True, because NC State's freshman attacker blazed over the bar from 6 yards out in overtime, which was about 30 seconds after State missed Tziarra King with a cross totally unmarked 6 yards from goal. I'm not good at video clips, but it's right there on ESPN+ if anyone wants to watch. None of the State keeper's saves were anything more than routine for a good ACC keeper.
"and ran Jameese Joseph right at Phoebe McClernon all night." Joseph killed her all night. Left her for dead on the turn numerous times. She's still learning the final ball and finishing, as a 17-year-old starting in the ACC, but she has serious potential.
I've got the video clips. I usually do highlights, but haven't had the time. I'm just saying that 13 games in, it must be really, really hard to put a good shot on frame against Virginia. Not at the speed you have to play to get off said shot. We've given up only three goals that weren't from the penalty spot, and the two saves that Berlin made -- one off the Ordonez free kick and the other from Anna Sumpter -- were harder saves than all but three the UVa keepers have had to make all year. Virginia Tech had a rocket that rattled off the woodwork that clearly beat Ivory, even as she was on the near post, but other than that.... A lot of coulda, shoulda, woulda....
Well, Prince was easy to find. I haven't had the time to read much of him this year, but I did read every post of his last year. This was a two-part piece where I answered his questions, but it appears he hasn't posted it yet. As for the question re the 2014 team. I dunno. I wasn't able to watch the games, and there was no real coverage, so all I had were the wire-report, homeristic posts from the UVa athletic department.
An excellent record indeed. But you can't absolve the penalty kicks. They're goals like any other, the result of defensive mistakes, like most goals. If you have the clips, watch that free kick save again. A shot from 20 yards and she saves it with her KNEE. You can watch a lot of soccer and never see that again, nor should you!
Good win by an excellent UVA side. Going on the road and winning is a bonus for sure. No real favorite if, or when these two play again.
Inside the box, by my count, FSU only got three shots off. None of the backline possess anything like I'd call sterling speed, but the back four are the football equivalent of a swarming defense. The other team just doesn't get many good looks.
Hoos Place write up: https://hoosplace.com/content.php?inc=2019101305 Coach Swanson Ushers in the Pack Line Florida State is soccer royalty in the women’s game. In the past 19 years, the Seminoles have 10 appearances in the Final Four (or College Cup), at one point appearing five times in a row. They have been national champions twice, and are the reigning champs. Oh, and they were on a 9-game winning streak. Virginia was #1 and one of two undefeated teams in the nation. Something had to give. Florida State 0 Virginia 1 Last year, it was Virginia who sucked at corners. This year is Florida State’s turn, as in the 104th minute, UVa was awarded the first of two corners. Courtney Petersen hit a deep corner to Anna Sumpter (who was wide open) and instead of heading to goal, elected to loop it back into the scrum, targeting Meg McCool. The ‘Noles deflected the ball and Virginia got a second corner. Petersen again crossed it deep to Anna Sumpter at the back (still open, by the way) who opted to loop the ball with her foot. This time she found McCool, who headed it crisply into the far corner of the net. College soccer OT is sudden death, or as they prefer to call it, Sudden Victory. Whatever. All that was left was the celebration as UVa gained some measure of redemption for last year’s pair of losses to the Seminoles. Fans of the program no doubt know that since 2011 Virginia has scored more goals than any other team in the country, but this win comes courtesy of a stifling, swarming defense that defended the edge of the penalty box like Bennett’s Boys do the 3 point line. Tony would be proud. Florida State possesses tons of skill on the ball, defenders who attack, and two of the more gifted attackers in the country in striker Deyna Castellanos and midfielder Yujie Zhao. While UVa didn’t necessarily struggle to maintain possession per se, at game end the possession battle was probably 55% to 45% in FSU’s favor. Zhao ranges across the midfield more than any other player in ACC and many times she received the ball on the right with acres of space. Forwards Jenna Nighswonger and Makala Thomas had several great runs, but on the night, the ‘Noles only managed three shots on goal from inside the penalty box. Sure, they had several nice, long range shots, and goals are scored from distance, but taking over 70% of your chances from long range is a losing man’s game. Zoe Morse was simply outstanding, and it was fun to see her as the fastest player in our third (Florida State, for as fine a team as they are, do not possess an overabundance of speed either.) She and Talia Staude closed down FSU strikers all night. It was like watching a football team march up and down the field and then simply melt in the red zone. Virginia’s red-zone D was better than Florida State’s red-zone offense. Courtney Petersen will always be an offense first left back, but in the past couple of games, her defensive effort, and effectiveness, has