Men's Soccer 2014 Season Thread

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

It looks like there will be free streams on the Atlantic 10 website for tomorrow's game and next Sunday's regular season finale at Duquesne

bressler3south · Unread post by **bressler3south** » 10 years ago

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=55240&a=1

1-0 loss……..

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 10 years ago

Crap!

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Watching the live stat tracker it seemed St. Louis really dominated play, especially in the first half. All in all it's not an unexpected or really terrible result.

URI still has the inside track on the regular season conference championship. If VCU ties or loses at home against St. Louis Friday night, URI are champions. If they win or tie on Sunday afternoon at Duquesne, they're champions. If URI loses and VCU wins I don't know who wins the tie breaker. The nice thing is URI should know exactly what they need, if anything, to be champions before their game starts.

Unread post by **SGreenwell** » 10 years ago

Our new sports editor at The Independent, William Geoghegan, had a good profile on the team in this week's issue, and it ran as an online story as well: http://www.independentri.com/independen ... 86918.html

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

That was a very good profile

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 10 years ago

What a story. After being picked to finish 12th out of 13 teams in preseason coaches poll URI wins the A10 title outright as SLU beats VCU. Congrats to one of the most incredible seasons for any URI sports team.

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 10 years ago

with VCU losing to SLU last night the men's team has won the a10 regular season title and will be the #1 seed in the A10 tournament next week

Ramulous · Unread post by **Ramulous** » 10 years ago

Congrats to our champion futbol team !

neil · Unread post by **neil** » 10 years ago

Unbelievable turn around from last year. Does Coach Elliott clinch coach of the year? Me thinks yes!

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 10 years ago

Pretty incredible season! Not over yet!

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 10 years ago

Congratulations to the A-10 Champion Rhode Island Rams. From win-less in the league to first place in the span of a year. 11-4-3 overall and 7-1 in A-10 play.

http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... around.ece

A-10 Standings
Team A-10 Overall
Rhode Island 7-1 11-4-3
Saint Louis 5-1-2 12-3-2
VCU 4-1-3 7-8-4
George Mason 4-2-2 11-3-4
Davidson 4-2-2 10-2-5
Dayton 3-3-2 7-6-5
La Salle 3-3-2 7-8-3
Fordham 3-3-2 6-8-3
Duquesne 3-4-1 8-7-3
George Washington 2-4-2 6-9-2
Saint Joseph's 2-5-1 7-7-4

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Coach Elliott is a lock for coach of the year in the A10, and you'd have to think he's earned consideration for national coach of the year.

Keeper Nils Leifhelm was named to the College Soccer News' national team of the week for his 11 save shutout on Sunday. He's the second Ram to be named to the weekly team this year, Sophomore defender Wesley Matthews received the same honor two weeks ago.

We open up the A10 tournament on Thursday at 11 against Dayton. We beat them 10/19 at home by the score of 1-0 in OT. You'll be able to watch the match for free through the A10 website, and the games take about 2 hours if you're looking to plan your lunch to view the match.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 10 years ago

So if Dayton finished 6th how do the seedlings work that would have us play then in the opening round?

adam914 · Unread post by **adam914** » 10 years ago

Looks like Dayton is the 8 seed...I assume from some kind of tiebreakers.

http://www.atlantic10.com/ViewContent.d ... M_ID=31600

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Dayton, La Salle, and Fordham all had identical 3 wins, 3 losses, and 2 ties during conference play. The only reason why Dayton is listed at 6th above is because they had a better non-conference record, which would have no bearing on seeding for the conference tournament. I don't know what the tiebreakers were.

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 10 years ago

URI ranked 65th in Sunday's updated RPI.

May need to win the A-10 just to be safe.

A win vs. Dayton should provide some movement. A win vs. Davidson (38) or George Mason (34) would push them close to 48. A win vs. SLU in the finals probably would give them a 1st round NCAA home game.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 10 years ago

I don't know how they compute the RPI for soccer but it is obviously a dumb system if URI is ranked behind teams they are clearly better than based on a whole season of games.

