Loved the video on Summer and Katie's friendship. We sometimes forget these are just girls. I have 4 girls, so I could really relate to their goofiness. I also hate that you guys lost Boyles and Castleberry to injuries. You guys have been snakebit this year. We certainly couldn't absorb those injuries and hope to win. The fact that you guys can, is a testament to the incredible depth Anson has built. Good luck and speedy recovery to all the injured at UNC.
Carolina will head to the second round fighting the injury bug. Starting midfielders Dorian Bailey and Darcy McFarlane were lost for the season to ACL injuries against Louisville and Florida State in October. UNC then lost starting midfielders Joanna Boyles and Cameron Castleberry to ACL injuries in practice this past week. Forward Summer Green, defender Maya Worth and midfielder Abby Elinsky are also nursing injuries and are on day-to-day status with hopes of playing in the second round in a week. Yikes
What I heard is that Summer has a hamstring pull, Maya in on concussion rest form last weeks game, and Abby is still suffering from the ankle injury she sustained three weeks ago. All three should not be considered as available for play until we hear otherwise. This makes 7 players that are on the sidelines for the NCAAs. 6 of that 7 started this year, and the 7th was a regular starter last year. We are playing with a lot of subs and it certainly showed this evening. There was lots of disjointed play although there was lots of hustle from the Heels. It is a totally different team than it was a week ago. Last Friday at the ACC tournament, we really looked good against FSU. We were staring to get into the flow of our game with the new midfield set up and had our chances and our two central middies were named to the all tournament team. We lost that game on a a miscue and a break-away but left with confidence that we had a good run ahead of us with new configuration replacing the injured players starting to work well. This evening, we looked hesitant in the red zone and conservative in midfield even against lesser competition. We seemed to have no offensive clue in the first half with a lot of long balls, but something got really straightened out at half time and the girls played a much better tactical game and the goals started to come. Our defense played well enough tonight, although Hannah is still working on getting her head wrapped around her role when going forward. (Her physical skills are fine.) Our keepers, Paige, and Julia were great. Usual starters Katie at right mid and and Alexa at left wing did well tonight but Jesse seemed really slowed down and not her aggressive self. I thought that some of the subs acquitted themselves very well all things considered. Annie was very solid as holding mid, although (if unfairly compared to Jo) was conservative -no mistakes. Megan hustled at the attacking mid role and had some very good moments including a great goal. At left mid Sarah Ashley played well and was in for essentially the whole game. She showed creative, but yet sometimes tentative passing and did not make mistakes. Bearing in mid that this is a new position for her, I trust that her confidence and tentative play will improve (by next week?). Alex got the nod a right wing and did well enough, but was pretty straight forward in approach. One thing that would really help the new starters is to increase the pace of the passing, or there will be more pick-offs by faster and more aggressive opposition. It occurs to me that the whole tentative tenor of the evening (with seniors excepted) was not only trying to adjust to a substantially new team on the field but may also be due to a back-of-the-mind fear of the ACL monster claiming another victim. We get Texas A&M next Friday at Clemson.
I'm hearing everybody say "at Clemson" ... I know it is a long shot, but what happens if Furman beats Clemson? Heels a micro-chasm of their season tonight. They had the right ideas, but they just struggled to execute. I really like how they were moving the ball around with Annie Kingman at that holding/ball distribution #6. Besides a little blip in the second half where she passed the ball straight to a Liberty player without even being pressured, she did good. A game against an over-matched Liberty isn't much to go on, but I'm not a big fan of Megan Buckingham at the 10. The finish on her goal was exquisite, but I otherwise felt like she was out of position & not creating a lot for UNC, which relied heavily on Jessie Scarpa to generate chances (which I'm okay with). In the second half she drifted wide. . . A LOT . . . and it seemed like she was covering more ground than necessary to do the jobs of the wide midfielders. Bowen smartly came inside and provided the distraction on Megan's assist to Newfield, where Megan had overlapped (from a central position!), drove end-line, and whipped a ball back in through the box. Bowen doesn't get credited for "distractions", but she did that at least 3 or 4 times, including a lovely dummy on Buckingham's goal from Scarpa's assist. Have to give up expecting Summer Green to play at the 10. Her first touches and contribution to the attacking play that lead to the scoring corner, albeit brief and from a lose ball, was exactly why I want to see her there. She is shifty and moves defenders around with her footwork, is a threat to score from distance, and she played a nice little pass in to Alexa Newfield. Heavy touch from Alexa took away the scoring chance, but its hard to imagine that not leading to some glorious chances if it happened more in the game and with both Alexa & Jessie as targets. Put Green at the 10!
