armchair
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Watched our soccer team play today in Lynchburg, VA versus Liberty. Hot day, sizzling sun. The Vols started slowly, almost gave up a goal in the first 30 seconds, had a poor first 15 minutes, then came on for the rest of the game. We dominated the second half and overtime but, like much of last year, could not find a way to put the ball in the net. Frustrating as we had a bunch of near-chances.
UT must have the most injury-prone women's program in the nation. Our basketball team can't stay healthy--and the soccer team is the same. We play one exhibition game and in it our best player blows out her knee and his done for season. Then, before the first game is 20 minutes old, we lose one of our top prospects to a season-ending injury, I believe, and a starting midfielder goes down--Michele Christy. Not sure her status--she was there today in a knee brace (but not playing)--but her absence has really hurt the midfield. The midfield was a weakness last year and it remains a weakness. Forward A. Kupritz went down with some sort of injury in the first half and did not return--and so it goes. Maybe we need some better trainers, I'm not sure. We had four or five players get banged up in this game--and little Liberty had no one.
--We had 15 corner kicks in this game, which is excellent--and on most of them the service (kick) was good, but nobody could finish. Without Wilkinson, we are not very good at heading the ball on corners or free kicks, partly because we don't have much height as a team. That's tough. If you have 15 corners, you should be putting one or two in the net.
---A. Bialczak and Danielle Marcano really stood out in this game. They were both excellent--Marcano in limited time. Bialczak is an excellent athlete and made a number of impressive runs that resulted in near chances. Marcano came in late in the second half and immediately put one shot on net, had another chance--and then really played well down the right side in the second half. She is talented--she had our two best shots of the game, including one rocket that the Liberty saved beautifully. I have no idea why Pensky has limited her playing time. I don't think she played at all against Ga. Southern and only played 30 minutes today when her PT should have been double that, at least. She was, IMO, our best player for stretches when she was on the field, and I wonder if she shouldn't be playing in the middle of the field.
--Partly because we are young, we are not a good combination team in the attacking third. We play mostly a direct style and are not seeing or making that last pass or two needed to get the ball to a player open in front of the net. Creighton, who was dreary for most of the game but made a couple of nice plays in the 2nd OT, started a promising give-and-go with Neal and broke free to the front of the net--but Neal had her head down watching the ball and did not see the open Creighton. At other times the Vols were slow to get the ball from wings to the front of the box. Neal, who was an absolute beast last game, wasn't nearly the same today. Need to do better with our opportunities.
IMO our two credentialed midfielders, C. Baldwin and K. Cousins, were shaky today. I love Baldwin, who is technically sharp, has strong lungs and is /dogged/ competitor, but she is not hugely athletic and neither she nor Cousins provided much in attack at all today. I don't know what formation Pensky was playing--4-3-3, I assume--but Baldwin was dropping /very/ deep for most of the game, which gave too much room to the Liberty midfielders at times, especially in the first half, and which made it nearly impossible to get involved in attack. It may be that her role is defensive mid, and she is GOOD at that--but it is hard to score goals when two of your three mids are not dynamic going forward. Cousins has yet to show much for a highly touted prospect--the game seems too fast for her, frankly. She might be playing more than she should be. We'll see...but have to be better in midfield and more precise in attacking third. Getting Christy back would help. Tough game against va. tech on Sunday. Go Vols.
UT must have the most injury-prone women's program in the nation. Our basketball team can't stay healthy--and the soccer team is the same. We play one exhibition game and in it our best player blows out her knee and his done for season. Then, before the first game is 20 minutes old, we lose one of our top prospects to a season-ending injury, I believe, and a starting midfielder goes down--Michele Christy. Not sure her status--she was there today in a knee brace (but not playing)--but her absence has really hurt the midfield. The midfield was a weakness last year and it remains a weakness. Forward A. Kupritz went down with some sort of injury in the first half and did not return--and so it goes. Maybe we need some better trainers, I'm not sure. We had four or five players get banged up in this game--and little Liberty had no one.
--We had 15 corner kicks in this game, which is excellent--and on most of them the service (kick) was good, but nobody could finish. Without Wilkinson, we are not very good at heading the ball on corners or free kicks, partly because we don't have much height as a team. That's tough. If you have 15 corners, you should be putting one or two in the net.
---A. Bialczak and Danielle Marcano really stood out in this game. They were both excellent--Marcano in limited time. Bialczak is an excellent athlete and made a number of impressive runs that resulted in near chances. Marcano came in late in the second half and immediately put one shot on net, had another chance--and then really played well down the right side in the second half. She is talented--she had our two best shots of the game, including one rocket that the Liberty saved beautifully. I have no idea why Pensky has limited her playing time. I don't think she played at all against Ga. Southern and only played 30 minutes today when her PT should have been double that, at least. She was, IMO, our best player for stretches when she was on the field, and I wonder if she shouldn't be playing in the middle of the field.
--Partly because we are young, we are not a good combination team in the attacking third. We play mostly a direct style and are not seeing or making that last pass or two needed to get the ball to a player open in front of the net. Creighton, who was dreary for most of the game but made a couple of nice plays in the 2nd OT, started a promising give-and-go with Neal and broke free to the front of the net--but Neal had her head down watching the ball and did not see the open Creighton. At other times the Vols were slow to get the ball from wings to the front of the box. Neal, who was an absolute beast last game, wasn't nearly the same today. Need to do better with our opportunities.
IMO our two credentialed midfielders, C. Baldwin and K. Cousins, were shaky today. I love Baldwin, who is technically sharp, has strong lungs and is /dogged/ competitor, but she is not hugely athletic and neither she nor Cousins provided much in attack at all today. I don't know what formation Pensky was playing--4-3-3, I assume--but Baldwin was dropping /very/ deep for most of the game, which gave too much room to the Liberty midfielders at times, especially in the first half, and which made it nearly impossible to get involved in attack. It may be that her role is defensive mid, and she is GOOD at that--but it is hard to score goals when two of your three mids are not dynamic going forward. Cousins has yet to show much for a highly touted prospect--the game seems too fast for her, frankly. She might be playing more than she should be. We'll see...but have to be better in midfield and more precise in attacking third. Getting Christy back would help. Tough game against va. tech on Sunday. Go Vols.
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