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 10 years ago

TruePoint wrote:I don't know how they compute the RPI for soccer but it is obviously a dumb system if URI is ranked behind teams they are clearly better than based on a whole season of games.

I think strength of schedule is a key factor. URI has a gaudy record but its opponents are not considered strong.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 10 years ago

I don't see how RPI can work in soccer when teams only play 18 games. Seems impossible there would be enough "connectivity" to make the model work.

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 10 years ago

As RF said, URI was hurt by their OOC SOS.

13 - at Providence (loss)
43 - neutral BC (loss)
67 - vs. Seton Hall (tie)
74 - vs Lehigh (loss)
111 - at Bryant (tie)
171 - vs. Albany (tie)
174 - vs. NJIT (win)
189 - vs. Stony Brook (win)
199 - vs. Yale (win)
205 - vs. Sacred Heart (win)

There are only 205 D1 soccer programs.

Compare that to a team like PC who has a similar record but an extremely strong RPI (13).

15 - vs. Clemson (loss)
52 - UCONN (DNP)
65 - vs. URI (win)
77 - at Brown (win)
78 - at Quinnipiac (loss)
86 - vs. Northeastern (win)
111 - at Bryant (win)
112 - vs. Holy Cross (win)

The other difference is that the A-10 due to size of conference does not offer the advantage of playing every team once. URI missed out on games against Davidson and VCU as top 100 opponents. They also didn't get as many favorable road matchups due to schedule set-up and conversely PC, who had most of their tougher conference match ups on the road.

A-10 (URI result)
14 - at St. Louis (loss)
34 - vs. George Mason (win)
38 - Davidson (DNP)
71 - vs. Dayton (win)
90 - at. Duquesne (win)
100 - VCU (DNP)
136 - at Fordham (win)
139 - vs. George Washington (win)
152 - at. St. Josephs (win)
158 - Lasalle (DNP)
177 - vs. UMASS (win)
198 - St. Bonaventure (DNP)

BE (PC Result)
5 - at Georgetown (win)
9 - at Creighton (loss)
18 - vs. Xavier (tie)
48 - at Marquette (tie)
58 - at Butler (loss)
67 - at Seton Hall (win)
84 - vs. Villanova (win)
85 - vs. St. John's (win)
124 - vs. DePaul (win)

This issue in college soccer like TP had stated is sort of, how valuable can RPI be with 18 games, and he sorta has a point.

These are all teams rated above URI in the most recent RPI:

43 - BC (5-8-3)
49 - Duke (9-9-1)
53 - Michigan (6-9-3)
54 - CSUN (7-9-3)
58 - Butler (6-7-5)

The issue with the soccer committee is that there is not as much access like basketball, and there aren't enough games to get a full picture, which unfortunately leads to them leaning heavily on metrics like the RPI.

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 10 years ago

another win against George Mason would be nice and a A10 final may be enough

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

This should be the link to follow to watch the match starting at 11

http://www.atlantic10.com/mediaPortal/p ... m_id=31600

SmartyBarrett · Unread post by **SmartyBarrett** » 10 years ago

Live score / stats link here too: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcas ... =72610&a=1

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Both mine and SmartyBarrett's links are up and running. Let's go Rhody!

URI_IEP · Unread post by **URI_IEP** » 10 years ago

At the Half

URI 1 - Dayton 0

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

For anyone watching there seems to have been a clock issue on the stream. There's about one minute more remaining than what's showing on the video, and that doesn't take into account stoppage time.

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Actually it looks like they're adding the stoppage time to the board at the venue as they're going along and that's why it doesn't match what's on the screen. Looking about just over 4 minutes to go.

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Nice win Rhody!

