armchair
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The Vols have moved up to 12th in the Top Drawer ranking of women's soccer teams. That is the high-rent district for a program that hasn't been in the top 25 for a while--especially considering that we are ranked ahead of perennial powers Florida State, Virginia...and Florida (all good teams this year, still.)
Surprisingly, florida has lost its last two games--losing 0-2 to florida state and 0-1 yesterday to Auburn--and dropped to 19th in the rankings. But make no mistake: Florida is a very good team. They were unlucky against an Auburn team that shown a knack for getting results it didn't deserve. (Recall that the tigers scored with five minutes left in the game to tie us.) Florida was the better team yesterday by every measure except the score--far more shots, shots on goal, corners--but soccer is a funny game in that it is not unusual for an underdog to get a goal and then hang on with its defense. It will take a major performance for us to beat the gators on Sunday, and we first must play Vandy. Vandy had been unbeaten in the conference--but has lost its last two games by the same 0-3 score, first to florida and yesterday to South Carolina, which continues to roll on in the conference.
Texas a&M is 2nd in the SEC standings and ranked ahead of us in every poll other than Top Drawer, but I'm not completely sold on the aggies. They have talent, to be sure, but struggled to beat a bad georgia team--winning in double overtime--and could only manage 1 late goal to beat Mississippi 1 to nil.
For now the focus for the Vols is Thursday's game at Vandy. We will really want to score the first goal in that game. Vandy has probably lost some of its swagger after getting thumped two games in a row--but they will be hungry to get back on track and will surely come out with a lot of energy on their home field on Thursday. We have to be ready for that--and if we can score first, they will begin to doubt themselves and perhaps lose energy--and that will be a good thing! Onward!
Surprisingly, florida has lost its last two games--losing 0-2 to florida state and 0-1 yesterday to Auburn--and dropped to 19th in the rankings. But make no mistake: Florida is a very good team. They were unlucky against an Auburn team that shown a knack for getting results it didn't deserve. (Recall that the tigers scored with five minutes left in the game to tie us.) Florida was the better team yesterday by every measure except the score--far more shots, shots on goal, corners--but soccer is a funny game in that it is not unusual for an underdog to get a goal and then hang on with its defense. It will take a major performance for us to beat the gators on Sunday, and we first must play Vandy. Vandy had been unbeaten in the conference--but has lost its last two games by the same 0-3 score, first to florida and yesterday to South Carolina, which continues to roll on in the conference.
Texas a&M is 2nd in the SEC standings and ranked ahead of us in every poll other than Top Drawer, but I'm not completely sold on the aggies. They have talent, to be sure, but struggled to beat a bad georgia team--winning in double overtime--and could only manage 1 late goal to beat Mississippi 1 to nil.
For now the focus for the Vols is Thursday's game at Vandy. We will really want to score the first goal in that game. Vandy has probably lost some of its swagger after getting thumped two games in a row--but they will be hungry to get back on track and will surely come out with a lot of energy on their home field on Thursday. We have to be ready for that--and if we can score first, they will begin to doubt themselves and perhaps lose energy--and that will be a good thing! Onward!
