WUSTL Soccer

Photos from 2011 WUSTL Soccer season

2011-11-19T07:25:00.001-06:00

All of the photos from the 2011 WUSTL Men's Soccer season are finally posted and available for your enjoyment. There are not photos from all of the games and some photos are better than others. All of the photos are free to download and for your personal use. So pass them around, post to Facebook, or start a conversation around one on the newWUSTL Soccer Google+ page.

WUSTL World Cup

2011-09-25T10:41:00.000-05:00

The WUSTL soccer teams held the 2nd Annual WUSTL World Cup in support of Sunbeam Foundation. While students typically play; parents, fans and other supporters can sponsor a team. Some sponsors like to place contingencies on their donations.

This year, the Jebson family had the following contingency:

"The Jebson family will sponsor Team Scotland for $[redacted so it is not known how cheaply I can be bought] only if coach pomaranka wears a kilt for the team picture and be on the sideline of the first game in said kilt."

Lacking any apparent self worth, I happily agreed and found an kilt in less than 24 hours to support Team Scotland.

If you find this video at all interesting, amusing, offensive or otherwise, please head over to http://www.sunbeamfoundation.org to learn more and consider making a donation.

Keepers training to not use their hands

2011-09-25T10:28:00.000-05:00

One nuanced skill I push the keepers to learn is the ability to quickly get themselves off the ground after a save, without pushing up with their hands. It is not a real natural movement, so it takes some practice.

As one becomes fatigued, it becomes even more difficult. In the video below, the keepers doing the work, David & David, are on their third set and they are using heavy balls. Nice work.

WUSTL continues winning streak against Westminster

2011-09-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

The WUSTL Men's Soccer winning streak continued with a 3-0 win over Westminster. This put the record at 7-0, our most consecutive win start since 1974. Get all of the details at the Bearsports page and have fun looking through the photos.

Sometimes there is blood.

2011-09-25T10:08:00.000-05:00

The WUSTL v Greenville College soccer game had an interesting twist near the end. Kevin Privalle (#16) collided with a Greenville player, splitting open Kevin's head and giving the GC player a concussion. I don't think Kevin realized how bad the would was, because he appeared mad that he was call for a foul (it was questionable) and that he was sent off for blood.

Fortunately, Dr. Jebson was there to save Kevin and his parents from spending the night at the ER and stitched him up nice and easily. Enjoy the photos a 1 min video here:

From it all, my favorite quote from Mrs. Privalle when she found out that her son was being sent off the field for blood, "I was just glad he did not get a red card." Now that is a true soccer mom!

Winning Weekend for WUSTL Soccer

2011-09-24T23:40:00.001-05:00

The boys had a good weekend when they faced Birmingham Southern College and Greenville College over Friday and Saturday nights.

On Friday, Zach Query got a pair of goals to lead the Bears in a 5-0 win over Birmingham Southern. Read the full game write up on Bearsports and then browse images from the match.

The next night, the Bears once again got the win, but this time it was Dylan Roman getting two goals on the night.

The write up can also be found on Bearsports and photos of the game are available for viewing.

Video of Cody's goal agains Central

2011-09-09T13:50:00.000-05:00

Just a quick video of a great finish.

The audio may or may not have been enhanced.

Bears win in OT after controversial no call at Principia

2011-09-09T07:39:00.000-05:00

It was a hard, fast game on the Principia campus, but the WUSTL boys were able to stay strong and fight off the continual high pressure that came at them for almost 100 minutes. Although the Bears once again dominated in shots and possession, we could not find the back of the net. This was in large part due to some pretty nice saves by the Principa goal keeper.

However, we kept at it and in the first OT period, the ref allowed physical play between Zach Q and a Principia defender to play on. This gave the ball to Miachael Flowers deep in the right corner who was able to find Dylan Roman in front of the goal to give the Bears their third victory of the season.

For more information read the WUSTL write-up or the Principa take. Photos are also up at the WUSTL Bears Gallery.

WUSTL Comes back to beat Central College of Iowa

2011-09-04T10:26:00.001-05:00

If you believe the thought that it is not what you achieve in life, but what you overcome that defines you, then the 2011 Bears are a good team in the making. After being down 1-0 in the 12th minute, the boys did not give up but kept fighting and came back to beat Central College of Iowa 2-1 in our home opener.

Cody tied the game in the 36th minute with a blistering shot to the lower side netting that easily beat the keeper. It was not until the 72nd minute when Brian Wright got a ball to Dylan Roman who was almost all alone in the center of the goal. With a flick and landing flat on his sear, he put the Bears on top.

It was great to see the fans come back in force to cheer the team in their own special way. Thanks guys!

Details about the game including box score and more can be found on bearsports.wustl.edu

To see all the image from the game, visit the 2011 WUSTL Soccer Gallery. [photo info]

Men Win 2011 Season Opener over Webster

2011-09-03T13:59:00.000-05:00

The Bears opened up the 2011 season with a 2-1 win over the Webster University Gorlocks on September 1st. Cody got on the scoreboard early with a shot from about 18 yards out in the second minute of play. Twenty minutes later Pat takes a cross from Mac's head and pokes it into the net. The Gorlocks tried to come back, in the second half with a goal in the 64th minute, but the Bears held on to win.
For a full write up, visit the official WUSTL Soccer site.
Photos from the game.

The Men of 2011

2011-09-03T10:20:00.002-05:00

I am woefully behind at updating the blog, so let's jump back in with player head shots. I am honored to have my images used on the player bio pages, but they are very small images there. For the full resolution photos find them in the WUSTL Soccer 2011 Head Shot gallery on my photo site.

Info on photo downloads & prints.

The Season In Photos

2011-02-22T22:05:00.001-06:00

After long last, I have finally processed and uploaded all of the photos I have from the games of the 2010 season. Over 1,000 photos in all. Have fun looking through them all.

To make it a bit easier, the galleries are listed by game, in chronological order. Additionally, if you are interested in photos featuring one player, such as the most searched WUSTL soccer player, Brian Wright, then you can visit the the keyword listing and search for brian.wright, or any other player’s name. It may not have all of that player’s photos, but it should come close.

Players: pre-season

2010 Seniors

Flo Valley (scrimmage)

Carthage (scrimmage)

MO Science & Tech (scrimmage)

Webster

Birmingham Southern (compliments of C. Privalle)

Sewanee (compliments of C. Privalle & M. Hendrickson)

Wash U. Club (jv game)

Greenville

Bosnian Men (jv game)

Rhodes

Greenville (jv game)

Loras

Wash U Club (jv game)

Brandeis, NYU & Loras (compliments V. Costakis)

Chicago

WUSTL Tops Central Region Rankings

2010-10-25T09:08:00.000-05:00

Credit this posting to Mr. Paul Neumann. It is a repost from an email he sent over the weekend.

NCAA (as opposed to the coaches association) released the first set of D3 rankings this week.

They rank 15% of the 400 + D3 teams by region (no national rankings) and these become part of what are used to help choose the at large teams for the tournament.

WUSTL is first in the central region and all 8 of the UAA teams are ranked (only conference this is true of I think) wiht an average ranking of 4th in their region.

Alex told me that WUSTLs strength of schedule (based on win-loss percentage of opponents I think) is currently second nationally behind Rhodes as Webster, Illinois Wesleyan and Greenville along with the UAA teams are all having excellent seasons.

The Principia game (which I am assuming all of you saw in person or on video) saw 23 players contribute. Zach Q missed the game with some type of bug that hit him that day and that he was working to recover from. Rex and Sabrina, who had come in for the game, were helping with the recovery process.

Alex and Randy both sat the second half (Alex with a tendon strain, Randy with his quad) and Mac missed the whole game (recovered from the concussion but with strains/problems with a foot). All were ably filled in for by Brian, in the middle, and Jack F, AJ and Duncan at defense. Lucky goal for Principia as the deflection came off one of our defenders. Of our six goals allowed 2 of them are off of deflections this season. (this one plus the score for IWU)

Hopefully, everyone is well for Monday when we play a resurgent team from Concordia who is 11-3-2 on the season and ranked 4th in their region. They play Fontbonne on Sunday and then us on Monday so we should be the fresher team.

Great first goal by Kenji who hit the ball off the header from Flowers with authority into the roof of the net. Nice second goal as Spanos (who had a great game overall) bent the ball to the far side netting off a cross from Dylan. All of our wing players got crosses into the box particularly Dylan and David Klein and the runs in the offensive end to open up passes were fun to watch. At one point in the second half Cody had the ball out wide around 30 yards out and I looked and there were 5 different WUSTL players making runs in different spaces giving him options on the pass. Great passing the whole game. We gave the ball away too easily at times but were quick to recover it with pressure on the ball.

Assist on the third goal to Pat McLean who hit a ball about 5 minutes before that their goalie stopped with his chest and took a break to recover from. A bit later he reacted slowly to Cody's ball which bounced over him for our insurance goal. Coincidence? I think not.

Alex commented afterwards that the ball Pat hit in Rochester that came off the post and bounced out of bounds was hit even harder.

Great parent squad support as Hongs and Weinsteins came in for parents weekend, Rose Mclean was there with her sister and brother in law from California, the fischers, costakis clan, kobayashi's and chamberlin's all brought relatives and Cindy Clark was there with a friend from Milwaukee as well so along with a vocal student section the bears were well supported.

Go Bears.

paul

Photos from the game are posted in the 2010 WUSTL vs Principia Gallery

NOTE: I was trying to get this blog completely caught up and post the games in order, but life got in the way. I figure why let perfect stop good and decided to just post the latest photos and hopefully be able to get previous games up some time. Enjoy. ~jeffrey

WUSTL JV puts on 7-0 show over Greenville

2010-09-29T06:51:00.001-05:00

(NOTE: The blog is getting closer to being up to date, but until it is, posts will still be short and quick.)
It was a night when it was simply raining goals for the JV squad. A 7-0 show over the Greenville JV. There are only a few photos from the game but the following updates from twitter.com/WUSTLsoccer give a good idea just how things went.

WUSTL JV is playing Greenville JV. No score about 5 min in, although Peter J had a great chance the keeper pushed just wide. 0-0
At the 12 min mark, James plays a ball wide to Chris W, who brought it back onside and puts it past the keeper with his left leg. 1-0 WUSTL
Off a corner from Peter, Okechi finds the back of the net to put WUSTL JV up 2-0 over Greenville.
20 min in and a great thru ball from Peter finds Jeremy alone to the goal, but his shot is off the post & back to the keeper.
GOAL!!! From a long thru ball and Jeremy is 1 on 1 & with a calm touch he side steps the rushing keeper bringing the score to 3-0 for WUSTL
10 min into the 2nd and Joey G hits the post. That is the 3d post we have hit this game!
GOAL!!! Joe Hovde brings the ball down the left and buries it in the far net. 4-0 WUSTL JV over Greenville 30 min to play.
GOAL!!! Andrew Martin puts in a cross off a Greenville defender.
GOAL!!! Eric Walls makes it 6-0. Wow!
GOAL!!!! Dylan S makes it 7 for WUSTL off a good thru ball where Greenville was looking for off sides
That is the game! WUSTL JV puits on a show with a 7-0 win over Greenville.

WUSTL Over Rhodes 2-0 for 500th Victory

2010-09-28T06:42:00.002-05:00

(NOTE: The blog is still behind on updates, so posts short to hopefully get caught up.)
The Bears had a great win over Rhodes to earn the team's 500th victory. Read the full game write up on WUSTL Bearsports, browse the game's box score, or view a few photos from the game. Below are the updates that were posted live on Twitter.com/WUSTLsoccer.

About 5 min in David K collides heads with a Rhodes defender. Both players were checked by our wonderful trainer, Mike, & able to return.
Right at the 15 min mark DK plays a great serve from the left to ZQ who gets over everyone, but heads it high. 0-0
GOAL! On what was probably intended to be a cross, Mike Flowers hits it from the left wing & finds the far net! 1-0 with 21 to play.
GOALLL!! On a brilliant serve from Nik at the left back, Kenji goes way up and buries a head ball. 2-0 for WUSTL 9min left in 1st
The last 10 of the 1st half was end to end action. But WUSTL stays tough and keeps it 2-0.
The 2nd half has started. WUSTL vs Rhodes. Currently 2-0 for the Bears.
15 into the 2nd. ZQ had a good chance that was saved well by the Rhodes keeper. Still 2-0.
The first 30 min of the 2nd have been exciting. No goals, but good chances. Harry draws a yellow. Still 2-0.
Bears win! That is another win for WUSTL soccer. 2-0 It is good to see the goals this year. Next game is Wed at IL Wesleyan

JV against Bosnian men's team ends in 3-3 draw

2010-09-27T07:08:00.000-05:00

(NOTE: The blog is a little behind, so posts will be a little short to allow for quicker updates.)
The JV squad put up a good effort against a well experienced Bosnian mens team. It was a great opportunity for the boys to face a talented opponent. Below are the WUSTLsoccer twitter updates that give a flavor of the match. Also have a look at the match photos.

Back at Francis Field for th WUSTL JV vs a Bosnian Men's Team. It is a bit wet, but no rain, so we are set for a good match.
Peter hits a 30 yard shot that leaves the keeper standing, but squeaks under the bar. 1-0 for WUSTL JV. 14 min played.
We have played 30 in a scrappy game so far. Neither team has dominated. The Bosnians are looking for thru balls but David has kept it 1-0.
At the half, WUSTL JV is up 1-0 over the Bosnian men's team.
A long ball from the Bosnian back puts a man thru alone to the keeper. Now 1-1
Kirkwood is tripped in the box and Peter puts in the PK to put WUSTL JV back on top 2-1. Played 6 min in 2nd
17 played in the 2nd. It is going end to end, but some smart opening runs in the box give the JV another goal by Joe H. Joey G assist 3-1
Off a corner the Bosnian team get a goal ro pull within one. 3-2 for WUSTL JV 20 to play in the game.
Another break away and the Bosnian team ties it 3-3. Just a few min to play.
That is the game. The WUSTL JV ends with a tie against the Bosnian men's team. 3-3. Next JV game Mon evening against Greenville JV.

WUSTL over Greenville 2-0

2010-09-26T09:01:00.002-05:00

(NOTE: The blog is a little behind, so posts will be a little short to allow for quicker updates.)
The Bears put in two goals for another home win over Greenville college. Read the official WUSTL write up at the Bearsports website or review the stats. A quick review of the game can be found below in a recap of the Twitter posts for the game. Enjoy all the photos from the game.

15 min into a physical game. Greenville has drawn a yellow already. No score.
30 min played in 1st. WUSTL dominating ball control, but have not developed an extremely dangerous attack yet. Still 0-0 against Greenville
Greenville draws another (questionable) yellow, but WUSTL cannot capitalize. 12 to play.
Yet another yellow for GC (3 so far) but nothing. WUSTL did get some good passes & had first exciting chance, but no luck 0-0.
GC gets a corner and Serio gets up big to punch the ball out of danger. 10 to play.
In the last 2 min Eric Walls draws a yellow. However, the half ends on a flury with no score.
The 2nd half of WUSTL vs Greenville has started.
In the 1st min the Bears have a great opportunity off Cody's corner, but Harry's head ball & Mac's deflection goes straight to the keeper.
Harry hits a 60 yard bomb from the back line and Zac Q fights to win the ball, hitting an impossible shot to score! WUSTL up 1-0 40 to play
A couple strong chances for the Bears. We made the keeper make a few saves & got a corner, but no goals. Still 1-0 with 30 to play.
Kevin P draws a yellow for playing the ball after the whistle. Pretty tough call because the timing was very close.
It is an exciting, high energy game tonight. Both teams are fighting hard. 15 min left in the game 1-0 for WUSTL.
GC is able to get a corner, but John is able to punch the second serve out with little trouble. 10 to play. 1-0 for WUSTL
GOAL!!!! Brian W gets a serve in, Zac Q gets a touch on it and Pat finds himself with time & on his second swing gets a goal! 2-0 for WUSTL!
That is the game. WUSTL records another win, 2-0 over Greenville. Next game on Sunday.

WUSTL JV ties Wash U Club 2-2

2010-09-26T08:39:00.002-05:00

(NOTE: The blog is a little behind, so posts will be a little short to allow for quicker updates.)

The JV squad took on the Wash U Club team on September 7. It was an exciting game that ended in a 2-2 tie. Check out the photos from the game and read the Twitter updates below to get a flavor of the game.

15 min into the WUSTL JV vs Club the score is 1-0 for the Club team as they are able to sneak a ball under Michael Mc. on a quick break.
Two min later Kirkwood ties it for the JV squad! 1-1
30 min into the game & the JV team is showing some good passing & ball work. Still 1-1, but there will be more goals in this game.
With only 5 left in the 1st, Matt puts a great serve in from the far left back & Marty battles the keeper & defender to score with his head.
The last play of the 1st half Matt puts in another serve the DK just misses over the top. JV over Club 2-1.
15 played in the 2nd with end to end action, both teams missing just over the top. Still 2-1 for JV.
The Club team ties it 2-2 with a brilliant finish from 22 yards out the just nicks the post and scores. 19 left to play.
That is the game. A few close chances for the JV at the end, but no luck. It ends 2-2.

Photos from weekend in Birmingham

2010-09-11T21:56:00.002-05:00

Thanks to the kindness of our family of fans there are photos from the weekend tournament in Birmingham.

A gallery has been set up for photos from the WUSTL vs Birmingham-Southern game, courtesy of Chris Privalle (a.k.a. Kevin's dad)

A gallery has been filled with pictures from the WUSTL vs Sewanee game thanks to Chris Privalle and Michael Hendrickson (a.k.a. Zach's dad)

Birmingham-Southern Tournament Recap: A fan's perspective

2010-09-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

Two good games over the weekend in Birmingham. A great opening weekend with the parent squad with 31 people in attendance from 9 different states. Great cheering led by the Query boys and a nice dinner with the team on Sunday night. Welcome to the Flowers (freshman parents from Texas) that came over for the game.

I am assuming you had both the game updates (thanks to Arloa and Vicky Costakis :) ) and read the wustl athletic reports (BSC) (Sewanee) and box scores so this will just add a few general comments.

WUSTL vs BSC- Very fast paced game, played mostly between the 2 18 yard lines. WUSTL had a little more possession, better passing but BSC was tremendously quick to the ball, very tenacious and had a defense that recovered very fast when they got beat on an initial move. As Joe commented on Sunday night it is the kind of game that shows where improvement is needed and lets the team know what they need to improve to excel during the season.

We created 4 or 5 chances on the game when we got to the end line and centered. Steven Spanos in the first half, Brian Wright in the second, Nick Patel with an overlapping run and then Nick on a run where he beat his guy and got fouled right outside the box. BSC had two good chances in the second half where they broke into the box but Johnathon came off his line to stuff both chances. Both teams had one open look from six yards out on a ball loose in the box that they shot over the goal that would have won the game. 0-0 was a fair result. The team was exhausted following the game. Alex and Harry were both beat up (Alex sat Monday) and Cody, having gone 110 minutes at center mid was also very tired.

