Thursday, August 25, 2022

Soccer Stuff

Did you see the goal that Brendan Aaronson scored for Leeds United against Chelsea last week?

It was one of those plays where if you do it 99 times, nothing happens. Ah, but the 100th? That's the payoff.

You can see it for yourself:

The goal was more than just a great individual effort play. It was also history-making, as it was the first time in English Premier League history that an American player scored a goal for a team whose manager was also an American.

The manager is question is Jesse Marsch, who as you probably know is a Princeton grad, Class of 1996. Marsch is one of eight Princeton men's soccer players who has been named a first-team All-American (it might surprise you to know that former men's basketball coach Butch van Breda Kolff was one of the others).

Marsch is also one of three Americans who have ever been the manager — head coach — of an EPL team, and one of the others, Bob Bradley, is also a Princeton grad. Bradley, by the way, also coached Marsch at Princeton.

If you're wondering, the other American was David Wagner, who coached Huddersfield Town when it reached the EPL in 2015.

Marsch, whose track record in Europe leaves no doubt that he is a great coach, has done a remarkable job with Leeds. He took over the team late last season and made history by becoming the first team to avoid relegation after starting the final day of the season in the relegation zone. 

This year, Leeds is off to a 2-0-1 start, which is actually a 2-1-0 start the way the EPL does its standings, er, table, which reads wins, draws, losses. After only three games, there is only one team that is 3-0-0 (Aresenal). Aaronson's goal against Chelsea came in a stunning 3-0 win over Chelsea that has stamped Leeds as a team to keep an eye on.

The same is true of its manager. Among his other press, Marsch, who is very close with Princeton head men's basketball coach Mitch Henderson, was featured in THIS story from Sports Illustrated. 

By the way, if you listen to Marsch here, you can't help but think of how Bob Bradley answers questions.

Meanwhile, back at Marsch's alma mater, the Princeton men's soccer team has been chosen as the preseason favorite in the Ivy League poll. As TigerBlog said yesterday, preseason rankings are meaningless — unless, of course, they favor your team, in which case they are clearly prescient.

In all seriousness, the defending champion is often next year's preseason favorite, and that's the case for Princeton. The Tigers went 7-0-0 last year in the league, and such a run is deserving of preseason No. 1 status.

On the other hand, as is usually the case in Ivy soccer, more than half of Princeton's games were one-goal games. Also, Princeton has won 10 Ivy League men's soccer championships, but it has never won two in a row.

On the other other hand, it's a great opportunity to make history. It's all in how you look at it. 

These Tigers will have to replace a strong 10-man graduating class, led by two-time Ivy League Player of the Year and Princeton Roper Trophy winner Kevin O'Toole and All-Ivy League goalkeeper Jack Roberts. 

Princeton started four seniors in its NCAA tournament game against St. John's, though it also started three freshmen. There are also two returning All-Region selections, defender Lucas Gen and midfielder Daniel Diaz-Bonilla, as well as fellow All-Ivy picks Malik Pinto, Issa Mudashiru and Walker Gillespie.

The season begins a week from today at Rutgers, one of the five non-conference opponents who reached last year's NCAA tournament. The home opener is Sept. 5, against Vermont.

Also, in case you missed yesterday's announcement, a few of this season's home games will be played on Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium. The men's games against Vermont, Loyola (Sept. 20) and Rider (Sept. 23) will also be played there, as will the first five women's home games, with a Sept. 4 game against Rutgers moved to Piscataway.

Speaking of the women's games, the first two of those are tomorrow (Colgate, 7) and Sunday (Fairfield, 7).

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