or so but I’ll take it. It hasn’t beed obvious yet because our defense has been good and we’ve been playing weaker teams but friedberg is the real deal.

yeah just one misplay vs albany but he's been a wall otherwise

Scoreless at the half in Syracuse.

1-0 Cornell. Under 4 minutes left

George64
1-0 Cornell. Under 4 minutes left

1-0 final

Big win there. Syracuse isn’t particularly good this year but they’re well coached team and it’s never going to be easy to go up there and get a win.

George64

George64
1-0 Cornell. Under 4 minutes left

1-0 final

sweet! We're now up to 14 in RPI while Penn, after losing to (9) @VCU and tying (193) @Villanova, has fallen to 21. Penn State and Syracuse aren't great this year, but as it stands they're both top-quadrant wins and we don't get a lot of those opportunities. Add in the tie against Georgetown - with all three games on the road - and you can see why our RPI has gone up so high. Aside from Penn we don't have anyone else in the top 100 but the tie at (150) Albany means I'm not counting my chickens yet.

George64

George64
1-0 Cornell. Under 4 minutes left

1-0 final

Very brief highlihts: [youtu.be]

Loss to Yale that with how bad the Ivy is pretty much puts us out of contention for an at large bid. Gotta get going in league play and win the tournament now.

chimpfood
Loss to Yale that with how bad the Ivy is pretty much puts us out of contention for an at large bid. Gotta get going in league play and win the tournament now.

I was one of the few Cornell fans at the game in person. We possessed the ball most of the first half, but came up empty on the scoreboard. Yale put more pressure on in the second half, leading to a sustained period of possessing the ball in our end, eventually leading to a hand ball on one of our defenders in the goal area, and the resulting penalty kick which was the game's only goal. Cornell played with desperation the last 15 minutes and had some dangerous chances but couldn't convert. Our star forward Harris had a few shots he blasted, but missed the net with, that I'm sure he'd like back.
The good news is that Yale had advertised free Pepe's pizza for Yale students. When I got to the game, they were letting anyone who wanted some take a small personal pizza for free. Not as good as Modern, but you can't beat the price!

I beg to differ. Better than Modern. Maybe the fact that it had travelled.

arugula
I beg to differ. Better than Modern. Maybe the fact that it had travelled.

I've lived in CT for over 40 years, and you will never convince me that any apizza is better than Modern.

arugula
I beg to differ. Better than Modern. Maybe the fact that it had travelled.

I agree. I've been eating New Haven abeets since 1950.

Fun 5-2 win over bing. They scared me being down 2-1 late but scored 4 before the buzzer so the final score actually reflected how the game felt.

For me, sally’s but to each his own. Modern is too thick. I like thin thinner thinnest.

arugula
For me, sally’s but to each his own. Modern is too thick. I like thin thinner thinnest.

Key to this discussion is the phrase: "to each his own."

Cornell bounces back from losing Ivy opener to Yale by beating Dartmouth 3-0, with Harris recording a hat trick in the first half. That's eight goals for Cornell now in its last two games.

Another Ivy W, 1-0 over Princeton on the road. All our trouble has been on the road so even a close win is a relief.

Next Sunday's (20th) home game with Ivy leader Penn on espnu at noon.

We’re 11th in RPI, With 25 at-large selections, if we finish reasonably well we should be in solid position for an at-large bid if we don’t win the ILT.

scoop85
We’re 11th in RPI, With 25 at-large selections, if we finish reasonably well we should be in solid position for an at-large bid if we don’t win the ILT.

Its still really tough with a weak Ivy League but I’m starting to become hopeful, just keep going one game at a time.

chimpfood

scoop85
We’re 11th in RPI, With 25 at-large selections, if we finish reasonably well we should be in solid position for an at-large bid if we don’t win the ILT.

Its still really tough with a weak Ivy League but I’m starting to become hopeful, just keep going one game at a time.

Ivy’s overall RPI is 9th out of 22 conferences, so perhaps “weak” is an overstatement.

scoop85

chimpfood

scoop85
We’re 11th in RPI, With 25 at-large selections, if we finish reasonably well we should be in solid position for an at-large bid if we don’t win the ILT.

Its still really tough with a weak Ivy League but I’m starting to become hopeful, just keep going one game at a time.

Ivy’s overall RPI is 9th out of 22 conferences, so perhaps “weak” is an overstatement.

The conference RPI is still below 0.500. Soccer is very top heavy and it’s hard to get an at large bid if your conference isn’t very close to the top. Last time Cornell made the tourney in 2022 the Ivy League had the fourth best RPI.

chimpfood

scoop85

chimpfood

scoop85
We’re 11th in RPI, With 25 at-large selections, if we finish reasonably well we should be in solid position for an at-large bid if we don’t win the ILT.

