armchair
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The Vol soccer team played what might of been its best game of the year last night in its quarterfinal match against Vandy in the SEC tournament. But soccer is a cruel sport, as they say--and the combination of too many missed chances and an absolutely TERRIBLE, unforgivable penalty call cost us the game. We lost 0-1.
You hear the term "stealing a game." Well, Vandy absolutely stole this game from Tennessee. The commodores had no business winning this game, but such is the way it seems to go for UT sports teams.
We dominated the game. The Vols had the ball for about 80 percent of the game. We had 21 shots compared to only 2 for Vandy. But we were unlucky and just not good enough at finishing our chances. Early on, Bunny Shaw flicked a through pass from Vignola onto goal and the ball hit the post. Also in the first half, M. Flynn got in on goal and hit a good curling shot but the Vandy keeper made an excellent, diving save. I would have liked to have seen Flynn shoot at the upper top-left corner of the net on that one--which she could have done, being left footed--but in any case we just missed a score. We put a ton of pressure on Vandy. We had at least five corners in the first half but couldn't convert: Cousins sent one corner kick into the box and straight to Shaw, but our center-forward was a bit off balance and a half -step out of position and didn't get her head on the ball well enough to score. And so it went.
Early in the 2nd half, Vignola had a half chance on a centering pass from Shaw but missed the net. Not long after, we get a turnover in the Vandy half of the field and Shaw waited too long to get the ball to a breaking Bialczak, who was called offside. Had Shaw passed the ball promptly, Bialczak would have been in on the Vandy keeper. Missed opportunity.
After that came the play of the game. A Vandy player took the ball into the right side of our box and was challenged by E. Gilroy. The Vandy player initiated contact with her shoulder, and Gilroy met her shoulder, and both players tumbled to the ground. The referee called a penalty on Gilroy, and Vandy converted the penalty kick for what would be the game-winning goal. To say that it was a bad call would be an understatement. Make no mistake: There was no penalty. Competing players shoulder each other constantly in soccer--it is allowed--and even so the Vandy player initiated. It was an outrageous call--and Pensky should send the tape to the head of officiating for the league. We completely dominate the game and get screwed by an absurd call. It's unfortunate, but there are officials who want to call a penalty every time a defensive player makes contact with an offensive player in the box and falls down. Good officials call penalties only on obvious, egregious fouls and everything else is "play on"--but there are those who just can't stop from blowing the whistle, and we got one such official last night. It's a maddening aspect of the game--subjective, or just plain bad, penalty calls.
After that, we were just unlucky. Gilroy made some wonderful plays, had two good strikes from not the best of angles, but both were saved--barely--by the Vandy keeper. On the second, a high rocket, the Vandy keeper just managed to get her fingertips on the ball, which then caromed up and hit the crossbar and bounced down just outside the line. Late in the game, Gilroy sent a nice cross into the box and Flynn was there--but she didn't do enough with the header; didn't really get up off the ground quite enough and her header glanced off the crossbar.
I just watched a post-game interview with the Vandy coach, and he was like the cat who'd just eaten the canary. He half-pretended that his team deserved the win. He knew they didn't--but wasn't going to say so.
This loss was tough because Arkansas--which really isn't all that good--surprised everybody by beating no. 1 seed South Carolina earlier in the day by 1-0. Had we won, we would have faced the hogs. I didn't see that game, but Arkansas must have played pretty well defensively. Arkansas didn't even deserve to win its first game of the tourney; they were outplayed by Ole Miss but managed to win 1-0. Soccer.
The Vols must now await the NCAA tournament selection. I think we are a pretty dangerous team and have a chance to do well--but we've got to do a better job of finishing our chances. We played extremely well last night, so credit to the kids.
You hear the term "stealing a game." Well, Vandy absolutely stole this game from Tennessee. The commodores had no business winning this game, but such is the way it seems to go for UT sports teams.
We dominated the game. The Vols had the ball for about 80 percent of the game. We had 21 shots compared to only 2 for Vandy. But we were unlucky and just not good enough at finishing our chances. Early on, Bunny Shaw flicked a through pass from Vignola onto goal and the ball hit the post. Also in the first half, M. Flynn got in on goal and hit a good curling shot but the Vandy keeper made an excellent, diving save. I would have liked to have seen Flynn shoot at the upper top-left corner of the net on that one--which she could have done, being left footed--but in any case we just missed a score. We put a ton of pressure on Vandy. We had at least five corners in the first half but couldn't convert: Cousins sent one corner kick into the box and straight to Shaw, but our center-forward was a bit off balance and a half -step out of position and didn't get her head on the ball well enough to score. And so it went.
Early in the 2nd half, Vignola had a half chance on a centering pass from Shaw but missed the net. Not long after, we get a turnover in the Vandy half of the field and Shaw waited too long to get the ball to a breaking Bialczak, who was called offside. Had Shaw passed the ball promptly, Bialczak would have been in on the Vandy keeper. Missed opportunity.
After that came the play of the game. A Vandy player took the ball into the right side of our box and was challenged by E. Gilroy. The Vandy player initiated contact with her shoulder, and Gilroy met her shoulder, and both players tumbled to the ground. The referee called a penalty on Gilroy, and Vandy converted the penalty kick for what would be the game-winning goal. To say that it was a bad call would be an understatement. Make no mistake: There was no penalty. Competing players shoulder each other constantly in soccer--it is allowed--and even so the Vandy player initiated. It was an outrageous call--and Pensky should send the tape to the head of officiating for the league. We completely dominate the game and get screwed by an absurd call. It's unfortunate, but there are officials who want to call a penalty every time a defensive player makes contact with an offensive player in the box and falls down. Good officials call penalties only on obvious, egregious fouls and everything else is "play on"--but there are those who just can't stop from blowing the whistle, and we got one such official last night. It's a maddening aspect of the game--subjective, or just plain bad, penalty calls.
After that, we were just unlucky. Gilroy made some wonderful plays, had two good strikes from not the best of angles, but both were saved--barely--by the Vandy keeper. On the second, a high rocket, the Vandy keeper just managed to get her fingertips on the ball, which then caromed up and hit the crossbar and bounced down just outside the line. Late in the game, Gilroy sent a nice cross into the box and Flynn was there--but she didn't do enough with the header; didn't really get up off the ground quite enough and her header glanced off the crossbar.
I just watched a post-game interview with the Vandy coach, and he was like the cat who'd just eaten the canary. He half-pretended that his team deserved the win. He knew they didn't--but wasn't going to say so.
This loss was tough because Arkansas--which really isn't all that good--surprised everybody by beating no. 1 seed South Carolina earlier in the day by 1-0. Had we won, we would have faced the hogs. I didn't see that game, but Arkansas must have played pretty well defensively. Arkansas didn't even deserve to win its first game of the tourney; they were outplayed by Ole Miss but managed to win 1-0. Soccer.
The Vols must now await the NCAA tournament selection. I think we are a pretty dangerous team and have a chance to do well--but we've got to do a better job of finishing our chances. We played extremely well last night, so credit to the kids.
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