greatly improved. She nullified NC State’s Tziarra King midweek, and while (by design) Nighswonger and Zhao often received the ball wide open on the right, Petersen was able to get back and snuff out most attacks. If she can defend at this high a level, it will make our defense that much better. Laurel Ivory, who I have wondered about in these digital pages before, had a solid game. She exudes confidence and her positioning is first rate. This game had to go a long way towards exorcising the Florida State demons from last year. And the defense really ought to be the story. We have played 14 games and conceded four goals. That is Pack Line-Cavalanche worthy. One of those was for a correctly called penalty, and one was from a free kick (albeit it a finely taken one) but other than that, we’ve only conceded two goals from open play all year. As near as I can tell, only one other school, Arkansas, boasts a stingier defense than that of the Cavaliers. You can read Prince Akeem Joffer’s play-by-play of the game here, and you’ll see just how many chances Virginia created. But I think he was more impressed by our defensive prowess as he relates: Ivory is really good. She probably doesn’t have much to do most of your games but she is a quality keeper. I was impressed with how UVA defended the middle of the field. It seems that the best way to attack the Hoos is on the wings but FSU didn’t have the speed today to get it done. Two of FSU’s fastest players are nursing knee injuries and they could have really helped today. Big win for Virginia especially since it’s the third straight road game. I asked Swanson if that led to more subs than usual today and he said yes but the heat was also a big factor in all of the subbing. Both of these teams will go deep into the Tourney and how far they get will be determined a lot by who gets the best breaks because the talent is there on both sides. On the day, the Cavaliers had more, better chances than the Seminoles, but keeper Caroline Jeffers made numerous saves, including three in a five-minute span where the Cavs had five quality shoots on goal. As I’ve written before, we’re going to force a lot of great performances from other teams’ defenders. This game concludes a three-game road trip and leaves UVa well prepared for a strong finish to the season and positioning for the ACC tourney. We have a full week to recover before next Sunday’s game vs Notre Dame. It is home, as are the next three before a trip to conclude the season at Syracuse. We’re not catching UNC at the top of the table (especially since we don’t get to play them) but we should be well-positioned for a top-4 finish and a chance to host the first round of the tournament. I’ll leave you with the celebration.
Can't rep this enough. I'd like to say this was a fun game, but I was as nervous as I can remember for a collegiate soccer game.
FSU are a good matchup for UVA for many reasons. FSU will always play an open game but like to build mostly thru the middle. They lack natural width and attacking pace and are loaded with creative CAM types. UVA will give you space behind Peterson, but you need pace to exploit it full. Nishwonger had several chances to do damage but didnt yesterday. A quicker player would have. FSU can beat UVA on any given day as they have some very creative players, but its probably going to be a great combination base on timing or a lethal freekick. They dont seem a huge threat from corners, but maybe that was yesterday. The skeletons in the room 1. McLernon not playing much. I think it made UVA defensively more solid. Is this a permanent move or was she not 100 pct? If not 100pct, then why did she play at all? This bears watching. She has not been close to the AA form she showed last year as a CB. Some of that may be positional given the time she has spent at RB, but even accounting for that, she has been off her usual high standards for a while 2. Is Ordonez more than an opportunistic poacher? Can she lead a line? Can she win aerial battles and hold up play when needed? Scoring goals is impressive, but there is more to being a great #9 than that. One thing that has gotten glossed over in the early success is this. She is an early entrant playing vs grown women. The physical differences are clear in Conference play where the physicality gets ramped up and the will to put bodies on the line increases. She has the tools to be very goo, but the goals have led some to get a bit carried away. On a final note, I hope Berkely and Jarrett are ok. Both took heavy knocks yesterday, one left in a boot and the other was limping pretty heavily. Both players are key to their teams and gutted it out yesterday. .
The game announcers stated at the beginning of the game that McClernon was sick/under the weather. They made it sound like we shouldn't expect to see her at all, so I was surprised to see her check in. Re the defense, it was certainly superb, but I don't know if it is connected to McClernon's absence. Petersen has been playing much stronger defensively, and even as Spaanstra is struggling offensively, she's playing defense ... harder? McCool has also been dropping back more defensively. At times it looked like we had two lines of 4 as opposed the 4-3-3. I've written about this before, but my favorite "tic" to watch on game day is just how fast McCool gets up off the deck. She's got springs for legs.