Texas a & m looks to have had a weird season, beating some tough teams like Florida and losing to weaker teams. They could be last years South Carolina, except a round earlier. I hate to say this , but playing in the elite 8 against fsu would seem to be the most unc could hope for realistically and even that might be a stretch with the number of injuries. I would love for this prediction here to be mercilessly mocked whe unc wins the title!!
texas a&m is young--they start a lot of freshman and sophs. They had a better year than I expected--I think the aggie coach is pretty good. I'm interested to see how this one plays out, but I expect UNC to win.
I agree with babranski and contrarily with uncchamps. With the latter, realistically UNC is so weakened by recent injuries (5 or 6 starting field players depending on how you count) that I do not think that there is enough time to get the chemistry working sufficiently well with the substitutes to beat quality teams like TAMU. If we could have stayed with the team we had two weeks ago against FSU we would have had an excellent chance of getting to the College Cup, but we don't have that team to put on the field. Consequently, part of me is sadly resigned to seeing an early exit tomorrow. On the other hand, like many fans, hope spring eternal and one hopes that AD and his staff are working to pull the surprised rabbit out of the hat for at least one more game. GO HEELS!
Well, I just don't know... I haven't followed TAMU this season. I understand they are good--just don't know how good? Clemson is certainly having an interesting year. While they have remained true to their tradition of junk-yard-doggery, they have also grafted in some quality soccer skills. Interesting to see such competent players engaged in such sustained and systematically chippy play-- must wear on the soul? (Kind of the Frankenfish of collegeWOSO-- Frankenfootball?) Anyway, it is a tough weekend upcoming. The first time we have played away from Fetzer at this stage in the history of the modern tourney. Anson has touted the strength of the reserves all season, and made a point that there is little difference between the starters and number 18~19. Accordingly, he should be able to put together a line-up that gives us an excellent chance of making it through the weekend. Not to say we will necessarily advance-- just to say if he can't put together a squad with an excellent chance of making it through, despite our injuries, then, IMO he has been misplaying the squad all year. All season long, the story has been about our depth. Now that depth has Opportunity dumped in their lap in the finest Tarheel tradition. We are playing away in no small measure because Anson misjudged the psychology of what would prime this team for success (and torpedoed our RPI). If he has additionally misjudged the potential of our reserves, and their capacity to rise to the occasion, then no knock on the girls who undoubtedly will give 120% to the weekend, but a possible indication that (as in 2007) he has been playing his preconceptions, rather than his roster? Playing away from Fetzer this weekend is a first for us. Not advancing to the final 16 would be another of the sort the program does not need. Despite injury, there would appear to be a wealth of talent on this team. It is getting a bit tense for the players and coaches to get their act together. Not like we have time to recover from another mistake. I think if the team has been correctly oriented--on message and on program-- to this point in the season, we should have two excellent, competitive games with a real chance to advance through the weekend. If we fold up our tent in a humbling defeat, then IMO we need to look to causes that far precede the injuries of the last two weeks. Go Heels!
30 years ago one could watch a UNC women's soccer match live on National TV. Now we can't even watch their NCAA tournament match against Texas A&M on a live web stream. What is wrong with the world these days?
I don't know anything about how Clemson plays, but if your critique is correct ... this is the kind of thing that keeps a team from becoming a top contender. I think that for players in women's college soccer, when they're coached to play in a way that is anti-good sportsmanship, they simply won't/can't produce their best soccer. My critique of Jill Ells as a college coach was exactly in this area. (Gamesmanship to its max seems to work at the WWC level.) So far as I can recall, if you look at the teams that have won DI woso championships, they all played with great respect for the game.
The 2004 Notre Dame team played very rough on their opponent, more so than just about anybody back then. But I guess they won because the 2004 UCLA team was even rougher then. The two ranked teams with the roughest styles that year made the Final.
