Wow! Thanks for all of the interesting information and speculation. I love it. ..a couple of thoughts... I've been following the two English UNC recruits pretty closely for about a month now. FWIW, the U19 coach is apparently not high on Lotte Wubben-Moy. She's seen no starts and only one sub assignment in the tournament so far. Russo has started about half the games and has subbed in late in the games for the remainder. (On the other hand Anna Patton, the right back going to FSU has pretty much played ever game through, as has the Louisville midfield recruit Molly Rouse who has nailed down the center midfield for the English U19s.) Like you, I can't imagine Emily Fox and Taylor Otto not playing significant time (eg starting) this season. Fox has proved herself coming our of nowhere (seriously under the radar) to surprise at the U18 level and then promoted to the U20 where most thought she'd be a sub... but then she showed her chops and started and played full 90s for the whole U20 tournament. I think that the real thing is that is that she is fabulously coachable - a quick study who reads the game well. She was known as a big scorer in the ECNL, but played midfierld and back for the U-20s which tells me that the coaching staff saw real value in her read of the game and ability to execute. And Taylor has a similar trajectory. She started as a sub but worked her way into a starting role which she never relinquished. She is a physical presence with a good soccer mind and her size and agility make her a natural center back. As you know, I personally see Scarpa as most effective at holding mid or on the back line. She is an incredible tackler and can make the difficult pass out of pressure look easy. But I'll ave to be happy with the Heels brain trust to put her where they see best. And like you, I think that Joanna is more effective in the middle. Russo's natural position is on the right. And I also agree with you that Dorian was not back to form last year. If she is she should be starting. My current take on the best possible line up is: For the three back: (3-2-3-2) Sam in goal; Julia, Taylor, and Emily in the back. Russo and Scarpa as holding mids with Bailey, Boyles, and Buckingham attacking. and Bridgette and Zoe up front First subs would be Worth and Wubben-Moy in the back, Annie Kingman in center mid, and Madison Shultz top. For the four-back: (4-2-3-1) Sam in goal: Julia, Taylor, Emily, and Maya as the back line. Russo and Scarpa holding mids and Bridgette, Joanna, and Bucky in front of them Zoe up top (Bridgette and Bucky would be running into the corners or cutting diagonally.) Fist subs would be Lotte Wuben-Moy in the back, Annie and Dorian subbing for Russo and Scarpa or Joanna, and Shultz and Goff up top. BUT as you so well articulate, there are so many other combinations and excellent players waiting on the sidelines, I'd not be surprised to be at least 70% wrong in my starting speculations!
Lotte got quite the endorsement to be the go to starting center back in the most recent goheels.com article. I'd like to think they of all the "news" sources had the most accurate take. We'll see just how accurate that is next week.
UNC just released game preview in PDF form that has a lot of good information in it: https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/unc.sidearmsports.com/documents/2017/8/16/2017_Game_Notes.pdf Medical Redshirt for Kimball, Parker, & Bill .
It's too bad the Game Notes are so thin.....HA! Good grief, the word "exhaustive" comes to mind. That's a LOT of info.
for whatever reason they've posted the game notes for Duke before posting the 2017 Season Media Guide. Last years Media Guide was 94 pages long.
The U19's look to be wrapping up there game vs Scotland with a comfortable 2-0 lead. Russo & Wubben-Moy will be joining the Heels as happy Lionesses.
I do hope that Lotte Wubben-Moy is not injured. She subbed in one match early in the tournament, but hasn't been seen since. ON the other hand, Alessia Russo has see regular playing time starting 4 of the 5 matches played. She plays right mid, and takes all of the corner kicks.
Great little video from Brittani Bartok of Joanna explaining her emotional release when she first played after back to back ACL tears. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuLcM9C9qM8
I hope not, but I'm more inclined to believe that it has to do with how some coaches prefer to pick a back 4 & stick with them for everything short of injury, especially in a major tournament.