As a Nole fan, I always hate to lose. That said, losing to UVA seems to hurt less, because they value the type of game we love to play. Same can be said for Stanford, except I genuinely like Steve Swanson as a gracious and excellent opposing coach. I could be wrong, but I get a more arrogant vibe from Paul Ratcliffe. I agree with 007 in re: to our lack of wide speed to take advantage of holes in the UVA defense. Losing Gloriana Villalobos (personal reasons) earlier this year has really impacted us. She's not really pacy, but very nifty with the ball at her feet. I noticed UVA, UNC and Stanford held the top 3 TDS spots. Hard to pick, but I'd place them as Stanford, UVA and UNC. FSU in the top 8 is right, as is USC at #4. I'm skeptical of BYU at 5 (SOS). The good news is, it will all be sorted out on the field. To advance to CC both FSU and UVA will need to do a better job of scoring against bunkering teams. Keep up the good work Val. Good luck to UVA.
TDS wont move UVA down off a road win at FSU. The coaches might. A lot of rankings is based on where you start. I tend to not pay much attention to them. I look at teams in groups. The elite group right now (my opinion) is FSU,UNC,UVA,USC,UCLA, Stanford. I have dropped Duke and PSU from that group over the course of this season.
I couldn't agree more! The problem for FSU is that they still play UNC, Duke and the ACCT. Conceivably we could be the best 6 loss team in the field. That would suck!
Still #1 Nothing but respect for this team and the job they have done. We will see how far they can go. On a separate note, Ivory wins her 3rd ACC Defensive PoY this week. Nothing against her, but this is why I dont like awards. The defense as a WHOLE, from front to back has been stellar. She deserves all the credit she got for the Duke game, but the others are all team. Morse or Staude deserved the award
I think Staude will be good in time. I think she made a few bad mistakes that game to be commended for. . Morse played a really good game, but the problem is that if you watched the game - because of the acres of space given up behind Peterson, it didnt "look" like stout defending.. . it looked like once they occupied the space - that they(fsu) didnt finish. .. . perhaps wrong player at the end of that, but with the way we shift and offset the field, it just didnt look like good defense. . . At this stage in the season, with UVA where they are and who they had previously beaten (GT,WVA, PSU ) - although all but GT have struggled to play to their ranking, and now FSU - until Virginia actually loses, it would be hard pressed to knock an undefeated team off that ranking. Stanford is deserving as long as you dont have an undefeated team in front of you. The difference is that one kind of bad loss that they have on their resume, but that soccer. I imagine we hold on to it until we are knocked off - outside of us having 3 more draws or something.
UVA is in a good position. If they have no losses from now until the end of the ACC tournament they would just about be guaranteed a one seed even if they were to lose in the finals of the ACC tournament. Playing at home in the big dance is a huge advantage.
I dunno, I thought it looked like good defending because the space behind Petersen was obviously by design. She had to know that Zhao and Nighswonger were out there, right? Neither of those two are particularly quick, so she was able to get back. Petersen did not leave NC State's Tziarra King that open, did she? If you look at the pic I posted above. It came right after the play in which Constant tried to keep the ball in bounds, which she did, but she literally fell out of bounds after it, leaving the ball to Makala Thomas (I think), who moved directly to goal. She attacked. And she's not slow. But look at the players UVa is able to get back to defend in serious numbers, on what ought to have been a 3 on 3 counter.
by design when you have an attacking back - the defense is supposed to shift (the other side defender should shift back and you end up with a back 3 instead of 4. We dont always do this as we sometimes end up with two backs attacking. . lol but that means the defender on that side, wehther its morse or staude, needs to go out and cover that ball coming in. . it didnt seem like that was happening and on several occasions, they literally waited on peterson to get back and wouldnt leave the middle of the field. . now, that might be why you have this pack line tag line lol. but in reality, i dont think you can give up the endline by just covering the middle and waiting until Peterson (or mccool or whomever makes it back on defense on that side) and not get exploited. Getting to the endline is very dangerous in soccer. Just because FSU didnt execute when given the opportunity down there doesnt necessarily mean we played great defense. That being said - "great defense" is usually not in our vocabularly for womens soccer.
Agree. By design. FSU are full of CAMs who like to combine centrally. Smart to concede that wide area in behind.