When it comes to making any team or first team, there's really only one opinion that matters. This should be interesting to watch. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHv0yp5Dy0j/
I don't follow the USWNT very closely. I do watch big tournaments like the Olympics and the WC. That said, I know they have given many players over the years a look here and there. My point being, this is Jaelin's chance to impress. If she impresses, she will have future opportunities. If not, she may never get another shot. I'll be surprised if she doesn't impress.
I’m excited for her. She’s only a junior in college, she’ll get another opportunity to impress one way or another no matter her performance next week. Good sign to see Vlatko investing in her development so early, even in a pool with only four other eligible mids.
She was in the last camp and, when a midfield vacancy came up, is the one picked to fill the spot. She already must have impressed.
🔊@FSUSoccer capped their undefeated season with an ACC Championship win in Chapel Hill.Head Coach @MKrikorianFSU talked about the hardest part of their 2020 run with @Chris_Spatola on #ACCRadio! @ACCWSoccer #OneTribe pic.twitter.com/cD84AJykBV— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) November 20, 2020
Mark apparently agrees with Val and 007 about the difficulty of playing on the road in COVID. That makes winning the ACCT that much more impressive. UNC and Duke have a read advantage in the ACCT. I sure hope we have a spring season and an NCAAT. This team has a chance to win it all. Can't take that for granted. We haven't seen Stanford, UCLA or USC yet. And we all know that in soccer the best team doesn't always win.
If you could take 5 players from throughout the ACC to supplement this FSU team, who would they be? For me, Hancuff the GK with CU starting over Roque. I'd have Fox from UNC starting over Carle. I'd have Spaanstra from UVA starting over Lynch. I'd have Pinto from UNC starting over Zipay and I'd have Ekic from the Ville starting over McFarland. Part of me wants to put Spaanstra up top and switch Ekic out wide. Don't get me wrong, I love each of our players. McFarland does a lot that goes unnoticed. She is not a take the ball, turn and beat the defender kind of up top player, but Mark likes her enough to give her 50 to 60 minutes a game.
True in any sport, although I suspect more true in soccer than in many other sports. In terms of top teams, however, we should not over rely on the idea that the best team does not always win: For the Top 10 among the DI women in the final regular season ratings, they win 83.7% of the regular season games in which they are higher rated (without regard to the rating differences with their opponents), tie 7.4%, and lose 8.9%. So, if a Top 10 team is (or two Top 10 teams are) in a game, it is reasonable to expect the best team will win about 85% of the time. Which I think means that if a Top 10 team wins a game, it is highly likely it indeed is the better team.
I could not agree more. Better team. Its a team game. The better team does not always have the better players.
Thank you Tallahassee Democrat. How Florida State navigated COVID and other challenges to win soccer ACC Championship Antwan Staley Tallahassee Democrat 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone. But imagine playing soccer, trying to win an ACC Championship along with focusing on graduation from Florida State. That's exactly what Clara Robbins had to do this season. Not only was Robbins and FSU coach Mark Krikorian able to accomplish their goal of going undefeated and winning an ACC Championship, but Robbins will graduate with a GPA of over 4.0 with a degree in Exercise Physiology in December. Robbins dealt with many challenges as a redshirt junior, but the biggest one was the uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I think the main challenge was not knowing what's going to come next," Robbins told the Democrat. "Just knowing that anything can change at any giving moment. So it was important that we took everything day by day, knowing that there were a lot of different possibilities in the future but just preparing for the day itself." Despite the challenges and the shortened soccer season, Robbins was one of the ACC's best players this season. This year, Robbins was crowned the ACC Tournament MVP along with being named on the ACC All-Tournament Team and the All-ACC Second Team. While the accomplishments are nice, Robbins was more excited about bringing an ACC Championship to Florida State. "I feel good about it, but at the end of the day, I'm just happy that we were able to win the tournament and have great team success," Robbins said. "The awards are great, and they make me feel good about my performance throughout the season. But ultimately, it isn't the best thing about this season." Not only did Robbins have challenges on the field but also off the field as she had to adjust to learning remotely. Because of the pandemic, FSU student-athletes mostly took their classes online this semester. For most college students, learning remotely is an adjustment because of the lack of in-person interaction. Robbins wasn't any different. But she was able to navigate through learning online with the help of her teachers. "I think the main challenges were everything in the online format where we were kind of responsible for our own learning," Robbins said. "We really didn't have attendance to keep up with to hold us accountable. Just making sure we were staying organized. "Fortunately for me and my classes, my teachers did a great job about transitioning us to an online format. They were really accommodating with the different resources that we needed. It wasn't too hard of a transition for me." Krikorian says this was a season like no other FSU began preparing for its soccer season in March even though the country had essentially shut down because of COVID. Krikorian and his staff had meetings on Zoom that allowed his team to stay connected. Fast forward to the beginning of the regular season against Notre Dame. Krikorian wasn't sure if FSU or any of the ACC teams would be able to finish the 2020 season. The Seminoles were able to not only win the ACC Championship, but Krikorian won his seven career ACC Championship in the 16 years. So can Krikorian compare this season to any other? "I don't think there was any comparison to any other year," Krikorian said. "It is as simple as the travel and showing up every day and doing all of these COVID tests three or four times a week. And knowing at any moment, I could get the call