Very good weekend for both soccer teams on the Mesa.
Men opened their home season tonight and just defeated UCSB at home 3-1 in front of a GREAT crowd. Had USD had the same conviction and ethics as SDSU, USD would've been the home opener and SDSU wouldn't have gone on the road for a tourney at West Point. Anyhow, there is a great rivalry between SDSU and UCSB over the years so the coaches and those of us die hards from over the decades were jacked for tonight.
Men were picked to finish 4th in PAC-12, highest ever and well deserved after great year last year that included season sweeps of Cal and Washington. Stanford right now is at a very high level but fully expect SDSU to sweep Cal again. UCLA is likely better but SDSU is very much an upper echelon PAC-12 program now.
Women defeated USD handily on Friday night 3-1. Starting lineup and playing time is dominated by Freshmen and Sophmores logging around 70% of the mins. Sadly a defender quit the team last week so the back end rotation won't have much depth to go along with youth. Defense hasn't been the issue, just a matter of getting the offense going. USD hadn't scored a goal all year coming into the game so tough to use the game as a measuring stick as they're going through a total rebuild with a high caliber coaching staff loaded with recruiting talent that'll bring in very high talent in the future. This year USD women will be BAD.
SDSU Schedule overall has been very high caliber schedule with #1 ranked UCLA (looks like a national championship contender right now along with Stanford), ASU, LBSU, etc. and now next three on the road vs. Nebraska, Mizzou and Texas Tech. Team is lacking that pure scoring threat. Senior Utush is being counted on heavily but has missed 4 opportunities already 1:1 with goalie so far this year. With exception of USD game, Freshman Forward Arnarsdottir hasn't been effective at all. Curious to see what Coach Freisen does with lineups to muster some offense over next two weeks.
Women will be the class of MWC after a tough non-conference schedule. Haven't seen much of anything from other teams in MWC so it'll be a one-bid league again and will come down to winning the post season. Two years ago SDSU won regular season by wide margin before but has been left out after losing in MWC Tourney.
Men opened their home season tonight and just defeated UCSB at home 3-1 in front of a GREAT crowd. Had USD had the same conviction and ethics as SDSU, USD would've been the home opener and SDSU wouldn't have gone on the road for a tourney at West Point. Anyhow, there is a great rivalry between SDSU and UCSB over the years so the coaches and those of us die hards from over the decades were jacked for tonight.
Men were picked to finish 4th in PAC-12, highest ever and well deserved after great year last year that included season sweeps of Cal and Washington. Stanford right now is at a very high level but fully expect SDSU to sweep Cal again. UCLA is likely better but SDSU is very much an upper echelon PAC-12 program now.
Women defeated USD handily on Friday night 3-1. Starting lineup and playing time is dominated by Freshmen and Sophmores logging around 70% of the mins. Sadly a defender quit the team last week so the back end rotation won't have much depth to go along with youth. Defense hasn't been the issue, just a matter of getting the offense going. USD hadn't scored a goal all year coming into the game so tough to use the game as a measuring stick as they're going through a total rebuild with a high caliber coaching staff loaded with recruiting talent that'll bring in very high talent in the future. This year USD women will be BAD.
SDSU Schedule overall has been very high caliber schedule with #1 ranked UCLA (looks like a national championship contender right now along with Stanford), ASU, LBSU, etc. and now next three on the road vs. Nebraska, Mizzou and Texas Tech. Team is lacking that pure scoring threat. Senior Utush is being counted on heavily but has missed 4 opportunities already 1:1 with goalie so far this year. With exception of USD game, Freshman Forward Arnarsdottir hasn't been effective at all. Curious to see what Coach Freisen does with lineups to muster some offense over next two weeks.
Women will be the class of MWC after a tough non-conference schedule. Haven't seen much of anything from other teams in MWC so it'll be a one-bid league again and will come down to winning the post season. Two years ago SDSU won regular season by wide margin before but has been left out after losing in MWC Tourney.
