Mini-me

NU's #14 Dante Marini

Sadly, the loyal yet un-abundant fans at Vidas Field were overwhelmed with disappointment last night.  I don't know what was more obvious to those in attendance - that #14 on Northeastern had not yet hit puberty or that our boys in white and gold completely sucked.  There is no getting around it, no sugar coating and very little positive spin to be put on that performance against Northeastern last night (although I will get to the positive spin bit, so hold off on the lynch-mob just yet).  A mediocre Northeastern team out played Drexel the entire game.  Our defense looked like swiss cheese, our midfield couldn't complete a pass in our own half of the field never mind make it down near Northeastern's end, there was almost no offensive threat to speak of and the effort was abysmal from 90% of the team.  I believe this text message I received sometime shortly after the 2nd NU goal sums it up best - "Where is your MEN'S soccer team tonight?"

The first 2 Northeastern goals were the result of some pretty bad defending on our part (Mini-me won a tackle, god knows how that happened.. and slipped a kid straight through the middle of our back line in the box on the first one.  For the second one, it was pretty similar except the kid finished with his left thigh or left nut.. I can't tell which, but it trickled into the side netting back post).  Credit has to be given for the 3rd NU goal, that was as nice a finish as I've seen in the CAA in a while.  Everyone tries a back-heal finish on a cross once in their career, but to actually connect especially on a well driven cross under pressure from a defender or two... gotta give props there.

Drexel dropped the 3rd CAA game in a row and now sits decisively out of the playoff picture at 3-6 & 11th in the standings, and with more losses than any team in the conference.  A tiny ray of sunshine does exist in the efforts of a few players, Andrew Stolle & John Carroll were their usual hard working selves.  Among the non-stop hockey line-shift like substitutions that Drexel went through to try and get something going these two were the only ones that added any spark to the team.  Pentti Pussinen also did make a few key saves between the pipes, he should have a great career here if he keeps it up down the road.  

Man of the Match:  I'm giving it to Dan Vignola for picking up his 1st career goal late in the game off a corner kick.  No special back-heal finish or anything fancy like that, but at least he showed the balls to go up and challenge for the cross.  A little blue-collar attitude does pay off after all, good stuff Vigs.

Check out the official game recap and box score on drexeldragons.com.

CAA - Dramatic Conclusion

I've seen a lot of sports movies in my day and recent events have caused me to do some thinking about where to rank this year's season among my favorites sports movies of all time. Some of my more obscure sports favorites include Victory (Pele - "I do this, this, this, this, this, goal."), Caddyshack & Happy Gilmore, Cool Runnings, & Ben Hur (Chariot Racing was a huuuuge sport back then, and when the guy died during filming they didn't even stop the shot, now thats bad ass).

The 2010 Drexel Men's Soccer season, which I have unofficially titled "Enter The Red Dragon", has accumulated some rave reviews of it's own thus far.  drexeldragons.com says:  Enter The Red Dragon 2010 - "Explodes in second half..." and "...Continues Dominance at Vidas Field..."

While this season has certainly had its share of exciting moments, I hesitate to unofficially rank "Enter The Red Dragon 2010" without having seen the climax of the movie just yet... With the final 3 games of the CAA left on the table the director has certainly set us up for a dramatic ending. 

In typical zig zag fashion (and not the good Pele kind - go watch Victory if I just lost you..), Drexel managed to drop 2 away game in a row this past week after scraping out a 2-1 win at home against Georgia State. Losing to Mufasa & Simba 1-0 up in the Hofstra Pride lands was bad enough of a setback, but getting smashed in the nuts 2-0 by the VCU Rams (Jackass 3D style) over the weekend made things even worse.  The Dragons now sit at 3-5 in CAA and have almost fallen below my original prediction of 5-4-2 on the season.  

History (aka The Ineligibles) will tell us, the only games that really ever matter in the CAA playoff race are the last 3 of the season.  If Drexel wins out they can still technically squeeze into the Top-4 and make the CAA Championships with a 6-5 record... (I mean, I barely passed math in college, so...).  Hopefully I have managed to get my math right and we get a chance to witness the dramatic conclusion we've been waiting for all year!

One Up-ing Harry Potter 7, "Enter The Red Dragon 2010" divided it's dramatic conclusion into 3 juicy parts:  

 - Wednesday October 27th, HOME -vs- Northeastern

 - Saturday October 30th, AWAY @ James Madison

 - Saturday November 6th, HOME -vs- Old Dominion (On Senior Day!)