Great Comment! I so totally agree! Folks who have followed my posts on this thread are aware that I am not an automatic booster for the UNC program, and that my enthusiasm for Dorance is (on a good day) qualified-- on a number of levels. However, one thing that can be said for Anson, and for the program, is that it has no equal in the grace with which it plays the game. UNC plays a physical, confrontational game, but with very few exceptions over the decades, plays it cleanly. When we recall the wonderful players to grace this squad, the few "enforcers" who passed through the program are almost never mentioned-- we have better moments to remember. And when AD comments on a game, win or lose, it is to affirm the quality of play by members of his own squad and by the opposing team. I have always found this really classy, and a hallmark of the UNC program. Others may find my comments about Clemson to be harsh? People see games differently. My opinion remains that Clemson has the best players in the history of their program, but are still coaching them to play like a bunch of thugs. I agree that I think that would have a very corrosive effect, as that is not why these girls came to college to play soccer. As Carolina has gone from the Only program in the country, to the Best program in the country, to the program that needs to do some things differently and have a bit of luck to remain the best program in the country, the one thing that remains constant is that winning is about being Better, more motivated, more technical-- not about taking a cheap dive or a chippy foul. As a result we may not get a "hand of God" goal, but then, who needs one? After all, the sky is Carolina blue....
I'm actually struggling with this sentiment in regards to the current D1 holders, FSU. The general understanding of folks out there is that the Seminoles play a pretty, sophisticated, possession style game. While I do believe they like to hold possession & some of their players (especially internationals) are very sophisticated on the ball, I do not believe the way FSU plays is "respectful" of the game. Against teams they are supposedly better than, they deliberately slow the game down, rely on set pieces and long throw ins that take A LOT of time off the clock, and generally rely on gamesmanship that makes the game frustrating to watch. Like I tweeted after last years final, slow, choppy, and frankly, for the quality of players FSU can field, it feels "cheap". FSU is basically Clemson with better players, imo. I hate it when rules & officiating favors a team like FSU that enjoys a choppy, slow, unattractive style and not an offensive team like UVa.— babs (@babranski) December 7, 2014
I haven't watched FSU enough to know whether they're engaging in "gamesmanship." There's nothing disrespectful of the game in playing a defensive, rather than an offensive, brand of soccer. There's also nothing disrespectful of the game in relying on set pieces and ultra long throw ins, when you have a player who can make them. This simply are different tactical approaches. I'd say the same is true of switching tactics to a more defensive mind-set once you've gotten a lead. Those all are time-honored approaches. If FSU is engaging in shenanigans in order simply to run time off the clock, that's another thing. That's the kind of area in which I think DI women's soccer teams will have trouble producing their best soccer, whether they are conscious of it or not. By and large, they simply won't be able to unreservedly give it everything they've got.
I would agree with Babranski...how many times in last years final did FSU gamefully play a ball out of bounds off a UVA player then to trot their long thrower 3/4s across the field and walk back 25 yards for her run up to the throw. 45-60 seconds off the clock every time. #snoozefest
This may be getting a bit off the mark for the Tarheels thread? That said, let me contribute to the hijack! When a coach overtly or tacitly creates a culture where: If it aint called, it aint a foul, and if it aint carded, well yeah, maybe it was a foul, but it was tactical, I don't think that is good for the players or for the game, and it certainly increases the risk that some fine athletes are going to be stupidly and unnecessarily injured. The complaints against FSU are in a very different area. IMO, most college players know how to play the game; they don't often know how to win the game. I have never been more proud of a Carolina team than when I (finally) saw our gals foregoing very promising opportunities on goal to methodically carry the ball into the corner and watch the clock. You don't need to win by more than 1. Why risk the turn-over and fast break for a possible goal we don't need? It is the victory of discipline over adrenaline, and it is hard to instill, especially in young players who are amped and playing their hearts out! But it is a fine line between taking a ball to the corner and waiting for what seems like an eternity for a throw-in. I say, if you have a player who can throw the ball half the field, then the longer it takes her to tie her shoe before she picks up the ball when the team is winning, the smarter that player is. Snaps to her! It is all on a continuum of course, but I'm OK with teams who bunker, and I'm OK with FSU managing the clock. I think this is a very different level of sin than feigning a bogus injury to burn the clock, or taking a punch at a UNC player, or the kind of junk pulled by a ND player who famously (and futilely) took a dive in the box in the closing seconds of a losing Championship game. Just my opinion, but then hey, I'm from the school that invented 4 corners in basketball, so maybe that says it all?
