Lady Vols Soccer goes dow to defeat 1 - 2

#1

StrangeVol

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#1
to %&$#*@^# Vandy. :mad:

I thought we played a very average game and our back line got exposed on a couple of occasions. No excuse for giving up a PK inside the 18 yard line.

The loss sets us back to 4th in the SEC (virtually tied with Vandy) with the gators coming to town on Sunday. Should we beat the gators we will move past the gators to 3rd along with possibly Vandy if they win their match with A&M.

Our national standing will drop a good bit but I hope we'll remain inside the top 20.

I HATE losing to Vandy! :mad::mad::mad:
 
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#2
#2
to %&$#*@^# Vandy. :mad:

I thought we played a very average game and our back line got exposed on a couple of occasions. No excuse for giving up a PK inside the 18 yard line.

The loss sets us back to 4th in the SEC (virtually tied with Vandy) with the gators coming to town on Sunday. Should we beat the gators we will move into a tie with the gators for 3rd along with possibly Vandy if they win their match with A&M.

Our national standing will drop a good bit but I hope we'll remain inside the top 20.

I HATE losing to Vandy! :mad::mad::mad:

Yep and we looked timid practically the whole match! Would have though playing vandy we would have fire in the belly but looked more like butterflies!!
 
#3
#3
We did not look timid--but there is no disputing that this was a costly defeat, especially with a very good florida team coming to Knoxville on Sunday. We screwed up the Vandy game last year--and it was costly--and we screwed it up again tonight, though we played well enough, for sure, to get at least a tie in a game that was very physical and competitive. We had more shots (15-6) and more shots on goal (7-3) tonight than Vandy, as well as more corners and more possession. But we made two key mistakes and they cost us the game. That is soccer.

The first mistake was Gouner getting called for a penalty in our box, which gave Vandy a penalty kick. Their player converted the shot--and we were down 0-1 failr early in the game. I thought it was a questionable call. I'll have to look at it again, but both Gouner and the Vandy player were fighting for the ball and both went down at the same time. I didn't see Gouner trip the Vandy player--maybe she did, but they were both tangled up and fighting for the ball. So I think it was a harsh call. That said, Gouner screwed the play up. She challenged the Vandy player in the box and won the ball. She could have cleared the ball out of the box--and should have--but tried to control the ball. Mistake: The Vandy player got back ball on the ball, and in the ensuing tussle she and Gouner went down. Gouner should have cleared the ball.

Vandy played us tough in the first half. They knew that we liked to get the ball to Gilroy on the right flank, and to Bunny Shaw, and they did not give either of those Vol players any room to operate after the first few minutes when we controlled possession. We weren't as organized as we should have been and we gave up a couple of dangerous counters to Vandy--with one shot nearly going in the net. But, really, I think that was the only real scoring threat Vandy had all night save for their second goal. A. Bialczak, who is normally very influential for us, did not have one of her better games. She seemed to be chasing the ball all night and did little to help us in attack. We were hurt in the first half when Shaw went down early with some sort of leg injury and sat out most of the first half. Shaw came back in the second half and seemed fine, but struggled to make any sort of mark on the game. She drew a lot of attention and fell down a lot---too much for someone who is as big as she is. D. Marcano came in for Shaw and did pretty well--she had a couple of half chances in the first half.

We put a lot of pressure on Vandy in the second half--and almost had a goal or two. Marcano fired one in on frame but the Commodore keeper was able to parry it away. Soon after that, their keeper made an outstanding save on Gilroy. After a bad giveaway by Vandy in the defensive third, Gilroy came in on goal and belted one low and hard and just inside the left post--but the Vandy goalie dove and got her hand on the ball just enough to deflect it onto the post. That was tough luck for us. Had Gilroy hit the ball high instead of low, she would have had a goal. She earlier had another possible opportunity, coming onto goal from the right--but instead of shooting tried to slot the ball into Shaw in the box--but the pass was behind our center-forward and the chance was lost.

