UNLV

[uic53]

Well, UIC is still winless on the season playing UNLV to a 1-1 draw last night. We are down to our last chance to pick up a win before Horizon League play begins. Please beat Riverside!!

[UICJohn]

I will admit that prior to the first game against UAB, I was talking to a fellow Flames soccer fan about possibly getting a seed this year in the NCAA Tournament. Right now, unless we get some big wins over Akron and Wisconsin (and even then no guarantee) it looks like we must win the HL Tournament to even get into the NCAAs.

But it's a long year.

[Big D]

I think you're probably right John....I think we're going to have to win the HL tourney to get in at this point....unless we put together an amazing winning streak from here on out. But there's no reason to believe that will happen.

Winning the HL is not going to be easy this year. Butler and Loyola are solid teams.

Can't believe that we are still winless. Ties on the road are nice, but we should be beating these teams. The offense has been suspect all year, but even worse, our defense only has one shutout. Not what I expect from this group. When we score a goal first like we did last night, that should be game over.

Shows you how much Baggio meant to this team.

[UICJohn]

It really does go to show you how much a solid (in our case amazing) midfielder means to this team. We have had All Americans in that position the last few seasons with Baggio and Tonci. That means a lot on both the offensive and defensive sides. The offensive side for obvious reasons. On the defensive side, it means we keep the ball, we get more offense going, and in turn the other team gets less chances. The last game against UNLV we were outshot 16-8. Granted, that doesn't go to show you how many real chances they had or what kind of shots they were but that is still a lot of shots to get off meaning they did have ball control a good amount of time.

It's still fairly early in the season. We haven't even gotten to conference play yet. If Trask is the man we all think he is, we should have faith in him for we are going through a big transition in a lot of positions. However, with our conference, even with a big winning streak (meaning probably not losing another game this year and only tying a few) I'm not sure the chance of us getting an at large are.

With no offense to Butler, I think they're solid but they have played quite a cup cake schedule overall. Compare that to ours. And Loyola has had some good results but then a 3-1 loss to St. Louis who overall this year has been decent. UWGB is probably the most worrisome team I would say.