armchair
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The Vols, playing the first home game of the season, thumped East Tennessee State, 6-1. The Vols were shaky to start: Despite controlling the ball against an out-manned ETSU squad, the team displayed no chemistry or purpose in attack and then about 25 minutes in gave up the first goal of the game when inexperienced centerback M. Gouner failed to close down on her mark and the ETSU player lashed the ball into our goal. It was the first goal we've given up all year--but it's also true that we've not played anybody good.
After that it was all UT. Rylie O'Keefe scored from distance on a ball that was misjudged by the ETSU keeper. Then new and imposing center forward Bunny Shaw headed in a goal off a perfect corner-kick delivery from midfielder Katie Cousins. We scored two more goals to make it 4-1 at the half--one after an excellent play by Ariel Kupritz, who beat three ETSU off the dribble and then centered the ball into the box, where freshman McKinley Burkett arrived to kick it into the net, and then a really pretty combination play in which talented freshman Paige Franks found talented freshman Erin Gilroy on the left wing; Gilroy drove the ball into the box, and Burkett laid the ball off beautifully for midfielder Claire Franks (sister of Paige), who belted the ball in the net.
We scored two more goals fairly early in the second half--another by Shaw and one by Gilroy--and the big lead enabled our young players to come on and play extensively.
As mentioned before, this is definitely the deepest and most talented Vol soccer team we've had under Pensky--but there are potential problem areas that are likely to manifest themselves when we start playing better competition and get into the SEC schedule. The first is that, despite what Pensky might say, we're a little shaky at centerback--and that is not a position where you want to be shaky. In Gouner and Maya Neal, we have two player with speed and atheticism, but they get caught out of position more than they should and generally don't have the polish one wants in centerbacks. They've yet to be really tested, and in the weeks ahead they will be tested.
The other issue is that our midfield, while solid, is not very dynamic in attack. Cousins is an exceptional defensive mid, but O'Keefe and M. Christy lack a bit of oomph coming forward. I think if we played a really good team, an elite team, our midfield would be found wanting. Ironically, this is a team that is loaded with talented attacking mids--Marcano, Vignola, Bialczak, Paige Franks--but they are all playing other positions (Marcano and Vignola are our starting outside backs, and Bialczak--who is an amazing athlete--is playing forward. (She played in the midfield in the second half last night--but only after the game was decided.) They have all made us better--as a team---playing other positions, but while our depth is good, it apparently is not sufficiently good that, say, Vignola and Biaczak could in the middle of the field, where I think they'd be very dangerous indeed. Bialczak has the pace you want in a wing player--but she does not influence games as a winger nearly as much as she does when playing in the middle of the field.
In any case, this is a promising team but we won't get a real read on it, probably, until we play Virginia Tech--at home--on Sept. 10. Before then we have four more out-of-conference games against underwhelming opponents. I wish we were playing better, higher RPI teams--it is going to put a lot of pressure on the Vols to play well and win SEC games--but winning is good. Last year, we failed to get results early in the season against both weak teams and stronger teams, and it killed our RPI. This year is looking better.
After that it was all UT. Rylie O'Keefe scored from distance on a ball that was misjudged by the ETSU keeper. Then new and imposing center forward Bunny Shaw headed in a goal off a perfect corner-kick delivery from midfielder Katie Cousins. We scored two more goals to make it 4-1 at the half--one after an excellent play by Ariel Kupritz, who beat three ETSU off the dribble and then centered the ball into the box, where freshman McKinley Burkett arrived to kick it into the net, and then a really pretty combination play in which talented freshman Paige Franks found talented freshman Erin Gilroy on the left wing; Gilroy drove the ball into the box, and Burkett laid the ball off beautifully for midfielder Claire Franks (sister of Paige), who belted the ball in the net.
We scored two more goals fairly early in the second half--another by Shaw and one by Gilroy--and the big lead enabled our young players to come on and play extensively.
As mentioned before, this is definitely the deepest and most talented Vol soccer team we've had under Pensky--but there are potential problem areas that are likely to manifest themselves when we start playing better competition and get into the SEC schedule. The first is that, despite what Pensky might say, we're a little shaky at centerback--and that is not a position where you want to be shaky. In Gouner and Maya Neal, we have two player with speed and atheticism, but they get caught out of position more than they should and generally don't have the polish one wants in centerbacks. They've yet to be really tested, and in the weeks ahead they will be tested.
The other issue is that our midfield, while solid, is not very dynamic in attack. Cousins is an exceptional defensive mid, but O'Keefe and M. Christy lack a bit of oomph coming forward. I think if we played a really good team, an elite team, our midfield would be found wanting. Ironically, this is a team that is loaded with talented attacking mids--Marcano, Vignola, Bialczak, Paige Franks--but they are all playing other positions (Marcano and Vignola are our starting outside backs, and Bialczak--who is an amazing athlete--is playing forward. (She played in the midfield in the second half last night--but only after the game was decided.) They have all made us better--as a team---playing other positions, but while our depth is good, it apparently is not sufficiently good that, say, Vignola and Biaczak could in the middle of the field, where I think they'd be very dangerous indeed. Bialczak has the pace you want in a wing player--but she does not influence games as a winger nearly as much as she does when playing in the middle of the field.
In any case, this is a promising team but we won't get a real read on it, probably, until we play Virginia Tech--at home--on Sept. 10. Before then we have four more out-of-conference games against underwhelming opponents. I wish we were playing better, higher RPI teams--it is going to put a lot of pressure on the Vols to play well and win SEC games--but winning is good. Last year, we failed to get results early in the season against both weak teams and stronger teams, and it killed our RPI. This year is looking better.