sutomcat
2024 Iggy Award (ACC Tournament Record)
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- Aug 15, 2011
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It was an ugly game today. A reversion to how we played in the first half of the season. It is a shame. We played so poorly in the last two games, but I am heartened by how well we played in that last stretch of 10 games or so before that.
Let’s talk about the future now.
I updated the roster for 2026. It looks like this. Might be wrong on whether a frosh redshirted or not but that is not important for a while.
In this day and age, there will surely be some players on this list who will go elsewhere. There’s open bidding going on for good players, and it will surely affect us.
At minimum, we lose the 8 players on the roster who were seniors or graduate students. Though a few of the seniors could possibly have a redshirt senior left.
The graduation losses are serious.
Hut is probably our best player. Zambrano and Leibold were probably are most dangerous players on offense. Wigg and Brdaric are two of our best on defense.
No idea who will play keeper. Maybe the true frosh from Oregon? I think it is more likely we will bring in someone from the portal, and he will start from day one.
Defense with returns starters Holman and Omeze. I followed returning players, I am most concerned about being able to retain Omeze. I am sure some schools will go after him. We have huge issues at midfield, and if he returns, he might get moved there. Or he could get moved to the middle. That’s where I think Holman is going.
Dom Bell missed this season recovering from a bad knee injury. He is a big guy with a lot of talent (former HS AA) and ideally, he will become the backbone of our defense. I think we have to add at least one more defender from the portal.
Midfield is a mess. It was a big issue all season. We need some guys with a size and athletic ability they can consistently one 50,50 miles. Don’t realll we have that right now.
The most experienced guy coming back os Scott, but he was a big disappointment this year, and IMHO didn’t give us the production we needed. He does have a lot of experience, and perhaps when paired with the right players he could be much more effective.
Da Costa played a lot and was okay. But he contributed little in the way of offense, and really didn’t do much. But this was his first year starting and perhaps he has a lot more to contribute. I think Irinimbabazi looked like he had good skills, but was too thin and too inexperienced to excel right away. I hope with a year in the weight training program, he’ll be ready to take a big step forward next year. Christey seemed to lose playing time, mostly to Ivan, as the season progressed. He showed some talent on offense early. Maybe he can make an impact next season?
Fortier played a lot and showed some promise. He needs to get stronger and tougher. He does have some skill. All the shuffling in the Lally Center was supposed to free up a lot of weight training equipment for the Olympic sports. I hope we start to see an impact here over the summer.
Ming and Darko appear to be our most talented offensive players right now. They might end up playing midfield or forward. Rodríguez is another guy who could play either position. It seemed he started getting more and more playing time as the season progressed. I like Ming the best of these guys but his inconsistency makes me crazy.
In a perfect world, we will add a goalie with starting experience in a major conference, a playmaking midfielder who has started for a high level program, and a proven goal scorer who has played for a high level program. We tried NAIA last year, and it was not successful.
As mentioned, we lose at least 8 and probably more like 12 players (some will go to another program where playing time iseasier to come by). It looks like we might only take one HS recruit this class but the staff likes to keep things on the down low and I would not be surprised to see us add a couple more HS players down the road. I’m thinking we also add five or six from the portal.
We better do a good job replenishing, or it’s gonna be very hard to get back in the NCAA tournament.
Let’s talk about the future now.
I updated the roster for 2026. It looks like this. Might be wrong on whether a frosh redshirted or not but that is not important for a while.
| 1 | Kyle Jansen | Jr. | GK | Marietta, Ga. |
| 2 | Chimere Omeze | Jr. | D | Brampton, Ontario |
| 6 | Ivan Irinimbabazi | So. | M | Kampala, Uganda |
| 7 | Nathan Scott | Sr. | M | San Jose, Calif. |
| 8 | Quentin Christey | So. | M | Vaughan, Ontario, Canada |
| 11 | Bryson Rodriguez | So. | M | Liberia, Costa Rica |
| 15 | Emanuel Cappello | RFr. | Markham, Ontario, Canada | |
| 16 | Faris Ibraheem | RFr. | D | Brampton, Ontario, Canada |
| 18 | Callum Lugton | RFr. | Portland, Ore. | |
| 21 | Landon Darko | So. | M | Fairburn, Ga. |
| 22 | Kelvin Da Costa | Jr. | M | Maputo, Mozambique |
| 24 | Sachiel Ming | Jr. | M/ | Southampton, Bermuda |
| 26 | Kristjan Fortier | Jr. | M | Toronto, Ontario |
| 27 | Garrett Holman | Jr. | D | Hamburg, N.J. |
| 40 | Juan Martinez-Bastidas | RFr. | GK | Greenville, S.C |
| 5? | Dominic Bell | RFr. | D | Orlando, Fl. |
| ? | Grayson Lamb | Fr. | GK | Baker City, Ore. |
In this day and age, there will surely be some players on this list who will go elsewhere. There’s open bidding going on for good players, and it will surely affect us.
At minimum, we lose the 8 players on the roster who were seniors or graduate students. Though a few of the seniors could possibly have a redshirt senior left.
The graduation losses are serious.
Hut is probably our best player. Zambrano and Leibold were probably are most dangerous players on offense. Wigg and Brdaric are two of our best on defense.
No idea who will play keeper. Maybe the true frosh from Oregon? I think it is more likely we will bring in someone from the portal, and he will start from day one.
Defense with returns starters Holman and Omeze. I followed returning players, I am most concerned about being able to retain Omeze. I am sure some schools will go after him. We have huge issues at midfield, and if he returns, he might get moved there. Or he could get moved to the middle. That’s where I think Holman is going.
Dom Bell missed this season recovering from a bad knee injury. He is a big guy with a lot of talent (former HS AA) and ideally, he will become the backbone of our defense. I think we have to add at least one more defender from the portal.
Midfield is a mess. It was a big issue all season. We need some guys with a size and athletic ability they can consistently one 50,50 miles. Don’t realll we have that right now.
The most experienced guy coming back os Scott, but he was a big disappointment this year, and IMHO didn’t give us the production we needed. He does have a lot of experience, and perhaps when paired with the right players he could be much more effective.
Da Costa played a lot and was okay. But he contributed little in the way of offense, and really didn’t do much. But this was his first year starting and perhaps he has a lot more to contribute. I think Irinimbabazi looked like he had good skills, but was too thin and too inexperienced to excel right away. I hope with a year in the weight training program, he’ll be ready to take a big step forward next year. Christey seemed to lose playing time, mostly to Ivan, as the season progressed. He showed some talent on offense early. Maybe he can make an impact next season?
Fortier played a lot and showed some promise. He needs to get stronger and tougher. He does have some skill. All the shuffling in the Lally Center was supposed to free up a lot of weight training equipment for the Olympic sports. I hope we start to see an impact here over the summer.
Ming and Darko appear to be our most talented offensive players right now. They might end up playing midfield or forward. Rodríguez is another guy who could play either position. It seemed he started getting more and more playing time as the season progressed. I like Ming the best of these guys but his inconsistency makes me crazy.
In a perfect world, we will add a goalie with starting experience in a major conference, a playmaking midfielder who has started for a high level program, and a proven goal scorer who has played for a high level program. We tried NAIA last year, and it was not successful.
As mentioned, we lose at least 8 and probably more like 12 players (some will go to another program where playing time iseasier to come by). It looks like we might only take one HS recruit this class but the staff likes to keep things on the down low and I would not be surprised to see us add a couple more HS players down the road. I’m thinking we also add five or six from the portal.
We better do a good job replenishing, or it’s gonna be very hard to get back in the NCAA tournament.