A 2-1 win over Duke tonight. Loved the ending in over time. Players were thrilled. UNC fans were happy. Good crowd with maybe even 3-400 Dukies. I way underestimated the total size at about 1,200 --the official count was 2,200. Over all impression of the game was that it was sloppy on the Heels part as it was the first time this season that they had played against real competition. Duke, on the other hand looked pretty sharp and I attributed this partially to the fact that they had two real live "exhibition" games under their belt, and partially to the fact that they have really skilled players on the field. Duke connected on their passes with regularity, while the Heels struggled -especially in the first 15 minutes of each half and in the last 10 minutes of regulation. Grit and effort came though in the end. Surprises. *Bridgette did not start. The Hermann "watch list" star of last year played only 54 minutes total. *Zoe Redei was nowhere to be seen. She must be injured and didn't dress??? This would be a huge unexpected loss. *Morgan Goff played every minute at midfield. Good for her! *Sam DiSantis (after much relief expressed with her introduction a month ago) apparently did not work out and is not on the team. Sam Leshnak will be going it all alone this season. *[Pleasant Surprise} to see Kate Morris get a few minutes! (Good kid who has been injured a lot.) Impressions of players. In my view, Freshman Emily Fox was the best Heel on the pitch. Her cool head and decision making was very impressive as was her technical skill matched with decent pace. I was thinking that the frosh many have some jitters, I was wrong -especially about Emily. Played like a senior. As expected, another Heel that was rock-steady was junior Julia Ashley. No mistakes, just solid, solid confident play. It was a great pleasure to see Joanna back. But she was not her old dominant super technical self yet... which is understandable give back-to-back ACL tears. But she will get her confidence back soon enough I am sure.. Her free kicks and corner kicks are still super. Her goal was a 25 yard free kick over the wall and (barely) under the bar. Dorian Bailey is looking much better still. She was a little tentative last year after her recovery from her ACL tear, but looks to be psychologically back now. Jesse Scarpa is her old self that we've seen before. She will be force wherever she plays. Taylor Otto was not as dominate as I expected, and was having difficulty connecting some passes and a little tentative to step into tackles. I do think that this is about game jitters. She has all of the tools and with confidence should bring her skill set out. Maya Worth was Maya Worth... greatly improved since arriving on the scene 4 seasons ago. A good defender. Annie Kingman is always a pleasure to watch as she is technical and creative on the ball. However, I think that she was a little intimidated by the speed of play of the the Duke team. She'll do well soon enough. Ru was Ru performing her accustomed aggressive role -only this time with more finesse. ONE sequence of hustle and grit getting up of the floor twice within a few seconds to stay with the ball should be on a highlight reel. Madison Schultz played very well working the left side in the second half. She is one of these players who will just keep getting better. Frosh Brooke Bingham acquitted herself well to night on defense. She's is not flashy, but seems to be steady enough. Which brings be to Sydney Spruill who I had expected to see only a little of.. but she played significant minutes. She is aggressive enough as a forward, but needs to figure out how to not get trapped in the corner so often. (She's comming along surprisingly fast.) Overall this was a satisfying win, even though an impartial observer might have thought that Duke deserved the W. But even with making a number of great chances for themselves, the Dookies kept missing the goal or directly finding Sam with the ball.
I'm impartial and thought it was a good first game, in the heat. I thought Duke was unlucky not to get a result--at least a tie. They were certainly the better team in the first 20 minutes of the game, but UNC settled in after that and became more assertive. Both teams have loads of talent, but I was struck by the physical differences between the two teams. Duke has a lot of lean, athletic players--their wings on offense and outside backs are very nimble and pacey. Racioppi is an excellent player. They are fun to watch. North Carolina is a noticeably bigger team--Worth, Otto, three or four others; they are a physical team and a team that leans on its depth, and there are skilled players up front as well. Mucherera is a bull in a china shop--a banger. Some impressive free kicks by Boyles. Fox is skilled but lacks a bit of pace. Carolina is gritty. Fun match to watch--more entertaining than some ACC games I saw last year. Both teams will be tough to beat.
Great job Soccerhunter. I do not agree with you that Duke should have won. They always play nice, but most of the time they miss their opportunities. After a while it is predictable. So IMHO based on the game the Heels deserved the W. Zoe Redei had an ankle surgery and hopefully she will be available by end of September. I think overall this team is much better than the last year one. I'm really optimistic that this year will be a great one!
Exciting match to watch, and fun to see both teams try to attack the net as often as they could. Looked a little sloppy at times, but maybe to be expected with both teams trying to press high and not sit back and let the other complete pretty passes back and forth amongst their defenders. All focus is on the start to what should be a good year, but also seeing the pipeline still filling and doing nicely with Tori Hansen, Maggie Pierce and new recruit Talia Dellapuerta on the way to the U17 WNT matches against England, and Claudia Dickey, Maycee Bell and Rachel Jones just back from U18 WNT camp.
