The Golden Eagles welcome the Friars to the Valley with an eye on staying in Big East tournament contention
At the end of Saturday afternoon’s contest at Valley Fields, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles men’s soccer team will be halfway through their eight match Big East schedule. After Saturday, there are just four matches remaining in the entire regular season, and all four will be against Midwest Division rivals to settle out who’s going to the conference tournament and who’s putting a bow on 2024.
Marquette finds themselves in a pretty good position after three matches. The two division winners get to be the top two seeds in the tournament, and then the next six best point totals, regardless of division, fills out the eight team field. If the tournament were to start on Friday (I’m writing this on Friday afternoon), then Marquette would be somewhere in a group seeded #3 through #5. Akron holds the lead in the Midwest Division with nine points, so MU can’t be a top two seed. The six points held by Marquette with their 2-1-0 record has them tied with Georgetown and St. John’s from the East Division for the best records underneath the two division leaders.
That means Marquette’s future is in their own control. Keep putting up wins, and they’re in fantastic shape. Draws aren’t too bad either, but y’know, 3 > 1 and all. Points adding on keeps Marquette in that top eight, that’s what matters.
It’s probably not going to be easy. We can’t ignore the fact that Marquette’s two wins are against the two teams in the Big East who are currently both without a point after three matches. From an RPI perspective, all of MU’s remaining foes are somewhere between #25 (that’s Saturday’s opponent, FWIW) and #77 at the moment. Maybe it won’t be easy for head coach David Korn and his guys, but they’ve gotten off to a good start, and now they just need to finish the job, one match at a time.
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Big East Match #4: vs Providence Friars (6-4-2, 1-1-1 Big East)
Date: Saturday, October 12, 2024
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer
Marquette is 4-10-4 all time against Providence. In terms of wins at least, this series has been all one way or another. MU didn’t get a W until the sixth all time meeting, which came in 2011, and then they picked up all four of their wins in a row. Thus: No wins since 2013, but no losses in either of the last two meetings either, as the 2021 and 2022 encounters were draws.
Providence comes into Saturday winless in their last three matches, and with losses in each of their last two. That 6-2-1 start and a ranking as high as #18 in the United Soccer Coaches top 25 poll is starting to head into the rear view mirror after needing two goals from Bruno Rosa in the final half hour to draw with Creighton, including one with four seconds left in regulation, and then getting shutout at Georgetown and losing at home mid-week to Syracuse. The Friars got an equalizer just before the hour mark against the Orange, but conceded the game winner about 12 minutes later. The Georgetown match really fell apart on them late as it was scoreless at the half, but GU tallied three times in the final 30 minutes while outshooting PC 14-4 after intermission.
It’s all not quite what you want after a nice start as well as being picked to finish second in the Big East’s East Division this year. Through three matches in the eight match league slate, Providence sits on four points and is in a tie for fourth place. That does make this cross-division game pivotal for the Friars, as they could both use the points in their own division as well as try to keep pace with the three teams in the Midwest Division that are also at four points or better.
The aforementioned Bruno Rosa is doing it all for PC so far this season. He’s one of five field players to start all 12 matches, and he leads the team in both goals and assists with four each. That of course gives him the team lead in points with 12, and that’s twice as many as anyone else on the roster. Those numbers have Rosa in the top 6 (including ties) in the Big East in all three categories, but there’s an argument to be had that he’s not the guy that MU needs to worry about the most. Rosa is second on the team in shots behind Israel Neto, who has 29 attempts but has yet to put one in the net this season. Only five of his 29 attempts have been on frame, so either A) he’s due or B) Marquette might be able to provoke him into shooting the ball all over the Valley except at the net.
Lukas Burns was named Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year in the Big East, but he’s not quite on target to get that trophy at the end of the season. While he’s played every minute for PC, he’s only stopping just barely north of 70% of shots on goal while allowing 1.17 goals per 90 minutes. Providence is on the positive side of the ledger when it comes to shots for and against, so if Marquette can flip that script around on the Friars, it seems like they’ll be able to beat Burns at least once.