WUSTL vs Sewanee- Ah, to be young, because by Monday, even with the heat the Bears were ready to go. They controlled the game from the outset, passing the ball, putting Sewanee under pressure that they could not handle (their defense resorted to simply clearing the ball about 60% of the time, often out of bounds) and we looked good under pressure as we passed the ball out of it.

All of the goals came off of nice passes. Zac almost had a second goal about 20 minutes in of a pass from John Duncan that he headed only to have their goalie tip over the bar. Our third goal came off a play where Sewanee cleared the ball out to the left of their box, Duncan sprinted twenty yards to capture the ball, took one touch and launched a cross to six yard line at the back post which Mac put in out of the air as he slid in to beat the goalie. Lovely shot.

We had a couple of excellent chances that their goalie blocked one on a break from Dylan where the goalie stopped a shot from a six yard angle, a second on a brave header (description from Harry Beddo Sr.) from Joey Glass off a cross from Matt Shelton that the goalie tipped wide.

The most exciting sequence in the game was where we had a shot off a post that rebounded to Eric Walls who ripped a shot from 10 yards that was blocked that came out to Pat McLean on the right hand side of the goal. Pat had about a three foot window between the goalie and the post and from 12 yards with the outside of his foot hit a shot that beat the goalie but caromed off the inside of the post to come out of goal. If we had been down one and not scored on that it would have been traumatic but as we were up two goals at the time it was simply exciting to watch.

I am sure it was a great bus ride home.

Paul
a.k.a. Alex's dad

WUSTL Soccer beats Sewanee University 3-1

2010-09-06T19:27:00.002-05:00

WUSTL FC faced Sewanee University in Birmingham, AL as part of the Birmingham Southern Puma/Labor Day Classic. A full game write up as well as the official box score should be available soon at Bearsports.wustl.edu.

The story as I know it went like this.

83 degrees & sunny in Birmingham. WUSTL vs Sewanee
Line up. GK: Serio DEF: Klein, Duncan, Beddo, Schoen MID: Wright, Costakis, Chamberlain, Spanos FWD: Query & Privalle
At 15 min in 0-0.
Zach Q scores!! 29 min in, assist from Steve S. Zach controlled ball in the box, turned & shot from 6 yards out - GOALLLLLL! 1-0 WUSTL up.
Now 2-0! Kevin P w/ assist from Brian W.
At 18 min subs: Walls & Flowers for Mac & Wright. 14 left in 1st Patell in for Klein 2nd yellow card on SU, so playing with 10. Still up 2-0
With 6 min left, Duncan just took a rocket shot 35 yards out - but went just wide. At the half, WUSTL over Sewanee 2-0
2nd half lineup. GK: Jebson DEF: Patel, Beddo, Schoen & Duncan MID: Mac, Cody, Hendrickson & Flowers FWD: Privalle & Query
PK for Sewanee. Yellow card for Duncan. WUSTL 2 - Sewanee 1 with 34 min left.
Jebson saved initial PK, but Sewanee got rebound & slotted it in. WUSTL had 2 good shots prior. Subs: McLean for Query & Klein for Patel
WUSTL GOAL! Mac with assist from Duncan 32 min remain. WUSTL 3 - Sewanee 1
Subs: Kenji for Privalle - Hong for Duncan - Wright for Hendrickson. Hong & Beddo now in the back
So close! Joey Glass just in. Missed a header served from Shelton. Keeper tipped it wide. Still 3-1 for WUSTL
That is the game! WUSTL wins 3-1 advancing record to 2-0-1. Next match Fri 9/10 at home vs Greenville at 7pm CDT.

These are the highlights as posted on the WUSTLsoccer Twitter stream thanks to the continual communication by Coach Rock and Super Parents Paul Neuman & Arloa Eckels.

Sorry, but no action photos available for this game.

WUSTL ties Birmingham-Southern College 0-0

2010-09-04T22:34:00.000-05:00

The soccer Bears traveled to Birmingham, AL for an early season tournament. They faced the tournament host on the first day and after 110 minutes neither team was able to score. Visit bearsports.wustl.edu for a full game write up as well as the box score.

The bears are staying in Birmingham for the weekend and face the Sewanee Tigers on Monday, September 6 at 11am CDT.

Bears win home opener over Webster 7-0 [photos added]

2010-09-01T22:36:00.004-05:00

In a great home opener the WUSTL Soccer Bears defeat the Webster Gorloks 7-0. The full story can be found at the WUSTL Athletics website. Or if you are interested at the Webster website. Here we will provide a brief recap from the @WUSTLsoccer twitter feed.. For the full stats, read the Box Score.

In the ninth minute Zac Query hustles well to steal a ball up at the edge of the 18 and is able able to poke it under the charging Webster keeper. WUSTL up 1-0

Harry puts a serve back across the goal that the Webster keeper misjudges & Pat puts an easy head ball into the empty net. It is 2-0 after about 12 minutes played.

With 15 left in the 1st, WUSTL puts a head ball off the crossbar. The Bears are dominating this half, but Webster is still fighting hard.

Off a corner from Cody, Harry strikes a rocket from the back post into the side net to put the Bears up 3-0. 12 min left in the first half.

Brian Wright gets a shot and then puts his own rebound back in the net for a 4-0 WUSTL over Webster lead.

With just 2 min left in the 1st, Kevin P. takes a great shot from a poor angle, but finds the net. Assist to Eric W. WUSTL up 5-0

WUSTL is up 5-0 over Webster at the half, but the Bears need to play well & win the 2nd half as well.

Kevin P gets the 2nd half going with a tough shot from a bad angle that goes thru the keeper's hands. 6-0 WUSTL up.

Matt S gets a ball off a rebound about 25 yards out and gets his first goal. Now 7-0

With 15 min left in the game, WUSTL is looking to maintain possession and not give up any goals.

A successful home opener, WUSTL gets 7 goals in the win over Webster.

Photos from the game are now up.

Live Webcast Schedule Set

2010-09-01T10:39:00.004-05:00

Great news for the Bear fans who are unable to attend the games in person. Once again, the Men's Soccer team will have eight of its home games streamed live over the internet. In a press release from yesterday, the athletic department shared the news.

"Washington University in St. Louis Athletics is set to stream 60 live athletic events over the Web during the fall and winter seasons, starting with home soccer, volleyball and football events this week."

Read more at bearsports.wustl.edu.

The men's soccer games that are scheduled to be streamed live are:

Wednesday, September 1st @ 7pm CDT vs Webster
Sunday, September 12th a@ 3pm CDT vs Rhodes
Sunday, September 19th @ 2pm CDT vs Loras
Sunday, October 3rd @ 1:30pm CDT vs Emory
Thursday, October 21st @ 7pm CDT vs Principia
Monday, October 25th @ 7pm CDT vs Concoria (Minn)
Sunday October 31st @ 1:30pm CDT vs New York
Saturday, November 6th @ 2:30pm CDT vs Chicago

To watch and the full athletic event schedule, visit the WUSTL Portal on GameCentral

Most searched WUSTL soccer player

2010-08-31T12:06:00.000-05:00

Blogger.com (this blog's host) just added an integrated stats package. When looking through the different statistics that it tracks I came upon two interesting pieces of information.

Most traffic comes for the blog comes from www.wustlsoccer.com or directly
Brian Wright accounts for over 20% of searches that find the WUSTL soccer blog

Stats for keyword searches in August 2010

I am really not sure what to think of this statistic, but there it is. Do you think another player will overtake Brian on searches? Leave your prediction in a comment below.

WUSTL vs MO Science & Technology [scrimmage]

2010-08-30T09:57:00.000-05:00

In the second scrimmage of the day (August 25), the WUSTL Men's Soccer team took on the Miners of Missouri Science & Technology. The game started quickly as MacChamberlin was able to finish a corner kick to the put the Bears up 1-0 at the five minute mark.

The rest of the first half play was fairly even with both teams playing well, but neither able to change the 1-0 score. However, early in the second MO S&T was able to even the score with a quick blast from about 30 yards out that beat freshman keeper, Michael McCarthy. The remainder of the second half the Bears continued to fight but could not get another in the net until the last five minutes when Nik Patel made a good run down the line from the left back position and was pulled down just outside the box. From that, a serve was put into the goal mouth with Zac Query and Harry Beddo combining to put WUSTL up 2-1.

More photos are available in the WUSTL vs MO S&T photo gallery.

WUSTL vs Carthage [scrimmage]

2010-08-30T09:22:00.002-05:00

On the morning of Wednesday, August 25th WUSTL Men's Soccer hosted Carthage College a preseason scrimmage game. It was a tough game with Carthage starting strong and getting a couple good shots off in the first few minutes. Andrew Serio pulled out two good saves to keep the game scoreless. About 10 minutes in a good through ball tied with a great run by a Carthage forward put him all alone to our goal. Serio was once again ready and made the reaction save off the initial shot. Unforunately the rebound went directly to the Carthage attacker who faced an open goal and put Carthage up 1-0. That was the only scoring of the match.

Because it was not an official game we were able to modify things and played three 35 minute periods. This gave both teams a chance to see more players get significant time on the field. The play we saw from WUSTL was good. We played with a lot of engergy up top and strong defending. Although the coaches have found some places where we will improve, it was a good sign for the first week of practice.

More photos are available in the WUSTL vs Carthage photo gallery.

Quick Feet: Cutting the ball

2010-08-29T16:30:00.000-05:00

A key to playing at the college level is being able to maintain possession of the ball, especially in tight places. One skill necessary to do this is cutting the ball (change of direction) quickly while keeping the ball close and under control.

Watch the video and pay attention to how Cody keeps the ball under control and close to himself. The ball changes direction quickly and is kept under the body. Lots of quick touches helps with this control. In the 20 seconds that the ball is moving, there are 38 touches on the ball and it changes the direction 15 times.

If you want to improve your ball skills, work on having quick feet, cutting the ball, and maintaining complete control all at the same time.

WUSTL over Florissant Valley 5-1 [scrimmage] [updated with photos]

2010-08-24T22:11:00.005-05:00

The WUSTL Bears came out of the first scrimmage game of the season on top in a big way. The final score of WUSTL vs Florissant Valley was 5-1. The Bears got on top early as Peter Jebson hit a rocket in the 7th minute.

The first 20 minutes of the game was pretty well dominated by the Bears. In the 31st minute Marty Schoen put in what would be the game winner. With only a minute or two left in the first half, Chris Weinstein found Joey Glass breaking all by himself towards the goal. Bears up 3-0 at the half. The second half started with Flo Valley coming out hard and fast. Getting a shot off in the first few minutes. But the Bears held strong and fought off the attack. Unfortunately ten minutes into the second half and our keeper and central defender are indecisive with their passing, neither apparently willing to just whack the ball to safety and we give up an easy goal.

Fortunately in the 66th minute Dylan French and Joe Huvde combine to make it 4-1 for WUSTL. By this time the game has deteriorated a bit from the good soccer that was being played at the start of the match, but that does not stop Bryan Gonnella from finding the net one last time to make the final score, WUSTL Bears 5 & Florissant Valley Fury 1.

For (almost) real time updates about the WUSTL Bears Men;s Soccer, follow along on Twitter.com/WUSTLsoccer. If you don't have a Twitter account, you can get the same updates sent to your mobile phone via test messages by sending the message, "Follow wustlsoccer" to 40404 from your phone. Of course text messaging rates will apply, so check with your provider to see how much this will end up costing you.

~~More photos will be posted at a later time.~~
Photos from the game have been uploaded to the gallery "2010 WUSTL vs Flo Valley" on SmugMug.

Below is information about the photo service I use and how to save an image to your computer.

The service I use to host my photo galleries is SmugMug.com so don't be surprised if you see that name. The full resolution file of each image can be downloaded for free from SmugMug. Simply click on the thumbnail of the image you want and then mouse over the larger image on the right. Menu options should pop out over the right side of the photo. The bottom one will look like a folder and clicking on it will save the original size to your computer. One can then take the downloaded image and have it printed at their photo lab of choice, print it at home, or upload it to their own place on the web.

SmugMug also partners with a very good professional photo lab. If one chooses, prints can be ordered directly from SumgMug. People often ask if they can pay for my services but I don't want to get into that. So as a compromise I have set low prices for prints where I do make some money on each order. If you feel the need to pay me, Thank You for purchasing a print through SmugMug. That is why the prices are higher than the local Wal-Mart. Well that and the prints are better quality than Wal-Mart. ~Jeffrey

A week in, what are the players' thoughts?

2010-08-23T22:19:00.000-05:00

The first week of practice is over. The players have survived temperatures and humidity that has pushed the heat index well over 100 degrees. They have been at practices that have started at 6:15am. They have been at practices that have ended after 10:00pm. They have worked hard on the hill. They have improved their skills with walls. They have enjoyed cold chocolate milk and ice baths after practice. It has been a good week.

With that two seniors, Alex Neuman and Andrew Serio each shared their thoughts on this year's team.

Two freshmen, Nik Patel & Michael Flowers, also let us know a little bit about the difference between soccer at high school compared to what they have experienced at college.

Men of WUSTL Soccer 2010

2010-08-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

Mac Chamberlin - Class of 2012

Practice began a few days ago and on the first day of meetings we took a few minutes to grab a photograph of each player. They have all been uploaded for your viewing pleasure.

If there is a specific image you like, be sure to let the world know by clicking the Tweet or Like button below it.

As always the images are set to allow downloading a high quality copy. Just click the thumbnail and mouse over the image on the right. A menu will slide out and if you click the bottom folder icon, the image will download.

What Future Will You Write

2010-05-22T06:53:00.002-05:00

This is a great video by Nike on Writing The Future. All of you strikers out there should pay special attention to Wayne Rooney's effort to get back and defend instead of pouting over a mistake. Of course my position of Keeper coach may bias my opinion a bit.

Spring Games Report

2010-04-21T06:46:00.001-05:00

Paul Neumann has provided another wonderful wrap up and report from the spring games against St. Louis Lions PDL team and St. Louis University.

Another lovely spring soccer weekend in St Louis. First, a huge thank you to the Chamberlins who welcomed 25 players and 25 parent squad members to their home on Saturday night. We feasted on Italian food with brownies and ice cream for dessert, and a good time was had by all. Second, another big thank you to freshman parents the Fishers and Altepeters for bringing drinks for the crowd on Sunday and Gatorade for the players as well. Brownie points (so to speak) to Susie Altepeter for making cookies and brownies that tasted so good they were probably illegal, and to Kevin Privalle's "architecture mom" for bringing two pans of brownies that players inhaled after the SLU game as well. We also had lunch in the stands at intermittent times on Sunday with the players (Joe commented that he thought maybe we should have food at every game, so this may need to become a spring tradition).

A great time with over 30 parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins in attendance representing 11 states. Mike Hendrickson, looking a bit bleary eyed after an early morning flight following a late night in LA, gets the distance award once again but the Querys promise to challenge it come this fall when they hope to be with us from Switzerland for a game or two. The Pomranka girls who came for the early game also merit special mention for cuteness that, btw, was not inherited from their Dad. Excellent training for the parent squad for next season all in all.

In late breaking news, buoyed by their on field performance the prior day for the the Men's soccer team won the Athletic Talent Show Monday night for the third year in a row. A dance routine put on by our fabulous freshman and cheered vociferously by the older team members apparently carried the day. The team reportedly was disappointed by Joe's absence this year from the athletic staff talent show group and will have to sustain itself with you tube viewings of last years performance. A you tube link to this years group will be provided by someone in the Junior suite later this week.

Now, on to the game reports. As always apologies for errors or omissions.

the first game saw the Bears take on the St Louis Lions, a Professional Development League team of ex college players, at Francis Field. My personal take prior to the game was that while the Lions would probably have good individual skills, as an adult team they would be disorganized and run out of gas in the second half and the Bears would prevail. That was quickly dispelled 20 minutes before game time as 15 in uniform players plus goalies began to warm up for the Lions in a cohesive way. It was obvious the Bears were in for a good game.

The Bears opened up in a 4-4-2 with J Smelcer in a cameo role in goal for the first half, Chris Bechler, Ted Altepeter, Jack Fisher, and Matt Shelton across the back, Joey Glass, Steven Spanos. Peter Jebson, and Zach Hendrickson in midfield and Kevin Privalle and Zach Query up top. It was fairly even, well played game for the first 15 minutes with both teams moving the ball well but the defenses holding shape and not providing much offensive opportunity. the Bears had a couple corners early and a little bit more offense. Their was free subbing and James Underwood came in at a wing and Brendan Magowan into the back line as well. 20 minutes in a ball came to one of the Lions about twenty yards out and with a defender on his shoulder he touched the ball up into the air and then volleyed a yard inside the right post to give them a 1-0 lead. The Bears quickly rebounded and with control of the midfield by Steven and Peter began to get shots up top. With about 10 minutes left in the half Kevin played a thru ball into the box to Zach Query who slid and hooked the ball around the onrushing goalie into the left side of the goal. The Lions countered with a free shot from 15 yards that Smelcer, proving he still had it, parried with a dive to his right and pushed the ball around the post for a corner and preserved the tie as we went into half time.

In the second half Kenji subbed into the middle for Steven and John Hengel and John Smelcer came up top with Andrew Serio in goal. the Bears dominated play for the first 20 minutes with a number of shots. Peter Jebson had a deft chip from 25 yards that beat the goalie and came off the cross bar and five minutes later Kenji ran onto a pass from John Hengel, slid and beat the goalie only to have the ball kick off the right post. We held shape well defensively, passed it well thru the middle and won our share of 50-50 balls. As the game progressed the Bears began to tire and the Lions got back into the game. with about 15 minutes remaining they took a shot from 20 yards out that was blocked by a bear defender but fell right to the feet of a Lion 10 yards from goal who buried the ball in the back of the net. 5 minutes later off a corner the Bears won two headers in the box but the ball fell to a Lion 12 yards out on the back side of a goal who one timed a volley past the keeper to make it 3-1. Despite the end score the team had to come away with a good feeling in being competitive with a older and well tested team.

The second game kicked off at 3 at Hermann stadium at SLUs field. There were about 150 people at the game with about 1/3 being Wash U fans. Again a 4-4-2 was in order with Serio in goal, Randy, Alex, Harry and David across the back, John Duncan, Mac, Cody and Zach H in the middle and Dylan Roman and Pat up top. It was obvious about 10 seconds after the opening kick that SLU had great team speed and was going to use it to try to pressure the Bears into mistakes in the defensive end. SLU controlled the ball for most of the first 10 minutes and had a couple of corner kicks but no real chances on goal. Alex headed away one of the corners and Harry put the other one out of harm's way.

