Men's soccer- unranked, disrespected??

[redpony]

The preseason rankings are out and our SMU men’s soccer team is not ranked in the top 25 of the NSCAA. They are ranked 27th in the College Soccer News poll. Meanwhile, conference rival Tulsa is ranked 14th and 12th respectively. Tulsa has two players on the Hermann Trophy watch while we have 0.

IIRC we were in the top 5 in last years preseason polls. One can not help but believe this is a major reflection on the ‘substandard and unqualified’ coaching hire orchestrated by the mob boss and the resulting pathetic performance of the men’s team. We have fallen so far that we are not even favored to win our conference let alone remain a national power. So much for the ‘top 25’ in everything we do BS.

The Tulsa tournament should be a good indicator of how this season may play out.
Hopefully this year will be a top 4 national finish or a renewed search for a capable coach.

GO PONIES!!!

[indianmustang]

lets just wait till season starts

[giacfsp]

The preseason rankings are out and our SMU men’s soccer team is not ranked in the top 25 of the NSCAA. They are ranked 27th in the College Soccer News poll. Meanwhile, conference rival Tulsa is ranked 14th and 12th respectively. Tulsa has two players on the Hermann Trophy watch while we have 0.

Tulsa was a very good team last year, and a team that came to Dallas and whipped us on our own field. Do you really expect that we would be ranked above them? We got bounced early in the conference tournament, and they're the preseason favorite to win it, so until we prove otherwise, they deserve to be ranked ahead of us and have more players earning individual accolades.

IIRC we were in the top 5 in last years preseason polls. One can not help but believe this is a major reflection on the ‘substandard and unqualified’ coaching hire orchestrated by the mob boss and the resulting pathetic performance of the men’s team. We have fallen so far that we are not even favored to win our conference let alone remain a national power. So much for the ‘top 25’ in everything we do BS.

So ... the top-5 ranking in the preseason polls was a reflection of what the voters perceived as a substandard coaching hire? Yeah, that's got to be it.

There's no question the transition was more difficult than many expected, and the high preseason ranking more accurately reflected an underestimation of how much the unexpected loss of Bruno Guarda would affect the team as a whole. He not only was the team's most talented player, but he also was the glue that held players around him together. When he bolted for MLS late in the summer, the team had to re-learn how to do things, especially on the offensive end. As for the lateseason swoon, part of that was some poor performances, but part of it also was due in part to the loss of players like Ryan Mirsky, Jeff Harwell and of course Paulo da Silva to injury, and there's not a team or coach in the country who could ride those out without a ripple effect in performance and postseason positioning.

The Tulsa tournament should be a good indicator of how this season may play out.
Hopefully this year will be a top 4 national finish or a renewed search for a capable coach.

GO PONIES!!!

You're fooling yourself if you see a top-4 finish, but you're probably also fooling yourself if you envision a coaching change. The administration's priority clearly is getting football and men's basketball back on track, and barring a winless season or some similar disaster that won't take place, it would be seriously surprising if any change is made in soccer. Until then, keep grinding that axe because you or some friend of yours didn't get McClements' job.

[jkflamebo]

Bring Schellas back

[EastStang]

That schtick is getting old fast. Let's see them play a few regular season games before you start ripping them a new one.

[mustangbill67]

No kidding! This is more than coaching. Give the guys a chance to show what they can do.

[MustangLaxer]

preseason polls are worthless

[redpony]

[/quote]giacfsp"]Tulsa was a very good team last year, and a team that came to Dallas and whipped us on our own field. We got bounced early in the conference tournament. So ... the top-5 ranking in the preseason polls was a reflection of what the voters perceived as a substandard coaching hire?


Yes, Tulsa was a good team. We should have been. We got bounced out of the tournament very early because we were not prepared to play- mentally, physically or strategically.
The top-5 ranking was based on our past performance. It was also based on the fact that SH said that his recruiting class was the best and most talented he had had. Some coaches can take mediocre talent and build great winners while other coaches can take great talent and generate below average results. No question what happened with our team.

