UNC Tar Heels 2017

It is a real possibility. It looks like 2 good English players are coming in 2017. If everybody will stay healthy UNC will play a completely different style of game. Much more possession and attacking.

 

Should we put UNC in the "hot seat" as Dorrance will leave if this happens.

Regarding foreign players, I hear of ~many~ from all over the world flying in for even single day P5 ID Camps. We're talking New Zealand, Hong Kong, etc. It's pretty insane now.

 

I'd like to think that you are correct.... and you may be! But with real parity having arrived, no team can count on winning it all. Look at Stanford this past year. After accumulating the top (#1) recruiting class for essentially the last 4 years (the clear choice for 2014, 2015, and 2016, and essentially tied for first with UNC in 2013) they were the favorite last season but suffered a freak 1-0 loss in over time in the third round. --it happens! (and it happens in soccer more than in most sports!)

On paper, UNC will not be the strongest team. On the basis of talent and experience, Penn State, Stanford, and UCLA should all be ranked well above the Tarheels. And the ACC will be even stronger than last year with a healthy Duke potentially dominating, Virginia and FSU coming on strong (assuming that FSU get's their usual crop of internationals), and Notre Dame losing only two senior field players with three players coming back from the U-20 team. UNC will certainly be in the mix in the ACC, but it will be a tough conference schedule as usual.

So on paper I see the Heels as 5th behind UCLA, Penn State, Stanford, and Duke. However, like you I have confidence that we can win at the right time and end up in the final four again and then anything goes.

 

I read some interview with him or something where he said something about being on the golf course by the time something happened. Are the somethings specific enough? Some rule or something. I just can't remember the context or what they were talking about, but there's usually some truth in comments/humor. I think it was on his mind right after 2012 but he didn't pull the trigger. However, he quickly found himself, perhaps left behind?, in the dramatically altered "soccer industry" world. The time gap since 2012 is widening. As a result, his pride is on the line, he needs to leave on his own terms, if possible. Not as a symbol of a bygone time (not that his results stink on paper, they do by his own pre-"soccer industry" standards). If he can do it, I bet it will be the most satisfying to him. The recruiting is different, he has to look at more raw players outside the usual queue of 9th grade ECNL commits to UNC. He knows that's not enough anymore and he likes the challenge. The ID camps have new meaning, like those English girls. It's a throwback to lower level coaching. The question is how long will he give himself.

 

Anson loves coaching. This is fun for him. He is in great health and has the energy level of a 30-year old. There is much more going on with Anson and the girls than just soccer. He is a mentor. He loves the overall challenge of shaping young lives and molding young girls into responsible citizens. He had a very good time with this year's team and was very proud of how they all pulled together and stayed committed and focused in the face of much adversity to get to the College Cup. Anson is not going anywhere until his health fails or something else tragic happens (God forbid). It will take much more than another National Championship for him to walk away.

 

This discussion regarding Anson possibly retiring is interesting but PURE speculation, of course. But there is one truth -- and that is that he will make his own decision to retire. There will be no decision from higher-up. It is his alone to make. So unless some one can read his mind nobody knows when it will be.

I think (speculation, of course) that Anson himself probably does not know when he will retire --especially if one takes at face value his statement (in the 2013 pre-season ESPNW piece by Graham Hays where he implied that he will coach as long as he remains "excited about every single practice.") It's going to be a tough decision. My further speculation is that (as I have said before) that it will likely be sometime after the new stadium is finished in 2018 -may be 2019 or 2020. He turns 70 in 2021. So who knows?

 

What I heard is that one center back and one holding MF will come. Apparently, Anson is very excited about them. They have English YNT experience.

 

My 2017 pre-season assigned ARPI ratings have them very close to the top. You may be right.

 

With all your new foreign players, you might be right..... but you won't be able to call it a win will you?? Not after all your bashing of FSU over the years as only winning because they have "professional" players that help them win?! Curious how you will view your team now? Very curious...