The Bears then started to get in the game and stretched the field offensively. Dylan had a couple of nice runs where he got to the end line and turned the corner on the defender but we did not connect on the subsequent crosses. We had free subbing and Steven Spanos subbed into the middle, Kevin and Zach Q subbed up top and the game continued at a 50-50 pace. Zach did a nice job up top playing with his back to goal and controlling balls that were played up to him and put Kevin thru about 30 minutes in but a SLU defender snuffed it out with a great tackle before he got a shot off. 5 minutes later Dylan off a pass from Mac and beat a guy out on the wing and centered the ball to Cody who slid and hit the ball off the goalie and a defender and it came out instead of going in. Joey Glass and Peter Jebson also subbed in for the Bears. SLU had a couple of shots during this time frame but we had better chances. just when it looked like the half was going to end in a tie SLU countered a Bears offensive thrust and Mike Roach took the ball up the middle and played a nice pass that beat our defense by about six inches and was one timed home by a forward from 15 yards past Andrew coming out on the play. A solid goal. the half ended 1-0.

The second half opened with SLU looking a little stronger than Wash U. They were again controlling play in our end and had a great shot from 18 yards out that Andrew pushed around the side post to keep it 1-0 five minutes in. 5 minutes later it became 2-0 with a long ball into the box that it appeared would be headed away but a SLU forward went up for the ball and it squirted off the two heads a foot inside the far post to make it 2-0 SLU. just when things were looking darkest the Bears rallied with some great passing putting together one touch strings that put pressure on to SLU. It paid off about five minutes later as Kevin Privalle received a pass wide from Steven, played it directly across to Zach at the 18 who ripped a shot off the goalie coming out who blocked it to Brian Wright who put it into the goal. the Bears were on the board.

Five minutes later we played a ball in to Kevin about 15 yards out who went right and beat one guy and with a defender screening the goalie put a ball upper V to tie up the game. the crowd went nuts. 2 goals btw represented twice the output of the last two years games at SLU for WUSTL . (this may be partially explained by the fact that one of SLUs central defenders who finished last fall, Tim Ream, is now starting for the NY Red Bulls at center back).

SLU countered in the 69th minute with a free kick from 35 yards that went on a straight line past the edge of the wall and into the top corner. It was an absolute rocket and one of the best goals I have ever seen live.

the Bears had several chances to tie it in the last 10 minutes with Dylan and having a run and a shot, Steven making a winning a ball and beating two players and taking a shot from 20 yards that went high and Harry off a cross from John Duncan laying a ball off to Pat at the 18 that also went over the goal.

it says something that when WUSTL had most of their team pushed up and SLU had a 3 on 2 break in the last two minutes they took the ball wide to kill the clock and make sure they preserved the win.

it was a great game and a great effort. Both games reflected a lot of hard work by the players over the winter both in getting in shape via track, the indoor training and the practices as well. We have a number of incoming freshman (one was observing the game) and a great group of returning players so the parent squad will have a lot to cheer for this fall. I hope everyone helps encourage their sons to do the work this summer needed to build on the foundation they laid this spring so they can pick right up from this weekend in August.

The schedule (which still could change) is up on the website. The first official parent squad event will probably be dinner with the team in Birmingham on September 5 and will be followed by activities the following double header weekend in St Louis.

More info will follow but it was great to see so many people this weekend. Have a great summer.

Go Bears!!!

paul

Links of interest:

Spring Games

2010-02-06T13:59:00.000-06:00

We have conducted the alumni game the last number of years on the weekend of the alumni reunions and the Thurtene Carnival. It has worked great to increase the number of alumni at our game because they could join a number of activities on campus. This year the track team is hosting the UAA championships that weekend. It really does not work to squeeze an alumni game in on that weekend. We will not get enough of a turnout on any other weekend.

Our game vs. SLU is scheduled for Sunday April 18. We have no set time, SLU has not coach. Joe has worked to try to get the game protected by those tending to the SLU program at the moment. More than likely Joe will know whomever becomes the new coach and every thing will work out fine. There will be a second game that day, details can not yet be quite determined.

Bears Receive NSCAA All Academic Team honors

2010-02-06T09:03:00.000-06:00

Both the Men's and Women's Soccer Bear Teams received NSCAA All Academic Team honors...teams must have a collective GPA of 3.0 or higher... a total of 575 schools were recognized. On the women's side, our Bears ranked 9th out of 333 schools with a 3.58 GPA...AND were 1st of UAA schools. The guys tied for 4th out of 143 schools...AND were also 1st of UAA schools. Wash U was 1 of 99 schools to receive academic honors. CONGRATULATIONS!!

This will have to help with recruiting

2009-11-30T20:50:00.002-06:00

I am not really sure how it all happened, but I cannot say I am surprised. I am happy that Joe is getting some well deserved attention. The video takes some time to load, but it is worth it.

Click here to watch full size.

Women’s soccer: Bears advance to Sweet Sixteen with OT wins

2009-11-19T07:15:00.002-06:00

Congratulations to the women!

Francis Field’s atmosphere was electric and tense this weekend as Washington University’s women’s soccer team defeated both Webster University and Illinois Wesleyan University in sudden death overtimes. With the victory against Illinois Wesleyan, the Bears advance to the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen for the fourth time in row. The Red and Green face Wheaton (Ill.) on Friday, at a to-be-determined location.

“It’s really exciting. Being in a class that’s won the UAA every year and been to the Sweet Sixteen four years in a row feels good,” senior captain Becca Heymann said. “But we really want to win [the national championship].”

Full Article: Women's soccer: Bears advance to Sweet Sixteen with OT wins

Losing 4 key ‘brothers,’ team reflects on season | Student Life

2009-11-19T07:11:00.002-06:00

Stud Life has a nice article about the seniors on the team.

The Washington University men’s soccer team ended its 2009 season on Nov. 7 at the University of Chicago. After finishing fourth in the University Athletic Association and not receiving an at-large NCAA tournament bid, games ended sooner than the close-knit group of players had anticipated.

“I think in terms of our win-loss record, [the season] was not very successful and not as successful as we hoped,” senior co-captain Nat Zenner said. “[But] we really became a family over the course of the year, and that’s something that I’m really proud of and something that in the long run is probably more important than the wins and losses.”

Full Article: Losing 4 key ‘brothers,’ team reflects on season | Student Life

Thanks for sending this out Paul.

WUSTL Players Named to All-UAA Teams

2009-11-14T07:08:00.001-06:00

Congratulations to Randy and Harry for selection to all UAA first team and to Nat, Alex and Cody for honorable mention selection. The link to the WUSTL site story is bearsports.wustl.edu that does a nice job of highlighting these guys.

Thanks Paul for sending this out.

WUSTL at Chicago

2009-11-09T22:33:00.001-06:00

The last game of the has a great summary by Paul Neumann. Some photos from the trip are available along with the official release and box score.

It was a lovely day for soccer today although the Windy City lived up to its name. 60 degrees and sunny but with a brisk wind blowing left to right on the field. the wind played a major role in the game as Chicago aided by the wind and familiarity with the field outplayed the Bears in the first half.
We possessed reasonably well in the mid field and defended well but all our touches in the offensive third went long and we created no chances on goal. The parent squad was well represented with parents from six states and along with various relatives (Morgans, Hengels, Schoens), friends etc. we had over 50 people in the stands.
The Bears played their normal 4-4-2 with David Klein, Harry, Alex and Randy across the back (Nat Zenner did not play because of a sprained ankle sustained late in the NYU game) Cody and David Kanoff in the middle with Zach and John Duncan on the wings and John Hengel and Pat up top. The defense was under pressure for about 1/3 of the first half and gave up a couple of shots on goal. One from 12 yards out from the right side, in about the 25th minute, John Smelcer had a great save on as he dove left to get a hand on the ball and deflect it along the end line where randy cleared it away from danger. About 5 minutes later a Chicago player beat their defender and took a shot from about 20 yards out on the ground just outside the far post.
the Bears subbed liberally in the half as Brian Wright came into the middle, Dylan Roman and Ryan came in up top and Mac subbed for Zach on one wing.
with the switch of ends the Bears came alive in the second half and put a reasonable amount of pressure on Chicago. Our best chance came when Dylan headed on a throw in and Ryan headed it to the far post but their keeper made a great save to push it wide. Shortly afterwards Zach beat his guy into the box and laid off a ball for John Duncan who crushed a shot wide from about 25 yards out. We generated a lot of offense with the wings and side backs overlapping and Cody and Brian won a ton of balls in the middle and John Duncan, Pat and John Hengel were very active winning balls up top so we generally dominated the game but did not score. Chicago defended very well on corners and free kicks so most of our chances came out of the run of play.
The overtime gave them back the wind but we played the period even and looked fresher as we had subbed more and I was thinking we would win it in the second OT when with a little over a minute left Chicago had the ball at our end with our defense set at the 18. We challenged for the ball about 22 yards out and they slid a pass into the box to a player who had two defenders with him. We won the ball and cleared, he fell over the ball as it went out of the box and that was the call. To say it was questionable is generous.
I will share a few postgame comments with you all:
from Arloa on the phone when I told her about the end of the game. "well, it kind of frames the season as we start with Illinois Wesleyan and end with this"
from Joe "this team did everything I asked them to, they practiced hard, showed up with a great attitude, and kept getting better. they didn't get the results but that happens sometimes. it has been a good season."
from Alex "to have a team that got along this well and played so hard and supported each other so much to not have a better record is just hard to understand."
It has been frustrating to see so many close games where we outplayed people result in losses or ties. Having said that the reality of this team is it is a wonderful bunch of players who are truly function as a team. You could see it the night before at the Zenners (wonderful food and thanks very much Ellen and Sheldon) and after the game at the Wisconsin food fest (thanks to Wrights, Hengels, Schoens, Chamberlins and some additional contributions from others as well). I think about 75 people ate and there were still a few leftovers.    The players truly enjoy each others company, don't have this group or that group, they just have one group that happens to be the whole team. it is a pleasure to witness.
We honored the seniors after the game presenting them with a ceremonial beer and a wustl FC shirt with we happy few etc. on it along with heir number. if someone who took pictures could post them that would be great.
Kudos to the Zenners for attending the most games this season, to Mike Hendrickson for most travel miles to watch the Bears play and to all of you for a year of unparalleled support for WUSTL FC. We had over 10 supporters at every away game and averaged over 20. Three games (Emory, NYU and Chicago) we had more people in the stands than the home team when the opening whistle blew.    We had so many people help out with meals and cookies and arrangements you can't even begin to list them all. So great season for the parent squad as well.
Please put April 24th on your calendars for the alumni game in St Louis. Time TBA with some sort of food/festivities to follow. There will also be a spring soccer game with SLU but no date is set yet.   Chamberlains, Neumanns, and I'm sure Mike Hendrickson plan to attend. Hope to see many others there as well. Have a great winter and we'll see you in April.
go bears!!!
paul

Loras Game

2009-11-09T22:28:00.000-06:00

A summary by Paul Neuman is below. For the WUSTL Athletic write up, please visit bearsports.wustl.edu or have a look at the Box Score.

A very good game with an unfortunate result. We had a dozen members of the parent squad in the stands. As I am sure all of you watching on video could see the Bears played our best soccer of the season in the first 45 minutes and came inches away from scoring on three occasions. They put relentless pressure on Loras in the defensive end and Pat, John Hengel and Cody with support from Nat , Zach and John Duncan on the wings took advantage of a three man back line to play balls into space and create multiple scoring chances.
In the second half we understandably tired up front and let Loras recover but our defense played very well and limited their scoring chances. A little less bend on the ball and John Smelcer would have saved the shot they scored on. Everyone can be proud of the effort and skill which the Bears demonstrated in this game. If they can bring that same intensity this coming weekend we should get a better result.
In Boston the Zenners, Laura Privalle and her aunt, Arloa (the brains behind my mouth as she puts it), Betsy Nichols and Matt Hemphill (class of '08) the Rancatores and Nazarians (parents of 2 non soccer playing suitemates of 5 of the juniors on the team) will be cheering on the Bears to victory.
In NY that group will be joined by the Beddos, Rita Corwin, Elie Zenner, Ethan Silver and Onyi.
anyone else on their way to cheer?
The bus got back just after 10 tonight but it will be a short week at school for the team as they leave Thursday morning for Boston. Alex reported there was a lot of studying going on during the bus trip home. Nice to know they had the energy to do so after the game they had played.
Go Bears!!!
paul

Alex Neumann Earns Academic All-District Honors

2009-11-09T22:25:00.004-06:00

Junior back Alex Neumann of the Washington University in St. Louis men’s soccer team and senior back Libby Held and senior midfielder Becca Heymann, of the No. 9 women’s soccer team earned ESPN the Magazine second-team Academic All-District VII honors, as announced Friday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Neumann has started in the backfield in all 16 games for the Bears and is one of the top defenders on a Washington University team that has allowed just 13 goals all season. He was a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) first-team All-South region selection in 2008, and is a two-time Academic All-University Athletic Association (UAA) honoree. Neumann has a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.85 as an economics and entrepreneurship double major. (Read more)

WUSTL vs Berry College

2009-11-09T22:19:00.000-06:00

The Washington University in St. Louis men’s soccer team closed out its 2009 home slate at Francis Field with a 1-0 loss to Berry College on a chilly Friday night in St. Louis, Mo. (Read more) (box score)

Photos available on www.jeffreyphoto.com

WUSTL vs Rochester

2009-11-09T22:18:00.002-06:00

No. 6 ranked University of Rochester spoiled Washington University in St. Louis’ Senior Day with a 1-0 victory in University Athletic Association (UAA) play on Sunday afternoon at Francis Field in St. Louis, Mo. (Read more) (box score)

Photos from the game are up on the web and available. Additionally are a few photos from the BBQ and the Parent Squad.

WUSTL vs Case Western

2009-11-09T22:18:00.001-06:00

The Washington University in St. Louis men’s soccer team took advantage of limited opportunities in taking down Case Western Reserve University, 2-0, Friday evening at Francis Field while the Bears honored longtime assistant coach Val Pelizzarro following the win.
(Read more) (box score)

All the photos from the game can be found on www.jeffreyphoto.com
Photos from the celebration for Val are also available.

WUSTL vs Fontbonne

2009-11-09T22:18:00.000-06:00

Photos from the game posted. Enjoy a quick Animoto video made from the photos. Try not to think too much about the music, I just chose it based on the length of the song.

Paul sent out this quick wrap up of the game.

Great win for the Bears. First 3 goal game of the season.
A big night for Marquette University High School alumni as Johny Hengel gets a brace (we think) and Brian Wright has his first varsity goal off an assist by Eric Walls, hopefully the first of many for both of them.
Nice to see lots of players on the field as Andrew Serio makes his first appearance in goal and there were contributions from a host of players.
Next up- Case Western on Val Pelizzaro night
Be there
Go Bears!!!
paul

Of course the official release can be found on bearsports.wustl.edu along with the box score.

WUSTL vs Carnegie Mellon University

2009-11-09T21:43:00.001-06:00

The Washington University in St. Louis men’s soccer team lost to University Athletic Association (UAA) foe No. 9 Carnegie Mellon University, 2-0, on Sunday, Oct. 11, at Francis Field in St. Louis, Mo. Carnegie’s leading scorer Ricky Griffin scored twice in the first half to lift the Tartans to the win. Read the entire release on bearsports.wustl.edu
View photos from the game> Or enjoy a slideshow.
(Please do not make any judgments about the music, I just chose a song that matched in length.)

Joe Clarke Selected to SLU Men's Soccer Half-Century Team

2009-11-06T06:40:00.000-06:00

Joe Clarke has been named to the Saint Louis University men’s soccer Billiken Half-Century Team, it was announced Wednesday by the Saint Louis University Department of Athletics.

Not only is he a fantastic coach, but Joe can play as well. Read the write up about Joe on the WUSTL Athletic Department page and the SLU press release for more information.

WUSTL at Emory

2009-10-05T09:08:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: Photos uploaded compliments of Chris Privalle.

Below is a write up from Paul Neumann. Photos are coming soon from Chris Privalle. Visit bearsports.wustl.edu for the athletic department summary and box score.

On a cloudy day in Atlanta the Bears were a ray of sunshine as they took home a huge 2-0 win over Emory winning for the first time in six years. The Eagles came in with a 7-1 record scoring almost 3 goals a game and giving up less than 1.

With an 11 AM kick off the WUSTL parent squad with 19 fans in the stands was equal to the Emory crowd at the start of the game (and much louder). If Elie Zenner had sat with us instead of on the bench we would have had them outnumbered. We had parents from six states in attendance. The Bears started slow with Emory dominating possession and putting pressure on early. The defense held steady and, 13 minutes in, the Bears had their second corner of the game. Cody played a great ball to the back post where Mac Chamberlin went up over two Emory defenders and headed the ball back into Harry Beddo in the middle at the six yard box with his back to the goal. Harry, with a modified bike, one touched the ball in a rainbow over the keeper into the back of the net and the Bears were on the board for the first time in four years against Emory.

Emory continued to play well putting together nice passing combinations in the midfield and going wide to the wings and swinging the ball back into our box. The WUSTL back four looked very solid throughout but with about 15 minutes left in the half Emory was awarded a free kick 28 yards out in the middle of the field on a questionable call. The Bears set a wall but Emory took one touch to a player off to the side who ripped a shot off Cody who was closing on the play. The ball ricocheted to an Emory player about 15 yards out, dead center of goal who controlled the ball and took a hard, low shot. Smelcer had a fabulous save as he dropped going left and caught the ball in flight. A big time save to preserve the lead. At the twenty five minute mark when Hengel and Wright subbed in together Frank Serio started up the "let's go cheeseheads" cheer. The Bears had a couple of chances prior to the half but nothing that promising and John Smelcer made two other solid saves in the last fifteen minutes, one off a shot from about twenty yards out that he went to the ground to save and another on a head ball from 8 yards that did not have too much on it that he grabbed at the right side of the net.

The second half began with the Bears having modified their middle to put tighter pressure on the ball and it showed immediately with more possession and better chances for the Bears. We had two good chances early with Harry (now playing mid field) putting John Hengel thru but his shot was stopped by a good save by their goalie. About five minutes later Hengel and Pat broke in together and John played the ball to Pat on the right who had a step on the defender. The goalie came out and Pat, under pressure, played a chip that was plucked out of the air by the Emory goalie to prevent a second goal. Emory continued to battle and with fifteen minutes left played a ball into the middle that was headed back towards the 18. One of their players stepped up and ripped a shot that went off the inside of the post and came out to the side. Their player controlled and from five yards took a shot that Alex blocked and it popped up and was grabbed by John Smelcer to snuff out the threat. A couple minutes later they had a cross from the right side that went over Smelcer past the back post but John Duncan coming back from his wing went up to head it away before it could be reached by the Emory player two yards behind him. A couple minutes after that Randy Schoen then took off on a run and was played the ball about fifteen yards out at the side. he controlled and took the ball to the end line, went one on one with their side back who he left in the dirt and came in on the end line to about five yards to the side of the goal where he took a shot that came off one of their players.