Meaning he will have to actually coach instead of trotting out fresh legs like he has done forever. Most teams would be devastated by losing 2 key players. I think you have it right UNC4EVER, the team is talented and the reserves will give their all; figuring out how to succeed a bit shorthanded and executing a good game plan is 100% on the coach. Should be a good one!
I love college soccer, in large measure because it is, at heart, an amateur sport. I think it is wonderful that Carolina plays a deep bench, and that these gals who work so hard at the sport have an opportunity to showcase their talents for fans, family and team! Further, I think our reputation for lavish substituting helps us recruit Very Good players. If you are not sure you are among the best eleven players in the country, you can (i) pick a (different) top 5 school and hope; (ii) go play four years as a starter for a less prestigious program; or (iii) come to Carolina and if your talents and effort merit the recognition, see plenty of varsity minutes even if you never make it to the starting 11 until the last game of your senior year. I think it is great, and I have no quarrel with coaches making intelligent use of the substitution rules in an amateur sport. That said, I have never been a fan of Anson's formulaic platoon substitution system. It would appear to be totally lacking in creativity, imagination and any sensitivity for the dynamics of play on the field on a given day. I stress, it would appear. So I agree, now we will see. If Anson wants to form two platoons out of his remaining healthy players, he will be digging deep indeed into the bench. Other coaches have shown that college players can go for 90 and win National Championships without a bevy of "fresh legs", while Anson has shown in the last couple years that "fresh legs" are certainly not sufficient to win championships (and may not be necessary either). [As an aside, it would be interesting to speculate how someone like Mark Krikorian would have played this year's roster and what he would have gotten out of them-- that is the sort of meaningless speculation that could justify a few beers...]. Anyway, my point is, there is plenty of healthy talent on the Carolina roster and they don't need to be pulled off the field and coddled with GaitorAide. I agree with you, they need to be coached. And each gal needs to Refuse to Lose. After all, its the Carolina way....... It may be that the AD platoon system exists because (he feels) it can, in the same way the vulnerable 3-4-3 system hung around forever cause no one could beat it? We will see tonight how much creativity AD can muster, and how much heart the team can show in what will undoubtedly be a Very Challenging weekend. Best of luck to them! Go Heels!
Yep. Not enough fresh legs to beat a quality team. No excuses please. Take your lumps, keep getting great talent, and if a third of them don't get hurt the Heels will be good to go next year playing that style ... Maybe.
Congrats to UNC for playing like total Dog Fur today. Can't believe Anson is going out in the Tremendous 32 round, and can't even make the Sweet 16. This now symbolizes the decline of UNC soccer on a national scale, something I thought I'd never see. The Dynasty run is now officially over. But what a heck of a run it was while it lasted (for 30 years). These UNC girls can't hit sand if they fell off a camel.
Well, don't know anything beyond the score. Hopefully, UNC or someone here will post some informative game notes? Thanks to the gals for what has been an interesting and roller-coaster season. And thanks also, of course, for that scarf which we got as season ticket holders. I look forward to wearing it in future seasons when, God willing, we will play in colder weather. This is a surprising and disappointing end to the season. I am sure it will lead to a lot of introspection within the program, and hopefully a healthy squad will profit a lot next year from this year's lessons. As always, Go Heels!
I was surprised by this result. According to the stats, UNC had only 3 shots on goal for the game--and I believe /at least/ two of those came in the first half. I know UNC had a /lot/ of injury problems this year, and they didn't look great against liberty--but I thought they had enough to beat a texas a&m team that is very young itself. I heard that the aggies were starting 5 freshman and 3 sophs (or maybe it was the other way around). I get the impression that texas a&M is very well coached. They were excellent last year--a final four team that lost to UVA in the national semis--but lost a bunch of seniors and this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. As for FSU, I have watched them and wouldn't say they play disrespectfully. I think resentment may be starting to build because they've been bossing a very good league--mainly, let's fact it, because of the international players they have. They are excellent defensively--play a defensive formation and have good defensive players--and do get a lot of goals off of set pieces. They've got very good players at all positions. Last year Virginia had the highest scoring team in the nation--and FSU shut out the cavs /three times/--winning all three games 1-0. They are not as good this year as they were last year--but still capable of winning the title, for sure.
I agree: I do not understand why all the NCAA games are not live-streamed. It is BS. I am a fan of a certain underachieving SEC team, and I watched every game but one via livestream this year. Comes the NCAA tourney and none of the games can be watched!