armchair
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...not good enough. Game ended in a 1-1 tie, so finished the weekend with two away-game ties. It would have been nice to have gotten a win and a tie instead of two ties, but we didn't. We were better tonight than against miss. state, which was an ugly game; the effort was good and we had a 1-0 lead, but the back four seemed to get tired and lose some composure, and we gave up a free-kick score by Vandy and that was the last of the scoring.
Positives:
--Team was more organized than against miss. state.
--Cousins has been a bit more active last couple of games, which she badly needs to be, and even got forward to score her first collegiate goal.
--Good defensive effort overall--kept Vandy's talented forward, Charly, bottled up. Everybody pitched in--including Bialczak, who worked her tail off in the first half and was all over the pitch, helping the midfield, helping the back four. Impressive. It's not ideal to have a forward going back so far so often, but our midfield needs the help, especially today when we went to a three-man midfield instead of four.
Negatives:
--Like almost every game, we give the ball away too easily by making bad decisions or just bad passes. We try to get the ball to players who are well marked, not open, and the ball goes to the other team. TV Commentator Cat Whitehill, who was a star at North Carolina and then played a decade with the U.S. women's national team, said today that UT's players "need to play with more patience and make smarter decisions" [with the ball]. Stop trying to make passes that have little chance of meeting your teammates feet. A lot of our bad decisions and bad passes are made by veteran players. Somebody will make a little run, which is nice, and then pass the ball to...nobody, which is bad. Everybody misses connections, but we do it too much.
--After playing a solid game, our defensive back four lost their grip late in the game. They seemed to get tired and lose their composure the last 18 minutes of the game. Vandy started throwing people forward in an effort to tie, which they did. Maybe Pensky needs to give Culhane and Santorio a few minutes of rest.
--Georgia is next. Pretty much a must-win game, IMO, if we want to get in the tournament.
Positives:
--Team was more organized than against miss. state.
--Cousins has been a bit more active last couple of games, which she badly needs to be, and even got forward to score her first collegiate goal.
--Good defensive effort overall--kept Vandy's talented forward, Charly, bottled up. Everybody pitched in--including Bialczak, who worked her tail off in the first half and was all over the pitch, helping the midfield, helping the back four. Impressive. It's not ideal to have a forward going back so far so often, but our midfield needs the help, especially today when we went to a three-man midfield instead of four.
Negatives:
--Like almost every game, we give the ball away too easily by making bad decisions or just bad passes. We try to get the ball to players who are well marked, not open, and the ball goes to the other team. TV Commentator Cat Whitehill, who was a star at North Carolina and then played a decade with the U.S. women's national team, said today that UT's players "need to play with more patience and make smarter decisions" [with the ball]. Stop trying to make passes that have little chance of meeting your teammates feet. A lot of our bad decisions and bad passes are made by veteran players. Somebody will make a little run, which is nice, and then pass the ball to...nobody, which is bad. Everybody misses connections, but we do it too much.
--After playing a solid game, our defensive back four lost their grip late in the game. They seemed to get tired and lose their composure the last 18 minutes of the game. Vandy started throwing people forward in an effort to tie, which they did. Maybe Pensky needs to give Culhane and Santorio a few minutes of rest.
--Georgia is next. Pretty much a must-win game, IMO, if we want to get in the tournament.
