Photo courtesy of Mohamed Almotawah
MATCH #1
at Northwestern | Friday, Aug. 24 | 8:00 p.m. EDT
Live Video | Live Stats
MATCH #2
at Loyola (Ill.) | Monday, Aug. 27 | 5:00 p.m. EDT
Live Video | Live Stats
PDF Notes
Week #1
THE OPENING KICK:
• Cleveland State opens its 2018 regular season with two matches in four days near the Windy City.
• CSU opens at Northwestern Friday night, marking the third-ever meeting between the teams and the first to take place at Northwestern.
• The Vikings are 1-1 against NU with the last meeting coming in 2010.
• CSU and Loyola (Ill.) played 22 times as Horizon League foes from 1995 to 2012. The Ramblers own a 13-9 lead in the all-time series.
• The most recent meeting between the teams came in the 2012 Horizon League championship when the Vikings claimed the title with a 2-0 win.
• CSU has won three of its four meetings with Loyola, including the last matchup in Chicago, which came during the 2012 regular season.
LAST TIME OUT:
• Cleveland State played a trio of exhibition matches earlier this month.
• The Vikings dropped 2-0 decisions to St. Bonaventure and No. 4 Akron and claimed a 90-minute tie against local side Notre Dame.
FREE KICKS:
• Cleveland State was tabbed fifth in the Horizon League preseason poll.
• While it took the fifth seed in 2017, CSU has been seeded fourth or better in the Horizon League Tournament in eight of the past 10 seasons, the highest figure in the League in this span.
• CSU improved its NCAA RPI ranking by 51 spots from 2016 to 2017.
• Vlad Jandric and Noah Pio were both selected All-Horizon League Second Team in 2017. Thomas M'Barek was named to the All-Freshman Team.
• Noah Pio has a point in seven of the past 12 matches and has scored in four of them. Pio was among the top 10 in points, goals and assists in HL play.
• Thirty one of Cleveland State's last 42 goals have come in the second half. In fact, 12 of those goals have taken place in the 77th minute or later.
• CSU has 13 newcomers on the roster, 10 freshmen and three transfers.
• CSU has allowed eight goals from the run of play in its last 14 regular-season matches.
• Noah Pio is the only returning Viking that played in all 19 matches last year, and he played the most minutes (1,378) of all returning players.
• Antonio Burgoa and Thomas M'Barek both started 15 matches last season, the most among all returning Vikings.
• Vlad Jandric and Noah Pio combined to score six of the final nine goals in Horizon League matches in 2017.
• In each of Cleveland State's last four losses, the opponent has scored the game-winning goal via a penalty kick.
• After accruing eight fewer cards than every other HL team in 2016, the Vikings were again one of the most disciplined squads in the League in 2017. CSU had the second fewest totals in fouls/match (12.21) and yellow cards/match (1.68) and the lowest such totals among the teams that made the League Tournament.
• Vlad Jandric scored five goals in eight starts in an advanced midfield role in 2017.
• CSU's 24 goals and 22 assists in 2017 were its highest totals since 2012.
• Ben Hryszko, Dan Manolache and Thomas M'Barek all started at least 10 matches on defense as a true freshman last season, with all three starting both postseason matches.
