Official 2015 Soccer Thread

[MAD]

I've watched Pa. state's last two games--against west virginia and rutgers--and they were nearly flawless in each game. Impressive--extremely well coached. It was good that there were able to take advantage of that rutgers mistake and score an earlyish goal; otherwise, it might have been another 0-0 score. And you are right: Pa. state is brilliant at finding open players, extremely well organized--they showed that against a /very/ athletic west virginia team. I think they do have some good athletes in midfield and a couple of players up front with very good pace. What is doubly remarkable about their back four is that they are 3 sophs and a freshman.

UT's back four was two seniors, a junior and a soph and not nearly good enough: the players were not technical enough and not composed enough. We need to improve technically, and I'll be curious to see who starts for this team next year. Not impressed by coaching decisions last year--formation, personnel. Marcano should have played tons more--crazy. We're a goal down to florida in the second half and the coach sticks with weak attacking personnel, including a holding mid who played the entire 90. The switches made for the S.C. game after Flynn's injury violated the rule that you never make more position changes than necessary. Examples....On to next year.

Florida State is a bit annoying with all their internationals--not because they have internationals, but because their coach has made Intls, the focal point of his program--5 starting last year and 5 this year. It's pretty common to have 1--but 5 is half your field team. The internationals are typically a year older than their U.S. counterparts--19/20-year freshman--and have pro experience in Europe. It is advantage, for sure--as evidenced by the fact that they've been bossing excellent uva and unc programs the last couple of years. However, as I write this, duke is beating fsu--scored against run of play. I hope they can prevail.

Duke did it, I enjoyed watching them beat FSU.

 

[Vol Soc Fan]

I've watched Pa. state's last two games--against west virginia and rutgers--and they were nearly flawless in each game. Impressive--extremely well coached. It was good that there were able to take advantage of that rutgers mistake and score an earlyish goal; otherwise, it might have been another 0-0 score. And you are right: Pa. state is brilliant at finding open players, extremely well organized--they showed that against a /very/ athletic west virginia team. I think they do have some good athletes in midfield and a couple of players up front with very good pace. What is doubly remarkable about their back four is that they are 3 sophs and a freshman.

UT's back four was two seniors, a junior and a soph and not nearly good enough: the players were not technical enough and not composed enough. We need to improve technically, and I'll be curious to see who starts for this team next year. Not impressed by coaching decisions last year--formation, personnel. Marcano should have played tons more--crazy. We're a goal down to florida in the second half and the coach sticks with weak attacking personnel, including a holding mid who played the entire 90. The switches made for the S.C. game after Flynn's injury violated the rule that you never make more position changes than necessary. Examples....On to next year.

Florida State is a bit annoying with all their internationals--not because they have internationals, but because their coach has made Intls, the focal point of his program--5 starting last year and 5 this year. It's pretty common to have 1--but 5 is half your field team. The internationals are typically a year older than their U.S. counterparts--19/20-year freshman--and have pro experience in Europe. It is advantage, for sure--as evidenced by the fact that they've been bossing excellent uva and unc programs the last couple of years. However, as I write this, duke is beating fsu--scored against run of play. I hope they can prevail.

PSU is very average athletically but superb ball skills and they play very simply. Often with great athletes they try to dribble out of pressure rather than making a simple pass. What is so impressive with PSU is how simple they play. They routinely connect 15-25 or more passes and if they give the ball away they get it back quickly.

 

[MAD]

Penn State beats Duke 2-1

 

[LVJeff]

Penn State beats Duke 2-1

Thank you Penn State! (from a life-long Duke hater!)

 

[armchair]

Soc Fam: Agree with your points about pa. state, though their fine coach, Walsh, made a point of praising their international midfielder--Rodriguez (Costa Rican national team player, I think I heard)--for her skill at dribbling out of pressure several times in the florida state game, which was true. She is strong and a very good player. I had not seen pa. state until the west virginia and rutger's games and was wowed by how almost flawless they were in each of those games--hardly put a foot wrong. Did not see the Duke game but going in a gave pa. state an edge just based on overall quality--and Rodriguez scored the only goal. I am not a nittany lion fan at all, but Walsh is obviously a helluva a coach--and clearly a helluva group of players this year. I would have liked to see them play UVA sted of rutgers, which was great defensively but pretty one dimensional.

I saw a Hannah Wilkinson tweet that suggests strongly that she's been giving another year of eligibility--"finally getting my fourth year at UT" or somesuch, tho no word from the program. Is it true? I have mixed feelings, if it is. Certainly a good player but, good grief, she's had serious knee issues for three straight years. I hope she's got titanium replacements for both, at this stage. Also, I felt we were too one-dimensional and unimaginative with her in the lineup--let's whelp the ball long and hope Wilkinson can overpower a defender and score. Of course the opponents knew the same thing--and we did the same thing a lot last year with Neal. Our forward situation was muddled. With Wilkinson's size, she would certainly be a big help on corners, which were a horror show last year. We need a bit more size. I'd love to see the Vols play a 4-4-2, or a 4-2-3-1 and be more possession oriented and more combination oriented around the box, as most good teams are. Cousins, IMO, should be strictly a holding midfielder who can get the ball and move it forward to Bialczak and others in a more attacking role. Bialczak can make runs--great athlete who looks to need a bit of work on her ball skills. Marcano should be utilized in a forward or attacking midfield role; she was scandalously under-utilized last year--she is technical and she can shoot the ball (check her stats last year compared to other mids/forward who had 10x more minutes.) I feel like we've been underachieving in soccer, volleyball and basketball and it is time for brass tacks!

 

[armchair]

I was mistaken about Wilkinson, apparently. She has followed up yesterday's somewhat cryptic tweet about her status with another today in which she says she's grateful to get a fourth season with UT soccer--but adds that her collegiate career is over. That is still rather confusing. Not sure what she means by "fourth season" if her college career is over, but I suppose we'll find out in due course.

 

[BillVol]

Penn State has a great tradition in men's soccer going back to coach Bill Jeffrey who also led the US team over England in the 1950 WC.

 

[armchair]

Well, Wilkinson is back next year--the soccer team has made the announcement. Her tweets were odd and cryptic--saying she'd got a fourth year but her career was ending. Yes, but not until the end of the next season, yea, assuming her weak knees hold up, and that is a big assumption. Good person, good player--but I hope we change formations next year.

 

[MAD]

Well, Wilkinson is back next year--the soccer team has made the announcement. Her tweets were odd and cryptic--saying she'd got a fourth year but her career was ending. Yes, but not until the end of the next season, yea, assuming her weak knees hold up, and that is a big assumption. Good person, good player--but I hope we change formations next year.

NCAA gives UT soccer's Hannah Wilkinson OK to play on
NCAA gives UT soccer’s Hannah Wilkinson OK to play on - GoVolsXtra Story

 

[armchair]

Is Amy Neal transferring? I saw a tweet that suggests that she is but have seen nothing definite. That would be terrible, really, as she's a rising senior and you never want a rising senior who's been a key part of your team--our leading scorer two years ago-- to transfer with 1 year remaining. But with Wilkinson returning (for as long as her knees hold up) and some good forwards ready to play, there is a certain logic to it. The one thing that can be said about Neal is that she plays her tail off when she's on the field. We'll see....