UConn Men's Soccer - 2025 | Page 4 | The Boneyard

UConn Men's Soccer - 2025

I said same. No color commentator just the monotonous play-by-play
 
Credit to Gbandi on this one. He set the team up to absorb pressure and be dangerous on the counter and it paid off big time in the second half. Brilliant shot on the first goal by Hanni, very very skillful play by Balthi Saunders on the second, and a first career goal for Alessio on the third. Durham’s double save was absolutely ridiculous.

Huge performance. We could have gone down 2-0 but VAR overturned the second one and we never stopped fighting. Really really good win at the perfect time heading into conference play.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
Would have to be ranked with a win tonight, right?
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Poll comes out at 3pm Central Time I believe. I think we'd technically be ranked by the time the game starts considering we received the 2nd most votes of any non-ranked team last week.

Edit: We're ranked #22 for this week per the United Soccer Coaches poll , Bryant up to #14
 
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4-1 loss to Bryant. Credit to them, very tidy play on the ball and very well-executed gameplan. Their #10 had track and field speed and got in behind for their 2nd and 3rd goals and that was pretty much the ball game. I thought Gbandi made some decent adjustments to stop that from happening but too little too late at that point.
 
yungdowork said:
Poll comes out at 3pm Central Time I believe. I think we'd technically be ranked by the time the game starts considering we received the 2nd most votes of any non-ranked team last week.

Edit: We're ranked #22 for this week per the United Soccer Coaches poll , Bryant up to #14
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Didn’t realize before the game it was a ranked opponent. I guess that takes away the sting slightly. Let’s go get the big east Ws.
 
A 6 minute lapse killed the boys last night
Bryant has some nice international players and will be a tough matchup for most any collegiate level team.
 
gtcam said:
A 6 minute lapse killed the boys last night
Bryant has some nice international players and will be a tough matchup for most any collegiate level team.
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I wondered how Bryant of all schools, has a ranked D1 soccer team. It feels like the old Seton Hall model. Morrone lost quite a few in the 80s to those Seton Hall teams loaded with Irish guys, but he would only play U.S. players. Fond memories of those guys, they loved playing in Storrs because we had one of the few raucous crowds in the sport.
 
gtcam said:
A 6 minute lapse killed the boys last night
Bryant has some nice international players and will be a tough matchup for most any collegiate level team.
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A 6 minute lapse in soccer leads to being dog walked by your opponent. They were outplayed. Very disappointing performance coming off a great win.

Can’t help but notice NC State is ranked #1. No surprise. They are coached by former UNH coach Marc Hubbard. The equivalent of what Hubbard was doing at UNH is what Calhoun/Hurley were doing right in our backyard at Northeastern/URI right before we hired them.

I wrote very polite professional emails to both Dave Benedict and Tony Rizza urging them to hire Hubbard when Reid retired. Never received a response.
 
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RitzLuce1 said:
A 6 minute lapse in soccer leads to being dog walked by your opponent. They were outplayed. Very disappointing performance coming off a great win.

Can’t help but notice NC State is ranked #1. No surprise. They are coached by former UNH coach Marc Hubbard. The equivalent of what Hubbard was doing at UNH is what Calhoun/Hurley were doing right in our backyard at Northeastern/URI right before we hired them.

I wrote very polite professional emails to both Dave Benedict and Tony Rizza urging them to hire Hubbard when Reid retired. Never received a response.
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Hubbard was my first choice as well. It did seem like a natural fit, maybe he just wasn't interested in the job. I guess we'll never know what happened.
 
RitzLuce1 said:
A 6 minute lapse in soccer leads to being dog walked by your opponent. They were outplayed. Very disappointing performance coming off a great win.
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I don't disagree but I also think our normal starting defense is a pretty bad matchup vs a team with speed like Bryant had. Tupay and Roudette-Gregory are both big 6'5 center backs that aren't necessarily that fast, Johan Hamel is deservedly a captain and a very good player, but also really not very fast for a right back. The first 25 minutes or so weren't great, but it was still pretty back and forth at that point, although Durham had already made a couple nice saves. As soon as they scored their first goal and we started pushing some guys forward, they absolutely exploited the space in behind Hamel. Right before the assist on their 3rd goal, I was already yelling that #10 was in acres of space and it was obvious that they were repeatedly looking to send that ball in behind.

I thought subbing Tupay out for Elijah Hope who is a lot smaller but faster made a big difference, as well as subbing off Hamel and having Tomerius playing right back, but the damage had already been done. I'm hopeful this was a learning experience and we'll be able to recognize those potential matchup problems before kickoff moving forward, but you never know. Can't dig ourselves a hole like that when we're playing legitimately good teams. There's no more Centrals or Manhattans on the schedule
 
yungdowork said:
I don't disagree but I also think our normal starting defense is a pretty bad matchup vs a team with speed like Bryant had.
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I noted the same thing when reviewing the Canadian Fruit game that their speed caused us problems.
 
Offensively challenged. Tried to play passive in the last 10 minutes instead of being aggressive. 'Nova battled and shocked them. This is a bad team and a program on the decline. Need a total revamping. Bad coach.
 
buddy said:
Offensively challenged. Tried to play passive in the last 10 minutes instead of being aggressive. 'Nova battled and shocked them. This is a bad team and a program on the decline. Need a total revamping. Bad coach.
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What a meltdown. So much to say but I better be careful. Wow.
 
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buddy said:
Offensively challenged. Tried to play passive in the last 10 minutes instead of being aggressive. 'Nova battled and shocked them. This is a bad team and a program on the decline. Need a total revamping. Bad coach.
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This is what happens when you have Ray Reid's protege as coach.
 
Gbandi was too scared to win this one. Controlled the game for 60 minutes, got a goal and decided to try to close up shop? Every single change he made after that was defensive, left us with absolutely no outlet to relieve pressure. Once Villanova got the first one, it was obvious the team wasn't set up in a way that was going to allow us to win it. He talks a lot in his interviews about the players being brave and taking risks, but then he tries to park the bus for 30 minutes against a team we were better than.

I didn't really see the offensive struggles because we created some good chances in the first 60 minutes, even with the ref refusing to blow his whistle for the consistent fouls on Brummett. Lack of offense in the last 30 minutes is 100% down to how the coach tried to set up the team.
 
ThetaZoo said:
This is what happens when you have Ray Reid's protege as coach.
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Ray Reid was a very successful coach at DII Southern CT. Since WHEN did DI UConn care about becoming a great DII program?
 
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