Its still really tough with a weak Ivy League but I’m starting to become hopeful, just keep going one game at a time.

Ivy’s overall RPI is 9th out of 22 conferences, so perhaps “weak” is an overstatement.

The conference RPI is still below 0.500. Soccer is very top heavy and it’s hard to get an at large bid if your conference isn’t very close to the top. Last time Cornell made the tourney in 2022 the Ivy League had the fourth best RPI.

Sure, but with a team RPI of 11, even if we were to lose to Penn, if we beat the rest of the Ivies on the schedule our RPI should hold up just fine.

scoop85

chimpfood

scoop85

chimpfood

scoop85
We’re 11th in RPI, With 25 at-large selections, if we finish reasonably well we should be in solid position for an at-large bid if we don’t win the ILT.

Its still really tough with a weak Ivy League but I’m starting to become hopeful, just keep going one game at a time.

Ivy’s overall RPI is 9th out of 22 conferences, so perhaps “weak” is an overstatement.

The conference RPI is still below 0.500. Soccer is very top heavy and it’s hard to get an at large bid if your conference isn’t very close to the top. Last time Cornell made the tourney in 2022 the Ivy League had the fourth best RPI.

Sure, but with a team RPI of 11, even if we were to lose to Penn, if we beat the rest of the Ivies on the schedule our RPI should hold up just fine.

Ivy has had multiple bids in recent years iirc.

Looks like a 3-4-3 today. Interesting choice, I think they usually play a 4-4-2.

chimpfood
Looks like a 3-4-3 today. Interesting choice, I think they usually play a 4-4-2.

Colgate in a 1-5-4.

Pretty calm 4-1 win. I hadn’t really realized but we’ve now been without kisa kiingi since the Syracuse game and we’ve still been hot. If we can get him back soon we’re going to be really dangerous.

We totally controlled play against Colgate but we let them tie the game at 1-1 early in the second half on some poor defensive play before getting back on track. Colgate came out really packing the defensive zone, but we eventually wore them down.
The Colgate announcers were terrible. In the first half, whenever Cornell had the ball there was virtually no play-by-play with individual players being named. Half the time I couldn't tell which of our players had the ball. They also were surprised to see Colgate's backup goaltender get the start, but never were able to provide any insight into why their regular goalie wasn't playing.
They did discuss RPI at one point, nothing that Colgate's was 128 and ours was 11. Only Bucknell has a higher RPI in their league.

chimpfood
Pretty calm 4-1 win. I hadn’t really realized but we’ve now been without kisa kiingi since the Syracuse game and we’ve still been hot. If we can get him back soon we’re going to be really dangerous.

Shots were 25-2

Athletics has to me using some sort of AI to write these recaps, right? [cornellbigred.com]

The language is similar across recaps for a lot of sports this fall, and there seems to be some sort of rule in the logic that they can’t use “said” when quoting someone.

The official box score for the game has Cornell scoring it's second and third goals at the exact same time. That's a good trick!

In other games today everybody that we have played and everybody in the Ivy League lost so we ended up moving down in the rpi despite a dominant road win. Even Penn lost to Monmouth, hopefully the start of a losing streak as we have a huge game against them on Sunday.

Weder
Athletics has to me using some sort of AI to write these recaps, right? [cornellbigred.com]

The language is similar across recaps for a lot of sports this fall, and there seems to be some sort of rule in the logic that they can’t use “said” when quoting someone.

Seems like it. Whole article has no flow to it and feels very mechanical in a way.

dbilmes
The official box score for the game has Cornell scoring it's second and third goals at the exact same time. That's a good trick!

they fixed that and a possible explanation is there was a mistake in data entry: Colgate got a yellow after the second Cornell goal - and that was before the Raiders got really chippy at the end.

Massive game tomorrow. NCAA at large bid and hosting the Ivy League tournament on the line. I talk be a beautiful day and the game will be on national tv on ESPNU.

Concede right before half on penn’s only real chance of the game, sucks.

chimpfood
Concede right before half on penn’s only real chance of the game, sucks.

Great set piece by Penn, but came as a result of a suspect foul call against us. And contrary to the announcers, I thought the Penn penalty leading to our PK goal was deserved.

Penn header ties it 2-2 with 15 min left.

F**k!

George64
F**k!

Inexplicable that we lose yet another key Ivy League game in crushing fashion. Just hard to fathom

That loss really hurts. I think all 3 of penn’s goals came off of crosses into the box which really reflects how our team is just too small. Friedberg also really hasn’t been impressive to me since his freshman year. RPI hasn’t updated yet but our NCAA tournament hopes are probably down to either winning out and losing too Penn in the Ivy final or just winning the Ivy tournament.

chimpfood
That loss really hurts. I think all 3 of penn’s goals came off of crosses into the box which really reflects how our team is just too small. Friedberg also really hasn’t been impressive to me since his freshman year. RPI hasn’t updated yet but our NCAA tournament hopes are probably down to either winning out and losing too Penn in the Ivy final or just winning the Ivy tournament.