Leave your 3D goggles at home, the action comes natural at Vidas Field!  Let's just hope that this movie ends more like Happy Gilmore than Cool Runnings...  After all the boys have 3 chances down the stretch, but they need to get all of them right.  

Check out drexeldragons.com for the official write up of the Hofstra & VCU games.  

Reber Special!

I'd like to start by pointing out the difference between "the official drexeldragons.com" and "you're charmingly unofficial theineligibles.blogspot.com."  Anyone at the game this Saturday knows exactly why Drexel escaped with a 2-1 win over a less than mediocre Georgia State squad.  How Drexel is obviously going write the recap is quite different than how The Ineligibles are going to tell it to you and much much different that how Georgia State is going to write up the story.  Saturday's game is way too perfect an example to pass up the chance to illustrate this fact.  Let's begin with Drexel. 

drexeldragons.com:  "Dragon's benefit from Late Goal on Blustery Day at Vidas" ... "Freshman Mark Donohue broke a 1-1 tie in the 88th minute with his first career goal. The advantageous score gave Drexel a 2-1 win over Georgia State and helped the Dragons (7-5-1, 3-3) improve to 5-1 at home."  It might actually be funnier to put it this way for the sake of shear sarcasm.  Appropriate, informative, but still not quite the real story...

georgiastatesports.com:  "Men's Soccer Falls in Thriller to Drexel, 2-1" ... "Drexel found the game winner in the 88th minute when freshman Mark Donohue scored off a clearance to give the Dragons a 2-1 victory."   Wait.. Thriller?  Not so sure about that one, but good job glazing right over the ugly stuff at least.  Let's find out what really happened...  

theineligibles.blogspot.com:  "Reber Special!" ... Read all about it! Georgia State keeper "Charlie Browns the ball" in the 88th minute handing Drexel the win on a glorious silver platter.  Que 'banana peel sound effect' and more laughter than cheering in the stands at Vidas Field.  A shoe-in for our "Poop Squad Player of the Game", Georgia State keeper Vincent "Foermerly a starter" inspires The Ineligibles to announce a special new yearly post titled "Great Blunder's in CAA history."  This new post will come at the end of each season and will serve as the awards ceremony for our version of all-conference announcements, our "Poop Squad Legends."  Thanks Vinny!  Other news in the game is that Georgia State struck first on a corner kick (poorly defended by Drexel) late in the first half.  Drexel answered shortly after when Manny "Pacquiao" slipped nicely around a few defenders down in the right corner and had his cross blocker by a hand.  The PK was given and Nathan "Gerrard" tied it at 1-1 just before the half.  Drexel looked the better team most of the game, but not their usual offensively dangerous selves, aside from a few moments.  I'm a results based kinda guy and as long as we get the win that's enough for now.  Back to 3-3 in the CAA with an away match at Hofstra comin up on Wednesday.  Let you know what happened, tell you the important stuff you missed, reference a funny story that alumni can relate to, and throw in a cartoon picture followed by a few corny jokes.  It's all about staying involved and keeping it fun.

Man of the Match:  I'll give it to freshman striker Donohue for scoring his first career goal.  He must have done something right to make the keeper miss the ball before slotting it home for the 2-1 win. 

"Poop Squad" Player of the Game:  Yeah, that's our boy Vincent "Foermerly a starter."  I know it's tough to judge a ball that's bouncing off a perfectly flat turf field, but for your own sanity hope drexeldragons.com was right in that it had something to do with it being a "Blustery Day." 

Are we there yet?

The Dragons are almost 1/2 way through the 2010 CAA season.  With the 6th game of an 11 game CAA schedule coming up tomorrow, Drexel looks grab a crucial 3 points from Georgia State.  So far the Dragons have been zig-zagging their way through the first half of a tough CAA schedule.  They struggled at the start with two losses, one to William & Mary (Away 1-2) and another to UNC Wilmington (Home on Alumni Day 0-1).  They kicked it back into gear with two consecutive wins, one against George Mason (Home 4-1) and then again against Towson (Away 4-3).  This Wednesday they dropped back to 2-3 in the CAA with a loss to Delaware (Away 1-2) and are sitting at the #8 spot on the CAA table.  Check out drexeldragons.com for the official archived stories on each game so far this season & the archived blog posts from The Ineligibles to catch up on any news you've missed, drexeldragons.com also has the official preview up of tomorrow's Georgia State game on the website.  

