Soccer: Ref Defeats Vols in Tourney Loss

[armchair]

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.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

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.

This loss was tough because Arkansas--which really isn't all that good--surprised everybody by beating 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 are always insightful about the short comings on coaches of at UT... would you say the missed chances and the early exit is because of coaching on this one?

 

[gule]

lol, you're so bad!

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

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.

That's what makes soccer such a fascinating game. The better team doesn't always win. My son plays club soccer and they struggled with 2 teams in a tournament that were not very good. They barely made it out of pool play in that tourney and they ended up playing two of the best teams in the Southeast and stole 2 games in which they were outclassed.

 

[StrangeVol]

The result made me absolutely sick. AC you are correct as usual we were robbed by the official without doubt. I'd seen far worse incidents during the match that went uncalled. Fouls in the area should be no more stringently called than on the rest of the pitch. A foul is a foul and a fall is a fall. They aren't the same regardless of where it happens.

I thought the girls played a great game and simply owned Vandy all night. We gave them TWO freakin' shots! TWO! Unreal. I loved our strategy and patience on the ball, it was really solid all over the pitch. We just missed on too many chances. I'm not sure why we didn't score four goals or more. We surely had the chances. In fairness to the Vandy keeper, she was great when she had to be. Made multiple fingertip saves. It was really hard to watch.

Anyway, here's hoping we get a fair seeding in the NCAAs...

One final thought. This is what losing to Vandy twice in one seasons does to me: uke5:

 

[VolsFan-TX]

The PK call was questionable, but not the worst I have seen. UT did dominate the game, but failed to score. Soccer can be a cruel game with the better team coming out with a loss sometimes, but you cannot put the blame solely on the officials. Defenders know the risks of contact in the box. These calls go against you occasionally, but the fact that we completely dominated the game and failed to scored is on us not the officials.

The loss hurts our NCAA tourney chances as we are now closer to the 32 cutoff. Good luck Lady Vols with the tourney selection and subsequent games.

 

[CannonVol80]

While the PK call on Tennessee was BAD, it was only exacerbated by the no call at the other end in the second half when a Vandy player blatantly grabbed a handful of the attacker's jersey in the penalty box and pulled to prevent her from getting to what was, at the time, a loose ball.

I'm not sure which incident elicited the loudest roar from my position in front of the TV. I only know that when my wife asked why I was screaming so loudly, I told her it was because I was trying to be sure the (several adjectives) "official" could hear me down there in Orange Beach!

Jim

 

[RollerVol]

good post AC...it reminded me of the Vol/Cats football game...it seems we beat them everywhere except the scoreboard...unreal, but, as always...

GO LADY VOLS!

 

[feathersax]

Okey-dokey.

 

[armchair]

To answer someone's question above, no, coaching had nothing to do with this sickening loss. Hell, we played exceptionally well--I'm not sure I've ever seen a better possession game by the Vols, at least for several years. But if you watch or play soccer, you know that lesser teams gets results pretty regularly by scratching out a goal, by hook or by crook, while the superior team can't find the back of the net despite having multiple chances. One can certainly say that we missed that last bit of polish that might have turned a good chance into a goal--but we were also just plain unlucky, and a couple of times and the Vandy keeper made very good saves. She made a couple of good saves the last time we played them. I mean, for all our shots we only had four shots on goal--but then we hit either the post or the crossbar three times. That is bad luck. Thoroughly frustrating.

As important as it is to possess the ball, if your opponent has most of his defenders back it can be hard to break him down and score. This is why some teams will sometimes want the opponent to have the ball some and then try to play counter-attacking football--get a turnover, win the ball in midfield or on the opponent's half of the field, and then attack when the opponent has only a few players back. Otherwise, we have to do a little better job of creating space for shots in front of goal, via combination play, converting corners, and finishing. We've got to find to ways to win these tight games against good opponents. Vandy has a good team, but we're better--even as we've lost twice to them in two weeks. It doubly sux because we had a good chance to get to the final of the SEC tournament, and we are going to end up with a middling seeding in the NCAA tournament now when we had a good chance for a high seed. Still, this team has a chance to do well.

That penalty call wasn't questionable--it was just plain bad.

 

[orangebloodgmc]

Thank you, Armchair. SEC football and almost any soccer (except EPL) are my only sports that I can follow.

 

[Vol67]

You can say anything you want but it comes down to this coach has to go

 

[TVOL71]

I am not that knowledgeable on Soccer rules, but when I saw the penalty play and replays, it certainly looked to me like the Vandy girl used her hand to push Gilroy down, then tripped over Gilroy as she was falling to fall herself. I was wondering how soccer rules would penalize the player who was pushed down by another player, and that clearly led to the Vandy winning point. Looked like a very bad call to me.

Best thing is this team is relatively young, with only 2 seniors. Unfortunately Shaw is a Junior, so they will only have her one more year, but they should be good next year.

 

[Pappy]

bad calls in every sport give us cause to complain (rightfully so), but 21 shots on goal missed and the reason UT lost was because of a few bad calls?

 

[armchair]

bad calls in every sport give us cause to complain (rightfully so), but 21 shots on goal missed and the reason UT lost was because of a few bad calls?

We have a lot of talent, and scoring only one goal in two matches against Vandy isn't good enough, but soccer games are low-scoring, and one penalty call is often the difference in a game.

 

[StrangeVol]

bad calls in every sport give us cause to complain (rightfully so), but 21 shots on goal missed and the reason UT lost was because of a few bad calls?