Good assessment of our weakness. Most goals against us have come off set pieces, and we do lack size on the back end which repeatedly costs us.

College soccer RPI is a funny thing. While hockey uses a 25-25-50 calculation (record, opponents record, opponents opponents record), soccer is 25-50-25. For most of the year we have been low in rpi because we had a super low strength of schedule based on opponents record. But since Penn has a really strong record, we didn’t fall very far down even after the loss today. This makes me hopeful that a strong regular season finish and meeting Penn in the Ivy playoffs should be enough to get us in to the NCAA. I would be very curious to see what the RPI would look like if it were 25-25-50 and see if that seems like it rewards better teams more than the current system.

chimpfood
College soccer RPI is a funny thing. While hockey uses a 25-25-50 ...

Sounds like an all-season motor oil. The 50 number is for global warming seasons.

Road game at Brown at 7E. Shouldn't be that big a game and yet...

ugarte
Road game at Brown at 7E. Shouldn't be that big a game and yet...

Unbeaten OOC, .500 Ivy

ugarte
Road game at Brown at 7E. Shouldn't be that big a game and yet...

Ka with a second half goal for a 1-0 win. Brown had a very good chance off a throw-in with around 15 minutes left and then a very good Cornell save in the corner with 3 minutes left preserved the win. RPI instant reaction: from 23 to 22.

That win is big for the Ivy standings, not the rpi. Long as we win out the regular season it seems like we should be good for NCAAs.

chimpfood
That win is big for the Ivy standings, not the rpi. Long as we win out the regular season it seems like we should be good for NCAAs.

of course, just curious about the effect. i didn't expect it to move much if at all.

ugarte

chimpfood
That win is big for the Ivy standings, not the rpi. Long as we win out the regular season it seems like we should be good for NCAAs.

of course, just curious about the effect. i didn't expect it to move much if at all.

Where are you checking the RPI? Where I’m looking it says they’re at 17. Or did it just change based on other results?

chimpfood

ugarte

chimpfood
That win is big for the Ivy standings, not the rpi. Long as we win out the regular season it seems like we should be good for NCAAs.

of course, just curious about the effect. i didn't expect it to move much if at all.

Where are you checking the RPI? Where I’m looking it says they’re at 17. Or did it just change based on other results?

Where are you both looking?

Swampy

chimpfood

ugarte

chimpfood
That win is big for the Ivy standings, not the rpi. Long as we win out the regular season it seems like we should be good for NCAAs.

of course, just curious about the effect. i didn't expect it to move much if at all.

Where are you checking the RPI? Where I’m looking it says they’re at 17. Or did it just change based on other results?

Where are you both looking?

http://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI%20Rank?m=1

They fell to 22 since I wrote that but this website is really good.

We have our final two games at home, and winning one of those games should get us into the Ivy Tournament, where hopefully we can turn the tables on Penn if we play them. We play Harvard next week, and they are battling Dartmouth and us for the final two spots in the Ivy tourney. We finish against Columbia, which is 1-3-1 in the Ivies and 1-10 overall. Meanwhile, Dartmouth and Harvard play each other the final weekend, with the loser most likely missing out on the Ivy Tournament.
The 1-0 loss at Yale is a real outlier on our schedule. That is Yale's only Ivy win. We outplayed them for most of the game, but there was a stretch in the second half where we couldn't get the ball out of our own end, leading to a series of corner kicks for Yale, one of which resulted in a hand ball call on us. The ensuing penalty kick was the only goal of the game.

Some result(s) elsewhere in the country shifted the RPI enough to bump Penn to 6 and Cornell to 19.

ugarte
Some result(s) elsewhere in the country shifted the RPI enough to bump Penn to 6 and Cornell to 19.

Penn down to 9 and Cornell up to 15 lol

Up to 10th in the pairwise thanks to some teams ahead of us dropping games and Syracuse beating Pitt. Win this afternoon and we’re in a really good spot.

1-0 Cornell on a Harris pen, drawn by Danny Lokko

Not watching yet but Cornell scores first against Harvard on a PK.

2-0 going into second half, Kiisa kingi finally back.

Tidy 3-0 win that clinches a spot in the ILT

Final regular season game is against 1-10-1 Columbia. Their only win of the season? Yale. lol

4-1 W vs Columbia, that all but guarantees a home NCAA playoff game for us but we probably at least need to make the final of the Ivy tourney for a bye. Onto the playoffs!

Asking this very genuinely because I have not followed Men's D1 soccer closely, but what happened that we went from:

This on Sept. 28th:

chimpfood
Loss to Yale that with how bad the Ivy is pretty much puts us out of contention for an at large bid. Gotta get going in league play and win the tournament now.