Tomorrow's game isn't a "must win" but its starting to get very close to that for Drexel.  While Drexel is currently ranked among the top 50 of the national RPI Rankings, the only thing that really matters is keeping a solid record in the rest of the CAA games so that we end up in the top 4 come November.  Georgia State is next and hopefully the confidence of playing at home can see the boys improve to 3-3.  My guess is that it will be Senior Nate Baker (currently on a 3 goal in 3 game streak) or Freshman Kenny Tribbet (who just seems to come through in the clutch) that will cash in on the winning goal for us tomorrow.  Kickoff is at 3:00pm at Vidas Field, and free food and appropriate beverages will be supplied as always by Cavanaugh's Restaurant & Sports Bar.

Check out the Facebook Event and LIVE STATS if you can't make it to the game.  

Know what I mean?

Can't even begin without commenting on this FABULOUS photo from drexeldragons.com...  I can't figure out if it was a handball or Nate chest-bumped it thirty yards into the goal (I'm was hoping on the second, until I realized it was from the NJIT game).  Anyway back to the serious stuff...

Let's just deal with what we know:  Delaware is known for a student body that is comprised of a very large number of very attractive girls, crazy ex-girlfriends, a dumb school mascot (Blue Hen..), Joe Flacco and no sales tax.  What Delaware in NOT known for is a historically successful men's soccer program in the CAA, especially aganst Drexel - even Delaware knows this, in fact the most useful thing (I say "useful" lightly..) from the Delaware website was the historical tidbit that Drexel is 35-18-6 against Delaware since 1947.  Usually anyones first answer to "Who is the worst team in the conference?" is almost always "Delaware."  What Delaware has been known to do on occasion is knick a win from whoever is at the top of the conference near the end of the season.  We also know that in a CAA where only the top 4 teams out of 12 make it to the post season CAA Tournament.

So... Losing to a historically beatable Delaware 2-1 Wednesday night and dropping to 2-3 in the CAA does not make things easy for Drexel, that we know for sure.  The boys are very close to needing to win out in the remaining 7 CAA games the next few weeks in order to secure a top 4 playoff spot.  Bright side is Nate Baker picked up another goal (header on a corner served by Manny "Pacquiao" Cazares), that makes 3 goals in 3 games for Baker who has been carrying a large load of the goal scoring for Drexel this season.

Check out the official game recap and box score at drexelxdragons.com

The boys are back in action this Saturday when they host Georgia State at home on Vidas Field @ 3:00pm.  Ineligibles Tailgate at 12:00noon-ish with free food and appropriate beverages, supplied as always by Cavanaugh's Restaurant & Sports Bar.

Back on Track!

Well, I seem to have woken up from my coma finally and gotten around to putting up a post.  I have decided to take a day off from "The long defeat" (aka my job search for the past few months) and get back to news on the boys at Drexel.  Let's start with what I missed:

George Mason - After a sleeper of a first half, the boys got right to work at the start of the second half.  Malcolm LeBourne got us going early by tucking away two fast break goals in the first 6 minutes.  "The Nate's" followed suit and each tucked in a goal of their own later on.  The fans that braved the rain at Vidas were rewarded not only with goals but with a plethora of opportunities to rip on the opposing team.  The dreadful display of 'non-goalkeeping' by the Mason keeper brings back memories of Wade Gerhardt's fondness for some of the goalkeepers we used to have on the team.  I believe the phrase was "I think putting a trash can in the middle of the goal would produce more saves." - or something along those lines...  Mason did snag a goal of their own and put us under some late game pressure, but hell if we can rip a back-four apart like that, we can afford to be a little shaky on defense for a while.  After dropping the first two CAA games to William & Mary and UNC Wilmington Drexel needed a win bad to stay on track for making the playoffs and the 4-1 win was exactly the re-invigoration that the team and its fans needed.

Man of the Match:  Malcolm LeBourne.  The goals he scores may look nice, but unfortunately his celebrations look more like the first week of eliminations on Dancing with the Stars.  
"Poop Squad Player of the Game":  Mason keeper, Sean Cote.  Great job on the halftime warm-up routine.      
Official game recap and box score from drexeldragons.com.


