Soccer vs. Auburn: Ugggh

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armchair

armchair

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Well, we played a big home game against an Auburn team that was ranked 14th in the country--and sadly got schooled, losing 1-3. Auburn is experienced, very well organized and played a polished game; they were better than I expected them to be, and the Vols--who earlier this year tied (and should have beaten) a Va. Tech team that was ranked in the top 10 at the time)--were not polished and rather poor today.

Our midfield, which is young, got totally outclassed; the four starters spent most of their time running around without the ball, chasing auburn players. When we did get the ball down the field to our speedy wingers in the first half, there were no midfielders around to help them. A couple of our veteran defenders weren't very good today either; one of them makes entirely too many bad decisions with the ball, and bad passes, every game. Down 1-2 at the half, we had a couple of pretty good chances to equalize early in the second half, but Amy Neal could not get her foot on either of two very sweet, low crosses into the box. She was in great position both times but could not make contact. Have to do better there. After those missed chances, Auburn scored its third goal and we were done.

We are going to struggle against solid/good opponents until we get lots better in the middle of the field. A problem last year, a problem this year. A lot of it is a youth/lack of experience issue--all of our midfielders except Hutson are freshman, and Hutson had not played much before this year--but youth is not the only issue: there are size/speed issues as well. It's frustrating because we have four forwards who, individually, are pretty fast and dangerous, but they need some combination help from the midfielders. Ariel Kupritz scored a nice goal today. She is tough and speedy and perhaps needs to play more than 30 minutes a game. I wonder if her game would work in the midfield.

We next play Miss. State away in what is a must game if we are to entertain any chance of making the NCAA tournament. Miss. State is not very good but beat arkansas today (against the second half run of play)--their first SEC win after 23 straight losses. It's then on to Vandy, which will be a tough away game. Vandy played very well against texas a&M a few days ago; they were the better team for most of the game but botched a cross into the box late and lost 0-1. Here's to better days and better games...
 
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#2
#2
armchair said:
Well, we played a big home game against an Auburn team that was ranked 14th in the country--and sadly got schooled, losing 1-3. Auburn is experienced, very well organized and played a polished game; they were better than I expected them to be, and the Vols--who earlier this year tied (and should have beaten) a Va. Tech team that was ranked in the top 10 at the time)--were not polished and rather poor today.

Our midfield, which is young, got totally outclassed; the four starters spent most of their time running around without the ball, chasing auburn players. When we did get the ball down the field to our speedy wingers in the first half, there were no midfielders around to help them. A couple of our veteran defenders weren't very good today either; one of them makes entirely too many bad decisions with the ball, and bad passes, every game. Down 1-2 at the half, we had a couple of pretty good chances to equalize early in the second half, but Amy Neal could not get her foot on either of two very sweet, low crosses into the box. She was in great position both times but could not make contact. Have to do better there. After those missed chances, Auburn scored its third goal and we were done.

We are going to struggle against solid/good opponents until we get lots better in the middle of the field. A problem last year, a problem this year. A lot of it is a youth/lack of experience issue--all of our midfielders except Hutson are freshman, and Hutson had not played much before this year--but youth is not the only issue: there are size/speed issues as well. It's frustrating because we have four forwards who, individually, are pretty fast and dangerous, but they need some combination help from the midfielders. Ariel Kupritz scored a nice goal today. She is tough and speedy and perhaps needs to play more than 30 minutes a game. I wonder if her game would work in the midfield.

We next play Miss. State away in what is a must game if we are to entertain any chance of making the NCAA tournament. Miss. State is not very good but beat arkansas today (against the second half run of play)--their first SEC win after 23 straight losses. It's then on to Vandy, which will be a tough away game. Vandy played very well against texas a&M a few days ago; they were the better team for most of the game but botched a cross into the box late and lost 0-1. Here's to better days and better games...
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I was impressed with Auburn.
 
#3
#3
Yes, I was impressed with auburn too. I knew they'd be better than everybody we played but maybe Va. Tech, but they handled us. Pensky worries me a bit: He said after the game that "we weren't ourselves" and didn't play with "edge"--meaning aggressively, etc. And, yes, that is true. But the fact is, our midfield is not very good--and whenever we play a solid/good team our midfield problems become very apparent. Our midfield was bad against a mediocre arkansas squad, though we managed with some luck and one great play by Kupritz, to win that game. Losing Christy, our only experience midfielder, was a blow--but Pensky has got to upgrade that unit. I'll leave it at that.
 
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