Our second mistake sealed our fate. Vandy had posed no threat to us in the second half--but a foul was called on Tennessee just inside or defensive third, giving the Commodores a nice free-kick opportunity. Their player sent the ball into the box, about 10 yards, at least, from goal--and the normally dependable Shae Yanez made a bad mental mistake that cost us a goal. She decided to come out and try to punch the ball away, or catch it--but the ball was too far away from net and there were three/four players between her and the ball. She didn't come close to getting to the ball and thus was caught in no-man's land. A Vandy player headed the ball--and with Yanez way out of position--out of goal--it rolled into our net. Had Yanez stayed in goal, as she should have, it would have been an easy save. That gave Vandy a 0-2 lead with about 14-15 minutes remaining. I stopped watching at that point. A couple of minutes later, Rylie O'Keefe pulled one back for us with a goal, but it was too little, too late, and we could not get the tying goal in the last 10-12 minutes of the game.

I had seen Vandy a couple of times earlier in the season and was impressed--they have a pretty good team. I was surprised that they got beat successively by 0-3 scores--to both South Carolina and Florida--but then they are the two best teams in the conference. I figured they'd play us tough, and they did. We are now up against it as florida is going to be a very tough match for us. We'll have to regroup and really need to play better against the gators or we could quite easily lose again and fall even farther down in the conference standings. The truth is, we really haven't played many good teams this year--and we are being tested late in the year. We played well enough, for sure, to get a result tonight--but in this quirky sport a couple of plays one way or another are quite often the difference, and they did not go in our favor tonight. (Florida lost to Auburn last Sunday despite being the better team on the day. Auburn had one shot on goal for the game--and scored with it--and won 1-0. As I said, funny game.)

If I could make one change in our lineup, I'd start Flynn at left forward and bring Vignola off the bench. Flynn has more experience playing on the flank and, I think, is more effective. She is better at getting crosses into the box. Vignola is an excellent athlete but she is used to being a midfielder and she drifts into the midfield area a lot during games, which takes her out of position and brings opposition players into the middle of the field to mark her, which we don't want as it clogs up the middle of the field and leaves us with nobody out wide on her side. Paige Franks played left back tonight in place of Jennings. Jennings is a solid defender, but Franks is a little quicker and agile and gets forward better than Jennings. Franks was actually better than her outside back partner tonight, freshman Wrenne French. It is not ideal having two freshmen at key positions--but they are both talented and are going to be good players for us. We just need them to be good in an hurry.
 
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#4
#4
Oh, my: I just watched the last 12 minutes of the game--and D. Marcano messed up a golden opportunity to tie the game with just under 2 minutes to play. She did a good job of gaining possession of the ball in the Vandy half after a header, burst past a Vandy player and headed for goal. Bunny Shaw was open in front of goal with defenders only behind her. Had Marcano slotted the ball over to Shaw, we would have tied the game. Instead, Marcano probably was too focused on scoring herself--she is playing center forward for the first time and plays with her head down too much--and instead of the quick pass just kept running with the ball and muffed the chance. She didn't even get a good shot off herself but seemed to stumble and futz one over the net. She has to do better with that. That was a goal waiting to happen.

A few minutes before that, a Vandy defender also saved the day for the Commodores. Gilroy had a nice little run into the middle of our attacking third, slotted the ball to Shaw, who had her back facing goal. Shaw wanted to body the smallish defender behind her and turn with the ball--but the defender smartly darted around Shaw just enough--and just in time-- to get her toe on the ball as it was reaching the Vol. Shaw could not control it. Had the Vandy player been a split second later making her defensive move, Shaw would have made the turn and been alone with the keeper. Oh, my.

I am disappointed in Marcano for not seeing Shaw and missing that huge chance. That is a soccer play that has to be made. Marcano is doing some good things in a new position but needs to slow down a hair and look for teammates.
 
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#5
#5
thanks StrangeVol and thanks AC...I didn't get to see this one...dadgummit...doesn't sound like we played up to our potential, for whatever reason...I like the way you think too about some possible changes...geez, what a shame...hope the girls can recover quickly...another big game coming up...sounds like coach P has to step it up and earn those big bucks...snap and clear...:):)

GO LADY VOLS!
 
#6
#6
thanks StrangeVol and thanks AC...I didn't get to see this one...dadgummit...doesn't sound like we played up to our potential, for whatever reason...I like the way you think too about some possible changes...geez, what a shame...hope the girls can recover quickly...another big game coming up...sounds like coach P has to step it up and earn those big bucks...snap and clear...:):)

GO LADY VOLS!

I think that is what bothered me most as we just didn't seem to "want it" as much as Vandy did. That, and as AC said, too many blown goal chances throughout the game but especially in the second half when we were finally being much more aggressive. :banghead2:
 
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