2022 Soccer Season Thread

[OCBison]

Congratulations to the team on qualifying for the Summit League tournament!

Yesterday's result demonstrated a couple of things. One, the team has some goalscoring firepower; and two, the team has some resiliency. In a low scoring sport like soccer it can often be difficult to regain the momentum after the opposition has equalized. The Bison have done it twice in the last four games, the other time being against KC.

Sunday's border battle is going to be a tough one. It's doubtful that KC will beat Denver, so if the Bunnies want to keep open the possibility of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, without winning the conference tournament, they'll need to keep winning. Currently SDSU is ranked #57 in the most recent RPI, Denver is #105 and NDSU is #254.

[Bisonguy]

2-0 loss to the Jacks, but the Bison were able to secure the 2 previous wins that get them into the expanded conference tournament. If current Summit scores hold up NDSU could end up as high as the #4 seed.

[Bisonguy]

The Bison end up with the #5 seed and will face ORU at Tournament host Denver on 10/28 at 5 PM. Bison and ORU were both tied at 12 points and looks like ORU has a 4 game losing streak since the win against the Bison.

Should be a good test for the Bison to see if they have improved in recent weeks. ORU won 2-0 just 2 weeks ago at home and seemed to go a lot deeper with their bench which could be a fairly big benefit in the conference tournament. ORU played the upper teams of the conference in the past 4 games other than USD (which could have been in the mix with NDSU and UND), while NDSU has a couple nice wins against mid-table teams and a loss against SDSU.

Looks like the game can be watched on the Summit League's streaming service, and they have broadcast slated to start at 4:45:
https://thesummitleague.org/watch/de...1663&path=conf

[OCBison]

Ya can't win it, unless you're in it. Not sure it makes a difference if you're the 4th or 5th seed.

It's an interesting setup for the tournament with the week long break between the semi-final and the final. It's definitely a format that favors the higher seeded teams, as it should.

[Bisonguy]

3 wins and they're moving on.

There's definitely some stratification within the conference this year. Denver and SDSU head and shoulders on top of the conference. Then there's Omaha, ORU, NDSU, USD and UND all in the middle with 11-15 points, and the bottom feeders of St T, UMKC, and WIU with 6 or 7 points.

NDSU ended up being #3 in conference goals scored this season so that's a HUGE upgrade to last year's performance. #3 in conference goal differential as well at +3, but the top 2 are at +15 and +21.
I did prefer the conference schedule a lot more when it was home and homes for each opponent. Obviously, not going to happen with the size of the conference, but it was nice to balance out the schedule.

[Bisonguy]

Great job on the free broadcast on the Summit League site for those want to watch. Link is there in post #43.

Currently 0-0 about 15 minutes in. Bison looking better than the first matchup so far.

[Bisonguy]

Bison tie it up at 1 less than 60 seconds into the second half. Pretty even game so far, starting to get a little physical now.

[Bisonguy]

End of regulation 1-1. Headed to the 2 x10 minute OT periods, KFTM if required.

[Bisonguy]

Bison fall 2-1 with the go ahead goal about halfway through the second overtime period.

Really close game overall, good improvement on the season. Time to put in the work for next season and see if they can get a top 4 finish and get closer to those top 2 teams. They played ORU a lot better this game versus the earlier match.

[OCBison]

Wow! Big upsets in Summit semi-finals.

ORU beats Denver 3-2 in PKs.

Omaha beats SDSU 1-0

Omaha hosts the conference final on November 5th.