 

Hello Got Jukes. I agree with uncchamps2012 that you have gotten him mixed up with someone else. I've gone back three years on the UNC board here at Big Soccer and all comments I can find from uncchamps2012 are positive things to say about FSU and he specifically notes that he has no problem with foreign players at FSU. (See post #706 on the UNC 2015 thread.)

UNC4ever has also taken a positive view of Mark's foreign recruiting. See post 702 in 2015 where he says of Mark's recruitment of foreign players: "In any case, IMO it is really smart coaching and has been a huge boost to the FSU program and the quality of ACC soccer!" Note that I nor anyone else on the UNC thread disagreed with this opinion.

I think that you are remembering an exchange you had with with Kazoo (see post 710 in 2015) where you talk about the accusation of "pro" etc. Please remember that Kazoo is not a UNC fan, or even an ACC fan, as he points out.

Kazoo has brought up the issue again this season. (See post 18 above.) I responded with the information that I knew (which was/is not much) and tried to research what UNC's history was with foreign players which showed that over the years the Heels have had a few. Then Kazoo weighed in (post 20) with his heartfelt lament that it wasn't somehow right to have large numbers of foreign players representing an American college as its soccer team.

I must admit that my response was incomplete (post 19.) I had intended to say that I understood emotionally where Kazoo was coming from and agreed that such an emotional view had basis in the history of American collegiate athletics. I meant to also say (but got caught up in seeing Anson as an example of that history and forgot to get back to the second point) that there is nothing wrong with bringing in foreign players -especially in competitive DI level athletics. That was supposed to have been the follow on to the idea that the original notion of students getting together to play students from other colleges has long since been destroyed by adult interference (the very origins of intercollegiate athletics were all student organized and run for a few seasons), professional coaching, big money, and organized recruiting. In today's DI environment recruiting is done for a competitive advantage and international students are logical fair game. Others in DI soccer before Mark have certainly proved the point. (Clemson men 20 years ago in the ACC, for example.)

For those who pine for the old days in collegiate soccer (let's say the 1950s and prior) there will be a disconnect with seeing a recruited team with lots of top international youth players. This is an emotional pull for those who came in at that time. But the reality is that the success that Mark has demonstrated through the last 6 years at FSU is being pursued by many college recruiters now and will only get more intense as more foreign talent becomes available. He has been the leader and now will have many followers. You will not find me disparaging his leadership or FSUs success. Nor has any of the UNC coaching staff had anything but praise for Mark and FSU's soccer prowess.

I hope that this is helpful. I have always appreciated your (and the other Seminole WOSO fans) remarks and enthusiasm on these boards.

 

I must have you mixed up..... I apologize. I also went back and looked but could not find the series I had with someone who continually knocked FSU and basically said it was a disgrace they are given credit for wins having all the international players which should be considered "pros". Also carried on about the legalities of having such players which is ridiculous. Anyways, it was not you so, again, sorry! Thank you for your support over the years. I always think its great that we can be supportive of all great programs, along with our favorite!

 

Well, this will be a random and strange post.... I was doing distantly related research on recruits tonight and found myself in the So Cal Blues website. They have a handy "alumni" page (they are an all female club) which lists players who have moved on to college over the last 20 years. Now the Blues have one of the premier girls programs in southern California (and the country), and their alumnae have populated all of the top soccer college programs in the US. Now it is not surprising that many of their players end up at at UCLA, USC, and other California schools and a quick survey con firms this fact. (31 attended UCLA, 18 USC, and multiple players also went to Stanford, Santa Clara, Cal, Pepperdine, San Diego, UC Irvine, Long Beach State, and the list goes on and on.) And many of the Blues players have also traveled farther afield with 7 to BYU and 5 to Notre Dame, 4 to Texas A&M, 3 to Ohio State and then to east coast with Clemson and South Carolina absorbing a few as well as multiple players to Duke, Wake Forest,, Brown, (and even Vassar!) But UNC has but a single player in all those years -that being the situation where Amber Munerlyn had verbally committed to Stanford and then at just before NLI signing date ended up coming to UNC, but then transferred back to UCLA for these past several years.

