If they don't get some things straightened out. They are a young team, but off to a terrible start. They are now 0-2 after dropping a 2-1 decision at Cincinnati today. They have UConn and Nebraska coming to Gville next weekend and it could get ugly in a hurry if they don't get their act together.
No, I didn't, but reading Becky's comments after today's game, it's clear she's not happy with the progress this team has made, or failed to make. I'll get to see them next weekend against UConn and Nebraska, I'll be able to gauge just how much work they need to do then.
I was at the game today (a parent of a Cincinnati player) and it was a very exciting game to watch. Flordia scored in the first half when #2 (sorry, don't know name) just blew around our left back, ran towards goal, and angled in a shot beyond the reach of our keeper. The gator speed kept UC off balance the entire first half, although other than the goal, neither team had a good scoring opportunity. It was a hot afternoon (about 90 degrees) and both coaches substituted freely, and took advantage of the new first half re-entry rule to keep their players fresh. At the beginning of the second half it appeared as if UC had more intensity than the first half, and received a corner kick early on. The kick was from the UC left side, and taken by a left footer, so the kick curled away from the goal. The ball was placed in front of the center of the goal, about 4 yards out, and a tall UC defender got her head on the ball and put in the net to tie the game. On the second UC goal a cross came from the right side to the center of the goal, about two yards out, and the keeper and our tall striker (about 5'10") both went for the ball, with the ball striking the UC player's head - both the keeper and the striker fell down, and the ball went into the net. In other games I have seen the ref whistle for keeper interference on that play, but at no time did the keeper have her hands on the ball (the ref was totally unpredictable today). After that goal, Florida kept attacking in waves, but were often frustrated by the UC defence, and forced into corners (I think Florida had 9 corners to 4 for UC), but despite some Florida corners going across the front of the net, no Florida players could connect with it to put it into the goal. There were also some kicks that were long, and no one was wide to recover them. Overall, it was a good effort for UC, who, despite reaching the sweet sixteen last year, have received no respect this year. The Florida team is fast, but if this weekend is any indication they need to finish better (the UC keeper did not have to make a difficult save) and make better decisions when attacking in the box - too often their speed would get them into the box, but when they had to beat a defender (or the double team) they frequently made bad decisions. I think this will improve with time. It was also nice to see Robin Fulton and Monica Hoyles again - I had watched them in HS and am still amazed by their athleticism.
Any opinions on Dena Floyd? I graduated from high school with her. I am just wondering how she is doing with college soccer.
I saw her last year and the year before and she looked great. Very strong and quick. I was impressed.
Hey all. Time for the season to kick-off. Bearcat, thank you for the insight. Fan views are great to read and more helpful than articles. I watched Floyd play more than a few times last year and she's doing well in the college game. Like Kareena said, she's strong and quick.
UF just has three or four giant gaps in their lineup right now. 1. They miss Wambach and Sellers terribly. They played Christine Johnson at forward against UC, and as much as I think the world of her, she's not a forward. She should be UF's playmaker in the center of the park - she's got the best vision of any player on the team, IMO. And nobody else on the roster has a long track record of scoring goals at the collegiate level. I think our best goal-scoring threat is Frimpong, and she's a winger. The two Nigerians will probably help eventually, but one of them isn't eligible this year, and the other didn't make the road trip this weekend, for some reason. 2. They miss Casey Hamel. Maybe not quite as much as you might think because Dee Floyd can play that defensive midfield spot pretty well, but I thought Casey and Christine Johnson would be so good at distibution that the we might be able to make up for the loss of Wambach and Sellers by improving the service. Neither Hamel nor Johnson are playing in the midfield right now, and while I think Stephanie Freeman is a fine player in her own right, she's a sophomore, coming off of major knee surgery. 3. They miss Karyn Hall and Keisha Bell. With neither of those two in the lineup, they're very short in the back, unless true freshman Cherry Pickman starts, like she did against UC. I haven't seen Pickman play, so she might be wonderful, but it's hard for me to imagine that a true freshman is going to step right in and replace Hall and Bell in the center of UF's defense.
Something I forgot to mention about the game against UC is that I can't remember the wings crossing the ball to the center - they would always try to beat the defenders to goal, which led to the large number of corners (9), but sometimes a cross would have been advantagous. The four in the back also looked a little shaky, with some bad decisions on passes which got them into trouble. It did not result in a goal as it did against Michigan, but those holes also need to be filled.
Mike, In regards to Hamel, what is wrong with her and when is she due back? I noticed she didn't play this weekend, but hadn't heard about her being injured or whatever or why she didn't play.
Casey had foot surgery this summer, and is out for the year. The only good news is that she's redshirting, so she won't lose a year of eligibility.
They obviously fixed some things in practice this week. They looked awesome in the 1st half and held on to upset UConn 3-2. Frimpong, Murphy and McMillan scored for the Gators. Dena Floyd had 2 assists, Chrsitine Johnson 1.
Great discussiong going on in here. I think Johnson was at times the best defender for the team last year. During the early rounds of the NCAA Tourney, she was unbelievable. She was never marked and she is such a gifted passer. It's a shame that she's not back where she belongs. I can see her excelling in the midfield, too. We need her back there. The Casey Hamel situation went totally over my head. We need her size and strength this year. The power that girl has in her feet is not found anywhere on this team, at least not yet. Tomorrow's game againist Nebraska will be live on Sunshine. Go Gators!