URI_IEP · Unread post by **URI_IEP** » 10 years ago

URI Wins! 1-0

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

So with their 1-0 win, URI will face the winner of the George Mason-Davidson game that takes place at 2. URI will face the winner tomorrow at 5. We have yet to face Davidson this season and we beat George Mason 3-1 at home on October 17th.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 10 years ago

Awesome

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

In a bit of housekeeping, the A10 announced their awards. Nils Leifhelm was named Rookie of the Year, was named to the All Conference First Team and going into today he was 8th in the nation in save percentage. Gareth Elliott was named Coach of the Year. Senior Matt Sykes was also named to the All Conference First Team. Grad student defender Falko Friedrichs was named to the All Conference Second Team. Dante Lamb also earned a spot on the All Rookie team. He let the A10 in goals by a freshman and he was the only freshman in the top 10 in scoring.

rhodyrudder · Unread post by **rhodyrudder** » 10 years ago

Busy day tomorrow:
USA (with Rhody's own G.Cameron) v Colombia in London at 2:45
A-10 semis at 5
Hoops opener at 7

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 10 years ago

RhowdyRam02 wrote:Actually it looks like they're adding the stoppage time to the board at the venue as they're going along and that's why it doesn't match what's on the screen. Looking about just over 4 minutes to go.

In college the time winds down and there is no stoppage time, the clock usually is stopped for injuries and long delays, the clock on the broadcast may have been off because of that

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Yeah, I haven't been to a college game since 2001 so I forgot how it worked. I did notice that they would update the clock on the screen a couple times to make it closer to the official time at the field.

Puck Frovidence · Unread post by **Puck Frovidence** » 10 years ago

Think a Mason win over Davidson here helps us in RPI... both for tomorrow's game if we win and bc we toasted GM earlier this season.

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Good call on it probably being better for us if Mason wins. Also, it looks like there's under 13 minutes to go in regulation and it's still tied. If they play extra time that would be nice as well.

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Davidson and George Mason are currently in extra time

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

George Mason wins on penalty kicks

Puck Frovidence · Unread post by **Puck Frovidence** » 10 years ago

Nice! This combined with the win should give us a little bump. Does anyone know if there's a site for college soccer that will do up-to-the-minute RPI rankings? I know we're pretty far off from the 1-25th place needed for a guaranteed at-large bid, but if we can climb to the top 40 or so maybe enough high ranked teams will win their conference tourneys and we can sneak in even without the championship...?

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 10 years ago

Geoff Cameron must've inspired something fierce in those guys this offseason. Can't believe this was our first A-10 tourney win since 2006! Keep rollin!

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 10 years ago

Why do colleges play their playoff matches on back-to-back days, but MLS takes a week (or more!) off between playoffs games? Is there any argument that that much recovery time is necessary?

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 10 years ago

$$$ (weekend games draw more people and better ratings)

Puck Frovidence · Unread post by **Puck Frovidence** » 10 years ago

Would guess that has more to do with how much it costs to run the arena for a game, and the projected attendance for day/time of the match. MLS doesn't have many weekday matches in the regular season (mostly summer, right?), which makes me think they're probably trying to maximize attendance/profits...

Puck Frovidence · Unread post by **Puck Frovidence** » 10 years ago

Lol great minds... I've gotta get faster on my "submit" game.

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 10 years ago

Plus having a longer break between games for colleges would mean a good chunk of money in higher lodging and food expenses.

One reason the MLS playoffs are in the middle of a break longer than a week is this is a dark period for leagues around the world so that players can play for their national teams in friendlies.

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 10 years ago

Puck Frovidence wrote:Nice! This combined with the win should give us a little bump. Does anyone know if there's a site for college soccer that will do up-to-the-minute RPI rankings?

Don't believe it exists, largely to do with lack of interest.

RPI is probably between 55-60 unofficially speaking.

Beating GM would probably put them between 40-45.

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 10 years ago

Fordham upset VCU

SemiFinals today:
URI vs George Mason at 5pm
St Louis vs Fordham at 730pm

Championship Game on Sunday

MARhody · Unread post by **MARhody** » 10 years ago

This weekend is an "international window". If the MLS had playoff games this weekend, players like Jermaine Jones and Lee Nguyen would have missed the game since they were called to play for the national team.