A different angle would change nothing but the angle - you'd still see the ball clearly over the line. Watch the video highlights above and you can pause it and see for yourself. The angle really doesn't matter when the ball is on the ground behind the line. I think you're being a bit obstinate about this for reasons unknown. It is clearly a goal.
The USWNT just announced a game with Australia in San Antonio for Oct. 20. What other women's soccer game occurs Oct. 20? UVa @ UNC, so we probably won't see Morgan Brian vs. Crystal Dunn, at least in the regular season.
If one is a UNC fan, it's better that this blown call happens now, as opposed to it happening against Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament.
Folks, ND won this round. There have been many great UNC/ND battles over the years that have left one side or the other feeling sour after the game, I know I've been to most of them. And I'm sure there will be many more to come. This is a passionate rivalry which makes it that much more awesome. This was started by Anson Dorrance and Chris Petrucelli back in the mid-nineties and has been taken to another level by Anson Dorrance and Randy Waldrum. It is a win-win for the schools, the players and the fans. All I want to say to those of you who love soccer and especially the women's game - Cherish this rivalry. It is one of the best in any sport.
Nice write up (as always) on equalizersoccer.com about the UNC/UND game. http://equalizersoccer.com/2013/09/...-beats-no-1-north-carolina-first-acc-matchup/
I've been waiting a few days to respond to your post and now a couple of things you are saying on the UNC thread. First of all, nice to meet you last week, hope to see you at more games. First to address the statement that Morgan Andrews has no one around her. You are wrong about that. Mandy Laddish, Cari Roccaro, Katie Naughton, Kaela Little, along with Andrews are U- National Team players. They are not chopped liver. Several ND players have National Championship rings. As for the slow style of play that you say. Well, Notre Dame is more possession style oriented this year as you can see yourself they tend to knock it around quite a bit. Morgan Andrews likes to switch sides often and has other players with skill to pass it to. UNC on the other seems to rely on two players, knock it forward to Ohai or give it to Dunn to use her speed to outrun everyone, even though they have good players at other positions. They like to bring the ball up quickly. And if you can slow the game some and play your type of game rather then the opponents and it works, then it works. There are many different styles of play in the soccer world. Have you ever watched Mexican leagues or South American leagues? It takes them 1/2 an hour just to bring the ball up field. Everyone has to touch it. Playing fast is not always the best way to play this game. Notre Dame at the beginning up until they scored had most of the possession. On the UNC thread you are predicting a diving epidemic? Please explain.
One of the concerns I have had, for a variety of reasons, is the ACC's playing a full round robin this year. It can make for great intra-conference competition, but it also can cause NCAA-Tournament problems. Some of those problems relate to the RPI (it probably will somewhat depress the ACC teams' rankings vs if they went to a format other than a full round robin). Also, the RPI needs a good number of inter-conference (and inter-regional) games in order to function reasonably well and a full round robin reduces the number of inter-conference games. Another problem, that I've started to track, is the requirement that a team have at least an 0.500 record to receive an at large position in the NCAA tournament. Playing a full round robin will make it harder for some teams to meet that requirement because it reduces the number of potential non-conference wins (by reducing the number of potential non-conference games). Here is a table related to this problem: This table incorporates the teams' already played non-conference games and their already played conference games. For conference games not yet played, it projects those games results -- either wins or losses (no ties projected) based strictly on AllWhiteKit's most recent ACC "rankings." The AWK rankings were done before last weekend's games, so they might change some, but this is for the purpose of illustrating the full round robin problem and for that purpose the AWK rankings suffice. This table does not include ACC tournament games. It's important to remember, because of that, that half of the teams in the tournament will come out of it with a loss and no wins. What the table shows is that 6 teams appear safe in terms of meeting the 0.500 requirement. Three teams are at risk of not meeting it, if they lose all the games they are projected to lose and also lose (or tie) 1 or 2 games they are projected to win. Five teams appear reasonably likely not to meet the requirement. Looking at the teams' likelihood of receiving at large selections for the NCAA tournament, this suggests that the range of teams' the ACC could have in the tournament is likely to be between 6 and 9, with the 0.500 requirement potentially being a major factor in how many.