Gators win 1-0 over Nebraska. Gators dominated this match from about the 10 minute mark in the first half on. They had all the good scoring chances, the only real chances, if any, that Nebraska had came on set pieces. Gators outshot the Huskers 12-5(6 in each half for Florida, 3 and 2 fro NU). NU was called for offsides 11 times, they were completely frustrated, esp. Latham. Credit the Florida defense for really stepping up their play and shutting them down. The lone goal came on a 40 yard dipping blast from Dee Floyd in the 58th minute, an assist from Danielle Rust. That shot seemed to surprise Miller and NU, they were totally caught off guard by that goal. The Gators couldn't beat Miller up close, she made some great saves to keep NU in the game, but they beat her from out far. The speed of Florida really was a weapon today. With Fulton, Floyd, Hoyles, Frimpong and Johnson making great runs, they consistently beat NU defenders and had great chances to score. If Florida could just finish better, they will be a team to reckon with this year, if they keep playing like they did this weekend. If they had better finishing, this would have been 4-0 easily. Great win for Florida, I assume two wins over top 10 teams will vault them back into the rankings, this is just what they needed this weekend to gain confidence and get back on track. For the D, it was nice to get a shutout. Kellgren had to make a few saves, but really wasn't tested much, credit to the D in front of her for shutting NU down. Murphy is great in the back, she controls everything and is so solid and the rest of the backfield just feeds off that. I thought Cherry Pickman also had a very good game, heck, the whole team played well. Becky made good use of subs, keeping fresh players on the field. Florida looked much fresher and quicker and more inspired this whole match. After the first 10 minutes, Florida found their legs and gained the momentum and NU just wasn't the same from then on.
Becky is a great coach. She seems to know how to turn things around and get the best out of each team.
UN didn't look too hot today. Floyd was all over the place and Frimpong played well, too. Kellgren, nice job. It's got to be killer in that black jersey! Becky is looking smart. We started out last season on a sour note and ended up in the NCAA semis so we can pretty much forget about last week's happenings. Go Gators!!!
I made the above statement last weekend after the loss to Cincy. Well, it looks like they got a lot of things straightened out and fixed. I can't imagine the team I saw play this weekend could have 2 losses already. I didn't see them play on the road, but the way they played this weekend, they'd be tough for any team to beat. I like the progress they made in a week's time, now if they can just finish better, they really will be a force to be reckoned with. So much speed on this team, esp. up front. And I love Frimpong, she's so tough, she just needs to have a little more patience and control before she shoots. Syracuse and Duke come to town next weekend, then it's off to play Santa Clara and Stanford, no easy matches for the Gators so far. Go Gators!!!
Dena Floyd named SEC Player of the Week. Congrats to her on that honor. Gators also moved back into the rankings, #14 in the NSCAA poll. Defender Katie Johnston is out for the year. Her feet are the problem again, she had surgery in the offseason to fix it, but they acted up again, so best of luck to her on recovery and hope she's back next season. http://www.gatorzone.com/story.php?id=4610&sport=socce&html=soccer/news/20020909022700.html
Dena Floyd was also named to Soccer America's team of the week. This weekend's Gator Invitational featuring Florida, Duke, UCF and Syracuse will have live stats for all matches, beginning with UCF-Duke which just got under way. Syracuse and Florida play at 8 tonight, then on Sunday, Syracuse-UCF play at 11am, UF-Duke at 2pm. Should be a good weekend in Gainesville for sports. Football is going on as well as the #6 volleyball team hosting #1 Stanford. http://www.gatorzone.com/soccer/live.php
Gators defeat Syracuse 2-0. Goals scored by Kara Rao off an assist from Christine Johnson and by Monica Hoyles off an assist from Crystal Frimpong. Gators improve to 3-2 and will take on Duke on Sunday. Duke defeated UCF in the earlier game 3-0.
Congrats! Congrats on the win. Now if you beat Duke on Sunday, I'd recommend you change the name of this thread. You've got a name ("in for a looooong year" ) that makes you sound like losers, but you're turning out to be winners!
If they win Sunday, then I'll ask the moderator to change the title. Of course, I may not want to ruin a good thing if they do win, they haven't lost since I posted knock on wood
The worst officiated game I've ever witnessed. Duke wins 2-1 in OT, but terrible officiating is the reason why. First off, Duke's first goal came on a PK, which was a terrible call to begin with. They had another PK chance, another terrible call, but Kellgren made the save. Gators outplayed them all day long, and finally able to tie it up in the 88th minute on a goal from Candace Rivers. Then, just 20 seconds into OT, the Gators scored, a ball that hit the cross bar and the whole ball clearly crossed the line, but it was called a no goal. Then a minute later, a UF player went down with an injury, forget who, Duke restarted and scored. I'm a Gator fan, but even if I wasn't, this was the biggest travesty and while Duke is a good team, Florida was better today and deserved to win, but the refs thought otherwise. Total BS, it was disgusting. Oh yeah, there was also a 30 minute delay cause of lightning, the field was sloppy, play was pretty good though considering. Damn refs, they all need to be shot!
Update on former Florida player Didn't want to start a new thread, but thought some Florida fans might appreciate this blurb on Kristin Chapman (who was allowed by Becky Burleigh to transfer to Ole Miss in order to be closer to her mom, Donna during her battle with breast cancer) that was in my Ole Miss newsletter: "The most recent match-up of the year was against Northeastern of Boston. This was a great game because all of our players got in, and they all played very well. We again came out on top winning 5-0 with goals by Kelly Renie (2), Kristin Chapman (2), and an own goal. Kristin Chapman has a tradition which she was able to continue against Northeastern. Whenever it was her mom's birthday she would score a goal for her. Last year Kristin lost her mom to breast cancer but on this Sunday she showed her mom how much she still thinks about her and scored not only one goal but two! Those were for you Donna!!!"
Thanks for the update on Kristin. She's a great player and a class act, I'm glad she was able to be closer to home to be with her mom before she passed on. I know the Gators would love to have her back, but family is much more important than any game. Best of luck to her and hope she continues to play well(unless it's at the expense of the Gators of course )