MSOE @ Carroll (scrimmage) - By Kim Deal

MSOE @ Carroll University
August 24, 2008
By Kim Deal

Final Score:
MSOE 2
Carroll 2

Carroll generally finds a comparatively easy opponent to determine where they are at in the early goings of the season. Generally the Carroll Squad throws 5 or 6 goals on the board by the end of the match. Unfortunately for the 2008 Pioneers, they found MSOE to be a much more formidable opponent than they had expected.

After dominating the field in terms of possession and without any serious offensive attack, they found themselves on the wrong side of a 1-0 score thanks to a penalty kick. The foul was surrendered by a freshman, who seems to be in a good position to land a starting spot early in the 2008 season. Many would not take issue with a young player surrendering a Penalty Kick this early in the season, even if it did happen in the 18 yard area. The problem with the foul is that it was blatant and uncalled for. After allowing the offensive player who was not in a position to score or send a dangerous cross, the freshman gave him a two hand shove in the back to draw the Penalty Kick. Without a roster being issued at the game, I could not tell you the player’s name. What I can tell you is that he does not appear to be the defensive answer to losing last year’s Midwest Conference Player of the Year, JJ Gutman.

To make matters worse, Carroll started another newcomer at the sweeper position. To his credit he is very vocal but on the other side the team did not respond to him. This could be for one of two reasons, they do not view him as a team leader and therefore do not place merit on his spoken word or he might not be that good. After watching today’s game, the latter seems to be the better of the reasons. That is not to say he does not have the foot skill or the defender’s prowess to be a solid sweeper back, it has more to do with his awful decision making and his being painfully slow in releasing the ball. To prove my point with only 15 minutes left in the match his lack of decision making was almost solely responsible for MSOE’s second goal. I wish this was his only major error in the game but it was not. He seemingly tried to give the ball away on more than four occasions, only to make a lackluster attempt on defense to win the ball back.

Rounding out the defense are two returning players, Bram Daelemans and Nate Lembke-Windler. They also had reasonably poor showings. Given their past history with the program I am sure they will pull it together and have a solid season. Both seemed sloppy with ball control and neither had a killer instinct in terms of getting others involved in the attack.

Another interesting point was the forwards’ play. It seems I overstated what would have been a nice camp battle between Jon Rogers and Dave Hansen. Rogers did not get a single look at the forward position and Hansen did not do much to retain the starting spot. It may be hard to lay blame on Hansen for sloppy play, seeing as the forward opposite him, Andy Prentice, also played poorly. The motion on top was non-existent. If somehow they created runs, the other would follow by making the same run. Carroll may have been better off playing one forward for the entire game.

On a brighter note, Alex Goranson had a solid game. He seemed to be the only player that remembered how to make creative runs throughout the game, despite rarely receiving the ball. Dona Lado, an outside midfielder, was on the sidelines in street clothes. Without speaking with anyone familiar to the situation I will have to assume he is nursing an injury. If they do not get Lado back before this weekend, they may be looking at two losses to open the season against University of Chicago and Wheaton.
The three central midfielders, Lembke-Windler, Derek Marie, and Craig Carlson all had decent games but Carroll has come to expect more from them. They were very passive in the attack and never wanted to play a difficult ball to an on running teammate. This is probably a problem that will fix itself once the team gets more acclimated to the new season and becomes more comfortable with the players on the field.

Today’s game was more of a sparring match than anything. Carroll did not have much drive for a victory and seemed more than content to pass the ball between the 30 yard line and the opponents 40 yard line. At no point did the defenders seem interested in getting the ball to the forwards feet and then getting around them. Part of that problem may have been the forwards lack of movement. Being their first game of the season, we can expect to see Carroll make large strides in the coming weeks. For their sake, I hope the two new defenders clean up their play. Although this is clearly not the only game we will be judging Carroll, if they do not pull together, expect to see Carroll slipping into a conference playoff in a conference they should be winning with ease.


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more reports at www.cheeseathletics.com/highschool.htm

I don't like sounding like a prick in these threads, I said it before, I think Carroll has a good squad but posting a 2-2 score against the school of engineers is shameful.

I'm really hoping that Carroll played virtually all back ups in this game. From the sounds of the write up, that wasn't the case.

Furthermore, I checked the Midewest Conference site and saw that Carroll was rated the number 1 team, whatever that means. They had better watch it, skill only goes so far. At some point they will need to play defense and win 50-50 balls.

Good luck on the season guys.

Preseason games don't really mean much anyway.

Freshmen at sweeper? I hope he is an exceptional player. Noone likes listening to freshmen. Especially bad ones.

BOMBER wrote:Preseason games don't really mean much anyway.

Yeah, that's what i was thinking. I still thought it was nice she did the write up. I like the outside opinion i guess.

Schultz, he's actually a sophmore transfer. Kim didn't have a roster to go off of and i didn't want to change her stuff.

I saw on the website that Carroll lost yesterday to Wheaton. Anyone have any more details on the match?

Ollie Octagon wrote:I saw on the website that Carroll lost yesterday to Wheaton. Anyone have any more details on the match?

I'm waiting for the response as well. I didn't make the trip though, not sure how many I will go on anyway.

I caught a couple high school games last night, the write ups should be up later today.

so carroll should be good this year? i might have to watch them play.

i'll check their schedule online.

are there any games you think i should watch?

I only caught the second half due to traffic/travel time but Carroll performed better against Wheaton this year than last years season ending loss, creating more opportunities for themselves and holding the ball far more than in their last meeting. The Wheaton squad isn't as big physically as they were a year ago, which probably helped balance things out a little more, but their movement off the ball is clearly what puts them ahead of CU. The players were constantly moving both offensively and defensively, both creating spaces for themselves and smothering outlets and space when Carroll had possession. I would say this years score of 2-0 was a pretty accurate reflection of the game. While Wheaton was definitely the better of the 2 teams, they didn't dominate the game or dictate play like last year (a game that in my opinion could have had Wheaton winning by 5+). If Carroll is to see success this year, they have to find a way to create and put away more chances.

omeara wrote:I only caught the second half due to traffic/travel time but Carroll performed better against Wheaton this year than last years season ending loss, creating more opportunities for themselves and holding the ball far more than in their last meeting. The Wheaton squad isn't as big physically as they were a year ago, which probably helped balance things out a little more, but their movement off the ball is clearly what puts them ahead of CU. The players were constantly moving both offensively and defensively, both creating spaces for themselves and smothering outlets and space when Carroll had possession. I would say this years score of 2-0 was a pretty accurate reflection of the game. While Wheaton was definitely the better of the 2 teams, they didn't dominate the game or dictate play like last year (a game that in my opinion could have had Wheaton winning by 5+). If Carroll is to see success this year, they have to find a way to create and put away more chances.

It would be nice if Carroll can win their tournament again and then enter the NCAA's with a better seed. That's a tough draw to go against Wheaton in round one. I remember the girls' team from a few years ago had a nice NCAA run but didn't run into a true power house until round three.

From what I have been reading about Carroll, they are still playing passive. That is no way to beat any of the big teams.

carroll is good but they arent that good

i bet they end up at about .500 this season

I'd say Carroll made some quality improvements since this game. I saw the game at Illinois College, Carroll will be hard pressed to lose to an MWC team.

Just my opinion.