armchair
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The Vol soccer team ended the regular season with a crucial win over Arkansas, on the road, rallying twice to win the match 3-2. After losing our previous two matches, the Vols needed a victory to assure themselves a bye in the first-round of the SEC tournament, which starts Sunday. Beyond that, we needed a win to improve our NCAA RPI ranking and to simply avoid losing three straight to end the season, which would have been a total bummer after playing so well for most of the season. Thankfully, UT got the win and with it the 5th seed in the tournament. We finished the SEC with a 6-3-1 record. That's a good record in a tough conference--but it could have been better, given that we let Auburn tie us late after it looked like we had the win in that match, and we could have beaten South Carolina as well--or at least gotten a tie out of that match. In any case, we will now play Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Tuesday night. We lost to Vandy, at Vandy, a week ago by a score of 2-1, but we made some dumb mistakes in that game and we are certainly capable of beating the Commodores. They are a solid team, but so are we.
In this game, we fell behind in the first five minutes of the game. Paige Franks--who has been bright at the left back position for us--tried to kick the ball across the field but her pass was off and hit an Arkansas player. A razorback midfielder picked up the ball and found a teammate who got in behind Franks on the left side of our defense. She crossed the ball into the box, where we had two or three defenders. One of them, Wrenne French, seemed to be caught a bit unawares by the ball. Instead of clearing it, she could only get her foot on it and deflect it; the ball went to another arkansas player, who put it in the back of our net.
After that we dominated possession in the first half and showed a lot of patience with the ball, a quality that we did not have against florida. We didn't create many chances--only one, in fact--but that was enough to tie the game. Bunny Shaw controlled a throw-in in the Arkansas third, laced the ball into the arkansas box, about 10 yards in front of net. An arky defender could not control the ball, and Rylie O'Keefe took advantage. She skipped past the arkansas defender and nicely thumped the ball over a sliding hog keeper and into the net. The half ended 1-1.
We were a bit shaky in the first 15 minutes of the second half. We gave up some corner chances--and then we gave up another goal when our keeper, Shae Yanez made what I think was the same mistake, on the same type of play, that proved to be the game loser for us in the Vandy game. As in the Vandy game, Arkansas had a free kick on our half of the field and sent the ball into our 18-yard box. As in the Vandy game, Yanez game out of goal to either grab the ball or put herself in a position to grab it--or something. As in the Vandy game, the ball was too far out from goal for her to get to it--and there were players between her and the ball. And she, again, found herself in no-man's land. As in the Vandy game, the ball was headed toward our goal---and with Yanez out of position, the ball bounced into our unprotected net.
In this case, the ball was poorly headed by a Vol, M.A. Vignola, and ended up as an own-goal. But had Yanez stayed in net, she could have made an easy safe. She has got to start reading the ball better and stop running out to get balls that come down 12 yards or more from our goal--too far out to retrieve. Knowing when to leave goal to grab a ball and when not to is a key part of being a keeper, and Yanez has to make better decisions.
More generally, we've made too many defensive mistakes in late-season games--and as a result have struggled. You can't give your opponents free goals--it makes it very hard to win. M. Neal got called for a penalty in the box against Missouri and they converted the penalty kick to take the lead. M. Gouner did the same thing against Vandy after missing a chance to clear the ball away, and that resulted in a Vandy goal--and then the mistakes by Yanez. We have had to chase our last four games, falling behind in every one of them because of bonehead defensive miscues. You can't do that and expect to beat good teams. The difference between us and, say, conference winner South Carolina--the best defensive team in the conference--is that they don't make mistakes and give the opponent free goals.
But the Vols kept their composure last night--and ended up swiping the game. In the mid-part of the second half, Pensky moved Erin Gilroy from her right-forward position to the midfield--and that proved a smart move. Gilroy got a ball, moved toward goal and belted the ball upper-right-hand corner of the Arkansas net from about 20 yards out. It was an impressive strike. And then late in the game we got the game-winner. At roughly the 81 minute mark, we had a throw-in deep in the Arkansas zone. D. Marcano made a strong toss from the sideline that went all the way to the near post. There, Bunny Shaw was waiting for it--and she leapt above two Arkansas defenders to head the ball past the arky keeper, giving us a 3-2 lead. That proved to be the game winner. It was nice to see Shaw get back in the scoring column.
I think this win assures us of getting an NCAA bid, which we desperately need after failing to make the big tournament for a few years. Where we will be seeded and where we will play will depend on how we do in the SEC tournament and what our end-of-season RPI is. Going into the Vandy and Florida games, we were in a position to get a very high NCAA seed--one analyst had us as a 2 seed. But we fell in the RPI after the two losses. Opportunity awaits in the tournament--and it would be nice to see us turn the tables on Vandy in the rematch. It's a good chance for us, but we will have to play better defensively to win it. On a sidenote, our starting centerback McKenzie Gouner got hurt late in the Vandy match and as missed the last two games. Not sure what the injury is but hope to see her back on the field. Josie Jennings has done a nice job filling in at centerback, but overall, to be candid, I don't think our back four is quite good enough to beat really good teams. I hope they prove me wrong.
