UNC News & Notes 777

Tar Heels on All-ACC

TAR HEELS PLACE FIVE PLAYERS ON TWO ALL-ACC TEAMS. Carolina has placed two on the first-team All-ACC first team and three on the second-team All-ACC team in 2002. Defender Catherine Reddick and midfielder Lindsay Tarpley were both named first team All-ACC while goalkeeper Jenni Branam, defender Leslie Gaston and forward Alyssa Ramsey were named second-team All-ACC.

This was the second paragraph from the TarHeelBlue press release this morning. And here is their first paragraph:

TARPLEY NAMED ACC ROOKIE OF THE YEAR. UNC freshman midfielder Lindsay Tarpley (Kalamazoo, Mich.) was named this week as the 2002 Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year. Tarpley leads the ACC this year in assists per game at 0.71, is second in the conference in points per game at 2.00 and fourth in the league in goals per game with 0.65. Tarpley is the first Tar Heel to be named the ACC Rookie of the Year since 1996 when Laurie Schwoy was chosen.

And here is the link

 

As with Branam, the news of her death is a bit premature. She'll be back soon. Nice creaming of Clemson and many more happy returns. When is the game Fri. and who do we shut-out ...er....play?

 

UNC in the NCAA's

UNC's opponent will be announced this afternoon. They will play at home unless the NCAA pulls a Santa Clara 2001 on them; Santa Clara played at Illinois in the first round.

The selection shows is live on ESPNews at 4:30 EST today or you can check the NCAA womens soccer website at:

http://www.ncaasports.com/0,5920,0_769_0,00.html

Game time will be determined. The home team usually plays at 8pm but Anson often tries to switch for the 5:30 slot.

 

brackets broadcast on Espnews

Brackets to be announced in minutes on Digital cable cannel ESPNews ( 402 on my lineup). I will be back after to fill anybody in who is interested.

 

Re: brackets broadcast on Espnews

thanks dude! it just started as I turned on the TV!

 

UNC to host first two matches as second seed, no surprise there. First up Big South Conference Radford and then winner of Wake Forest and ??? ( shucks I forgot). Other side of bracket seemed to be bunch of SEC teams but Cinci in the bracket also.

 

UNC News & Notes

here is a link to the bracket in PDF format
http://ncaa.com/releases/champselections/2002111101sl.pdf
How in the world did UCLA get seeded 7th?

 

Did you ever imagine you'd see a team tie UNC and not make the field?

 

the NCAAs

And then there's the team that BEAT the Heels and didn't make the field. But I did expect Duke to be invited.

I'm going to start a new thread right now on the NCAAs. UNC in the NCAAs (R)


.

 

Attn: Caravaggio, John S. Sargent, and David

Hey guys,

Here's a post I just put up over on the Not Soccer forum on a thread about why we had the screen names we did, and since all of you guys are in it, I wanted you to see it.

I post the most on UNC college soccer threads and there has been a guy all along, very good poster, who calls himself Caravaggio. Then maybe a year ago a guy comes along who calls himself John S. Sargent, so we've got two artists. And then there's another guy who just uses his first name, David, and there was a French neoclassical painter with that as his (last) name. So I just started wishing that I had an artist's name myself, that it would be kind of cool to have these four posters all with artists' names, and I had gotten so I didn't like my original name, SDM* (for an obscure rock group), so when I became a premium member and could change my name, I changed it to Klee, probably my favorite modern artist.

But there's a problem here and it's that you, Caravaggio, and you, John S. Sargent, have abandoned UNC women's soccer for other interests (like UNC men's soccer), so let me also say, please come back! Join in with all the other artists! Besides, we miss your posts.

 

Re: Attn: Caravaggio, John S. Sargent, and David

Please, let me grieve this weekend. I'm going to the Hurricanes game tonight.

 

continuation

maybe this is dumb, but i am going to just continue the discussion we were having before the last crash. i hope others will join in and pick up the thread as they remember it.

