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.