The Bears finally added an insurance goal in the 81st minute as John Hengel went in on a ball in the box with the goalie coming out and a defender closing, popped the ball loose from the scrum and hammered home a shot from 5 yards into an open net. Emory's final threat was turned away as Smelcer went up to fist out a ball that was played in from the side and all that remained was to watch the Bears kill off the clock. All 16 field players that went on the trip played and all contributed- particularly to the team defense- as well as nice passing and solid play in the second half. Kudos to Randy, Alex, Nat and David Klein who played the whole game at defense and gave up very little to Emory. Anything they gave up John was equal to.

Congratulations to all on a wonderful win. The Bears play next Sunday at home to a CME team ranked in the top 10 who won 3-0 at home against Chicago yesterday. It will be another tough contest.

I know Zenners, Neumanns, Mark Klein, Chris Privalle and the St Louis contingent (Smelcers, Kobayashi's, and Donnie Krause (Cody's grandmother)) plan to be in attendance. Anybody else planning to attend? Hopefully we can watch the Bears start off 2-0 in the UAA.

Go Bears!!

paul

Casual Team Photo

2009-09-29T06:45:00.001-05:00

Just for fun.

WUSTL at Greenville

2009-09-27T22:35:00.001-05:00

The team had an afternoon game at Greenville College on Friday, September 25th. For the write up, visit the WUSTL athletic department write up, or read the Box Score. Spoiler Alert: Bears won! 1-0 on a goal by Kevin Privalle. Here are the photos from the day. Please understand that these are not the best photos in the world. You can see by the long harsh shadows that I was shooting almost directly into the sun. That really messes with the contrast, color and lighting. That being said, enjoy!

View all the photos from the game on www.jeffreyphoto.com

Team Rock vs WU Club Team

2009-09-27T12:59:00.001-05:00

Team Rock faced a tough Wash U. club team on Thursday, September 24th. Here are the photos.

Stud Life: “Male Athlete of the Week: Patrick McLean”

2009-09-25T22:54:00.001-05:00

Look at who is the Student Life male athlete of the week, our very own Pat McLean. There is a very nice article all about Pat in this week’s edition of Student Life.

“Last week, sophomore forward Patrick McLean helped lead the men’s soccer team to wins against both Westminster College and Birmingham Southern College. McLean’s assist Wednesday and game-winning goal Friday were part of an offensive attack in which the Bears outshot their opponents 33-10 over the two games. After tying three of their previous five contests, McLean’s contributions let the Bears put together their first back-to-back wins for the season and earned him recognition as Student Life’s Athlete of the Week.” (read more)

More photos of Patrick

WUSTL at Principia

2009-09-24T06:50:00.001-05:00

Below is a game summary by Paul Neumann. You can also read the WUSTL Athletic Department write up or simply read the box score. Principia has a pretty dark field, so I did not get as many good photos, but you can see them all on www.jeffreyphoto.com

I am sure everyone has already read the game report. For 89 minutes it was a very good game. Principia was the fastest team wustl fc has played so far this season and put a lot of pressure on the ball as a result.

The Bears looked a little tentative in the early going but steadied after about 10 minutes and did a better job than Principia of passing the ball and going forward as a unit.

The Bears looked good overall and continue to improve their play. I was really impressed by our fitness as playing 10 v 11 for the second game in a row they played Principia even and continued to create chances in the offensive third during the last 18 minutes of the game.

The second goal for Principia was a bit lucky but Yaw (their best player on the night) took shots whenever he got a chance. Most of them went high and wide. This one went into a defender and took a crazy bounce into the far side of the goal. Our second goal to tie it up came off a PK following a foul on Pat McLean. For those keeping score at home it is the third goal of the season following fouls on Pat.

A great crowd, stands were full to overflowing with over 500 people at the game. The WUSTL women's team were great in their support for the guys on the field. Very nice to see.

I am anticipating a better result in Greenville on Friday. Hopefully with a Friday afternoon game the Bears will get some student support as well. Unless they have live stats we will sort out a way to e mail out game reports as they happen.

Anyone else planning on going to Emory for the October 4th game?

Go Bears!!!

paul

WUSTL vs Birmingham Southern

2009-09-24T06:35:00.001-05:00

Here are my photos from the game against BSU. For more information about the game, you can read the WUSTL article or take at look at the official box score from the game. Otherwise just enjoy the photographs.

Team Rock vs Bosnian Men’s Team

2009-09-22T06:56:00.001-05:00

Back in mid September Team Rock (a.k.a. reserves team) took on a local men’s team made up mostly of men from Bosnia. As is typical, this post is simply some of the photos from the game. You can see the rest of the photos in its gallery on www.jeffreyphoto.com

Photos from WUSTL vs Rhodes

2009-09-19T10:54:00.001-05:00

I don’t have a write up from the game, just photos. The official write up can be found on the WUSTL Athletics site along with the Box Score.

To see all the photos visit the 2009 WU vs Rhodes gallery on www.jeffreyphoto.com. You can choose the “Style” of the gallery in the upper right. I like to see them stretch as big as my monitor with the “Journal” style.

Below is a sampling of the 142 images I have from the game (trimmed down from the 448 I took). Click on each photo to see it larger.

Photos from Webster Game

2009-09-14T06:47:00.002-05:00

I don't have a write up, but hopefully these photos will do.

Labor Day Game updates

2009-09-13T08:55:00.000-05:00

As I am sure you all know by now the Bears came away with a win and a tie on the weekend at Dennison. The Rose Hulman game kicked off at 3 on Saturday with temperatures at about 80 degrees. WUSTL opened in a 4-4-2 with Harry and John Hengel up top, Zach at left mid, Cody and Brian in the middle, John Duncan at right mid and Randy, Alex, Nat and David Klein across the back and Smelcer in goal. The parent squad had about 30 people there including siblings with people from nine states. RH had a few more fans but we had traveled more miles to get there. Chris Privalle brought a camera and will be working out a way to post pictures on line.

We looked dangerous early with Zach feeding a ball into the middle and Harry putting a close range shot off the post 2 minutes in. John Hengel followed a couple minutes later with a shot over the bar. the next 20 minutes were more even between the teams with neither team able to put a lot of passes together and a limited number of scoring opportunities. Pat McLean subbed in for John Duncan after 20 minutes and harry moved to center back and Nat Zenner moved to right wing. The move paid off about 10 minutes later as a pass from Nat found pat in the box and he was taken down from behind setting up a PK. Nat Zenner converted with a shot down the middle as the goalie dove left and the Bears were up 1-0. Shortly after Peter Jebson, Mac and Ryan subbed in. Peter had a shot wide that was our best chance in this stretch. the Bears were fortunate to go in 1-0 as their 6-8 player missed an open header at the back post off a corner with about 3 minutes left in the half.

The second half started with our controlling the ball a thru pass down the middle to pat who controlled it after a scrum just outside the box. he was taken down and a free kick resulted from the middle of the field about 20 yards out. RH set up a wall and Brian Wright took a spot on the outer edge of it. Nat Zenner did a dummy run over the ball, Brian peeled off the wall and Cody bent a shot around the left side of the wall into the left side of the net. great play. goalie never had a chance.

With that the Bears started to play with more confidence and really controlled the play for the balance of the half but could not put another ball in the net. John was never really tested in the half. Kevin privalle, Kenji Kobayashi, and owen craig all made there varsity debuts during the period and all contributed. Kenji at center mid with a header out of the box off a corner and a couple of nice passes in the mid field, Owen at right mid and Kevin up top with a couple of one time shots off long balls in to his runs. Both went wide of the goal.

We followed the game with dinner at an Italian restaurant and milk and cookies at 10 at the hotel. The parent squad actually produced more cookies than the team could consume that night although I think they were probably gone by the time the bus got back to St Louis on Sunday.

The Dennison game opened with a bang. Same lineup as the day before except with pat up top and Nat at right wing. We had a great shot one minute in from pat off a cross that the goalie saved. On the subsequent corner Cody put a great ball up to the back post and an onrushing Nat Zenner headed it down and in to put us up 1-0. We had a great chance 10 minutes later as Nat crossed a ball across but pat missed a touch and John Hengel could not control off a lousy bounce and we went away empty. We continued to look dangerous but then Dennison got extremely aggressive with shoves, tackles etc that took us off our game. Dennison had a strong shot from about 20 yards out to the ground but John Smelcer made a diving save to take us into the half 1-0. Dennison was called for 10 or more fouls and had two yellows but by the end of the half the Bears were looking tired and DU had started to get confidence back.

In the second half we played stellar defense with Randy and David Klein doing a great job on the wings and Alex, Nat and Harry sharing time at defensive mid and center back spots. Both teams had a hard time controlling the ball due to divots on the field but Dennison spent a lot of time on the Bears end of the field. We had a couple of chances with Cody and John Hengel both taking shots and Alex hitting a ball from long range that had come out off a corner. with 10 minutes left Dennison missed a great opportunity with a cross from 20 yards out coming to a player at the back post who pushed his shot wide of the net. Just when it was feeling like the game was going to finish 1-0 they had a corner, wash u cleared and DU played a high ball into the box, we defended but the ball took a funky bounce and a dennison player hit a rocket shot from six yards out that roofed into the net to tie it 1-1.

WUSTL then had the majority of opportunities in the last 8 minutes and 2 overtimes. Nat Zenner put pressure onto the goalie outside the box with about two minutes left, and blocked the clearance kick but could not contol the bounce and one of their defenders cleared it away. John Hengel had a great run one minute into overtime beating his man and cutting in at the six but his shot from a tough angle went over the bar. Mac had a nice run and earned a corner but we went wide on the shot and the second OT ended with Zach's lovely corner fielded by the goalie as we came inches away from a touch for the goal. A frustrating tie.

So the Bears begin the season 1-0-2 which is a step up from last years 1-2 start. They have a lot of players that are contributing and two games coming up this week. Thursday at Webster and Sunday against Rhodes at Francis Field. Webster has dropped two games 1-0 and Rhodes is 2-0 on the season.

Go Bears!!!

paul

Exhibition Game Reports

2009-09-13T08:43:00.003-05:00

Here is the first of what I hope is a number of game reports on the season. You can get additional info on the WUSTL athletic website (www.wustl.edu and go to the athletics bar on the bottom left and then go to Men's soccer under choose a sport and with the student newspaper , Stud Life. the first article about soccer is at http://www.studlife.com/sports/2009/08/24/mens-soccer-faces-test-on-field/ My goal is for parents who live farther away to get a feel for how the games developed, what formation we played, key plays etc. all of the comments are my own and I apologize in advance for errors or omissions. So here we go on a new year.

The Bears played two 70 minute games against Missouri S&T a DII school at Francis Field last night. The first kicked off at 5:30 in a light rain that turned into a heavy rain about 10 minutes in but diminished by halftime. Both teams played their varsity subs in the first game.

The Bears opened in a 4-4-2 with Joey Glass and Peter Jebson up top, Macmillan, Query, Wright, and Grandin in the midfield, and Kanoff, Okorafor, Craig, and Shelton in the back with Smelcer in goal. Chris Weinstein and Eric Walls who just got his medical clearance subbed in about half way thru the period. The first half was pretty even with both teams passing well and most of the action taking place in the middle 2/3 of the field. The midfield controlled the ball well, spreading the ball to the wings but neither team got anything going offensively. Missouri had a few shots from long range but Smelcer controlled everything easily to keep the game even at the half.

In the second half both teams subbed freely with Serio in goal, Zenner in back, Hengel in midfield, and Duncan up top and David Kanoff moving into central midfield from the backline to start along with 6 of the original starting 11. Two minutes in Andrew Serio went up to gather a corner and was bumped by a Missouri player. He jammed his hand and came off the field with his little finger askew. Fortunately it was dislocated and Mike, our erstwhile trainer, popped it back in and put it in a cup of ice and he will be good to go by next week. David Wilson came in for him in goal and played the rest of the game. he was really not tested during the half. We got a little offense going in this half with Peter Jebson and a shot from long range, John Duncan with a volley in close that was blocked by a fullback and 15 minutes in John Hengel won a header out to Ryan Grandin who went just outside of the post from about 15 yards. John's head got scraped in the process and he came off with a bit of blood trickling down his face and after he got cleaned up and watched some of the second game drove himself in to get stitches. He will also be good to go by Tuesday.

We continued to control play pretty well. Brian Wright had a shot go over the bar, Mac had a good cross into the box that no one could put a foot on and with 2 minutes left we had the best chance for either team as we swung the ball from right to left with three passes across the 18 and Brian Wright was played in and hit a left footed shot from 12 yards out that the goalie had to fist over the bar. The game ended with a 0-0 tie.

The second game started up at 7:30. Their were over 150 people in the stands with about an even split between the fans. The Smelcers, Cody's grandmother and Aunt and about 70 students for WUSTL so a good turnout all in all. A vocal student fan base and a couple of Alex, Randy, Duncan, Harry, and Andrew's suite mates are planning to start WUSTL FC FC (football club fan club) this year. I assured them the parent squad would be supportive.

Our starting eleven was Smelcer in goal, Schoen, Neumann, Zenner, Klein across the back, Cody Costakis a transfer from Bucknell at right mid, Kanoff and Beddo in the middle and Zach Hendrickson, channeling his inner surfer on the left. John Duncan and Pat McLean were up top. I did not recognize Pat as with another 1/2" of hair he could have passed for one of the original Beatles but he played the same. This was Missouri's fourth exhibition game of the season and it was a well played, quickly paced game. They had a shot early from close range and then we played pretty even thru the middle of the field. We had a good chance about 10 minutes in as Zach beat his guy on the left side, passed it in to Pat about 10 yards out who turned his guy and got off a good shot that went just over the bar. We looked well organized at the back with the midfield providing great defensive support. They pushed the ball down our wings a couple of times but we kept them out of our box without much problem. Brian Wright, a freshman subbed for David Kanoff after about 12 minutes and he and harry won a lot of head ball sin the middle of the field. John Duncan had a good run about 20 minutes in but went wide of the goal and Pat went over the bar about 3 minutes later. With 10 minutes left in the half Missouri played a ball in to our box that went off one of our players and bounced out to the corner of the 18 and set up perfectly for one of their players who one timed a volley into the far side of the goal. Great shot but really against the run of play. Peter Jebson subbed for John Duncan and Mac for Cody at around the 10 minute mark and Alex and Harry switched spots. Three minutes later we won a corner and Zach delivered a perfect ball that Harry headed at the back post but their goalie made an excellent save to push it over the bar. They headed away the subsequent corner and we finished the half down 1-0.

Zach Query started the second half in place of Brian Wright and David Wilson subbed in at goal for Smelcer. Missouri controlled the first five minutes with a number of runs at our defense but it held the 18 well and David came up with a couple of stops on long shots. We got our legs back and started to threaten with Harry, John and Pat passing the ball well in the middle and using Zach and Cody on the sides. At about 10 minutes Brian came back in for Zach. We had another chance thru Pat Mclean that went wide and Nat Zenner played a great cross field ball 50 yards in the air to Cody that he controlled on the fly and went into the box but their defense rose to the occasion again. Peter Jebson and Mac subbed again with about 15 minutes left. With nine minutes left Missouri had a great counter breaking down our left side and with three players running at the two central defenders found an open player at the 18 who went 2 yards wide of the post. three minutes later the play repeated only with a header going wide. peter Jebson had a nice run by a couple of players only to be stopped at the 18 and then Pat went wide with a shot. Missouri had one other good shot with about 5 minutes left but David made a clean stop on the ball. The game ended 1-0. A fair result I think as the first half could have been 0 or 1 but the second half could have seen them score a couple of goals if they finished better.

We looked good overall. Their defense was fast and well organized and both the goalies they played were good keepers so there were no offensive gifts to be had. We passed the ball well, had a good shape, and found players with passes in the right spots but simply did not score. A lot of people, including some new comers played well. Joe said afterwards he was pleased with the pace of play and our passing.

The first game is on Tuesday against Illinois Wesleyan followed by the games at Dennison. The IW game will be streamed. I can't be there but am hoping one of the parents who attends can fill us in on the details. We have about 25 people planning to come out to the Labor Day weekend games. The traveling squad for these games (and reminder to all parents it changes thru the season) will probably be notified on Wednesday or Thursday (they leave Friday morning). I am sure the stands at Dennison can hold as many as we bring so if you can be a late addition to the group that would be great. Look forward to seeing a number of you in Columbus.

Go Bears!!

paul

More than just soccer

2009-04-28T21:49:00.001-05:00

As was proven last year, the WUSTL Men's soccer team can do more than just play soccer. This year at the WUSTL athletic department talent show, the men proved they have talent. Click the video to watch or follow this link to see it in higher quality. For a different camera angle, fewer heads in the way, but without the Neumann commentary, click here.

Not to be outdone, Joe and other anonymous athletic department staff, decided to showcase their talent.

ECCC/SLU Game Reports

2009-04-27T21:24:00.001-05:00

By: Paul Neumann

On a perfectly lovely spring night in St. Louis on SLU's equally lovely grass field your Bears played a double header. The first game featured the Warriors of East Central Community College (Decatur) as the competition. There were no refs so players called their own fouls and directions on throw ins which worked very well for the most part.

The Bears opened in their standard 4-4-2 with Andrew Serio in goal and controlled the flow of play early. We had a quick shot in the second minute by Kevin Privalle off a feed from Joey Glass that went high. We continued to dominate the middle of the field as Peter Jebson and Chris Weinstein won a lot of balls. Joey and Kevin were active up front and played well off each other but we failed to score until about 20 minutes in when Kevin centered a ball from the right that Joey controlled about 12 yards out and took one touch and then beat the keeper with a well placed shot.   The Warriors countered with their first significant offensive foray of the half with a push down the center and a shot that was blocked by Andrew Serio and picked up by a player (clearly in an offside position according to a number of well positioned spectators) who scored from three yards out.
After 30 minutes the first half concluded with a 1-1 tie. Michael Rao opened in goal in the second half. The Bears continued to control the play. We had numerous chances down both wings with Dylan Roman on the right side and Chris Weinstein making a number of runs and putting balls into the middle. About 20 minutes in Kevin made a nice run onto a thru ball and was open at the 18 and shot past an onrushing goalie but went just wide of the right post. The ECCC team was tiring (numerous kids cramped up ) but had a couple of good runs only to be thwarted by a very heavy touches by their winger to give up the ball to the goalie without actually getting a shot on goal.   the Bears had a number of chances in the last 10 minutes and finally, with a minute remaining, Cody Costakis (transfer from Bucknell) had a nice corner which was headed on goal by Harry Beddo. the goalie could only block the shot and John Hengel was there to put in the game winner as time ran out.