Can't argue with you on that fact. We should have scored at least 3 goals that, imo, were there for the taking but somehow we managed to misfire. At the end of the day the loss is on us, but the way we lost on a PK is still sickening after we played so well in almost every aspect of the game. Defense and possession we simply outstanding. Scoring, not so much, sadly. :ermm:

 

[WVU05UT09]

You can say anything you want but it comes down to this coach has to go

Ridiculously absurd but you may get your wish. There are more attractive jobs and UTAD/UTK administratively looks like a cluster f again. If a school in the Big Ten or ACC came looking at him I wouldn't be surprised if he left.

 

[armchair]

Pensky has the program in better shape than it has been in years. He recruits well. We have a team that somewhere between good and very good this year, and we should be better next year. In fact, had we not ****** up the two Vandy games this year, we'd be looking at a pretty high NCAA seed. Pensky should get a raise--and probably will. The SEC has more depth, top to bottom, than just about any conference in the country--and is getting better by the year. Our facilities and those throughout the league are better than most in the country. We have a chance to be quite good for years to come.

 

[StrangeVol]

Pensky has the program in better shape than it has been in years. He recruits well. We have a team that somewhere between good and very good this year, and we should be better next year. In fact, had we not ****** up the two Vandy games this year, we'd be looking at a pretty high NCAA seed. Pensky should get a raise--and probably will. The SEC has more depth, top to bottom, than just about any conference in the country--and is getting better by the year. Our facilities and those throughout the league are better than most in the country. We have a chance to be quite good for years to come.

That's what is so exciting about our team...what's possible and very likely to occur in the near future. Anybody that thinks we'd be better off firing Pensky and hiring another coach at this point is clueless.

 

[armchair]

One of the interesting things about this team is our midfield and the 4-3-3 formation that Pensky likes to play. In Cousins, Bialczak and O'Keefe, we have a strong midfield, especially when it comes to pressing the opponent,, winning the ball--and their work rate. You need midfielders with a high work rate because it is a demanding position. But it is not a great midfield when it comes to combination play and scoring.

We've got two or three really talented midfielders with attacking skills that have been forced into other positions--outside back, mainly--because Pensky likes the 4-3-3 and likes our starting midfield. I can't blame him--but Mary Alice Vignola, to name one, is a very talented attacking midfielder (strong, quick, can thump the ball) who's been playing left outside back and left forward this year--and while she's been OK in those positions--she's not contributed much to our attack. When playing as an outside back, she is in the back a lot of the time, playing defense. When she is forward, she seems handicapped a bit (or more than a bit) by the fact that she's left-footed. It's good to be left-footed when you are playing defensively along the left touch line. When you are playing offensively, however, being left-footed limits somewhat what you can do---because most of the field is to your right. So one basic job is to get the ball wide and then swing it into the box with a cross. Vignola has not done much of that this year, at either left forward or left back. It is not
a strength of hers. (Flynn, who plays left forward and has been starting lately, is better at getting crosses into the box.). You can drive from the left into the center of the field--but then you are having to rely on your weaker (right) foot.

Vignola played in the midfield last year and scored three or four goals. The last goal she scored this year came in the Missouri game when Pensky moved her over to the right side of the field: she got the ball on the right, drove left toward the center of the field, and belted the ball into the net from about 20 or more yards out. That is where she can help us--coming in from the right and then using her left foot to shoot. Against Vandy the other night, Shaw centered a ball from the right that came across the top of the box. Vignola--playing her more normal left-side position, came forward (moving right) and hit the ball with her left (strong) foot--not a natural shot. She predictably hit the ball wide right. It was a ball that needed to be struck with a right foot. I think it was her only shot of the game. All of this is a long way of saying that Pensky needs to find a way to get her in the middle of the field, preferably on the right-middle side of the field, so that she can best put her attacking skills to use.

Likewise, Paige Franks is a playmaking midfielder who has also played a lot of outside back this year (lately in a reserve role). Franks is quick and good with the ball; she can penetrate a defense, move past defenders--but as with Vignola, playing outside back really limits what she can do. She'd be much more effective, IMO, in the middle of the field. How to get her and Vignola into the middle of the field? Pensky could play a different formation--try a 3-5-2 or somesuch--or try a different combination of players in the midfield. It may be that neither Vignola nor Franks can provide the work rate and defensive play that we see with O'Keefe and Bialczak, I don't know. You hate to see talented players being underutilized--but that is partly because we have more depth than maybe ever.

 

[Vol67]

Ridiculously absurd but you may get your wish. There are more attractive jobs and UTAD/UTK administratively looks like a cluster f again. If a school in the Big Ten or ACC came looking at him I wouldn't be surprised if he left.

No its not, the team did so well this year due to a weaker than normal schedule. Played only 4 teams with winning Conference records and best was a tie with Auburn, Lost to SC, UF and Vandy twice so 0-4-1 against top of conference. SEC other than SC, UF & Vandy finished 68-71-17


They had 1 win against a real OOC team. (Navy 15-3-1) rest off OOC Schedule finished 58-60-10


SC, UF, Vandy and Navy finished 37-9-3 and This coach's team finished 1-4-0 against those teams

 

[Vol67]

Pensky has the program in better shape than it has been in years. He recruits well. We have a team that somewhere between good and very good this year, and we should be better next year. In fact, had we not ****** up the two Vandy games this year, we'd be looking at a pretty high NCAA seed. Pensky should get a raise--and probably will. The SEC has more depth, top to bottom, than just about any conference in the country--and is getting better by the year. Our facilities and those throughout the league are better than most in the country. We have a chance to be quite good for years to come.

The team is decent the coaching is average. He was smarter this year with his schedule but still cannot stand up to the Top teams in the SEC