Ahh I was wondering when I was going to get this response haha. I'll answer in sequence. I failed to put into context what I was saying about Morgan Andrews. I was trying to emphasize the unique kind of threat she poses against the style of play UNC likes instead of demphasize the quality of the players you listed. There is no one like her on the Irish, and indeed very few in the ACC, who can exploit the weaknesses of an agressive team that leaves space in the field, thus my Summer Green analogy and her need to find balance in the 3 4 3. I can make the comparison to UCLA who beat the Irish. Not only do those gaps not exist against a more traditional team, but UCLA did a very good job containing Morgan if I read my match reports correctly. It was a moment of extreame folly when UNC failed to locate her, not just in her quality, but the specifics of that quality in relation to the weaknesses of the UNC defense. I noticed it at the State, I noticed it every so breifly at the UNC game. Notre Dame is too slow on the build up. Possession style or not, the build up that lead to the goal may have been fun to watch but the result was VERY VERY misleading. It was NOT the possesion style that lead to the goal, but instead 2 mental error on UNC's defense that lead to the forced clearence and poor marking by Katie in the box. It may have been fun to watch, but that stretch of attack for Notre Dame lingered in the midfield for far too long, and the defense for UNC, despite played haggard for most of the half, was in position and made the stop. It was the run of play after the stop that lead to the goal. Notre Dame is going to have to find some speed in their possesion up the field, and maybe include a verticle wrinkle that at least helps stretch defenses. They had nice lateral movement but defense always had time to adjust and anticipate. The runs off the ball were slow and were hardly a threat. If they keep playing like this against ACC opponents, they are going to face the same difficulties they had in the 2nd half against UNC during the entire season. Which leads me to explain my diving concerns. The UNC stars were running circles around the Irish. Lets not kid ourselves here. I agree with you that UNC was reduced to a single dimension in feeding the ball to Dunn & Kealia but to be honest, thats not something most people see as a problem. My concern is this: Kealia & Crystal rely on their skill and speed to break down defenses and create windows of oppurtunites for themselves. When they were making their moves on Sunday, the gaps were there, the windows were there. Unfouled Dunn & Ohai could have struck to the end line or had a clean break on goal, by my count, dozens of times. I believe the fouls were seen and acknowledged by the main official, but because Dunn & Ohai are so strong on the ball, advantage was given. I mean if I read it correctly this happened dozens of times, and it was at the beggining of the second half when I started to recognize it and look for it, so no telling how many times in the first it influenced the play. Meanwhile, the window is close. The oppurtunity is gone. Kealia has the ball at her feat with her back to goal and 3 defenders swarming in becauses shes made a run that cut herself off from her the rest of the team. That simple shirt tug, that innocous arm bar or ankle clip that failed to remove the ball from Kealia feet did something else entirely, it bought time. Advantage played becomes a severe disadvantage for a star player looking to carry her team. If this continues to happen to some of the star players in the ACC, what do you envision players will start doing when they feel their shirt tugged? Hang on to the ball and continue on a half chance that will never score? Or will they fling up their arms and spin violently to the ground?
Going to keep an eye on if Meehan or Nuzzolese play tomorrow. Also see that Cassie Pecht has not played for Duke. Any idea what is going on with that? Has been a good player for them and may explain some of their recent struggles. I also want to keep an eye on if FSU misses players for UEFA qualifying for the 2015 World Cup. Those qualifiers come up very soon, will impact them if they miss ACC matches. And also saw US Soccer is playing Australia on October 20. Could Crystal Dunn, Morgan Brian, etc. be called into that match? Nice to have National Team players in your program, but doesn't help if they are called away for events during conference play.
FSU was missing Megan Campbell tonight. Don't know why. Superb back with good attacking skills and a supremely dangerous long throw in!
