Men lose 2-1 to Cal Northridge

[mustangbill67]

Cal has a decent team and plays very physical. I only saw the first half but we seemed slow at times in the defense back center middle (maybe due to key injureis) and exhibited a lack of organization in the midfield. Building from back to front consistently was lacking. a lot of talent, but disorganized.

[Pony4Life]

I agree about the back. Leone Cruz has been out injured, and came off the bench Sunday, and looked pretty good. Had he played the whole game, I think we might have won or at least tied.

I also agree about the overall talent. I was a little nervous last year, and we lost some good players from last year's team. But some of the new guys — Kalis, Pfluger, Nelson — are extremely impressive, especially Pfluger. I thought he was among the best players on the weekend, and we have some very talented players coming off the bench. I'd say this team will be significantly better this year than last.

Dane Saintus looks vastly improved over last year, including the fact that he's physically much stronger. There was one play in the second half where he fought through two guys who were substantially bigger than he is and not only got the ball but drew a foul.

Paulo da Silva obviously is over whatever injury he had last year. He was a lot for Northridge to handle, and had several scoring chances. The man is awesome to watch.

[redpony]

I watched the game on all-access. Here are a few of my observations:
The good: our goalkeeper made several very good saves. This score could have easily been a couple of more goals against us.
The bad: We did not seem to have any offensive thrust or organization. Our scoring efforts seemed to be completely disjointed.
The ugly: Our back line and defensive efforts were very poor. CSUN appeared to have our defense on its’ heals most of the game. On the first goal that CSUN scored the back line looked like they were standing there reading the Sunday comics.

IMHO we have a lot of good players and athletes however they do not seem to have a strategy, organized method of attack or defense. This game effort looked like a group of players that had never played together before. Is it not the coaches responsibility to create and plan strategies and then see that they are executed?

Over the years I have watched (live) 8-10 games when SH was coaching. I do not recall any of his teams looking as disorganized and ‘unready’ to play as this team did yesterday.


GO PONIES!!!

[George S. Patton]

Just from reading everything, it just feels like the wheels have so flown off the men's soccer program to the point that you wonder if it will get anywhere close to the way it was under Shellas.

And if it doesn't, you can pretty much look at the athletic director's office for doing whatever he could to ensure its demise.

[gk00dad]

A lot of the problem is consistancey in the lineup. We haven't had the same starting group in five games. Also we seem to have troulbe with teams that play a 4-5-1. There's no flow through the midfield and we don't get enough movement off of the ball. These are coaching issues that should be getting addressed in practice. The first conference game is next week and still doesn't appear to have a solid grasp of who should be on the pitch.

[giacfsp]

Just from reading everything, it just feels like the wheels have so flown off the men's soccer program to the point that you wonder if it will get anywhere close to the way it was under Shellas.

And if it doesn't, you can pretty much look at the athletic director's office for doing whatever he could to ensure its demise.

You're wrong. We've lost three games, all by a single goal (and two on PKs). The team looks a hell of a lot better than last year.

Top returning players:
Craig Hill
Paulo da Silva
Dane Saintus

Top newcomers:
Brandon Pfluger
Ian Kalis
T.J. Nelson

In the games I've seen, Hill has been brilliant, and Pfluger and Kalis, in particular, look like real uupgrades in the back.

[George S. Patton]

Then I can't get a read on this because there seems to be so much inconsistency from watch the passionate followers are watching.

That said, would you give me an idea as to what you expect in CUSA play. Can they win it or are they a couple of years away? Is there a nucleus that makes you believe that a return to the power days is coming?

Thanks in advance.

[redpony]

As I mentioned previously, they have a lot of talented players and athletes. However, they have not been playing as a team. They look totally disorganized and without any team leader. In the last game I believe I saw only one good 'give and go'. They just seem to be playing as individuals and not a team.
As pointed out they lost 2 games because of PK's. When you tackle a person from behind in the penalty box that is just stupid and undisciplined play. It points out the lack of emphasis of 'playing smart' soccer. Like a football team being offsides 15 times in a game. This highlights the lack of proper coaching.

GO PONIES!!!

[jkflamebo]

I haven't seen any games in a while, but if someone would have told me a long time ago we would lose at home to CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE, I would have laughed hysterically. You can try to sugarcoat this thing every way, but this program is simply not what it used to be. Very sad to see results like this, hope it gets better.

[redpony]

JKF- I completely agree. I do not expect to see any major future improvement until we see a change in coaches. I would not be suprised if that happened at the end of this season if we perform again like we did last year. It's a long fall from top 10 nationally to lower half of our conference.

GO PONIES!!!

[Dement-ed]

That's what I thought, too, but Northridge had a very solid team, and I learned from some of their parents that those guys compete well with the likes of Cal, UCLA and Stanford. They don't always beat them, and maybe don't even win more than they lose, but they're used to facing top-flight competition and faring pretty well. I was impressed with their team, and losing by a single goal when we didn't play nearly as well as we did Friday is less of an embarrassment than I would have imagined going into the weekend.

[redpony]

Since CSUN is not even ranked in the top 50 I do not believe we could even call this a moral victory.
They may play a lot of good teams but apparently do not fare well against them or they would have decent level of ranking.

GO PONIES!!!

[gk00dad]

CSUN is ranked this week, 24th in both NSCAA and College Soccer News. At 5-1 I wouldn't call them an inferior opponent. That said. We play better defensively and we win that game. So there are no excuses.

[BleedingRed+Blue]

Come on, gk00dad, bringing actual facts into this rant could get you yelled at.

I'm wondering how healthy Leone Cruz is — didn't play Friday, and came off the bench Sunday. Having Cruz at full health would really help shore things up in the back.

[redpony]

CSUN is ranked this week, 24th in both NSCAA and College Soccer News. At 5-1 I wouldn't call them an inferior opponent. That said. We play better defensively and we win that game. So there are no excuses.

You are correct-when I checked the polls yesterday the most current ratings were not out yet. Normally they get posted earlier in the day.

Defense needs to improve but the offense has yet to show any real coordination or cohesiveness.
Like I mentioned earlier- the gk kept us in that game with some good saves. CSUN could have easily had one or two more goals.

GO PONIES!!!