from the trainer, and this player and this player aren't available. "The uncertainty of trying to balance that. During a regular year, that call is going to be about an injury. It is going to be a follow up about a player being hit in the head, concussion, how are they progressing. In the beginning, we were on pins and needles. Fortunately, everyone did a good job of managing their way through the season, so we were able to continue in." While Robbins had to manage her studies along with playing soccer, Krikorian's challenges were a bit different. As a head coach, Krikorian is in charge of a roster with more than 20 players. Krikorian said his biggest challenge this season was helping all of those players get through all the uncertainty. "Most of the kids on our team and many of the teams are Type A personalities," Krikorian said. "These kids want to know what's going on, and where they need to be, when they need to be there, and they're going to do it properly. The expression that I used to them in March was flexible thinking and flexibility being a key to success. "In the end, I think that certainly proved to be true. For those players to be able to still perform at the level that they did with such change in travel, it was quite impressive that our kids were able to perform at the level that they were. And in fairness, their opponents as well." Even with all the challenges, winning an ACC Championship was sweet for Krikorian. Winning a conference title is always challenging and factor that in with the depth of good teams in the ACC, and then there was COVID. Krikorian says this championship is a testament to his players and his staff and the FSU and ACC administration for helping it happen. "The commitment that all of the players and all of the staff members had to do their finest to allow this to occur with significant sacrifices," Krikorian said. "These are college kids, they're used to being social. They're used to going out. For them to decide that playing soccer and making sacrifices for the betterment of the group was interesting for them or more interesting than going out. I think that's a great sacrifice on their part. "For me, I appreciate it. I think our administrative group here and the ACC as a whole just did a fantastic job in helping to piece all of this together in unprecedented times. Certainly grateful for all of those little victories that we got along the way, knowing that at any moment, life could change or we get shut down, or COVID could come into the team and spread throughout, and all of a sudden, we are not playing." Thanksgiving will be a bit different for FSU soccer players and Krikorian this year In a normal year, the FSU soccer team and Krikorian would celebrate Thanksgiving together before getting ready to play in the NCAA Tournament. But this year, because of COVID, Krikorian will just be celebrating with just his wife and their son. Also, the NCAA Tournament has been pushed to the spring. Robbins will just be celebrating with her family as they will have the traditional Thanksgiving meal with her famous green bean casserole. Krikorian loves Thanksgiving and loves hosting his team, but his family will enjoy a calmer holiday this year. "For each of the last number of years, we've had the whole team over to the house and 40 people over for Thanksgiving dinner at my house," Krikorian said. "This year, it is going to be like three or four people having dinner at the house. It will be a little bit quieter, a little bit more peaceful and not having to worry about the game after Thanksgiving, which is typically the case." https://www.tallahassee.com/story/s...enges-win-soccer-acc-championship/6381832002/ (PS - congratulations to Clara's dad for the 4.0 GPA assuming he is still out there reading this thread without letting his daughter know)
Instat soccer video analysis highlighted 3 college women who had great Novembers. Guess who made their list? Wrong! It wasn't Jaelin, even though I'm sure she was worthy of it. College Clara Robbins, Florida State: A match-winner for the Seminoles down the stretch, Robbins was credited with an assist to go with her two goals in the ACC tournament final win against North Carolina. That was certainly the high point of her four matches in the month, although she had either a goal or assist in each. In the final against the Tar Heels, she won 73% of her challenges, made six interceptions and completed 76% of her passes. She didn't participate in Senior day activities, so I'm assuming (hoping) that she is coming back next year.
How it started: How it’s going: pic.twitter.com/t2AZGIiJJV— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) December 1, 2020
New commit alert. Olivia Garcia, '22, forward from Las Vegas. Both the '21 and '22 classes have six commits each. So maybe an international this year but not expecting any the following year.
Typical FSU recruiting class. Three 4 stars and three 3 stars. Mark usually finds 3 stars that are under rated.
I just went back and watched parts of a couple of the CC games from our natty in '18. I noticed that we did not flood the box with 5 players on corners like we do now. I can't help but think that having so many talented players in the box is a big part of the reason we have been so successful on corners this season. I also wonder if this change will remain going forward? I wonder why he did not do that in the past? Hoping this vaccine gets things calmed down COVID wise in the next month and a half or two.
Looks like Berkeley is off to France along with Macario. It’s unfortunate not to see these top players here in the states but I don’t blame these players
Inevitable. More to follow. The NWSL system undervalues young talented players to keep costs down. There are young players out there with international potential who can and will make multiples of what they can in the NWSL under the current system. If the avenue back to the WNT is open, then why not? Undervalues young internationals even more and look how well they are doing - Shaw,Lawrence,Buchanan, etc Looking forward to watching her develop.
She announced on her Twitter then many of the soccer sites (equalizer at ) are reporting she’s headed abroad
Hope they both have marvelous careers. Barring injury Macario is a sure-fire UWNT star. Berkely will have to demonstrate that she has sufficient athleticism and pace to be considered for a future USWNT. Good luck to both of them!
https://seminoles.com/malia-berkely...VEfrhuiIPx4trBVwa4_e0Iryb5Z_FAlGiN9g1QqwJ22Js Well deserved kudos to Malia. Leaves FSU with a Bachelor's and an MBA. Big time props!