What I figured. Campbell is a good player, impressive FSU can get a great result against UNC while missing a key player. Ireland has matches on Sunday and next Thursday. Iceland plays on the 26th as well. Thinking Brynsjarsdottir and possibly Thorvaldsdottir get called in. If that is the case FSU should be fine still I would think. NC State on Sunday and poorly coached Miami next Thursday. But this happens again at the end of October - and they have UVa and Notre Dame at that time so they can be picked off without their top lineup. Do these kids go to school? Have to be busy enough with the fall schedule. Now throw in travel to Europe for World Cup qualifying. Being at a less than stellar academic institution helps I guess.
FSU may be less than stellar in comparison to elite universities, but do you think that makes the actual classroom experience any easier for the students? I was a college professor for four years at two schools at variant ends of that spectrum - NYU and a school I won't name because I don't want to inadvertently malign it - and there is really no difference between an advanced economics or calc or English 101 class between the two. How challenging classes are has little do with the institution. It's down to the individual professor, and I'm sure FSU has plenty of very good ones - not to mention that at the elites, a hell of a lot of classes get taught by adjuncts and assistants, while the full professors do research.
I have a lot of respect for FSU and the program, obviously their record speaks for themselves. But academically they are not on par with most other ACC schools. NC State and soon Louisville are the outsiders with FSU when it comes to that. Krikorian knows he needs good internationals as American elite club soccer players come from middle- to upper-tier socioeconomic backgrounds and looking for high academic institutions. I have heard Mark say this so it's nothing new. Didn't mean to change the thread, just wondering how these foreign kids do it with so much missed class time between ACC play and international soccer as well. Looking forward to the matches tonight. Orange, thanks for the info on the Duke injuries.
Thursday results: Miami beats NC State 2-1 UVa beats BC 2-1 Clemson beats Pitt 2-0 Wake Forest beats Duke 3-1 VaTech beats Maryland 2-0 Notre Dame beats Syracuse 1-0 (with 3 seconds left in regulation!)
Let me respond. It's not like the internationals are all missing all the time. Megan is missing a couple this week The ...dottirs will probably miss a couple later. Point is, they don't miss that many individually. I suspect professors work with them, and I'm sure they are getting assignments done on the road. I get a little upset when ACC types make this complaint, b/c as an organization, up until recently they caused it every year for over half the teams. The ACC tournament used to take at least 4 days away from class for any non Carolina team. Mark made a statement ?3? years ago and sat some starters. For years we not only had to miss a week of class, but the preceding week had us out of state almost every year. Meanwhile, UNC was not only home for the tourney, but the preceding week they almost never left the state of NC. FSU got fined and Mark got suspended, but it precipitated much needed change. Now the ACC tourney doesn't cause nearly as much missed class time. I don't know for sure, but I also suspect they make their schedules very heavy in the spring and summer, and very light in the fall. JMHO. Thanks for your concern though. Enzo, thanks for a little perspective.
True, but that wasn't in question. The question I asked is whether your assumption that the tougher selectivity at a school like UVa makes the actual classroom experience in any given class markedly more difficult is valid. In my experience it is not. It's down to the individual professors. And don't think that at academically strong places like UVa or Duke, athletes don't get preferential treatment. Of course they do (as well they should!).
Today's surprises: Duke and Syracuse tie, while Maryland defeats Wake. That leaves ND, FSU and UVa as lone teams without a loss in conference action. (20) Boston College (4-5-0) vs. (7) Virginia Tech (8-1-1) - L 0-1 Clemson (5-2-2) vs. Alabama A&M (0-10-0) - W 14-0 (3) Florida St. (8-0-2) vs. North Carolina St. (6-4-0) - W 1-0 (22) Maryland (6-3-0) vs. (1) Wake Forest (7-1-1) - W 1-0 Miami (FL) (6-3-0) vs. (4) North Carolina (8-2-0) - L 0-4 Pittsburgh (4-5-1) vs. (2) Virginia (9-0-0) - L 1-3 Syracuse (4-5-1) vs. Duke (4-4-2) - T 2-2