Towson - Shootout!  I would have loved to make it down to Towson for this.  Either the CAA has recently received an economic stimulus of offensive talent or England goalkeeper Robert Green has been feverishly producing illegitimate offspring and sending them to live in Towson Maryland for the past 18 years.  Drexel won the game 4-3 and just like last year (when Drexel won 6-5 at home... yeah 6-5) the Tiger goalkeeper's inability to make a single save on the night was what lost the game for his team.  A familiar assortment of Drexel goalscorers made the difference for the Dragons.  Once again "The Nate's" teamed up to grab a pair of goals & freshman sensation Kenny Tribbet grabbed a pair himself, including the game winner.  John Carroll picked up 2 assists as well, good stuff from my favorite sweaty little Italian.  After Sunday's game, Drexel is back on form sitting at 2-2 in the CAA.
Man of the Match:  Gotta be freshman Kenny Tribbet, if he keeps going at this pace he'll rack up more career points than Ken Tribbet (now Drexel Basketball alum).
"Poop Squad Player of the Game":  Gotta be Towson keeper Angelo Viteritti, check out familytree.com you might find a link to the Green family in England.
Tougue Twisting game recap and box score on drexeldragons.com

Awards! Hurray:  Nate Baker & Ken Tribbet got themselves into the spotlight after two solid performances each this past week.  Drexel Athletics highlighted the awards for both on the website (Link)-  "Baker has been named Soccer Six Player of the Week and Colonial Athletic Assiciation Co-Player of the Week. Tribbett was named CAA Rookie of the Week, selected for the College Soccer News National Team of the Week and was also selected for the Soccer Six weekly Honor Roll.  Both players contributed two goals and an assist on the week to help the Dragons beat George Mason, 4-1, at home and Towson 4-3 on the road."  I'm done saying anything else about Tribbet because it's starting to sound too much like a man crush on my part.  I will say this... if the U.S. National Team had a striker with the same simple talent that Baker has (aka run fast down the field and put the ball in the net)  maybe we would have been able to beat Ghana in the World Cup or even Colombia yesterday (instead of tieing 0-0).  Drexel has fallen into a luxury of goalscoring capability recently and Nate Baker has been one of the key components in that. 

Back to the future:  Drexel now sitting on 2-2 in the CAA and playing pretty well, at least offensively, heads down to Delaware tonight for a 7:00pm game and is looking to complete the turn around to 3-2 in the CAA.   

Alumni Day Hangover...

Well my hangover after Alumni Day has finally gone away... no no not really anything to do with beer... more about the day as a whole.  Allow me to explain - Alumni Day started out great like a typical soccer party at Drexel:  Everyone was excited to see all the guys you play soccer with in one place, you start off playing a game thats a lot of fun, jokes are flying and spirits are high, mix in some food and a bigger crowd and things are looking up!  However, Alumni Day also ended a lot like a typical party at Drexel back in the day:  By the end of it Ray Nedbal was no where to be found, Johnny Martin had left early again, Thiago was at the bar by himself calling everyone to hurry them up, but mainly that there was a huge sense of disappointed in the "main attraction" - The turnout of females in the case of the party, and the turnout of the varsity game in the case of Alumni Day...  UNC Wilmington dropped Drexel like "Russell Himelein through a pong table"...It was slow, painful to watch, and Drexel never really put any effort into the fight.

A fluke goal, where the UNC midfielder was just as surprised as everyone else in attendance that his volley went in, was one of the only exciting moments of the match (and it happened in the 1st half).  Neither team played very well and in the end the large crowd of alumni and supporters left feeling frustrated that the boys hadn't shown more spirit.  Nate Baker was one of the only players that seemed to play with any kind of chip on his shoulder.  Check out the official game recap and box score on drexeldragons.com.

A huge Thank You has to be extended to Drexel Athletics for putting on a great Alumni Day.  No complaints from any alumni other than to leave the beer and food out a little longer, but who didn't see that coming haha...  Also, a Man of the Match "Special Nomination" to Associate Director of Sports Information Britt Faulstick, for two expertly crafted tributes to former Drexel coaches Lew Meehl & Johnson Bowie.  Britt has been making all of us sound like much better soccer players than we really were for years.  Instead of some kind of award for the quality of his work he gets stuck with Chris Schieve as his full-time graduate assistant for the next 2 years, poor guy.  Stay strong Britt...  

Drexel drops to a last place 0-2 in the CAA and gets prepared to face George Mason tomorrow at Vidas Field @7:00pm (Ineligibles tailgate as always around 5:00pm with free food and appropriate beverages supplied by Cavanaugh's Restaurant & Sports Bar).

Drexel has struggled the past few years against George Mason.  Mark Stevenson's header goal in 2007 was the last time the Dragons beat the Patriots (1-0).  In 2008, Cory Robertson picked up a red card for tackling a kid on a breakaway and we finished the game with a 2-0 loss, Mason went on to win the CAA that year.  In 2009, surprise surprise Drexel got their asses kicked (3-1) at home (you'll start to see that trend I as reference the 2009 season more).

Hope to see you at the game tomorrow night @7:00pm.

Check out the official pre-match write up by "Man of the Match" Britt Faulstick on drexeldragons.com shortly.