On another subject, I've watched multiple times almost every FSU game from last year. Deyna Castellanos does not get enough credit. I frequently hear criticism of her disappearing. That's unfair IMO. She is trying to fit into the team concept Mark demands. Other teams do target her, but in doing so, other players are running more freely. She does some things effortlessly that most players (college or pro) can't do. She can easily take shots accurately before settling the ball. Her goal against Penn St is just ONE prime example. She had a goal the year before against Duke that was world class. Most players settle the ball, and then often dribble looking for a better angle, all the while multiple players are converging on them. She is one or two steps quicker than any other player I've seen at college level (and most pro) at transitioning from receiving a pass to getting off a quality shot. That shouldn't be underestimated. One second is the difference between a clean shot, and being covered by 2 defenders. On another subject, I saw several instances where she and Yujie could have connected but didn't. To be fair, they connected quite well numerous times, but you could see they were still learning what each other does and wants. I'm hoping that another year, will allow them to anticipate each other much better. We'll soon see.
I think Howell is a stud. I only saw four or five FSU games last year, but I thought she was your best midfielder. And it wasn't even close.
I think she is a good d-mid, much in the mold of Jule Ertz. I do think her first half of the season she was more of a wrecking ball, but as she played more with her international teammates, her game became more polished and I hope it will continue to trend upward.
She may be the best Holding or defensive MFer we've ever had. That said, Yujie was our best attacking midfielder by far. I'm counting Deyna as a forward in this scenario. If Deyna and Yujie get more in synch, look out college soccer world.
Lots of respect for UVA. Swanson sure has put a lot of players on the USWNT over the years. What is your outlook for UVA this year? Do you consider Number007 a UVA fan?
Short answer: Good but not great. We'll win a lot of games and score a lot of goals but I'll have to be happy with a quarter finals appearance. I have no idea who 007 is?
Number007 is his/her full handle. Frequent poster on many threads with some apparent in person knowledge of many youth players. Seems to like UVA a lot, based on comments over the months, but claims no allegiance. He/she made a brief reply on UVA thread.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/s...state-fsu-seminoles-senior-season/1765832001/ Good on Deyna. She's already working on gender pay equality in women's soccer! Good for FSU that she's coming back for her senior year! An excerpt. "We train and compete equally, but our reality compels us to make different decisions. In my case, the opportunity to receive a sports scholarship at @FSUsoccer was the best decision I could have made in the context of current women's soccer. "The scholarship that @FSUsoccer gave me, has more economic value than most professional contracts in women's soccer. Ridiculous? Definitely."
https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/col...al-college-stars-with-a-uswnt-future_aid46438 First article where I've see Malia Berkely get some love. Well deserved in my biased, but very observant opinion.
This not a drill, I repeat not a drill! The roster is out and surprise we have landed another Irish woman! Heather Payne!
Thanks for the heads up CH. Hopeful that Heather will be a huge surprise going forward. I feel confident that Newton, NIghswonger and Nesbeth (assuming health) will be key first year contributors. I also feel like 1 or 2 others will make nice contributions. If I had to guess, I'd say Payne (Mark hits on most of his internationals.) and Radecki (long throw in) would be significant contributors. We already knew about Taylor H transferring. I don't see Bella D on the roster. Hoping Clara Robbins is healthy and at full speed. Getting excited. Assuming health, key contributors for sure are Bollinger, Jeffers, Carle, Berkely, Pavlisko, Lynch (health? recovery), Villalobos, Castellanos, McFarland, Howell and Zhao. Probable significant contributors are Robbins, Nesbeth, Payne, Nighswonger and Newton. That's a pretty deep team! Go Noles!
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/s...ketts-special-moment-fan-captured/1802774001/ Great representative for FSU! She seems like someone I would love to know and call a friend!
Not yet formally announced but August 29th will be a double header at Banc of California Stadium. 5pm pst FSU V UCLA then 8 pm. USC VFlorida
Malia is definitely someone to watch over the next few years. She is solid yet oft overlooked. She has a legitimate chance at getting into the USWNT pool - particularly with an aging Becky Sauerbrunn starting to show a few chinks in her armor. FWIW, Berekly is from Rose Lavelle's hometown and also played at the same club as Lavelle did for a time. I would like to see the Olympic soccer competition for women, in terms of age restrictions, changed to how it is for the men. For men the team is composed of primarily U23 players. Each participating country, though, is allowed three players that are older than that. For the women there are no age restrictions. What we will end up seeing net year at the Olympics will more than likely be a repeat of what we saw in this past World Cup. Older players like Lloyd and Rapinoe may not be rostered but then again, they may be. Putting an age restriction on the Olympic women's tournament would give players like Berkely a legitimate chance at meaningful international competition while at the same time helping in the development of future national teams, not just in the States but in other countries as well. The US is guilty of keeping players around well past their "sell by" date but some other countries, Brazil in particular, are even worse. The average age of Brazil's starters in their WC semifinal vs France was 30. Only four starters were under the age of 30 and one was 41. I'm not denigrating the abilities of these older players because many are still very good but not making the Olympics a primarily U23 competition gives the youngers very little hope of making a NT pool. As an aside, Mailia had a productive season playing as a forward for the Motor City FC in the WPSL. She ended up scoring 9 goals and tallied an assist. Yujie Zhao also played on the team and ended with 7 goals and 7 helpers. Howell also played on the team. Motor City made it to the semi-finals of the WPSL playoffs. It is composed of a lot of players from around the Detroit area meaning many former Michigan Hawks players. There are, though, many other excellent collegiate players from areas far away from Detroit, Berkely for instance, that are on the roster. I'm not sure how training works but whatever.
I expect both USC and UCLA to beat Florida handily. Florida has been going through a two or 3 -year downturn. I expect the FSU games with both to be very competitive and up in the air.
PlaySimple your ideas make a lot of sense for the ongoing health of the US soccer women’s teams. That said, I don’t expect them to adopt those suggestions
I was in-person for every game at the College Cup, and Berkely was the outstsanding performer for me. Stanford had no idea what to do when she glided forward with the ball, beating their attackers with ease. Carolina expected it and dealt with it better, but she constantly drew them towards her and then switched outstanding balls into space. defensively she was rock-solid, especially considering the FSU goalkeeper spent both games inside her six-yard-box and there was a ton of space behind her to defend.
Even if US Soccer wanted to make the women's Olympic tournament a primarily U23 event, it would ultimately need to be an edict coming from the IOC or FIFA or, perhaps, both. There would be nothing that would prevent US Soccer from making a team of all U23 players, with the exception of the three allowed players older than 23 as the men do it, if they wanted to do so. That being said, I don't believe that they would do it unless forced to do so. It seems strange to me that the ages of the players for the men's & women's Olympic competition is not the same. The governing bodies (IOC and/or FIFA?) should see that having teams of primarily U23 players would foster player development of all players from all countries. Perhaps they don't care about that and believe that having the same players that are always in the NT pools will make for a more interesting competition.
Yeah, she is coming from Bristol City. I did not see much of her with their first team last season, so not sure if she will a big player.