After a short water break the second game against SLU came on. I am short on chronology here because there was no running clock so some general comments that maybe Mike Hendrickson who came in from LA for the game can add on to. A well played game also without refs. They played two 40 minute halves. Generally SLU was the better team with 60-40 possession and more runs into the box. They were very fast (an order of magnitude faster than anyone we played in the fall) and connected well on cross field balls and long passes. We did a good job of holding our shape, never broke down on defense, were able to often double the ball (had the guy doubled on SLU's second goal but #26 for SLU was fast enough to go by two people in 20 yards get to the end line and cross for the header).    Randy and Dave Klein played the wing defenders almost the whole game until they were subbed late. Nat, Harry and Alex rotated between the two center defenders and one of the center mids. John Hengel, Pat McLean, Cody, Chris Weinstein and Peter Jebson shared time at the other center mid spot and Pat, John, John Duncan and Kevin Privalle late played up top. Zach and Cody opened on the wings and looked good both on offense and help on defense.    Zach had a number of plays where he beat his man to the inside at about 40 yards out but we were unable to convert them into good offense. John Duncan and Chris Weinstein and Joey Glass spelled them in the second half.
The teams played two forty minute halves. SLU scored after about twenty minutes on a fluke goal from a soft chip from 10 yards that deflected off Nat's chest and went about 15 yards up and came down into the right corner of the net for the score. We had a couple of chances in the first half with John Duncan going over goal early and one on a defensive miscue in the box where Pat stole the ball but could not get a clean shot on goal. The half ended 1-0 and after five minutes for water they resumed.

Their second goal was absolutely legit and came as one of about 10 attacks down Randy's side that were relentless in the second half. We defended them well overall with Smelcer pulling down a couple of balls but generally allowed very few shots on goal.   Our central defenders headed out a number of crosses and controlled others that they played up to the mid field to bring it out of our end. Smelcer snuffed out one opportunity memorably as he snatched a ball that was crossed from about six yards wide in a great reaction save. We had a couple of chances late with one run by Chris Weinstein into the box, another off a pass wide to John Duncan at about the 18,a run by Pat, and with about 5 minutes left Kevin bumping a SLU player off the ball and carrying it into the box but going wide with the shot.   We did not get off really good quality shots as their defenders closed very well. SLU was more physical and probably benefited a bit from no refs (one sequence had the SLU player fouling Pat, Pat fouling him back to take back the ball and the SLU player falling down (probably from embarrassment) and claiming a foul) but we could have probably gone harder to some of the balls.   Andrew Serio played about the last 15 minutes in goal.   Kudos to John Duncan (subbing for Randy who had a cramp) for a defensive clearance late even as he was being pulled down from behind.

A fun game to watch and I think the players had a good time playing in it. Everyone seemed positive after the game and the conditioning and practice they had put in over the last few months showed to good effect. As Joe said afterwards, if we could play about 35 games like that it would really benefit our team.    Hopefully everyone puts in the same kind of effort over the next few months.

I hope everyone has a great summer and we look forward to seeing you next fall.

Go Bears

For the rest of the photos from the game, please click here.

To view the video of the ECCC game, click below.

To view the video of the SLU game, click below.

Alumni Game Write Up

2009-04-19T19:48:00.003-05:00

By Paul Neumann
(with additions by Jeffrey Pomranka)

On a pleasant spring day in front of 25 parents and grandparents, about 20 students and spouses and children (there ought to be a bonus point for the alumni team for every kid they bring to the game) 23 alumni took the field on Saturday. The group included this year's seniors minus Craig & Pierre, the latter who was away running in a track meet where he placed first in the 100 meters and second in the 200. Ethan, Onyi , Elie, Matt and the always charming, Brian San Francisco came from last year's class and a wide variety of other year's including two players from the 80s also played. Three players from the 60s were also in attendance but did not take the field. They combined to provide an enjoyable test for the WUSTL FC players nearing the end of spring practice sessions.
A number of the WUSTL players ate at Mangini's to do carbo loading on Friday night in front of Saturday's game. Many of the alumni team gathered on Friday evening with Joe at Blueberry Hill to do carbo loading made possible by their immunity from the 48 hour rule.

The game was played in three 30 minute segments with unlimited substitutions. Kevin Brege said before the game that the alumni were going to the hockey system with line shifts every couple of minutes on the fly. Although they did not start the game in this way by the second period they were subbing on the fly and by the third period many of the substitutions came after a few minutes on the field.
I apologize in advance for any details I mucked up in the report that follows as the green jerseys with different numbers and a lot of new faces off of team Rock were confusing.

The WUSTL student team opened up in a 4-4-2 with Smelcer in the goal, DK, Harry, Nat and Randy across the back, Alex at defensive mid, Cody (a mid year transfer from Bucknell) at offensive mid, Zach and Kevin Privalle on the wings and Hengel and John Duncan up top.
Goalie coach Jeff Pomranka (class of 91 i.e. last played almost 20 years ago) started between the pipes for the alumni, with Hemphill and Silver at defense, Elie and Cliff in the middle and Onyi and Eric Hill up top. Not sure of all the other players. Jeff preserved a shutout for the first 10 minutes and then (due to injury by a viscous sniper attack) was replaced with Ryan Kruse. The alumni subbed liberally through out the period.

The first period was fairly level with most of the action between the 18s. Duncan and Hengel made some runs but were stymied by Matt Hemphill who may have lost some of his endurance but none of his defensive chops. At about 15 minutes in, the students scored as Pat McLean got loose in the box and chipped Ryan to the far post as he came out to challenge. That gives Pat a two game scoring streak carrying over from the Chicago game winner in the fall. The student team subbed en masse after about the first 20 minutes with Joey Glass coming in at a wing, Peter Jebson in midfield, Chris Weinstein at one of the backs, Pat McLean up top, Owen Craig at another back.
Both teams looked good and it was fun to watch. (Bruce Brege commented that there were a couple thousand collegiate games of experience represented on the alumni team so it was no wonder they held shape and passed well). Elie and Marshall won a lot of balls in the middle and the alumni maintained possession for stretches but could not find much offensively. Andrew Serio opened up in goal for the second period The alumni cam close to equalizing with a rocket form 20 yards but Andrew tipped over and the subsequent corner was cleared out of the box. The students had a couple of good chances but Nat Zenner went over from about 25 yards off a ball dropped out to him off a corner and Peter Jebson missed with a lovely chip from the 18 off a nice feed from Cody.

Ryan Kruse was forced into a number of saves off of shots from Hengel, Duncan and McLean but the defense held. Offensively, the alumni struggled in the final third with a couple of long crosses from Eric Hill finding no takers and two long runs by Onyi out of the back falling apart about 25 yards from goal.

The alumni then mixed up their team with Eric and Cliff moving back to defense and the defenders going up top. This almost paid off right before time as Kevin Brege broke down the wing and fed a great ball thru on the ground to a sliding Matt Hemphill who touched it six inches wide of the right post presumably demonstrating there is a reason Joe played him at defense all those years.

The third period kicked off at 1-0 and the alumni beginning to look a bit winded. Michael Rao, a freshman, took over in goal and Smelcer came in up top with Pat McLean. this duo connected after about 10 minutes with Pat breaking the ball onto the back line and crossing to Smelcer who calmly slotted home from 10 yards out. This was sufficient to secure his bet with Jeff as to which team would emerge triumphant. (I now owe the keepers a rib dinner.) the students had three other good chances late with one threat called off on a very close offsides call as Harry broke free on a thru pass, a second off a ball across the goal mouth from John Duncan that just missed being headed in, and the third with Smelcer being denied from six yards out.

The game ended 2-0 in a light rain and then adjourned to a post game meal of barbecue, salad, chips and dessert for 85 in the alumni room at the AC. A great end to a great day.

If yo are interested in reliving the match, we have the recorded stream of the 2nd & 3rd Periods. We hope to have all home games streamed in the future.

Live TV by Ustream

Second Period

Alumni Game Photos

2009-04-19T12:25:00.010-05:00

The photos from the 2009 Alumni Game have been posted. As is typical they are up on my SmugMug.com account. For those alumni and others who have not looked at photos there, here is a bit of key information. I make all the photos available to download and use as you wish for free. To download an image, click on the thumbnail and a larger version will show on the right. Simply mouse over the image and you will see a menu bar appear. At the bottom is an icon to same the image. Click that and you will download the full resolution image. Free. Enjoy. Some very kind people have wanted to offer me money for the photos. That is great, but not necessary. As a compromise I have made prints available for sale through SmugMug.com. I have therefore set prices for prints that puts a little money into my account. However, I think you will see I am not charging much. I find them to be a very good printer and have always been very happy with the results. So to see the images, look at the Sports Galleries at http://pomranka.smugmug.com/. For a write up on the game action, view the "Alumni Game Writeup" written by Paul Neumann.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Jeffrey

Alumni Game

2009-04-18T12:34:00.000-05:00

The WUSTL Bears will be streaming at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wu-alumni-game

Photos from 2008

2009-04-17T21:02:00.001-05:00

Enjoy the video. Each player gets a dvd copy to treasure forever.

prep touch, technically correct instep strike, turn, fundamentally correct instep strikes combo

2009-03-10T07:42:00.001-05:00

preparation first touch and instep training

2009-03-08T16:33:00.000-05:00

self training turns in the walls

2009-03-08T14:18:00.001-05:00

self training insteps in the walls

2009-03-08T14:14:00.000-05:00

NCAA Playoffs

2008-11-17T07:07:00.003-06:00

If you want to follow the NCAA playoffs, there is a nice, dynamic bracket located on the NCAA site (link)

The WUSTL Women won both of their games over the weekend! Saturday they beat Principia 3-0 (link) and on Sunday they advanced past IL Wesleyan in penalty kicks. (link) The WUSTL keeper was fantastic, with seven saves during the game including a spectacular save off a delfected ball in the second half and then making two saves in the penalty kicks! You can follow the women's brackett on the NCAA site as well. (link)

The other news is that the press box finally has internet access and will be streaming games live next year. For the women's playoffs they used Ustream.TV (link) I will let you know if that ever changes.

WUSTL Soccer Gear

2008-11-17T06:57:00.003-06:00

While the Bears have ended their season (sniff) there is still more news to tell. The WUSTL Athletic Department has developed a partnership with a St. Louis company, FRI Resorces, to produce officially licensed WUSTL Athletic Gear.The site can be found at www.wustlsportswear.com. There is some great stuff and all is high quality in my opinion. I have also found that the items run a little large (at least the XXLs). You can also order items for other WUSTL sports.

Chicago Game

2008-11-09T08:42:00.001-06:00

The Bears found just enough yesterday to pull off a 2-1 win over Chicago with less than 2 minutes left in the second OT. It was a very cold day (43 and windy at game time and the temp dropped during the game). When I noted that it was a very happy pile of players on the field after the Pat McLean put away the game winner, Arloa commented that she thought they were just huddling together for warmth.

-we had over 30 parents, grandparents, and siblings at the game from 8 different states (9 if you count the state of Euphoria that Sheldon is still in after the election)

- we actually had higher attendance for our game than the volleyball match between the Bears and Emory to decide the UAA championship. It was probably a little warmer at the volleyball game but the Bears achieved great wins in both venues. We rewarded many of our loyal fans, celebrated our seniors, and thanked the coaches and Mike the trainer (he is not working on a book deal) at a get together for pizza after the game at the Knight Center. A huge thank you to Kathy Hill for making the arrangements and to Laura Brege for her heart felt words about the coaches and staff and the senior players and parents time as a part of WUSTL FC.

-as we were leaving the field someone commented that the scoring was perfect, the first goal by a senior and the final goal by a freshman to remind us all of the continuity we have in our program at WUSTL

-when Joe spoke after Laura about the team and the great work done by his staff this season I think we were all reminded how fortunate all of our sons are to have a coach that is passionate about the sport, knows the players are as well, and cares deeply about relationships that come out of the experience.

-happy birthday to two Johns, John Hengel who celebrates his 50th today with all his family in St Louis and John Smelcer who turned 21 this week and celebrated with a fully legal beer as did the seniors during our post game party.

- go to pomranka.net (link) for game pictures and senior photos from Saturday's game

-NCAA selections for the tournament get announced on Monday. We are a long shot but still have a chance after the win.

Game Report

We opened the game with a line up featuring 7 seniors (six players up top, Ryan in goal and 4 sophomores across the back line as Nat Zenner is still hurt) and played a high energy game with a lot of nice passes that culminated in a score with Eric Hill (who was playing with a bad knee) on our left hand side crossing the ball to Kevin Brege who put the ball over the keeper from about 12 yards out on a right footed shot. We had a couple of other chances in the first half on runs into the box but seemed to be thrown off our stride by a lot of pushing and chipping from the Chicago players. The center, probably affected by the cold weather, actually called more fouls on the Bears and awarded Chicago a free kick from about 25 yards out in the middle of the first half. They had a good shot over our wall but Ryan went up for the save and caught the ball to keep us up 1-0. He also had a lovely save on a very dangerous corner at about the 40 minute mark that was curving into the back corner but was pushed wide to deny the score. Just before the half ended we turned the ball over at about the 40 yard line and the Chicago player took two touches and hit a huge shot from 30 yards that went top shelf to tie the game.

The Bears came out with high energy in the second half and passed the ball very well thru the middle of the field and used the breadth of the field to both Pierre and Zach on the wings. We had a number of chances (Pierre on a header off a corner that went just left, Kevin with a run into the box where the goalie came up with the ball, Pierre with a ripped shot form the left hand side that went screaming over the goal) but despite the fact that we controlled the game and had 8 corners we could not score. We had one last gasp right before the end of regulation with less than 10 seconds left as the ball came out of our back and was headed forward by Marshal to himself at midfield who made a great run into the box but was denied by a defender who closed from the left had side.

The Bears defense played well through out the game with Randy and David Klein in support of the wings and making several runs into the offensive 1/3 and Alex and Harry anchoring the middle. Alex and Harry both won a number of headers in the box and Alex had a couple of clearances under pressure to prevent shots on goal.

We came out in the OTs and continued to put pressure on the ball, pass well and control the game. The Bears desire for in this game was epitomized by a very long ball down a wing that looked to be headed over the end line. Marshal, from mid field, took off and made up 10 or 15 yards on the defender and caught the ball just before the end line and played it off the defender to win the corner. It was amazing to watch and made even more amazing considering he had played over 90 minutes at that point in the game and still could will himself to go get that ball. Chicago was clearly playing for the tie but with 2 minutes left in the second OT John Hengel chipped a pass over the defense to Pat Mclean at about 40 yards out on the left hand side. He was held onside by the right full back and took the ball in full stride and took two long touches to the edge of the box and calmly chipped the ball cleanly over the onrushing goalie to put up the W for the Bears. Special mention to John on the assist as he made the play with a foot that had been stepped on in the first half, had his big toe nail partly ripped and had enough blood on his sock after the game that it made Curt Schilling look like a wimp in comparison. Nice to know both assists came from guys playing hurt at the end of a long regular season.

A good win for the Bears and a nice way to end the regular season

Go Bears- Allez Ours.

paul

Case Western Report

2008-11-03T06:02:00.001-06:00

On what turned into a lovely day weather wise in Cleveland, Ohio we had a disappointing result in yesterday's game. The game was, other than the last five minutes, very competitive but we just could not get anything to go in the net. We had a good turnout of 18 parents, grandparents, siblings and friends rooting hard for the Bears but it was not our day.

The evening before Jane and Ed Plow were hosts for a team dinner for both teams and parents. The food was great (the homemade Mac and cheese was a particular favorite) and the company was better. We continued the parent discussion on "how you met your spouse" and had Val tell us that he had seen his wife playing shortstop 60 years ago at a softball game and been impressed. They celebrated their 56th anniversary this year.

Before we begin with the game report a couple of notes:

congratulations to John Hengel for his selection to second team all district by ESPN Magazine
we are planning (assuming logistics can be worked out) a senior/loyal fan appreciation pizza party after Saturday's regular season finale. details to follow
the Bears currently fifth in the UAA can finish as high as third (see the game write-up at the WUSTL website for details) (link)

game report

We began the game in a 4-4-2 and looked very rocky off the start. We gave up 4 corners and 3 shots in the first six minutes but steadied after that. Joe then switched to a 3-4-3 and we began to consistently get wide and had a number of chances but could not get anything home. Our best chance was a flick on form John Hengel off a long ball into the box from Alex that went just wide of the post. just as it looked like we were going into the half at 0-0 Case had a long throw (probably about 35 yards) into the box that was flicked on and went side netting just inside the back post.

We came out the second half and immediately put a ton of pressure on Case. Eric Hill, Pierre, Nick Karr and Pat Mclean put a ton of balls into the box but the marking by Case was excellent and we had a limited number of clean shots all of which the goalie made saves on. The Case goal came against the run of play in the 65th minute off a ball that was shot from 20 yards out and blocked by a defender. the ball bounced came across our box and we got a foot on it to clear to the 18 where a case player picked it up, touched once and hit a great shot a foot inside the left post.

we had two great opportunities in the next two minutes, the first on a free kick from Eric Hill from 25 yards out that went over the wall on a curve but was saved by a diving goalie who pushed it just wide of the post. marshal had a good shot on the subsequent corner but the shot was again saved by the keeper. We pushed forward everyone offensively and the game became wide open with a lot of case counters that were stymied by a 3 person back line. marshal had a great chance on a scissor kick at about the 11 minute mark but it went just wide of the right post. They got their last two goals on counters in the last five minutes of the game.

We look forward to seeing many of you next week in St Louis. So far our attendee list includes the Zenners, Neumann's, Jane Plow, and the Breges. let us know who else is coming.

See you Saturday.

Go Bears- Allez Ours

paul

Photos from recent games

2008-11-02T09:57:00.001-06:00

It has taken me awhile to get photos from the past few games up on the net, but they are all there now and ready for viewing. It appears the last link of photos I posted was from the Emory game. So here are the links for each game since.

Starting with the NYU game. The example photo has to be one of Randy, because he has been phenomenal! For the gallery click here.

Next are photos from the Brandeis game. It is not often that I get a good action photo of Smelcer, so I am using this one. It was also nice to photograph a day game, the images are so much easier to make look good. For the whole gallery, click here.

Back to a photographing under the lights, we have the Dominican game photos. Do I dare use another action photo of John?

No, that would not be right. The team might see my clear bias for the keepers. Instead I am going to use one of of the seven shots I have of John Hengle spinning a defender and slotting the ball into the low corner. For all the photos visit the gallery by clicking here.

The last game I have photographed was the Maryville game. There are not as many photos from this game as others, because my hands were freezing holding on a metal camera. I think Mike, trainer, had the right idea.

However, I was able to get a couple fun shots. Just don't ask me what Alex is trying to accomplish in this image. For the rest, click here.

The only other gallery of photos I have is the group shot of the senior class. Both a serious and a relaxed shot. A couple other options are in the gallery, click here.

