Marquette Men's Soccer Preview: at DePaul

Well, the season's all but over.

For the first time since 2008, Marquette heads into the final match of the regular season without even the possibility of a postseason match after it.  Courtesy of two goals by David Goldsmith, Butler beat the Golden Eagles in their home finale and thus, Marquette was eliminating from the running for one of the six spots in the Big East conference tournament.

This season wasn't likely to be fun for Louis Bennett and his team.  Between figuring out how to replace Charlie Lyon, arguably the greatest keeper in program history, and Axel Sjoberg, arguably the best center back in program history, and four Big East teams starting the year in the NSCAA top 25, things probably weren't going to end in sunshine for Marquette.  It may have gotten worse than expected after Danny Jarosz got hurt in the very first match of the year, thus putting a major ding in MU's attempt to replace Sjoberg.  Fate doubled down on terrible when Martin Alba was lost for the season after nine matches, thus yanking out the depth from MU's midfield.

So, here we are, as Marquette has lost five in a row and seven of their last nine, playing out the string with nothing but pride to play for.  Well, pride, and ruining DePaul's season.

Big East Match #9: at DePaul (4-12-1, 3-4-1 Big East)

When: Thursday, November 5, 2015, at 1pm Central
Where: Wish Field in Chicago, IL
Audio/Visual: The Big East Digital Network on Fox Sports Go has the video stream, plus there's live stats.
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer

Let me explain that last sentence.  Right now, DePaul is sitting in the sixth and final Big East tournament spot.  If they do anything other than beat Marquette on Thursday afternoon, then they're probably not going to make it into the field, as 7th place Villanova is just one point behind them and 8th place St. John's is two points back.    Thus, if Marquette can slap a goal or seven past keeper Mack Robinson, that'll at least send the Golden Eagles out on a double dose of a high note.

Speaking of Mack Robinson, he's been pretty decent for DePaul this season.  He's not going to knock your socks off with a 1.38 goals against average (7th in the Big East) or a .746 save percentage (also 7th).  Robinson's right in the middle of the league in total number of saves this season, so it's been a quality effort from the defense overall to get where they are this season since they're not relying on Robinson to bail them out.

Junior forward Simon Megally leads the DePaul offense with six goals on the season.  That has him just inside the top 10 in the Big East, and considering that DePaul's averaging less than a goal per game, that's a pretty impressive accomplishment.  Hans Wustling's five assists have him ranked fifth in the Big East, which is actually more impressive than what Megally's accomplished.  DePaul and Seton Hall are tied for the fewest assists in the Big East with 11.  Wustling has nearly half of the Blue Demons' helpers all by himself!  Forget not letting him pass, let's just not let him have the ball at all.