2022 Soccer Season Thread

[OCBison]

Okay, five games to go, how many do the Bison need to win in order to make the conference play-offs?

Obviously all five would be great but I doubt that will happen. Four out of five should put them in a good spot, although nothing's guaranteed.

If they don't make the conference tournament, does that mean Matt Larsen needs to have a serious chat with Coach Regan at the conclusion of the season?

[Bisonguy]

Okay, five games to go, how many do the Bison need to win in order to make the conference play-offs?

Obviously all five would be great but I doubt that will happen. Four out of five should put them in a good spot, although nothing's guaranteed.

If they don't make the conference tournament, does that mean Matt Larsen needs to have a serious chat with Coach Regan at the conclusion of the season?

They're currently sitting in 8th place out of the 10 teams. Top 6 make it to the conference tourney. Tough to say what will get them there, but they definitely need to start picking up some points. They have been scoring goals the last 3 games, so there definitely is hope. A win over UMKC and at least a tie versus ORU on the road would be huge. That would bring them to 7 points with 3 games remaining. Last year the #6 team finished with 12 points, so a pair of wins against the U Daks in the last 3 games and they'd potentially be looking at a spot. Still relatively early in the schedule as some teams have only played 3 games so far including two ahead of NDSU.

Tough to say about Larsen. Bison only finished out of the top 4 in the Summit League once from 2007-2017 (3, 7, 3, 2, 2, 4, 3, 4, 1, 1, 3). Since 2018 when Regan took over the Bison have finished 3, 3, 5, and 8. It's getting to piss or get off the pot territory IMO. An 8-10 finish would show recruiting and coaching has dropped off significantly and Mark Cook's recruits were able to maintain for a couple years.

[OCBison]

Oh, I didn't know that the top six teams make the tournament now. Thanks! I guess that makes sense when you have a 10-team conference.

Agreed, four points from the weekend's game would be great.

[Bisonguy]

Bison pick up 3 points with a 3-1 win over UMKC and a 0-2 loss to ORU.

Game against UMKC was really close until about 10 minutes left when NDSU was gifted a really poor goal kick from UMKC. Bison finished off on that and then a really nice chip over the UMKC keeper to put it out of reach. Bison looked like they were playing with two lines when attacking and playing very direct. Didn't attempt to play it through the midfield much at all, just kick and chase.

Wasn't able to watch all of the ORU game but NDSU didn't look like they were at the same level as ORU. Definitely not as skilled and ORU was moving the ball around and creating some much better scoring chances than NDSU. Games against UND and USD will be huge as NDSU will be trailing them in the standings and should be currently sitting at 7th if my math is correct.

[OCBison]

Let's start with the positives - they won the 1st game versus KC. I know it was against the last place team but when you give up a tying goal, especially after leading for so long, it can be pretty difficult to regain your focus. Even more so when that game is on the road. However they didn't falter and they pulled out the win.

Based on what I watched of today's match, the team was outplayed. I didn't see the 1st goal but the 2nd one was a nice one by ORU. Unfortunately they were aided by a pair of NDSU players trying to win the ball in non-dangerous parts of the field, when they really should have just tried to contain the Golden Eagles players.

The ORU players were definitely more comfortable with the ball at their feet, and that might be why the Bison were playing so much more direct. One of the other things that I noticed was that the Bison players didn't seem to be as ready for contact, or maybe they didn't want the contact, as the ORU players did

[Bisonguy]

Bison definitely dominated the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes at UMKC. It was the middle 70 minutes in which they were playing so direct, and not much of anything to create on the midfield. UMKCs mids were linking play a lot better and creating chances but they seemed timid in regards to finishing. Good to see the Bison finish that game off though and hold them off for a road win.

They didn’t seem to be playing as direct va ORU, at least from what I saw (I missed the first goal as well). Bison were definitely getting numbers back when ORU was attacking and would have 8 plus the GK in the penalty area to fend off 5 or 6 ORU attackers.

Probably need at least 2 wins against the UXDs to make it in the top 6. Makes for an interesting end of the conference regular season.

[OCBison]

Quality win! Now sitting sixth.

Still need a win in one of the last two games and it would be best if they didn't leave it until the last game of the season.

[Bisonguy]

That was nice to see! Definitely needed that win and win against one of other Dakotas should keep them in the top 6.

Saw the game was on ESPN+ so hopefully have time to watch it later.

[OCBison]

Random question about a couple of players, what's the status of Katie Pagel and Kate Swanis? Did they get injured?

Pagel appeared in 10 games during the 2021 season but this season she's only appeared in one game, for a total of seven minutes against Chicago State.

Swanis wasn't a starter for the previous three seasons, although she played in at least 13 games during each season, but this year it was one game, also against Chicago State, for 15 minutes and that's been it.

[Bisonguy]

4-1 win over USD and conference playoff bound!