Sorry it has taken so long to get the photos up and posted here. I was looking at my photos and in the last half of October, I made over 2,000 images to go through, process and upload. That is just too much.

Dominican Game Report

2008-10-26T21:13:00.004-05:00

As usual, a great game report written by Paul Neumann.
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I have avoided writing this for a couple of days as the 25 parents and assorted fans got a reminder of how soccer can sometimes be the most frustrating of sports on Friday night. We had multiple chances to win the game but ended up with a tie, instead to a chippy (borderline dirty) team that the refs never got under control.

The WUSTL website did a much better job than usual writing up the game (link), so I will let you read that for the game report with a few highlights thrown in as follows;

-with it being parents weekend we were well represented with parents from 11 states and Cindy Clarke back in the stands after the maternal visit to her sons in LA. We got to see the Grandins for the first time this season and meet the Kanoffs and David Klein's mom, Rita Corwin, and Kim Duncan for the first time.

-I would have given Hengel an assist on Patrick's second goal because I thought he had controlled it after the rebound and dropped it off to Pat for the shot from the 18, but the official scorer had it differently.

-John Hengel's goal came against the run of play as Dominican had controlled most of the first fifteen minutes of the second half, and was a great effort by a newly shorn player (apparently not suffering from a Sampson complex) to beat his defender to the ball, dribble into the box, and spin at twelve yards and beat the goalie with a left footed shot to the right post.

-WUSTL had at least three good chances to score to push our lead to 4-1 in a 10 minute stretch, but we were beat by the post on Marshall's free kick thru the wall, a good save by the goalie off a flick on from about 6 feet, and Pierre going wide on Nick Karr's corner. We then allowed a goal on a header that looked like it was going wide and caught the inside of the far post. Dominican earned their third goal.

-WUSTL had the better chances in OT with the ball in the box a couple of times- once when Nat turned the corner but played the ball a little too far ahead and the second when Alex came up on a corner and had the ball at the side of the box with his back to the goal and was fouled but we got no call

-Good fan support from the students at the game with WUSTL FC chants and spelling out WUSTL (kind of like the Village people) so the cheering section is finding its voice anew

As I said a frustrating game. WUSTL gets its chance to get back on the winning track against Maryville tomorrow night and then travels to Rochester on Thursday for a Friday night game.

The Zenner's, Mike Hendrickson and Zach's grandfather and Onyi will be in Rochester and they and three Neumann's, two Schoens, Rose Beddo, and Bruce Brege will be joining the team for dinner at the Plow's in Cleveland and to cheer the Bears on to victory at Case on Sunday. Anybody else planning to be in attendance?

We will look forward to Jeff's twittering (link) tomorrow night. Hopefully one of the St Louis parents might give us a little more game insight.

good luck tomorrow.

Go Bears- Allez Ours

paul
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NOTE: Photos to come. As I write this, the video is being processed by vimeo and has a couple hours left. I will embed the video on Monday some time, until then you can find it on vimeo.com/pomranka (link)

WUSTL vs Brandeis video

2008-10-21T09:37:00.003-05:00

It took a little longer than I hoped to put together, but here is the WUSTL vs Brandeis game video. It is hosted on a different site, vimeo.com. Let me know what you think of it compared to ustream.tv

WUSTL vs Brandeis from Jeffrey Pomranka on Vimeo.

For the next game, I hope to improve the quality, get rid of the text on screen, and get it uploaded sooner. If you cannot see the video, try viewing it directly on vimeo. (link)

WUSTL FC Weekend Report

2008-10-19T22:53:00.000-05:00

On a lovely fall weekend, WUSTL FC came away with a pair of 2-1 wins against conference rivals to run its record to 10-3 on the season and settle in to a second place tie with Rochester in the UAA. We had 30 parents from 11 states in attendance at the games and as it was fall break at Wash U we made up a good part of the crowd, particularly on Sunday.

All four players who scored (Pat Mclean, Nat Zenner, Cliff Goldkind and John Hengel) had parents in attendance. Assuming this pattern could continue to hold we really need to concentrate on our turnout over the last 5 games of this season to cheer the Bears on to more wins.

We had a pizza dinner with most of the team on Saturday night. Thanks to Ellen Morgan for making the food arrangements and to both Ellen and Arlene Smelcer for bringing cookies for dessert. it was a fun time and every one went away full.

Joe and Val both had to miss the pizza dinner to attend the 35th anniversary celebration of the 1973 St Louis University National Championship in Men's Soccer. Joe was a midfielder for that team and Val was an assistant coach. It was the followup to last year's 35th anniversary celebration of the 1972 championship. Congratulations to both of you and we can hope that the Bears are able to add to your championship ring collection someday.

The next game is this coming Friday (parent's weekend at WUSTL) against Dominican, who WUSTL beat in the NCAAs last year in OT. They are 13-2 on the year and ranked right behind the Bears in the central region polls. We have heard from about 10 parents who plan to be at the game and hope to add more to the list. A win by the Bears would obviously be helpful in terms of the NCAA seeding process if the rest of the season goes well.

Game Reports

NYU

The game got off to a great start as NYU started play, back passed to the right side, WUSTL pressured, Pierre picked the ball out of the air, played it over his defender and then touched the ball over the next defender to put Pat McLean in on the goalie. Pat controlled the ball and slid it past the goalie with a left footed shot to make the score 1-0, 33 seconds in to his first start (Harry was out for the weekend with a significant foot bruise sustained in the Emory game). His parents had arrived about 3 minutes before hand after a 16 hour drive from Houston so the timing could not have been better.

The Bears were playing a 4-4-2 with John Hengel and Pat up top, and were working to go over the top to play the ball in to the corners and then center the ball. I think it is fair to say we had trouble executing the strategy and the first half was marked by a record number of give aways on our part. NYU controlled possession in our half of the field about 70% of the time. Despite this WUSTL played excellent defense forming a tight line at the 18 and turning away almost every attempt to penetrate into our box. Despite the possession difference we actually had the best chances to score, once on a two on two break with John and Pat working the ball nicely but coming up short of the goal and the second with Kevin Brege making a great run and receiving the ball at the 18 with space to shoot but the goalie collecting the subsequent shot.

In the second half we came out and played more possession soccer but seemed a bit tired after a half of chasing the ball. With Harry, Nick Wilbar, and Peter Jebson all unavailable for action the mid field subs were limited and we gave up a goal with about 15 minutes remaining off a solid cross from the right hand side that was headed cleanly into the back of the net.

We then came alive offensively with three good chances in the next five minutes. Nat Zenner was denied on a free kick form 25 yards out that was touched to the side of the post by a diving goalie, Eric Hill getting a good shot on goal but without enough pace to beat the goalie and Pierre beating his guy coming across from the left hand side and shooting a curving ball from about 20 yards out that beat the goalie but went just wide of the post.

The game finished in a tie. Overtime began with us immediately putting pressure on NYU as Pat Mclean was played thru into the right hand side of the box, the goalie came out for the ball but was unable to control it and Pat played it high in front of the goal but it was headed away before we could score. We controlled the clearance at midfield, played the ball down the right hand side again to Pat who was fouled. Nick Karr took the free kick and put a beautiful ball on to the six yard line at the back post. There was a scrum of players but one of the Bears slotted the ball into the back of the net. You could not see who had scored but when Nat Zenner came streaking out of the pack pulling his shirt off and was buried by his team mates at mid field we gave him credit for the goal. For the record, his mother would like everyone to know she was there to witness the event.

Brandeis

It looked like we were going to continue our early game scoring streaks as Ryan Grandin ripped a shot with under two minutes elapsed but the Brandeis goalie came up with the first of many good saves on the day to leave the game scoreless. The Bears continued to look the better team and with about 10 minutes gone Kevin Brege played a great ball from mid field 25 yards down the right hand side into space. Nick Wilbar ran onto it, hit a nice cross that went by two players in the middle but was collected at just outside the 18 at the corner of the box on the opposite side of the field by Cliff Goldkind, who hit a lovely low ball into the back of the net. His entire family (parents and three siblings) were in the stands so teh score was very timely in that regard. We continued to control play with a variety of chances that came up short. Pierre (who was simply too quick for his defender to think about stopping) and John and Pat all had chances but without success. Our second goal came as Pat McLean headed a ball down field to a streaking John Hengel who beat his man and held him off and beat the goalie from just inside the 18 to make the score 2-0. Brandeis then pressed and had a number of shots from out side the box but seemed unlikely to score and the half ended 2-0.

We got off to a quick start in the second half as Kevin Brege had two good chances, the first off a pass from Pierre putting Kevin thru on the goalie. He chipped him from about 15 yards out only to see the ball go off the top of the cross bar at the far post. three minutes later, Nick Karr played a great thru ball to Kevin but the goalie made a diving save to deny the goal. Pierre then had a nice shot saved by the goalie tipping wide of the post. A corner kick by Eric Hill followed which Randy one touched over the goal. With 4 good chances in 5 minutes we looked like we were going to put the game away but Nat Zenner went down with an ankle injury, we subbed for him, and as the back was getting organized Brandeis won a ball on the left, cut thru and played a player thru on John still on the left of the goal. John came out on the ball but the player hit a low ball that snuck just under Smelcer and rolled in to the back of the net. With the score 2-1 and Brandeis energized we played about even for the balance of the game. John Hengel had a crushing shot from about 12 yards out that the goalie got his hands up to save and a breakaway with about 4 minutes left that the keeper made a diving save on to keep them in the game. Brandeis's best chances came off of corners and free kicks. Smelcer punched one away, David klein cleared another off the back line, Alex Neumann cleared one out of danger, Smelcer went up to pull two out of the air and had his best save of the game about five minutes from time on a ball headed down off a corner that John calmly saved as it bounced up to him. Another solid game by the back line and a good win that shoulda/coulda/woulda been a blowout with a little luck and a worse goalie for Brandeis.

Regardless, the weekend finished with two wins and a tired team that has a bit of recovery time before next Friday's game. it was nice to see Nick Wilbar back in action and hopefully Harry will be ready to go by next weekend as well.

It was also great to see such a large turnout of parental support. Planning ahead you might want to check your calendars for Halloween night as we will be playing Rochester (in NY) for sole possession of second place in the UAA. The following night, the Plow's host a team dinner in Cleveland so you get free food (for one meal at least) to help offset the travel costs. Hope to see many of you in the next couple of weeks.

go bears- allez ours

paul

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NOTE: Photos from the games will go up on the SmugMug page in a couple of days. I had a wedding to photograph on Saturday between games and ended up with about 1,000 photos to sort through and process. I am also working on a better quality video experience (still not live) and will post a test video of the Brandeis game whenever my computer is finished rendering the file. Right now it has over 9 hours to go, so hopefully I will upload it Monday morning before work. It will be at http://vimeo.com/pomranka

Report on the Emory Game

2008-10-15T09:53:00.007-05:00

Good Morning to all of you.

Along with a good crowd of students and parents, family and friends we witnessed the Bears losing 1-0 to Emory yesterday (10/12) on a very warm day (for October) at Wash U. Looking at the game as a whole it was a fair result even though their goal was a little cheesy (no offense intended to our friends from Wisconsin by this remark). Emory, who started a lineup of almost all seniors, passed the ball well, was very aggressive to the ball in both ends of the field, and got the right bounces on a couple of balls. The first twenty minutes had the Bears playing almost all defense and having a lot of difficulty moving the ball out of our half. We recovered after twenty minutes and started playing more consistently and stringing passes together to allow us to bring the ball into the offensive end but other than Harry's header off a free kick and a ball to Marshall into space that took a goofy bounce that allowed the defense to close we had limited chances. Emory had a couple of decent opportunities including a shot with two seconds remaining that went about a foot wide.

We came out the second half looking like a different team. For the first ten minutes of the half we put pressure on Emory winning a couple of corners, having Pierre in behind the defense centering a ball that was just cleared over the end line by a defender, and generally looking like a different team. After this flurry, which failed to produce a score, Emory rebounded and had an excellent shot from 20 yards out off the crossbar, but it looked like we still might prevail. However, they scored on a corner (aided by a push in the box that I and the center missed) but my fellow observer John Hengel was very clear on. With that, Emory went into a defensive posture, with most of their team behind the ball and defended well during the final 17 minutes. Our best chances in this time frame were a cross to Zach Hendrickson who one timed a shot (from a very tough angle) that went high and a couple of efforts by Pat McLean where he beat his defender but got closed out by a second guy before he got a clean shot on the goal.

A good effort in a losing cause by the Bears. Everyone on the field played hard, and after the first 20 minutes we won our share of the fifty-fifties (Randy Schoen won about 90% on his side of the field) and looked dangerous in spots. This was undoubtedly a game we can learn from. Last year, after losing to Emory 3-0, WUSTL came back the next weekend to beat both NYU and Brandeis on their home fields and we need to do the same this weekend.

We get to play them at Francis Field this weekend so we have another chance to see soccer on a Friday/Sunday matchup. It is fall break so parents will make up a larger share of the home crowd than is normal. I think we have about 20 parents already confirmed and would love to add more to the list.

Sheldon is contacting a local Pizza parlor with a private room to arrange a team get together with parents for early evening on Saturday. We will keep you posted. We will look forward to seeing many of you next weekend as we look to get back on a winning track and know all the rest of you will be there in spirit.

Go Bears- Allez Ours.

paul
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Once again, thanks to Paul Neuman for the great recap of the game. For the official WUSTL game report, including the box score click here. For all of the photos from the game click here.

The video from the game has also been uploaded to the Ustream.TV WUSTL Soccer page. You can click here or just watch the embedded video below.

NOTE: The game footage starts with the lineup and playing of the national anthem. This is not good video considering there is no audio. Sorry. The actual game starts at the 4 minute mark. So start the stream, go get a bucket of popcorn and enjoy a very well played game.

Live streaming video by Ustream

Report on the CMU Game

2008-10-15T09:49:00.002-05:00

Another fabulous report on WUSTL vs Carnegie Mellon University game October 5, 2008. Sorry for the long delay in posting.
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Hey,

We have just arrived home from our family's long weekend sojourn to Pittsburgh where we witnessed spectacular fireworks on Saturday night (it was the 250th anniversary of the founding of Pittsburgh), visited the Warhol museum on Sunday morning (very interesting if you like Andy Warhol), and best of all got to see the Bears pull off a gritty, hard fought victory on the field on Sunday. I would take issue with the reporting on the game I have just read at the WUSTL web site in that it did not look like an upset to me or our English Football expert (Harry Beddo the elder) , it looked like the better team won.

We started in a 4-3-3 and the Bears got on the board early with a Cliff Goldkind goal that started off a ball that was centered by Pierre, touched by Harry to John Hengel in the box who laid the ball off back to Cliff just outside the box who one-timed the ball into the back of the net. At that point we were on pace to score 44 goals in the game. We ended up 43 short. The rest of the first half was relatively even with better passing by the Bears and a more physical style of play by the Tartans. CMU was better on defense than in the offensive third with good speed on the defensive wings and phenomenal in the air. They won about 80% of the midfield and defensive head balls. The ref was consistent with no calls both directions (including no calls on two hand balls- one each way- in a three minute stretch in the second half) and the game flowed well and was played almost exclusively between the 18s. CMU had two legitimate chances in the half, both with a couple of nice passes to players at the 18 who turned and shot, one went wide of the far post and the other went wide near post. Smelcer had one covered for sure, the other I could not tell. Our best chances came on thru balls into the box (Kevin had a great run on one ball that was about a foot too far from Pat McLean) and Pierre and Pat both beat their guys and centered balls but we never got a good shot on goal. We held our shape very well defensively with the back line defending at the 18 very successfully and the midfielders about 10-15 yards up field and everyone on offense and in the middle putting presssure on the ball.

WUSTL subbed much more than CMU (you could see the effect in the last 10 minutes) with Pat first coming on about halfway thru the first half as the point forward, Harry going back to central defense, Alex moving up to defensive mid and Marshal shifting out to the wing. Nick Karr, Kevin, Mac and Ryan also subbed in in both halves. Everyone contributed to this win.

In the second half we played even for the first 10 or 15 minutes and then CMU put on a huge push that lasted until about the 10 minute mark. We defended very well except for about a three minute stretch where it seemed like we were chasing the ball and CMU was winning every 50/50. They were still winning the head balls (Joe was telling our guys to win the second ball on goal kicks and punts) but we defended very well and they never were able to get the ball into an attacking position. Other than on corner kicks and long throw ins CMU was never successful in bringing the ball inside the 18 in the entire second half. They had two good chances in this stretch, one off a corner that was headed off the back post to the near post on goal but David Klein (in position we might add and with his Dad in attendance) cleared the ball to prevent the score. The second close call came off a ball that was headed high into the air from about 8 yards out towards the goal but John Smelcer went up high and with two CMU players crashing the goal left one on the ground and the other frustrated as he came away with the ball. Never a doubt. Everything else they had was long shots from outside the box that were either way high or easily handled by John. Again excellent team defense with everyone looking strong on the back line and at defensive mid and eveyone else staying in position and pressuring the ball. We were very consistent in doubling the ball and coming away with it on our sidelines.

In the last 10 minutes our subbing and fitness showed as Marshall, Kevin, Pierre and Pat put some nice combinations together to run at CMUs defense but we never got the last pass thru. With about five minutes left we switched the ball to the left side where Zach Hendrickson beat his man and centered the ball which was cleared over the goal line by a lunging defender right beside an onrushing Pat McLean to prevent a score. About a minute later Pierre had a lovely pass to play Zach thru on the goalie on the left hand side. Zach touched once and then hammered a shot from about 12 yards that the goalie managed a great reflex save on to keep them in the game but we held our poise and ran out the clock for the win.

We had 17 supporters in attendance from 6 states (including Mac's grandmother from Pittsburgh) and were probably 10% of the crowd but at least 25% of the noise. Pierre's mom was there to help us correctly pronounce Allez Ours (it really sounds a lot better when she says it). I was able to explain to one very obnoxious CMU fan that suggested "Pierre should be called Peter as that is how we do it in America" that in this case Pierre could be translated more simply to "I'm a better soccer player than you are". There was a great echo off the buildings on the other side of the field that helped the amplitude of our cheering. We had a lot to cheer about.

We will look forward to seeing many of you next weekend in St Louis. I understand from Sheldon that both of Nat's grandmothers are coming (I am looking forward to Elie getting them appropriately psyched up for this game) and I know we will have at least 25 other Parent Squad friends and family at the game. Jeff will be twittering I am sure and we will arrange some sort of longer e mail report at the half if possible.

Looking forward to another great game.

Congratulations on the great win players.