There's no question the transition was more difficult than many expected, As for the lateseason swoon, part of that was some poor performances, but part of it also was due in part to the loss of players like Ryan Mirsky, Jeff Harwell and of course Paulo da Silva to injury, and there's not a team or coach in the country who could ride those out without a ripple effect in performance and postseason positioning..

It always amazes me how the ‘rainbowers’ can keep finding excuses for our losing. Most all teams experience losing players (to grades or because of other reasons), have injuries and get bad referees. The good teams manage to overcome their obstacles and win in spite of their challenges.
A good example-Pete Carroll at USC has lost several key players. I imagine that he will still be very successful this year. If he finishes below the top 25 (where we were last year) I am sure he will get a lot of heat from the alumni.

The administration's priority clearly is getting football and men's basketball back on track, and barring a winless season or some similar disaster that won't take place, it would be seriously surprising if any change is made in soccer. Until then, keep grinding that axe because you or some friend of yours didn't get McClements' job.

I agree that the mob boss has no interest in any sports other than football and basketball. His promise of ‘top 25’ in everything was just [deleted] and lies to get a new job.

I have stated many, many times on this forum that I am not a soccer coach, have never been a soccer coach and have no desire to be one. I also am not acquainted with any college or professional lever soccer coaches. So, the only axe I have to grind is to cut out the cancer that has trashed a once proud and successful soccer program at SMU!

GO PONIES!!!

[redpony]

Hey, mustangbill, jkflamebo and mustanglaxer welcome back to the forum. This place has really been quiet without your comments and input. Looking forward to a lot of banter regarding the soccer team this year. At least we can talk about things on an intelligent level. Some of the other posters must be from SFA or aTm based on their comments.

GO PONIES!!!

[redpony]

That schtick is getting old fast. Let's see them play a few regular season games before you start ripping them a new one.

So does seeing your team get trashed. Ok- no more negative comments before the Tulsa tournament. We will see how they perform there.

GO PONIES!!!

[MustangLaxer]

Hey, mustangbill, jkflamebo and mustanglaxer welcome back to the forum. This place has really been quiet without your comments and input. Looking forward to a lot of banter regarding the soccer team this year. At least we can talk about things on an intelligent level. Some of the other posters must be from SFA or aTm based on their comments.

GO PONIES!!!

cheers redpony. new season. hopefully everyone came back to campus stronger and faster. Here's hoping the injury bug is avoided this season. Lets go 'stangs

[George S. Patton]

What does anyone think of their schedule? I'm not aware of some of the history with these programs like Akron but from afar this does not look like the arduous schedule we have played in past years.

If that's right, I would suppose that's because of the new roster and coach still establishing his style?

Thanks in advance.

[EastStang]

Akron's #3 preseason. Bradley and Brown have historically had decent programs and have been ranked at times over the years. (Bradley used to play in the MVC with us). Tulsa is a preseason #14. Not as top heavy as in years past, but still if we can win some games against these teams, we should be in good shape come December. But we need to win CUSA in my view and Tulsa, South Carolina and Kentucky are not pushovers. We need to re-establish ourselves and that is done only by winning.

[redpony]

What does anyone think of their schedule? I'm not aware of some of the history with these programs like Akron but from afar this does not look like the arduous schedule we have played in past years.

GSP- I tend to agree with you. Outside of our conference foes we only play Akron-who is currently nationally ranked.
IIRC in the past few years we used to play Stanford, Dayton, George Mason, St.Louis U., Indiana, and U.C. Santa Barbara all of whom made it to the 'big dance'. In earlier years I believe it was the same high level of competiton.
Possibly a couple of reasons for the changes: a)The mob boss is scheduling easy games so that he can get some team back to the 'top 25' and b) the major soccer powers not longer want to play us since we are no longer a 'major power'.
Unfortunately, scheduling easy games doesn't always work- witness the bball team.

I expect the tournament this weekend to be a valid test of whether we will have a continuation last years issues or whether we have moved forward to our former level of competitiveness.

GO PONIES!!!

[EastStang]

red- I think you are probably right that other powers have for this year put us in the category of let's not play them because they can only hurt us. In other words, if they beat us, they beat an unranked team, but if they lose to us, they look bad because they lost to an unranked team.