So what's the deal with recruiting through certain clubs? Is it preference of the club coaching staff? Issues with the college programs recruiting staff? Other factors? For example, UNC has had three players lined up to come from California from the tiny PSV Union club in the Bay area and the Heels have pretty much had representation from the Golden State on just about every roster for the past 20 years, so geography is not a deciding factor. .....Expert comment invited.....

 

I don't make it a habit to correct grammar in any forum that I contribute to because my grammar is far from perfect and I realize that folks generally don't write in forums as they would otherwise. With that being known, I am not attempting to be the "grammar police" here and it is not my intention to correct grammar or call out Soccerhunter. I'm merely bored this morning.

Anyway, alumnae is the plural for female graduates. A grammar policeman pointed this fact out to me a bit ago in something that I wrote. I actually asked the person to be a grammar policeman because it was a paper of mine that I was submitting to a journal. The policeman informed me that alumni is the plural for males but it is also used for a group of males and females. Alumnus is the singular for male. Alumna is the singular for female. Alumnae is the plural for female.

Sorry for the thread drift. I find little intricacies of the English language to be interesting. Back to soccer.

 

I think its just an example of recruiting regionally. When my daughter was being recruited, we did Campus visits to both UNC and Duke. And though UNC had a few West Coasters, the vibe we got was they generally recruited the East Coast and middle of the country to avoid kids that would get homesick and transfer back to California (the two they had on the roster at that time (muenerlyn and Riley Parker) did just that. Duke was/is very similar

 

Stinks, how did/would/do you feel about your daughter leaving for another part of the country. I think it's particularly harder for parents to "let go" of daughters than sons.

 

Definitely hard on the Parents, especially across the country. Mine is just an hour Plane Ride and it was still tough, but you get used to it. I suspect the long distance is easier now than 10 years ago with all the technology

 

Thanks. I always felt parents never realized the emotional impact during the recruiting period. I used to see girls flying in from 2ooo-3000 miles away or notice far off state license tags at id camps. I think everybody kinda gets caught up but then it hits during "drop off". It seems like, as you allude to with getting used to it, freshman year is an extreme adjustment in so many ways. Athletes don't have time for weekend getaways to home, I suppose. That's what I heard some soccer players mention who went far away to school. Are you able to attend any games?

 

SoCal Blues for the most part is a possession taught club (there are a couple coaches at the club who aren't though). Where as UNC's style of play is high pressure direct soccer. Probably the reason not many SoCal Blues players commit to UNC.

 

That's an interesting thought and you may be right. I will certainly agree that UNC still applies high pressure defense and will certainly move quickly to score if they pressure the ball loose in the opponents red zone. However, my observation is that that UNC can play as good a passing game as most any other top DI school. This was especially true in the last half of last season when there were some real nice offensive build-ups and pretty passing combinations to enjoy. (The first third of the season, not so much as the young Heels tried to find themselves.)

This passing thing often boils down to which team is stronger. If one team is clearly stronger, then that team often has the luxury to demonstrate a superior passing game. When a team has a reputation of playing an offense characterized by a build-up of short to medium passes, and they over match another team, it indeed looks fabulous. But when they are having an off day against a strong team, you will see that passing game start to falter and the long balling or heroic dribbling runs into the corner start. Stanford will probably have the strongest passing game this next season, but when they play UCLA, who will be loaded with fabulous athletic talent, it will be interesting to see which team's offense is interrupted and a more direct approach appear on the pitch.

 

I agree with your post. I think it has to do more with the conceive notion UNC is still predominately a high pressure direct attacking team. Which might not be the case anymore. Unfortunately, any elite YNT starter who lives on the West Coast can remain relatively close to home and choose between the possession attacking style of Stanford or UCLA's.

I also know Blues educates their parents when recruiting heats up as to which universities fits their daughters strengths as a player. It's why I think any SoCal Blues player wanting to play in the ACC would choose Notre Dame and UVA over UNC.