Can we just drop this whole thing about whether Anson is or is not the best coach in the country? Until there's some agreement on what the criteria are, it's meaningless to talk about it. It also gets everybody riled up in a not very interesting argument.

What I'd like to encourage is some talk about is the implications of different alignments. I never played soccer and it's a real struggle for me to understand the subtleties (and not so subtleties) of different one, and I'd like to think about and hear what others think about the implications of different ones as they might apply to UNC.

So, getting back to some sort of 4-4-2 diamond middle vs. UNC's flatback 3, i wonder if there is any information on probabilities with regard to each? It's pretty clear that the odds favor the flatback 3 against inferior teams, but that there is a significant chance of at least one defensive breakdown per game (see UNC's 6-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-0, 1-2 record in the tournament this year; if i recall right, every one of those scores involved a breakdown in defense).

On the other hand, i believe in the majority of recent games the margin in the final games UNC has played in has been one goal. So, the question to my mind is, against a top-five team, is the additional forward in the flatback 3 likely to give you an increment of +2 goals vs. the likely loss of -1 goal from a defensive breakdown?

I'd be surprised if the added pressure of the fb3 is greater than that which could be generated by Lindsay at the front of the diamond, KC and Sara on the flanks encouraged to move forward, Cat taking 35 yard shots from the back line, and Carmen and EB or Amy coming up on occasion from the back line. This would also allow keeping fresh legs in the forward positions (since i thought UNC was actually short there with the move of Tarp to midfield and Leigh being the only sub we had where we didn't lose much). Of course, all this will change with the new recruits next year, who look to be very strong, and possible significant improvement by some of the players we now have who haven't played much yet.

 

Re: continuation

First a personal note, inspired by JBS's confession above that he never played soccer. I grew up never playing soccer myself. When I was a boy playing sandlot football, basketball and baseball in the Southern Appalachians in the 1940s, I had never even heard of soccer. I will often tell people that soccer had not yet been invented when I was growing up! But it is a great spectator sport and I am so happy to have it in my life now. I know that I would have a better feel for the game, strategies, tactics, etc., if I had played, but by now, after over twenty years as a fan, I get it well enough most of the time.

I had made the point in the now vanished part of our thread that Dorrance would sometimes use a variation on his standard 3-4-3 when he felt a need to stiffen his defense, in which he would drop his defensive midfielder back to where she stayed just above -- not part of -- the back line. It doesn't happen a lot, but it's worth noting that AD does make concessions sometimes to the other team's potential to beat our defense and alter his formation.

Something else I had remembered was the defensive problems the Carolina Courage were having early in their first season when Marcia McD, herself a former UNC player, had her team playing a 3-4-3. It wasn't going very well as we got off to a 0-4 start and the defense came in for a lot of criticism, our formation included. I can't recall just when we switched to our 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formations and whether the switch coincided with the change (even if temporary) in our fortunes. Some critics blamed our personnel and some blamed our coaching. Personnel are certainly important as the difference we saw in 2002 with Nel Fettig and Danielle Slaton on our backline demonstrated. Coaching? To tell you the truth, at the levels we discuss on BigSoccer, I figure these folks can all coach.

 

dont let some negative poster

convince you of anything that the tarheels do is without purpose.

The 3 back system is more widely used in the Mens game which is, after all, where Anson came from originally. I just watched live last night the Mens semi final match between Maryland and UCLA. UCLA employed a 3-5 -2 system to great success and will play again Sunday for the National championship.

Now UCLA is coached by Tom Fitzgerald who previously was an MLS head coach. Other coaches probably say nasty things about him too for all I care.

Many will tell you that the formation doesn't matter that much since a team that is properly playing to create options for their teammates by forming triangles and diamonds is constantly reshaping on the field. But it is something to discuss over a cold one.

 

Re: dont let some negative poster

I hope what i said is not being interpreted as "negative."

It seems to me that mulling about soccer in general and unc in particular is a good thing, not to mention fun, and that describing what we see and think as accurately as we can is what a thread like this is all about.

