Hope springs eternal for the Irish moving further into the Romagnolo era. Interesting news to kick off 2016: "Irish Welcome Westendorf As January Enrollee" Jan. 8, 2016 By Joanne Norell "NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame women’s soccer team will welcome its first signee to the freshman class of 2016 as Jennifer Westendorf joins the program as a January enrollee. A Top Drawer Soccer five-star prospect from Grayson, Georgia, Westendorf boasts an impressive resume on both the domestic and international stage. Her most recent accomplishments include starting at forward for Brazil’s U-20 women’s national team that the 2015 South American U-20 Women’s Championship, securing a slot at the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup...." http://www.und.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/010816aaa.html
I already started a 2016 Notre Dame thread a few days ago. Look below. Maybe they can merge it or delete one.
Damn good player and will - without a doubt - make an impact in the ACC right away. Fastest kid with the ball at her feet that I have seen in the youth ranks. Good luck to her in South Bend!
Exciting news about Westendorf. However, and sorry to be negative, ND is looking at five starters missing next season (potentially) for the U20 World Cup. US: Jacobs and Sabrina Flores England: Karin Muya Mexico: Monica Flores Brazil: Jennifer Westendorf Three of ND's forwards out (by my count), and they already have to replace Anna Maria Gilbertson. ND has had trouble scoring goals against ACC teams going back to Waldrum's last season; 2016 could be a rough ride. Side note: Rocarro and Naughton won't be around either.
The silver lining with 5 players potentially gone to the U20 team is that the recognized strength of these players bodes well for the two following years!
Yes, 2017 shapes up to be a very good year (potentially)! I can't imagine too many other teams having that much talent on the roster. Do you think Jacobs will switch to back now that Westendorf is around and Muya is healthy?
Who knows. College is the time when many players find that they are stronger in different roles then they had been playing.
Anything is possible, but I'd be surprised. ND will have true center-backs with prior YNT experience on the roster in McGowan, Crowley, and 2016 verbal Canadian Alexis Martel-Lamothe. Also D-mid Uhler could probably play there as well. So, no lack of talent, just a need for experience. 2016 will be bumpy. 2017 should be fine.
I'm hoping Notre Dame will play the Chicago Red Stars in Spring Exhibition again this year. Red Stars need games against strong college teams before the NWSL season starts and ND gets the experience of playing against pros who move the ball around much quicker then they are used to seeing in college.
I don't know what formation they'll use in the spring, but for the past 2 fall seasons its been a 4-3-3 with a single D-mid.
They used a 4-3-3 this year with Gilbertson, Jacobs, and Olmstead up top. With so many forwards possibly missing in the fall, I can see TR using a different formation. Right now, I think your starting midfielders are Yu, Klawunder, and Uhler. Ann Marie Niro and Megan McCashland would be Uhler's biggest competition for playing time. I'm having more trouble figuring out the back line. Adams, Crowley, Heard, and McGowan seem to be the only options since the freshman from Canada will likely be missing. Adams will be a senior, but still hasn't played significant minutes. Someone mentioned above that Uhler could help on defense. Regardless, depth will be a major issue. One injury could send the season south in a hurry. Returning to up top, I think Olmstead, Geyer, and Doyle are the starters with the other Klawunder as the primary back-up. All of my projections assume, of course, that the Flores twins, Jacobs, Muya, Westendorf, and the Canadian freshman (name?) are all playing in the U20 World Cup. Everyone except Sabrina Flores seems like a lock at this point. Sabrina suffered an injury last month.
What do you know about Shannon Hendricks? I see her name on the roster, but I don't remember her being part of last year's class. Thanks as always.
One more quick question: I found out the name of the Canadian player on an earlier thread (Alexis Martel-Lemothe), but top drawer doesn't list her as a verbal commitment. The other thread also mentioned Samantha Zipponi, but I don't see her on top drawer either. Is there a better website for this type of info.?
She's a midfielder. Didn't get any minutes this past fall, but I wouldn't draw any conclusions from that as, other than Jacobs, none of the frosh got many minutes.
Where the goals come from? Gilbertson had 13. As a team ND scored 37 total goals last season, graduating 17 of those goals. Westendorf was probably expected to replace that but she will probably be away at U20s. Maybe they could win games 1-0 this fall but graduating Rocarro and Naughton in the back won't help that either. What is expected of the Irish this year?
Putting the ball in the back of the net has been a problem for four years now. I would think a combination of Jacobs, Westendorf, and Muya could solve the problem, but two of them won't be around in 2016. Above, I assumed Muya would also be gone for the U20 World Cup, but that was a mistake. Apparently England didn't qualify. So, maybe she can become the prolific goal scorer the Irish so desperately need.
Not much, as far as my expectations. Below .500 in ACC play. An OOC record that is dependent on the strength of the opponents and that I expect will have many weak opponents. Not making the NCAA tournament. IMO, it'll be a year (a) to invest in getting experience for a lot of players and (b) to measure success by how much the players improve.
In terms of keeping games close and having the best chance for a decent W-L record in 2016, one could make a good case for staying away from the 4-3-3 and playing out of a 4-4-2 or even a 4-5-1. Yet, they'll almost certainly go back to the 4-3-3 for 2017, so the coaches might just stick with it because, under the circumstances, even a horrifically bad year in terms of W-L record won't put the coach on a hot seat. Other than football, ND has always shown considerable support for all of its coaches during bad years.
TR is way ahead of schedule. It isn't easy to take a perennial top 5 program and turn it into a top 50 one. Even harder when the school itself attracts tons of top talent. By 2017, they could slip to top 100. Well done!
I agree with your analysis. If ND can somehow stay perfect through OOC play (a big IF) and stay at around .500 in ACC play, they have a good shot at the tournament. Best case scenario: ND makes the tournament, gets hot, and gets to the final 16. I went back and looked at recruiting rankings, etc, and there is still a TON of talent on the roster, even without the girls going to the WC. Maybe 10 teams in the country can claim as much talent. I agree that no one will be on the hot seat if 2016 is ugly, but a poor 2017 could change things. Furthermore, at what point does a lack of success begin to affect recruiting? The Irish have signed the two best forwards in the country in 2015 and 2016 (Jacobs and Westendorf); if ND continues to struggle offensively and continues to exit the tournament early, those five star recruits in the 2017-2020 classes will surely look elsewhere. Someone has previously mentioned that recruiting has suffered under TR, but I don't see that (yet).
Nice pic of the 2015 seniors on Twitter: ND Women's Soccer (@NDSoccer) 1/30/16, 8:01 PM Great time celebrating the 2015 season at our banquet tonight! Special thanks/goodbye to seniors, We love you all!pic.twitter.com/StCmdowxqq