Yes, the Pirates are nationally ranked, no, I don’t think they should be.
It is possible that Mitar Mitrovic is the most misleading scorer in the Big East right now.
The junior from Serbia is leading the Golden Eagles in goals with five and points with 11. That’s third best in the conference in the former and tied for fourth in the latter.
He also has three penalty kick goals in Marquette’s last two matches. And a fourth PK against Wisconsin back on September 2nd.
On one hand, Mitrovic looks like a guy who is averaging a goal every other game this season for the Golden Eagles, and since he doesn’t take that many shots, nearly half of his attempts have gone in. That’s a guy that other teams need to put a body on at all times.
On the other hand, Mitrovic is a guy who has a role on the squad and he does his job when called upon….. and that’s happened four times this season, and he can’t control when it might come up again.
That might be good news for Marquette, as it could cause a bit of dysfunction in opposing defenses because they don’t dig deep into the stats to find out how Mitrovic is scoring. Too much focus on him, not enough focus on guys like Mitchell Dryden or Karim Abdoul Pare.
It also might be bad news for Marquette, as they’ve ultimately come away from both of the last two contests with victories in part because they got gifted a goal on a PK call and Mitrovic did his job. Hard to tell on this one for sure, because every goal scored has the possibility of changing the tenor of any match, and MU is definitely not going to turn down any of Mitrovic’s markers.
Oh, and Friday night’s match? It’s a cross-divisional contest against a ranked team, and the Golden Eagles are looking to remain perfect — unbeaten and untied — in Big East play. Only Marquette and Akron can say that right now, and since they’re both in the Midwest Division, it’s kind of a whole thing, especially since we’re two matches in to an eight match conference schedule.
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Big East Match #3: at #15 Seton Hall Pirates (7-1-1, 0-1-1 Big East)
Date: Friday, October 4, 2024
Time: 5:56pm Central
What, really? Yes, really, 6:56 Eastern according to SHU’s website. No, I don’t know why.
Location: Owen T. Carroll Field, South Orange, New Jersey
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 7-7-3 all time against Seton Hall. MU didn’t pick up their first win against the Pirates until the sixth meeting, going 0-3-2 in the first five encounters. The series has tilted back towards SHU since 2018, with Marquette’s record standing at 1-4-0 in the last five, including a 3-2 defeat in 2022, which was the most recent encounter. Marquette won the last time the two teams played in South Orange, back in 2021.
Okay, let’s unpack Seton Hall’s #15 ranking in the latest United Soccer Coaches top 25 poll. They moved into the top 25 on August 27th at #25 exactly, and that was the first in-season poll of the year. This was….. because of a 1-0 win over FIU. Then they beat Albany and Manhattan, and moved up to #22. They they beat Columbia and Rutgers, two teams that were not receiving votes, and jumped up to #13.
What.
The next week: A home win over Harvard, and their reward was being moved up to #8 in the country because they were 6-0-0. Taking a 1-0 loss at Providence knocked them down to #15, and they’ve stayed there following a win over Lehigh and a draw with then-#25 UConn.
What.
Okay, look, yes, Rutgers and FIU are RPI top 70 opponents, and that’s great….. for Seton Hall’s NCAA tournament profile. Everyone else they beat is sub 120, and remember: This is men’s soccer and there are only 212 teams. Columbia is literally #202 as I write this on Wednesday afternoon! Seton Hall has two wins over top HALF opponents, and their 0-1-1 mark in Big East play doubles as their record against the best teams they’ve played.
And they’re #15 in the country. Completely nonsensical.
There’s currently a three-way tie atop the Seton Hall stat sheet in the goals department, as no one has scored more than twice so far this year. Til Kauschke is one of the three, and his two assists have him tied for the team lead in points with six. He’s tied with Jack Kossoudji, who has a goal and four assists, and that helper total is tops on the squad. Overall, Seton Hall has 15 assists on their 14 goals this season, so keeping tabs on the passing may be critical for the Golden Eagles here.
Soren Jensen and Matias Molina have been splitting time in net for Seton Hall, but they’re doing it in an alternating fashion. Since they’ve each been playing every other match and Molina went the distance against UConn, I presume that Marquette will see Jensen on Friday. Seton Hall holding teams to less than eight shots per game is doing a lot of work here, as Jensen has a goals against average of just 0.75 but is stopping less than 79% of shots on frame. If Marquette can find angles against the Pirate field defense, they might be able to find a hole past Jensen.