Go Bears- Allez Ours

paul

p.s. Injury update- Nick Wilbar who got tackled from behind in the IWU game and ended up with a knee injury is rehabbing well and will hopefully be back on the field soon

Team Rock vs Lindenwood

2008-10-05T20:05:00.004-05:00

Ok, so it has taken me a week to get a posting up about the game. Sorry for that. Things have been a little busy. None the less, on Wednesday, October 1st Team Rock traveled to Lindenwood University to take on their jv squad. It was a hard fought game with some very hard tackles against us, but in the end the only goal that was scored came in the second half when a Lindenwood player took a dive (my opinion) in the box a drew a PK. I guess that is the way the game goes some times.Be sure to check out all of the photos from the game on my SmugMug page (link) and in a day or two I should have the video from the game posted on UStream.tv. (link)

Game Report on Truman

2008-09-27T12:55:00.003-05:00

Below is an email from Paul Neumann that summarizes the Truman game on 9/26/08.
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Game report from Alex on what sounds like a very happy bus on the way home. they are eating pizza and about to stop for Gatorade etc. at a gas station.

Truman State was huge (a couple of players at 6-4 and 5 or 6 guys over six feet and fast. first half Truman State took it to hem, had a lot of corners had a header off the post and generally controlled play. Smelcer came up big on a couple of saves and kept pulling the ball out of the air to defuse threats. WUSTL gave up a number of free kicks in their half but played good defense to never let much develop off of them.

the bears playing a 4-3-3 with the same starting lineup as the Denison game (i think) countered a couple of times and got into the box but did not have any great chances. Joe "went big" about 10 minutes before the end of the half and switched harry back to center back with Nat and moved Alex up to holding mid. Pat Mclean went in up front. Kevin Brege, Nick Karr, Eric also played in the first half and Kellen (who won a lot of headers) and Mac also played (check the box when published to get this right- apologies if I left anyone out) Everyone played well and played very tough against the best team they faced so far this year.

The Bears started to control play in the second half and had a number of chances that were denied. With seven minutes left John Hengel broke free and was hacked down at the front edge of the box. Marshall hit a great free kick around the wall that knuckled and the goalie blocked but Hengel one timed a left footed volley into the back of the net.

Good guys win.

please feel free to add other details* from your son's phone calls after the game so we can get more detail into the mix

Go Bears- Allez Ours

paul

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*more details can be easily added in the comments section.

Notes on the Illinois Wesleyan Game

2008-09-22T20:02:00.003-05:00

Some would assert that the center of the sporting universe was in Louisville, Kentucky yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008) with the conclusion of the Ryder Cup but those of us with more interest in actually watching a sport where people sweat left town to go to Bloomington, Illinois. Parents got to see both the women’s team prevail 2-1 and the men record their fifth shutout in a row in a 3-0 win. (Incidentally, when I got there prior to the start of the girls game it appeared that many of the male players were busy studying which is always vaguely comforting to me as a parent.)

The Bears opened up in a 4-3-3 and the match was relatively even for the first 10 minutes, enlivened unfortunately by a very soft yellow on Cliff three minutes in (he had a foul before that but nobody even went to the ground on either challenge) that marked a day of very tight refereeing (1/2 the Denison team would have been on the bench by the half if we had this center a week ago). This was followed shortly by Marshall getting a foot to the face as he and another player got tangled up together and he sat down at the 14 minute mark. He was followed to the bench two minutes later by his substitute, Nick Wilbar, who got taken out on a tackle from behind (the center missed that one). Marshall was fine after the game- Nick has a strain on his knee which was wrapped and Mike (the team trainer who travels with the team) was going to look at it again today.

Nick Karr and Kevin Brege were then dispatched to mid field and both managed to remain unhurt and uncarded long enough to let Harry go just wide with a shot across the goal mouth followed shortly thereafter by John Hengel beating the goalie who was off his line with a shot from about 30 yards out. Pierre then beat two guys on the wing, cut into the box and beat two more guys in the box and then slotted the ball by the goalie into the back of the net. It looked like a replay of his run against Southwestern but with a happier ending. He scored again on a rocket from 20-25 yards out about 15 minutes later which was convenient as all I had to do was press redial on my phone to talk with his dad.

When David Klein was carded at the 36 minute mark he came out as left back to be replaced by Nick Karr. Alex moved up to defensive mid and Harry went back to center back in tandem with Nat Zenner. This was our back side lineup for most of the second half with Chris Weinstein playing in the other defensive half spot. There was a lot of subbing in both the first and second halves. All told WUSTL had 23 players on field, most for over 30 minutes, playing a variety of positions. The defense was solid throughout, with Randy Schoen, who won an awful lot of 50-50 balls, looking particularly solid at right back. At goalie, John and Ryan each had a punch out on a corner to remove potential threatening balls and John had a nice save in the second half reaching up to tip a ball over the top and Ryan had a save in the 89th minute on a shot from about 10 feet out (their best opportunity on the day) to preserve the shutout.

We had a number of good chances for our fourth goal in the second half. Kevin Brege was a half step short on one run with the goalie coming out and about five minutes later hit a shot that rebounded off the goalie back to Alex at the 18 who went over the goal. Kellen had a header that beat the goalie but went wide. Pat mcLean, a freshman from Texas, had a monster shot that started with a cross field ball from Eric Hill 30 yards out to Ryan Grandin on the right side of goal who one touched a volley to pat at the far post who crushed the ball on a volley. It bounced off the goalie hard enough it came all the way back out of the box. Very exciting to watch. The six players up front, no matter who they were did a great job putting pressure on the ball, forcing turnovers and not letting them start up an attack. A nice game of soccer.

The next game is against Truman State on Thursday A DII school who we lost to 2-0 last year and who are reportedly having a very solid season. We play our first UAA game on Sunday October 5th against CMU in Pittsburgh. The Beddos, Neumanns, Jane Plow, Elie Zenner and Onyi Okorofoar and possibly the Karrs and Zenners will all be there and we hope others will join us. For sure it is the closest the Bears will get to the East Coast this season. I think we will be hosting a tailgate or some type of food prior to the game so let us know if you can join us.

Go bears, allez ours.

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The above is once again taken from an email message written by Paul Neumann. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the game, therefore, no photographs. For the press relase along with the official box score please visit the WUSTL athetics website. (link)

WUSTL vs Fontbonne

2008-09-20T06:55:00.008-05:00

Here is the media from the Fontbonne game. For the press release including the box score, please visit the official WUSTL Athletics website. (link)

If you are simply interested in some still photographs from the game, I have uploaded them to my page on smugmug. (link)

We do have video from the game and I have made some tweeks to the settings to see if the choppy quality can be reduced. Unfortuantly I still do not have sound, but I hope it is better than nothing. Of course it is possible that by raising the quality settings I have made it more difficult to view without a very fast internet connetion. Please let me know what your results are. If the embedded video does not work, try the Ustrream.tv site. (link)

Live TV by Ustream While we have Ustream.TV to thank for hosting the video, we have Chris to thank for recording the game.

Summary of WUSTL Classic

2008-09-18T14:13:00.008-05:00

This post is a copy of the message Paul Neumann wrote about the previous weekend and includes a short PS from Sheldon Zenner. The added photos are from the ones I (Jeffrey) took during the Southwestern game. Sorry, I was not able to make the Denison game.

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Sorry for the delay in the update but we came home to a city without power due to winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike(which may take up to a week to restore) so schools and businesses are shut.
In any case on to the important stuff. The Bears had a great weekend with two shutouts in which they dominated play and played 24 players. We had parents of 15 players in attendance (representing 8 of the 17 states on our roster) and had a lovely time watching soccer. I think the Hendricksons get the furthest travel award coming in from LA but the Bruce Brege gets extra credit for coming in on a redeye via Chicago so probably got the most airline miles.
You can pull the statistics off the wash u website (Southwestern link - Denison link) as well as the game write-ups- things that they did not mention that might be of interest would include

- WUSTL FC played both games in a 4-3-3 alignment. The top 6 did a great job, particularly in the Denison game, of applying pressure on the ball in the offensive and middle 3rd resulting in a huge number of turnovers on the part of both Southwestern and Denison. Harry Beddo, who scored twice on Friday, was playing the point up top. John hengel, who had a brace on Saturday (and came oh so close to a hat trick) was playing attacking midfielder. The passing had improved greatly over the lst couple of weeks and there were a number of 3 and 4 one touch pass sequences in both games.
-Our wings were able to consistently get in behind the defenders and send crosses thru the box. Pierre Hoppenot in particular consistently toasted his defensive counterparts. Peter Jebson (who is both a Doctor and a soccer coach for a competitive club) commented on Saturday that the we were created lots of chances but needed to do more "clinical finishing" I am taking this in a soccer (rather than a medical) context but our GPG averages as well as the percentage of shots on goal are moving up so progress is being made. Hopefully we are saving some goals for the UAA games. The defense looked steady throughout and John Smelcer had a key save in the first half against southwestern and Ryan had a great reflex save off a corner about two minutes after coming into the same game to preserve the shutout.

We were glad to be joined by Cindy Clarke in the stands (who cheers vociferously and made a point of calling out naughty numbers 14 and 10 for Denison (one of whom was carded) as they attempted to beat up the Bears) Celebrity sightings included Tom Kruse and Paul Neumann chatting together before the Denison game.
We had a lovely breakfast at Jimmy's on the Park and our 41 attendees included 14 players who had foregone sleep in favor of food. We got to meet several of the freshman and gave them a warm parental welcome them as part of WUSTL FC.

The Bears play again Thursday against Fontbonne and then on Sunday away at Bloomington, Illinois. The Schoens, Zenners and Neumanns will all be at the Sunday game so we will arrange for either twitter or phone calls and e mail updates for Sunday. I assume Jeff will twitter the Thursday night game.
I will work on a parent/team dinner on October 18 (between the Brandeis and NYU games) as it appears a lot of parents will be in town that weekend. If you know you are coming let me know via e mail so we can get a rough count on how many people we will have. if you don't know you are coming, check your calendars and try to join us in St Louis. Hope to see all of you soon.

Go WUSTL, Allez ours.

paul

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And let me add, Congrats to Johnny Hengel, who clearly felt the pressure to perform in front of almost his whole family last weekend and accordingly was named UAA Player of the Week. The Hengels will have to attend all future games, obviously, and will have to tell their daughter, who is playing soccer at Creighton that she is on her own from now on.

Sheldon

To see all the photos form the Southwestern game, click here.

WUSTL vs Principia

2008-09-16T16:49:00.003-05:00

The latest technology that we are experimenting with is www.ustream.tv This site allows us to broadcast our games over the Internet for the wonderful price of FREE! While we have not gotten to the point where we can broadcast the games live, (give us a few weeks until there is an internet connection in our press box) we can broadcast them on a tape delay. The first attempt was with the Principia game.

The video quality is not great, and we have no audio but we will continue to work to improve. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Live TV : Ustream

2008 WUSTL FC Parent Squad

2008-09-06T11:00:00.001-05:00

Dear WUSTL FC Parents, players and friends:

Welcome to another wonderful season of Bears soccer. The team is currently 1-1 (more on that later) but will hopefully go over .500 tomorrow with the Westminster game. Sheldon is otherwise occupied so I am putting out this year's first parent squad news bulletin and fall soccer planning guide.

The weather so far has not been too sweltering in St Louis and all of the freshman appear to be surviving the entry into their collegiate soccer career. we saw several of them in Birmingham and am sure will get a chance to meet more in St Louis soon. We also look forward to meeting their parents in the stands at Francis field.

We have heard from at least 20 parents so far that will be coming into St Louis for the Washington University classic next weekend. As the games are at 8 o'clock each night a team dinner after the games seems like a non starter but for parents who are interested we will plan on a 9:30 on Saturday morning brunch (your kids won't be up yet) somewhere in Clayton. Place to be announced.

The Varsity Reserve is also playing tomorrow at Francis field. The schedule is subject to change but Jeff is posting a schedule at wustlsoccer.com

Additional events during the season that are still in the planning stage include a Sunday tailgate/brunch in Pittsburgh prior to the CMU game (with a special guest appearance by last year captains and this year NYC residents Elie Zenner and Onyi Okorofoar), a team dinner in St Louis either Oct 18th (NYU/Brandeis weekend) or the 25th (parents weekend) depending on when the most parents will be in town, and a team dinner on November 1st at the home of Jane and Ed Plow in Cleveland. They are also offering overnight accommodations (they certainly appeared sober at the time) for the night as well (I think that is for the parents not the team, Joe)

I am sure as we get into the swing of the season other opportunities to get together and support the Bears will present themselves.

for those who have not found it yet you can go www.wustlsoccer.com to see additional info as well as link to the game photos courtesy of Jeff Pomranka our goalie coach and photographer extraordinaire. Jeff is kind enough to make these available to all of us as free downloads so new screensavers are just a few clicks away.

Michael Hendrickson, one of our freshman parents is working on trying to do video streaming on games that are being filmed so all can join in via the web.

If any players see parents not listed (or anyone from last year wants to drop off the list) please e mail to add or delete names from our list above.

For those of you who did not make it to Birmingham and who would like a more detailed account of the games than what is on the WUSTL athletic website here goes:

This past weekend WUSTL FC played three halves of soccer worth writing about and one that was painful to witness and undoubtedly more painful to be a part of.

On Friday at 5 with 90 degree heat on a beautiful grass field the Bears got off to a fast start. Coming out in a 3-4-3 with the side midfielders having defensive responsibility the team controlled the ball from the get go. Cliff Goldkind had a shot off the post inside three minutes, followed by a corner where the goalie had to come up huge to save a header nodded down to the goal line by Harry Beddo. The team continued to dominate but did not get on the board until about 15 minutes in when Ryan Grandin put a ball thru the keeper's legs to score. 3 minutes later Grandin hit a ball that hit the crossbar that bounced down and out of the goal to be picked up by the keeper. Joe substituted liberally and at least 20 players played 10 minutes or more during the half. it ended 1-0 with WUSTL having allowed no shots on goal and with what should have been a more rested team.

The second half saw WUSTL come out flat in much cooler weather and we played pretty much even until Sewanee scored on a goal that came up the middle with Alex running with the forward who got off a shot and it ricocheted off JS's legs (who was coming out on the ball)into the goal. that seemed to energize Sewanee who began winning more balls in the middle but WUSTL played them even and had more shots but with about 13 minutes left a Sewanee player about 22 yards out hit a shot that hit the crossbar and bounced down and in to let them go up 2-1. WUSTL pressed and had some good activity with balls thru the box that no one could quite reach. The game was put out of reach with 3 minutes to go when Sewanee played a long ball thru the middle and the Sewanee forward beat Nat and Alex to the ball and took it around John coming out of goal for an easy tap in.

it ended at 3-1 with WUSTL scoring once off 25 shots and giving up 3 goals on 6 shots. An inauspicious start to the season but as Onyi reminds us not something they have not done during season's past (say 1-0 to St Norbert's or 2-0 to Truman State last year)

We shared a nice dinner the following night at Lovoy's Italian restaurant with the team, coaches and 11 parents and had copious amounts of garlic bread, salad and a variety of pasta. Two hours later as Arloa and I were walking into the lobby after a walk to digest our meal many of the team were down getting snacks, desert etc. They were certainly not in any calorie deficit the following day.

They came out on a hot (90 degrees) looking purposeful in a 4-4-2 and controlled play for the first 15 minutes against Birmingham Southern but were unable to score. With BSC's first opportunity they went up 1-0 on a beautiful flick on off a player's shin guard from a corner at the 6 yard box that went far post. John never had a chance on the ball. Rather than folding at that point WUSTL stayed with the game, the defense with Nat, J Flo. Randy and Nick Karr was solid and we looked about to score as Harry went just wide at the 30 minute mark. We went in at the half down 1-0 but looking slightly the better team. We came out in the second half and put pressure on steadily. the goal came as Pierre beat his guy down the left sideline centered to Harry whose shot was turned away by a defender. Marshall controlled the rebound about 8 yards out with his back to the goal and a goal side defender on him. He pinned his guy, turned him and beat the keeper to his right with a low ball into the goal to even the score at 1. We then proceeded to play 15 minutes of sublime soccer with chance after chance on runs by Marshall, Kevin, Pierre and John Hengel with a variety of just misses on headers and shots as the ball came thru the BSC box on a steady basis. We could not keep up the pace and went thru about a 10 minute stretch of even play which ended with Kevin Brege beating his guy to a free ball at the half line and plying it to Pierre who put him thru with a lovely ball down the right wing that Kevin touched twice to the 18 and curled a nice soft ball past the defender to Kellen who was steaming down the middle. kellen controlled with one touch turned his defender and beat the goalie from 8 or 9 yards out.

The last 10 minutes were tense as BSC put everyone forward. The defense was steady and Cliff and Nick Wilbar were stellar in the midfield with David Klein and Eric Hill on the wings winning balls and headers on a regular basis. We dodged a bullet on a free kick from 40 yards out that JS went up on and collided with a BSC payer and the ball came down and was bouncing to the goal only to see Randy Schoen clear it out from 3 yards out. A minute later we almost put it away as Nick Wilbar played Harry thru on the goalie only to see the ball go just wide of the goal. with about a minute left the side judge missed an offsides call (he had two players to choose from) but Alex slid thru to send the ball out of our six yard box to allow a throw in which we defended successfully three times as the game came to an end. A well deserved victory in a game that could have been a repeat of the Friday game but was not. Very nice to see such a tough response to adversity. It made for a much better bus ride back to St Louis.

We look forward to seeing you all soon and know that those who can't be at the games are there in spirit.

go bears. allez ours

paul

Team Rock vs Mizzou

2008-08-31T09:29:00.003-05:00

The varsity reserve team (a.k.a. Team Rock) played the University of Missouri club team on Saturday, August 30.
Mizzou does not have a varsity soccer team, so their club team can often have some decent players. Not to mention that Team Rock is made up of freshmen & sophomores, so Mizzou was definitely larger. We also had two subs and I think Mizzou had enough players for two teams.
That being said, I feel our boys played very well. At times it was apparent that we have only been together for two weeks, but there is a lot of potential in these players.
While the varsity team was away this weekend, there was still some great soccer on campus!
Unfortunately due to my parental duties, I was only able to stay for the first half of the game. While I don't know the final outcome of the game at about 5 minutes into the second half Mizzou was up 4-2. If you have more information about the game, please add it in the comments.

To see the rest of my images from the game, click on any of the photos to visit my Smugmug site. (link)

Here is the reason I was unable to stay. My two girls are the blonds with their friend Jaeda. Mia is the younger one (4) and Olivia is 8. They did a little cheering during the game, but Olivia was upset that I did not introduce her to the team.

Photographs

2008-08-26T21:31:00.008-05:00

I was killing time, surfing a little, checking email when followed a link to my Google Alert for WUSTL soccer. The link led me to the Emory student newspaper which has a nice ad on the side to get photos that are in the paper. Being interested in photography I thought that was pretty cool and followed the link. After all, I need to kill a little time while my own photos were downloading off my SD card and into my computer.

