The Calm before the Storm

--Tyler Madsen--

When I opened up the sports section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this morning, I saw the small headline that read, “SIUE plays tonight.” The four-sentence brief about tonight’s match between the #4 SIUE Cougars (15-2-2) and the #11 Bulldogs (17-3-1) gave local fans just a quick glimpse into a second-round game that, to quickly summarize the piece, shouldn’t be extremely difficult for the home team because they beat these same Bulldogs 4-0 earlier this season, were ranked #1 or #2 nationally all season and had a first-round bye in the tournament.

It seems as though all season, as Conor, Ross and I discussed last night, that since the loss to SIUE back in early September, every game has been “the biggest game of the year” for the purple and white. Tonight, in front of what could easily be 1,500-2,000 fans, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that any match so far will compare to the stage that has been set tonight.

For the ’Dogs to pull off the upset (and I use that term only based on rankings), there are a few things they will have to accomplish:

1) Score first
The SIUE crowd will be wild and raucous early, and a Truman goal to jump out 1-0 will take the crowd, tonight’s 12th-man, out of the game and hopefully take away the Cougars’ home-field advantage.

2) Take advantage of the right side defense
If the Bulldogs can effectively utilize their left-side attackers (e.g. senior forward Nate Gaudreault and senior midfielder Marty Clayes if he drifts that way), then they can take advantage of a suddenly not-so-solid senior back Pete Cacciatore, a player who has been the cornerstone of the SIUE defense for three seasons that has just fallen off the face of the earth in the 2005 campaign.

3) Sean Birrell needs to be part of the flow
Arguably the team’s hottest player right now, Birrell, a senior forward, was severely limited in the earlier match against SIUE (only a half-dozen touches all night). Birrell needs to not only be able to get the ball but also be able to face the goal, something the Bulldogs did not let Haggai Leboo, the Rockhurst freshman phenom who scored 19 goals this season, do against them either time the two teams met this season.

4) Avoid history
I know, this isn’t really anything the team can do on the field to win tonight’s game; however, in 2003, a 12th-ranked SIUE came up to Kirksville to face #18 Rockhurst in the first round, winning in penalty kicks to advance. Saturday’s match featured the Cougars and #2 Bulldogs squaring off in the regional championship. Truman won that match 5-2. Sounding a little familiar, just with the home team reversed.

Truman soccer is playing at the top of its game at the absolute right time (as evidenced by the fact that they haven’t lost since Sept. 30) and SIUE, as our anonymous GLVC coach described to me the other day, “is sputtering a bit down the stretch … they might have peaked too early.” The timing is perfect for a Bulldog trip to the Elite Eight for the second time in three seasons.