To this on Oct. 20th:

chimpfood
That loss really hurts. I think all 3 of penn’s goals came off of crosses into the box which really reflects how our team is just too small. Friedberg also really hasn’t been impressive to me since his freshman year. RPI hasn’t updated yet but our NCAA tournament hopes are probably down to either winning out and losing too Penn in the Ivy final or just winning the Ivy tournament.

To this today:

chimpfood
4-1 W vs Columbia, that all but guarantees a home NCAA playoff game for us but we probably at least need to make the final of the Ivy tourney for a bye. Onto the playoffs!

Again, this is meant to be a genuine question, as the extent to which I'm following the team this year is through this thread, and a few times I feel I've had whiplash checking in with what the outlook looks like for the rest of the season. Is it a combination of continuing to put up W's and getting favorable results elsewhere? Down year in some of the other conferences? Something else?

semsox

Again, this is meant to be a genuine question, as the extent to which I'm following the team this year is through this thread, and a few times I feel I've had whiplash checking in with what the outlook looks like for the rest of the season. Is it a combination of continuing to put up W's and getting favorable results elsewhere? Down year in some of the other conferences? Something else?

Ivy overall was stronger than i think chimpfood expected, we played a solid OOC schedule and we kept winning (and so did Penn).

semsox
Asking this very genuinely because I have not followed Men's D1 soccer closely, but what happened that we went from:

This on Sept. 28th:

chimpfood
Loss to Yale that with how bad the Ivy is pretty much puts us out of contention for an at large bid. Gotta get going in league play and win the tournament now.

To this on Oct. 20th:

chimpfood
That loss really hurts. I think all 3 of penn’s goals came off of crosses into the box which really reflects how our team is just too small. Friedberg also really hasn’t been impressive to me since his freshman year. RPI hasn’t updated yet but our NCAA tournament hopes are probably down to either winning out and losing too Penn in the Ivy final or just winning the Ivy tournament.

To this today:

chimpfood
4-1 W vs Columbia, that all but guarantees a home NCAA playoff game for us but we probably at least need to make the final of the Ivy tourney for a bye. Onto the playoffs!

Again, this is meant to be a genuine question, as the extent to which I'm following the team this year is through this thread, and a few times I feel I've had whiplash checking in with what the outlook looks like for the rest of the season. Is it a combination of continuing to put up W's and getting favorable results elsewhere? Down year in some of the other conferences? Something else?

Well for what it’s worth after that Yale game we only lost one (to highly ranked Penn) and got favorable results elsewhere. And the second one, we did win out it’s just we’re probably fine even if we lose in the Ivy semis and not the final now, again because of good results elsewhere. On top of all this this was my first year really following the soccer rpi and it’s heavy weight on strength of schedule still makes it really confusing to me. Because of the weak teams that we are playing results from our past opponents have literally been mattering more than our own wins which makes things hard to predict.

Also a side note, immediately after our win we dropped significantly the rpi due to strength of schedule. I know that in hockey they remove wins that lower your rpi from the equation but I guess not in soccer?

Cornell dominated the Ivy Awards.
Alex Harris becomes the first Cornell player to be named Offensive Player of the Year (he was actually co-Offensive Player of the Year, sharing that honor with Penn's Stas Korzenkiowski).
Both Harris and Connor Miller were unanimous first-team All-Ivy selections. Ryan Friedberg, Andrew Johnson and Alioune Ka were also on the first team, and Aidan Martin was named the Rookie of the Year -- the third straight year a Cornell player has earned that honor.

Big game against Princeton tomorrow, we beat them away during the regular season but it was a really close game. Getting the first goal is huge during the playoffs and we’ve been good about getting it this season (it’s pretty easy when half of your games are shutouts). I think we’d have a chance of getting a bye to the second round of the NCAA even if we lose to Penn in the final so winning tomorrow would be great. But I want that Ivy title, we’re in a 12 year drought and have the fewest all time titles despite being a national contender recently.

Great run by Cornell to take a 1-0 lead 15 minutes in pending VAR... confirmed!

2-0 now after a very good cross. Cornell looking dominant

Looking great, 2-0

ugarte
Great run by Cornell to take a 1-0 lead 15 minutes in pending VAR... confirmed!

first goal from Harris. Couple of minutes later and Lokko with a great flying header off a perfect cross to go up 2-0.

Princeton got one back off a corner and they're attacking hard again.

I'm digging these new Princeton and Cornell logos on Penn's soccer LiveStats page.

djk26
I'm digging these new Princeton and Cornell logos on Penn's soccer LiveStats page.

Haha just realized this was referring to

Princeton ties it 7 min to go.

That sucks, gotta lock in