To question why Anson uses a particular formation vs. some other one is not second guessing or criticizing him but asking for an explanation in terms of tactics. I'm sure he has his reasons; i'd just like for someone more knowledgable than I to tell me what they are likely to be.

 

Re: Re: dont let some negative poster

No, I'm pretty sure he's referring to that poster from out on the West Coast who was criticizing AD.

I agree with your thoughts, JBS. This is an interesting topic within the 777 thread and I hope some other posters will soon be chiming in also, like GoCourage, PJB, RD, Heeligan2, MoHeelFan, Speedo, David, Caravaggio, etc. As I suggested when the NCAA tourney ended, let's keep a hot stove going between now and spring practice.

 

UNC Defense part 3

I am going to summerize the two posts I made and were lost with the crash.

The 343 defense that UNC uses is 343 on paper but in reality is a very fluid formation that depends on the midfielders playing solid defense and getting back to support the backline. Last year we have seen when the midfield is not in control, the back line has trouble. Anson expects all players to play defense, including forwards and attacking midfielder, and that has been a factor in who starts.

The fact that UNC hasn't won a national championship in two years (which no other program can boast since no one else has won more than one) leads many to ask what is wrong with UNC? Nothing, this is parity.

I will re-ask my original question. Do I remember the USWNT playing 343 in an exibition this summer before the Gold cup. If so, why did they abandon it? Was it personnel, formation doesn't work at that level, or April's preference?

 

Yes the Nats sometimes use a 3 - 4 -3. They also use a 4-4-2 and a 4-3-3. The most intriguing to me is the 4-3-3 since this is also called the inverted triangle where the 3 central players are in an inverted triangle and there are NO outside middies. Width in this formation is provided by the outside backs ( called wingbacks in this formation ). You will find the wingbacks go endline to endline in this formation. If you have wingback with some speed and very good ball skills, they can act like a point guard in basketball and generally cause opposing forwards fits by making them track back on defense, which is not natural for many forwards( how many forwards have you seen walk after losing the ball?).

 

Mens College Cup (R)

Well I attended the Final yesterday between UCLA and Stanford which UCLA won in the 89th minute. Since this is the womens forum this is only relevant due to the formation discussion. UCLA again used their 3-5-2 formation to devastating effect. Stanford genrated few shots during ther game. The superior numbers allowed UCLA to clog up and control the midfield and Stanford was repeatedly unable to connect on long passes over the midfield to their forwards. The space behind the defense that looked so tantalizing only served as a siren song, before a Stanford forward could track the ball down a UCLA defender had long since tracked it down and started the attack in the other direction.

Now UCLA coach ( Tom Fitzgerald ) came from the MLS where he coached previously. Draw the obvious conclusion.

 

To play with a back 3, each defender must be very good in 1 v 1 situations. They also need help from a well organized, defensive minded midfield. Which UNC didn't really have last year. The midfield was very committed to going forwards. Portland employed three forwards who stretched the UNC backline and isolated them. If they were not such great individual defenders and athletes, they would have conceeded goals, (and nearly did) "would you like to see a tape of the game".

To use the UCLA men as an example of soccer at the highest level is incorrect. Look at most teams in the World Cup, including Brazil, or the top teams in La Liga, Seria A, the Premiership or the Bundesliga, you will see the predominant defense is a back four, zone defense, (no sweeper) It requires no adjustments regarding the numbers of forwards the other team uses. It allows for doubling wide attackers, it covers more spaces and channels, is not as easily stretched and the fullbacks can get forwards and attack. (remember Portlands winning goal against SCU).

You point to Tom Fitzgerald as a former MLS coach. How about Clive Charles, a former World Cup Coach and Olympic Men's Coach.

 

Klee you were correct

I am just going to ignore.

 

hahahah

Yeah go ahead and ignore a well constructed and thought out argument. Just because I don't subscribe to the Anson is God theory.

Why not provide a thoughtful response.

Ignorance is Bliss