One last thing: After last night's victory, AD John Currie tweeted congratulations to Coach Pensky and the soccer team on the win and getting a first-round bye in the SEC tourney. Unfortunately, a bunch of idiotic UT football fans--men--set upon Currie's tweet like flies on a jelly sandwich. They hijacked the tweet and assailed Currie with a barrage to retweets calling for Butch Jones to be fired. So a nice message to the soccer team was ruined by a bunch of goobers. Not cool at all.
In this game, we fell behind in the first five minutes of the game. Paige Franks--who has been bright at the left back position for us--tried to kick the ball across the field but her pass was off and hit an Arkansas player. A razorback midfielder picked up the ball and found a teammate who got in behind Franks on the left side of our defense. She crossed the ball into the box, where we had two or three defenders. One of them, Wrenne French, seemed to be caught a bit unawares by the ball. Instead of clearing it, she could only get her foot on it and deflect it; the ball went to another arkansas player, who put it in the back of our net.
After that we dominated possession in the first half and showed a lot of patience with the ball, a quality that we did not have against florida. We didn't create many chances--only one, in fact--but that was enough to tie the game. Bunny Shaw controlled a throw-in in the Arkansas third, laced the ball into the arkansas box, about 10 yards in front of net. An arky defender could not control the ball, and Rylie O'Keefe took advantage. She skipped past the arkansas defender and nicely thumped the ball over a sliding hog keeper and into the net. The half ended 1-1.
We were a bit shaky in the first 15 minutes of the second half. We gave up some corner chances--and then we gave up another goal when our keeper, Shae Yanez made what I think was the same mistake, on the same type of play, that proved to be the game loser for us in the Vandy game. As in the Vandy game, Arkansas had a free kick on our half of the field and sent the ball into our 18-yard box. As in the Vandy game, Yanez game out of goal to either grab the ball or put herself in a position to grab it--or something. As in the Vandy game, the ball was too far out from goal for her to get to it--and there were players between her and the ball. And she, again, found herself in no-man's land. As in the Vandy game, the ball was headed toward our goal---and with Yanez out of position, the ball bounced into our unprotected net.
In this case, the ball was poorly headed by a Vol, M.A. Vignola, and ended up as an own-goal. But had Yanez stayed in net, she could have made an easy safe. She has got to start reading the ball better and stop running out to get balls that come down 12 yards or more from our goal--too far out to retrieve. Knowing when to leave goal to grab a ball and when not to is a key part of being a keeper, and Yanez has to make better decisions.
More generally, we've made too many defensive mistakes in late-season games--and as a result have struggled. You can't give your opponents free goals--it makes it very hard to win. M. Neal got called for a penalty in the box against Missouri and they converted the penalty kick to take the lead. M. Gouner did the same thing against Vandy after missing a chance to clear the ball away, and that resulted in a Vandy goal--and then the mistakes by Yanez. We have had to chase our last four games, falling behind in every one of them because of bonehead defensive miscues. You can't do that and expect to beat good teams. The difference between us and, say, conference winner South Carolina--the best defensive team in the conference--is that they don't make mistakes and give the opponent free goals.
But the Vols kept their composure last night--and ended up swiping the game. In the mid-part of the second half, Pensky moved Erin Gilroy from her right-forward position to the midfield--and that proved a smart move. Gilroy got a ball, moved toward goal and belted the ball upper-right-hand corner of the Arkansas net from about 20 yards out. It was an impressive strike. And then late in the game we got the game-winner. At roughly the 81 minute mark, we had a throw-in deep in the Arkansas zone. D. Marcano made a strong toss from the sideline that went all the way to the near post. There, Bunny Shaw was waiting for it--and she leapt above two Arkansas defenders to head the ball past the arky keeper, giving us a 3-2 lead. That proved to be the game winner. It was nice to see Shaw get back in the scoring column.
I think this win assures us of getting an NCAA bid, which we desperately need after failing to make the big tournament for a few years. Where we will be seeded and where we will play will depend on how we do in the SEC tournament and what our end-of-season RPI is. Going into the Vandy and Florida games, we were in a position to get a very high NCAA seed--one analyst had us as a 2 seed. But we fell in the RPI after the two losses. Opportunity awaits in the tournament--and it would be nice to see us turn the tables on Vandy in the rematch. It's a good chance for us, but we will have to play better defensively to win it. On a sidenote, our starting centerback McKenzie Gouner got hurt late in the Vandy match and as missed the last two games. Not sure what the injury is but hope to see her back on the field. Josie Jennings has done a nice job filling in at centerback, but overall, to be candid, I don't think our back four is quite good enough to beat really good teams. I hope they prove me wrong.
One last thing: After last night's victory, AD John Currie tweeted congratulations to Coach Pensky and the soccer team on the win and getting a first-round bye in the SEC tourney. Unfortunately, a bunch of idiotic UT football fans--men--set upon Currie's tweet like flies on a jelly sandwich. They hijacked the tweet and assailed Currie with a barrage to retweets calling for Butch Jones to be fired. So a nice message to the soccer team was ruined by a bunch of goobers. Not cool at all.
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