So off I went and immediately clicked the link to see the soccer photos. There are some pretty nice photos up there, but I noticed something right away.
The price of a 4x6 inch photograph is $10.99! Wow! I guess that makes the $1.00 for one of my 4x6 prints sound like a bargain. Plus, I allow the full resolution image of my photos to be downloaded free of charge. So have them printed at your favorite photo lab, that is alright by me.

After I settled down I realized $11 is probably not so bad and I might do the same if it were my livelihood. I also figured I would take this opportunity to make sure you know that the photographs on my SmugMug site are available to download for free.

Simply click on the yellow folder that pops out when you mouse over a photo. It might also help to have the "Style" be set to "SmugMug". You should be able to change the style with the drop down menu that is on the top right side of the web page, just below where you see Jeffrey Pomranka Phtography.If you don't see the Save Photo icon, look below for a text link "save photo" that is below the photo in all other views.

If, however, you do feel like purchasing a photo from my site, Thank You! I do make a little money from the purchase and that will help pay for the hosting of the site. Unfortunately, in the two years I have been using SmugMug I have not sold enough to even pay for 1 year of fees. I do this for the enjoyment I get from making the photographs, I don't want it to be work.

I hope you enjoythe photos as much as I do. Feel free to browse around, as I will be adding photos from all the games I am able to attend (typically I don't travel). New photos will be uploaded to the WU Soccer 2008 Galleries section. For those who care, you can also link to the photo or send a link to a friend, just use the "share photo" button.

Thanks for reading this slightly off topic post.

Jeffrey

WUSTL 3 - UMSL 2

2008-08-24T20:51:00.007-05:00

In the first pre-season game that I was able to attend (my day job really gets in the way at times) I got to watch the WUSTL Bears put up one in the win column. Since this game is not listed on the official WUSTL Soccer page, I will give you a couple quick stats.

NOTE: Clicking a photo will take you to that image in the gallery for this game.

If my memory serves me correctly, the first goal of the match was scored after some great ball work down our right flank from Kevin Brege to Harry Beddo who played it accross to Pierre Hoppenot. Pierre beat a defender and found himself with a spit second all alone infront of the goal and easily put the ball away.
UMSL did come back in the first half with a fluke of a goal that caught John Smelcer a little off guard. Let's just say that the turf was very bouncy. However, I will now take the opportunity to put in one of my favorite photos of John from the game.In the second half, Harry put us up by one with some fighting for the ball in front of the net. UMSL did not stay down and evened the score score to 2-2. With only five minutes or less left in the game we were able to put one more in the back of UMSL's net although I am not sure who got credit for the goal. Some were saying it might have been an own goal. So here is a fun shot of Harry.
Sorry for not having the best recount of the game. Perhaps some of the players or fans who attended the game can give more insight in the comments. After all, I am more of a photographer than a reporter.

Speaking of photos, to see the ones from this game go to my Smugmug site. Here are a few more of my favorites.
Thanks for reading.

Jeffrey

An Incomplete Second Hand Game Report

2008-08-20T16:09:00.004-05:00

This morning WUSTL traveled to Lindenwood for a pair of scrimmage games. While I was unable to attend due to my day job, we were able to send a field reporter, Paul Neumann. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two sixty minute games- first game 0-0 but Wash U outplayed them

Second game – 3-4-3 configuration with Pierre up top along with John and Harry- kevin brege, David Klein, Kellen and Marshal in the middle, and Randy, alex n and Nat on defense and JS in goal- starters played about 35 minutes

4-0 UW- Kellen, Nick Wilbar, a freshman named Mac and someone else scored. Defense played well.

Linnwood was not that good despite a heavy presence of international players. (they have about 60 kids on their roster about 2/3 of whom are international)

They leave at 1:30 for bus to Quincy with the girls team- Kellen and Cliff are not going to prevent further injury- girls play first, boys game at 8.

Paul
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As you will quickly notice, the fourth goal has not been credited to anyone. Just to make things interesting (and to see if anyone is actually reading this) we are offering up a free WUSTL FC license plate to the first person who correctly identifies the player who put the fourth goal in.

Enter your guess in the form below.

Physical Exam Medical Packet

2008-06-24T20:18:00.005-05:00

All the players should have received the following message from Joe with information about the Physical Exam Medical Packet each athlete needs to bring to WUSTL in August.

Hey everyone

I hope you are all enjoying summer. Personally I want to find a bit more down and get away time before we all come together. I do encourage you to begin working on your fitness if you have not done so already. I promise it will be an important focus in our preseason.

Attached are a lot of forms from the training room at school. They all have to be completed in order to participate in our program.

It would be wise to get your material in early as there will be hundreds of athletes submitting forms in early August. Submission is your part then they have to be filed before you are on the field. Give your self the best position by early completion and submission.

Enjoy the final EURO games.

Cheers

Joe Clarke

To make things as easy as possible, a web page has been put up on the WUSTL Soccer Sites with all of the information and the forms each player needs to download, print, complete and bring. Here is a link to site.

Alumnus in The New York Times

2008-06-22T15:51:00.009-05:00

Ian Klaus is a WUSTL Soccer alumnus (1997-1999) who can honestly claim to have played internationally. Now it might not have been in a professional league, but he has a great story of his international game.

Ian stopped by a practice last season when he was in town promoting his book, "Elvis Is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq" on a book signing tour. He told his story about playing in a pickup game in Iraq. The story is so good it was in the New York Times.

An excerpt is below.

If you have any other stories of WUSTL soccer players, alumni, parents or fans, we would love to feature them here. Send a message to blog@wustlsoccer.com
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International Touch Lines

By IAN KLAUS

Published: June 22, 2008

A few years ago I spent a semester teaching American history and English in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The campus of the university where I taught has both a basketball court and a soccer field. The court was always empty, but the dirt field, with lines barely visible and netless goals, was frequently filled with players in mismatched jerseys and winter jackets who lacked for nothing in confidence or joy. Soccer is a sport I’ve enjoyed all my life, and the many invitations I received to play on that field made me feel welcome, not only at the university but in that part of the world. So last summer, when I returned to the region, I suspected it wouldn’t be long before the games began again. (continue reading)

The Beginning - 2008 Edition

2008-05-26T20:13:00.006-05:00

Hello to all the 2008 WUSTL FC Parents:

As we finish our Memorial Day celebrations we are sure your thoughts, like ours, have turned inexorably to the fall soccer season.

It kicks off in Birmingham, Alabama at the Birmingham Southern Classic in late August as Joe continues his search for the hottest/most humid places in college soccer following up on the Memphis and Trinity trips of last year. BSC has kindly arranged for accommodations at a local Sheraton at a great rate. Their e mail reads:

You may now call the Sheraton to reserve extra rooms beyond the 10 rooms/night that BSC will be providing. Call 1-800-325-3535 to reserve the extra rooms. Mention the BSC Fan Block and the dates to receive the $75 rate ($75 for 2/room, $85 for 3/room, $95 for 4/room). I encourage you to do this quickly because the Sheraton will have to release unused BSC Fan Block rooms at some point in the future. Cancellation of reservations is allowed thru August 26th.

We play Sewanee on Friday, August 29 at 5:00- they went 5-14 last year but have a great incoming freshman class including several ODP players and a recruit from the UK.

Our Sunday game is at 2:30 against Birmingham Southern (fondly referred to by Jesse Smelcer as the Bumblebees because of the black and gold uniforms) who we beat 1-0 last year at WUSTL. They certainly will want to return the favor.

A good start to the season will put us back into the top 25 at the D3 level so come if you can and cheer the Bears to victory. Anyone wanting to practice for the games can sit in a sauna for 90 minutes while cheering loudly. Cold beverages (water and Gatorade) during the game will be provided by the Neumann's who will be driving down from Louisville with a couple of coolers in the trunk.

We will plan to arrange a dinner with the team either after the Friday night game or possibly Saturday lunch.

Looking forward to a fantastic year of WUSTL FC games.

paul, sheldon and john

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Above is taken from a message sent by Paul Neumann on May 26, 2008.

Now just to give you a quick WUSTL FC fix, I put together a quick, poorly edited video from the spring season where we played Jefferson County Community College and SLU. It is mostly a test to play with my new video camera at a night soccer game. It is not much, but hopefully fun. Sorry that the music plays for quite a long time after the video ends. I did not notice that until it was uploaded and I have not fixed it yet.

If the video does not play well, see a smaller version here.

SLU Game Report

2008-04-24T14:45:00.004-05:00

NOTE: This post is provided by Paul Neumann.

Good Morning All,

Marco Molinari and I were both fortunate enough to arrange business in St Louis yesterday so we got to see the 3 team round robin with 60 minute games with slu-jefferson county community college, wash u-jccc, and wash u-slu.

The field was great and the weather was better.

The games were all ties, 1-1, 0-0 and 1-1 and your Bears acquitted themselves admirably.

As I was watching the SLU_JCCC game I was a bit nervous as both teams were very fast and JCCC in particular was very physical.

WUSTL FC came out in a 3-4-3 configuration for both games with the two outside backs in the midfield also having wide defensive coverage responsibilities.

JCCC began with resting some of their starters and Wash U was the dominant team and that continued throughout the entire hour. We had an enormous number of good chances and probably had a 15-4 advantage on shots on goal with their goalies denying us at least five or six times from inside the 6 yard box. The passing was crisp and we generally outworked and outplayed them even when they brought all of their starters back for the second half.

Everyone played for the Bears and Joe substituted liberally (their were no limits on substitutions)

Andrew Serio played goal and ended with a clean sheet. Notable shots I can remember were a ball played across the box from the wing to Harry who laid the ball across to Noah who missed just wide left, a sequence where we had four shots from Harry and Nick with the keeper blocking three and a fourth coming off a defender on the line, a header off a corner from Ryan that Harry headed down and the goalie made a kick save in the corner and Harry went over the bar on the rebound and the final shot of the game where they failed to clear off a corner Alex passed over a defender to Harry 10 yards out and the goalie blocked the shot, Harry headed the rebound and the goalie tipped over the bar.

In the SLU game, SLU dominated the first half. We were getting knocked off the ball up top and in the midfield and John Smelcer had at lest three exceptional saves to keep us level. About 22 minutes in SLU finally scored on a sequence of five passes where the ball only hit the ground once and the finish was Holmes from SLU flashing in to beat Smelcer to a ball about 8 yards out that he one touched out of the air into the top of the goal. As Ethan said "it was such a good goal you can't even feel bad about it"

3 or 4 minutes later the Bears responded with a sequence that started with Marshall in midfield holding off two SLU players to maintain possession, beating a third guy as he went sideways with the ball and playing a ball as fourth defender approached 30 yards outside to Alex Molinari making a run. Alex touched twice and played a cross to the six yard line at the back post where an onrushing Nat Zenner headed (with authority) into the back of the net. If you are scoring at home, assists to plow and molinari and goal to Zenner, n. (Elie did come dressed in cleats and looked ready to play but...)

In the second half Wash U steadied and played possession soccer. It looked like we were either in better shape than SLU or had just gotten a confidence boost. John made another couple of saves off corners but we got a couple of shots off as well. The first half was maybe 70-30 SLU
and the second half was more like 55-45.

Great contributions from all in this game as well. It seemed like everyone played at least an hour of the tow hours and the most anyone played was maybe an hour an a half. A very enjoyable evening. Should be a good harbinger for a wonderful season this fall. If anyone is in
Louisville this summer please stop by.

Thanks

Paul

p.s. best line of the evening goes to Onyi who commented when I asked how he had found time to break away from his studies to attend said that he had already memorized all the buttons on the remote so felt like he could take a break

Alumni Game 2008

2008-04-14T13:56:00.005-05:00

With occasional snow flurries and a steady 20 mile hour wind out of the west the bears and the alum battled to a 2 – 2 tie this past Saturday.

At the start the alum proved to be almost too much for the varsity controlling large parts of the first 30 minute period but wasting at least 5 excellent scoring chances. The Washington University team, on the contrary, while not getting forward nearly as well; was very efficient when they did so. Sophomore Ryan Grandin scored on WU’s first venture into the penalty area about ten minutes in; neatly finding the far corner of the goal from a moderate angle. About 15 minutes later the varsity added a second on a fine finish by Nat Zenner as he beat one defender and again tightly found the corner. In a bit of confusion the assist was credited to new alum Ethan Silver who was stripped clean as he tried his Rhonodo act on the edge of his box.

The Bears changed ten of their eleven starters as they began the second thirty hoping to run the alum into the ground.

The alumni with only thirteen field players, rotated wisely, on the fly. Then it what looked like a crushing blow, the alum lost veteran and now two time father, Dan Gansler, to stomach pains from the pace of playing with the younger crowd and lack of sleep. Notably and surprising the bookies, Gansler made it thru his thirty minutes of playing time without a yellow card. Perhaps he was on his best behavior as his mom and dad came down for the big game.

It seemed the alumni would succumb to the overwhelming numbers. The varsity gradually started to hold the ball for longer periods. The effort to get back on defense became rarer. Then against the run of play, Ethan Silver, showing no signs of his face reconstruction, and motivated to make up for his blunder, surged forward on the right wing. Showing dribbling moves Ethan had not shown in his four previous years at Francis took the ball deep on the right flank and then sent a great bending cross to the back post. True to the game no one headed the ball and it made its way to Mark Gister at the back half of the penalty area. In an excellent display of calm play in the box, and knowing his strengths Gister sidestepped one defender and got the ball on his right foot where it belonged. Like the marksmanship in the first period shown by the Bears, Gister also slotted the ball into the far corner leaving the keeper Andrew Serio no chance. You can see more moves from 2008 Washington University athletic department talent show first place winner, Ethan Silver,

The alumni, rode the energy provided by Silver and Gister and added the tying goal again finished strongly by man of the match Mark Gister. We have not seen the replay but the game record showed a great build up to the goal featuring a John Smelcer punt of 75 yards which bounced once to a onrushing Gister who volleyed it home from about the penalty spot.

The game went into the final 30 minutes 2-2 which is how we ended. While both teams had several great chances to finish the other off, the quality of shooting diminished substantially and every thing was within the range of the keepers. Both Serio and Smelcer made several good saves in the final 25 minutes. Yes the game was called early as the outstanding refs, Clarke and Pelizzaro, noticed several of the alums on the edge of blowing out something below their waste.

The airline debacle definitely cut into our attendance but we still had a good showing. The alumni included John Horky, Rob Weeks, Nick Kalschuer, Wil Cockle, Sergio Tripodi, Ethan Silver, Elie Zenner, Onyi Okroafor, Matt Hemphill, Brian San Francisco, Dan Gansler, Jim Patterson, Jeff Pomranka, and Mark Gister.

Thank you one and all for your attendance. I know there is financial and time sacrifice for you to come in. I would be more than willing to make this weekend even better for all of you coming in by adding another event to our reunion. Please give me your suggestions. I definitely want to change the after game to a sit down circular so the alumnus can catch up with each other. The hall of fame room is just not the best setting to communicate as a group.

Lastly I still think a face book type connection page for the soccer alum would be advantageous for everyone of you as a network resource. I do not have the knowledge to set it up. Who out there can help? Thanks

Joe Clarke
Washington University in St. Louis
Men's Soccer Coach

WUSTL Soccer

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WUSTL World Cup

Keepers training to not use their hands

WUSTL continues winning streak against Westminster

Sometimes there is blood.

Winning Weekend for WUSTL Soccer

Video of Cody's goal agains Central

Bears win in OT after controversial no call at Principia

WUSTL Comes back to beat Central College of Iowa

Men Win 2011 Season Opener over Webster

The Men of 2011

The Season In Photos

WUSTL Tops Central Region Rankings

WUSTL JV puts on 7-0 show over Greenville

WUSTL Over Rhodes 2-0 for 500th Victory

JV against Bosnian men's team ends in 3-3 draw

WUSTL over Greenville 2-0

WUSTL JV ties Wash U Club 2-2

Photos from weekend in Birmingham

Birmingham-Southern Tournament Recap: A fan's perspective

WUSTL Soccer beats Sewanee University 3-1

WUSTL ties Birmingham-Southern College 0-0

Bears win home opener over Webster 7-0 [photos added]

Live Webcast Schedule Set

Most searched WUSTL soccer player

WUSTL vs MO Science & Technology [scrimmage]

WUSTL vs Carthage [scrimmage]

Quick Feet: Cutting the ball

WUSTL over Florissant Valley 5-1 [scrimmage] [updated with photos]

A week in, what are the players' thoughts?

Men of WUSTL Soccer 2010

What Future Will You Write

Spring Games Report

Spring Games

Bears Receive NSCAA All Academic Team honors

This will have to help with recruiting

Women’s soccer: Bears advance to Sweet Sixteen with OT wins

Losing 4 key ‘brothers,’ team reflects on season | Student Life

WUSTL Players Named to All-UAA Teams

WUSTL at Chicago

Loras Game

Alex Neumann Earns Academic All-District Honors

WUSTL vs Berry College

The Washington University in St. Louis men’s soccer team closed out its 2009 home slate at Francis Field with a 1-0 loss to Berry College on a chilly Friday night in St. Louis, Mo. (Read more) (box score)

WUSTL vs Rochester

No. 6 ranked University of Rochester spoiled Washington University in St. Louis’ Senior Day with a 1-0 victory in University Athletic Association (UAA) play on Sunday afternoon at Francis Field in St. Louis, Mo. (Read more) (box score)

WUSTL vs Case Western

The Washington University in St. Louis men’s soccer team took advantage of limited opportunities in taking down Case Western Reserve University, 2-0, Friday evening at Francis Field while the Bears honored longtime assistant coach Val Pelizzarro following the win. (Read more) (box score)

WUSTL vs Fontbonne

WUSTL vs Carnegie Mellon University

Joe Clarke Selected to SLU Men's Soccer Half-Century Team

WUSTL at Emory

Casual Team Photo

WUSTL at Greenville

Team Rock vs WU Club Team

Stud Life: “Male Athlete of the Week: Patrick McLean”

WUSTL at Principia

WUSTL vs Birmingham Southern

Team Rock vs Bosnian Men’s Team

Photos from WUSTL vs Rhodes

Photos from Webster Game

Labor Day Game updates

Exhibition Game Reports

More than just soccer

ECCC/SLU Game Reports

Alumni Game Write Up

Alumni Game Photos

Alumni Game

Photos from 2008

prep touch, technically correct instep strike, turn, fundamentally correct instep strikes combo

preparation first touch and instep training

self training turns in the walls

self training insteps in the walls

NCAA Playoffs

WUSTL Soccer Gear

Chicago Game

Case Western Report

Photos from recent games

Dominican Game Report

The Washington University in St. Louis men’s soccer team took advantage of limited opportunities in taking down Case Western Reserve University, 2-0, Friday evening at Francis Field while the Bears honored longtime assistant coach Val Pelizzarro following the win.
(Read more) (box score)