After the "home" game I was hoping to hear a post game interview with Anson. Does anyone know if this "tradition" isn't going to happen in Cary? Or if it's somewhere that I didn't stumble across on the new, opaque, unsatisfactory web site? d glendon
Yes, his 5-minuite interview is on the UNC website. Amid other tidbits about the game, of interest to me is that he specifically gave credit to Damon Nahas for suggesting that Scarpa go back to defense for the over times. I read this is a strong endorsement of a successor... but how soon?
The interview is in the website. Hope you found it . Good listen. The box score is different. I miss having minutes played listed. Anyone know where I can find that?
Yes indeed. I wold miss that too. Fortunately there are several versions of the box score out there. The original one posted last night had the minutes, but listed the attendance at 2,200. There is a "final" version out that still has the minutes but now lists the attandance as 2012 (and how the heck they know that is beyond me!) http://www.goheels.com/documents/2017/8/18//UNC_Duke_Box_Score.pdf
Had brought to my attention that an ACL tear has struck the Heels...Ru Mucherera in practice on Tuesday. I am of course disappointed for her --especially since I felt from what I saw on Friday that she was improving her game without loosing her drive. Hope that this is the last one this season! It seems that every program has one or two per season now-a-days and UNC certainly had more than their share last year, and I know that this problem remains on the radar for coaches and trainers as one of the key issues to address.
This is so said. One can argue about her technical ability or tactical understanding. However, she was a fireball and a very honest and brave fighter. I respected her a lot and her injury is a great loss for the Heels. Wish her a fast recovery.
Argh. This is devastating news. She had so many good sequences on Friday. UNC is extreamly deep team & will be okay going forward, but this still feels like a big loss. She gave UNC much needed spark & energy vs Duke. The game tonight is on a paid stream via UCF. It's only $6 if you want to watch: https://www.ucfknights.tv/packages I will be watching & live tweeting if you don't want to throw down the cash. Some positional updates. The Heels opened vs Duke in a 3412. Front to back, left to right, it was: Bailey, Scarpa; Buckingham, Boyles, Kingman, Fox; Goff; Worth, Otto, Ashley. After Duke scored, the formation changed to the more traditional 343 with Andrzejewski & Spruill centered by Scarpa & Kingman giving way in midfield. Bailey being used as a forward was... inneffective & unlikely to continue. I don't mean to say that UCF is a bad team, but if UNC were to be playing a top ranked team tonight, they'd probably open with the same line-up that changed the tide vs Duke. Tonight we have all new players to factor in. Lotte Wubben Moy was projected to be the starting CB & I will be surprised if she doesn't get that start. I liked Otto vs Duke & she had some good moments, but she seemed a little too casual & switched off a couple of times and I can't imagine Anson was happy with that. He might move her to left back, or he might drop her to the bench all together in favor of Worth, who had a fantastic game vs Duke. We've lost two forwards as the season has started in Mucherera & Redei (saw Redei her on the stream with a big boot), but we've gained a talented rookie forward in Alessia Russo. I would not be surprised if she came straight in & started vs UCF if she has a good practice. Spruill was good with the ball at her feet but the end product was missing. With what I've seen of Russo she looks to be a little more polished at striking the ball & I suspect that will give her the edge to start against a lesser opponent. Once again, vs a top tier opponent I think Anson sticks with Spruill because she's a proven entity, even after just 1 game. The either or discussion is academic in any case, as both will likely get significant minutes. I was convinced that the right wing would be the most competed for spot this season, but it turned out to be the complete opposite. Fox accumulated a ton of minutes there & played the entire first half. I can't even remember who relieved her for a short time in the second, Morris maybe? I was struck by how few players the Heels used, & also the unusual subbing pattern in the first half. Duke used something like 4 subs before UNC used their first, & considering how much the Heels were struggling to create chances, that was... very surprising. The Heels used 18 players on Friday. I suspect tonight that number will balloon a bit. The Heels will open in a traditional 343 with Leshnak in goal. Front to back, left to right: Russo, Scarpa, Andrzejewski; Buckingham, Boyles, Fox; Goff; Worth, Wubben-Moy, Ashley. & as always with any of my posts... grain of salt.