I've heard that sophomore forward Phillip Long has been dropped from the team. Courtney, you're tight with the UVa program, what light can you shed on this? UVa has dropped players, at least temporarily, in the past for flunking drug tests. At the height of the Arena era in the early 90s, Mike Slivinski - whom Tom can tell you was a STUD as a youth player in St. Louis - tested postitive for doobage and was suspended for what would have been his sophomore season. There may have been others but that's the only one I know about. Tom, maybe SLU will give Long Wickart's scholarship next year!
How well do you know George? Maybe you know him intimately and have been in enough situations personally with him to perceive that he has zero people skills. I have spent a good deal of time with and disagree. Dont get me wrong, I think the guy has some issues if he can't control himself on the sidelines, but compared to Sasha at MD, he is supremely mature. While I do agree with some of what has been posted, ie., it seems that the UVA program and its coaches are not putting together the right formula the past two seasons (remember three years ago? Martino and the hoos spanked everyone all year long- totally dominated the ACC- zero goals against, zero losses- yes I know they picked a bad day not to show up against Seton Hall- but was that the coaches fault? maybe, but maybe not). This could be due to the quality of players, to the coaching style, to the ego of these guys (coaches and players)... what I am trying to say is how do you have any idea of what the problem might be? Three years ago, they were the best college team I have ever seen. It is true the George and Craig had a month extra preseason when the team went to Europe and came back from day one playing in peak form... that might have contributed to the burn out at the end in the tourney. To say he has zero people skills is not true. He may indeed have a lot of trouble dealing with these kids currently in the program. Also, remember during Bruce's tenure that the quality of teams around the country did not come close to the parity we see in today's college games. I am sure there are better coaches and better programs with better players, but the dismay really needs to be put into perspective. Some pretty damn good players have run through George and Craig's program- depsite the lack of trophies.
Cincinnati has a great team with a lot of Junior and Senior leadership. Tim Brown, John Liersmann, Anders Cedergren along with the Dobbs twins and others are all very fine and battle tested players. I wasn't at all surprised by the loss they handed SLU. I expect Cincy to be in line for a NCAA bid if they continue their current form.
look kayasoeil, i'm gonna puke all over your pretty little pink fingernails if i ever read about you trying to group gelnovatch and reynolds together. both are as different as you and lastword (compliment to you lastword). the players go to reynolds for confidence building after gelnovatch rips them and blames one mistake they made for losing a game. why do you think that players get the hell out of that program as soon as they can. maybe long's failed drug test wasn't a slip at all. he could be the smartest eff'n hoo'er of them all, except for kelly who was smart enuff to leave before the beginning of the season. the fact is that with all the advantages that he has, he has not produced, then he goes about saying how "we aren't good at chasing games". "f" that $h!t george. he is to be blamed for not recruiting finishers in the last 3 classes. he is to be blamed for eff'n with the midfield all year until it is completely discombobulated. if you know him as you say you do, you should walk up to him, kick him in the ass, then slap the bejesus out of him for what he has done to that proud program.
Gelnosnatch Having played against UVA for 4 years and beating them in 2001 for their first loss, there is no way that program shouldn't be a Final Four contender every year. It just seems like they are mentally weak under pressure situations, especially big games at home in the NCAA. I'm not a UVA expert but didn't they lose to Stanford in 98 in the Elite 8 at home UCLA in 99 in the Elite 8 at home Don't know who in 2000 Seton Hall Round of 32 in 2001 at home. It's not for lack of talent but more lack of mental preparation and coaching adjustments during games. I'm glad Gelnosnatch is there, better for the rest of the ACC
2000 it was Creighton and, yes, all those losses were in C-Ville. (I think Courtney was there for all of them!)
touchy Settle down there Kinleydog... didn't mean to set you on fire. Sounds like you may have been one of those poor guys whom george may have yelled at and made cry. I am kidding so no retaliation necessary. I understand your points, believe me. Craig and George (oops there I go again, don't puke) still have managed to put together some great teams. I agree the guy seems to have all the gifts a college coach could dream of being gifted and so it appears he should be pulling in the trophies year after year- or at least contending for them. However, I don't think the UVA program is dead and buried, and certainly no violence is going to help the situation (therapy might help those agressive tendencies you are displaying). What were you saying three years ago when they had a dream season? I saw the season ending game and the coaching had little to do with the pathetic first half performance the players, Martino included, gave that day. But then again, the players might have conjured up any success they have had under George's reign in spite of him and any angry tirades that could have erupted; and/or despite any total lack of competent coaching or development. The jury is obviously been back and delivered the verdict, from your perspective (and it seems most other folks'), long ago. We shall see what becomes of the program. And if George really is as awful as he may appear to be on different levels to different folks, then he will dissappear (maybe not soon enough for you). Peace
Without giving away too much info, I have to say that LDB was right on the money in his post. However, I don't recall GG being the supreme liar as described, yet it's entirely possible. Kaya, you may be right about Sasho..However, George has had his moments; and the two aren't really that far apart from each other. I've seen him literally belittle and taunt fellow coaches and refs from the bench. I don't dislike George, bc he can be a very likable guy. He just can't coach. Unfortunately, much of his problems w/coaching have to with his people skills. These problems didn't just begin w/ this class of kids. It started way back when Billy Walsh left the team way back when. I'm sorry, aside from his first year, I don't ever recall UVA totally dominating the ACC throughout George's tenure. Yeah, the team went to the final in 1997, but they didn't win, which is sad because they should have. That team, which included Olsen, Vermillion, Chulis and at the time, some of the most talented young prospects US Soccer had to offer was amazing. Unfortunately, they didn't take home the title because they got too cocky before the final. After that semi-final victory against St. Louis, I think, the boys thought that they had the championship wrapped up. This wasn't confidence but sheer arrogance( which I guess you can attribute to the tradition of wearing the blue and orange). Most if it not all of the arrogance started w/the coaching staff. I don't even think that George had a real game plan or strategy for winning that game. It was basically: we're UVA, we got the Arena tradition, so we've essentially won this thing. Make no mistake about it: that team got that far because of talent, not coaching. Those boys played themselves to the final. Regarding the issue of George having access to great players bc of his position as U-18 take this into consideration: those guys know what George is like and that he has no clue about coaching, so why would they choose UVA?! He's basically the men's version(although much nicer) of April H.( And they were at UVA at the same time).
say your a 17 yr old with some skill. you are noticed by reynolds at the odp level. gelnovatch puts you on the u18s. then he starts recruiting you for uva. he leverages that as a "u" trainer, he has access to all national level trainers and can easily make recommends to the next level. wow - that's u20 we're talking about. then you decide to think about other univs. playing time slips on the u18s. you talk with gelnovatch and he pushes hard the uva tradition and its advantages (field, school, training facilities, all the famous players, etc.). you reconsider thoughts about other univs. playing time on u18s increases. welcome to the vacuum and the meat grinder of the uva program. gg gets his recruiting ratings up. you have another line on your soccer resume. it's a conflict of interest beyond belief!! and i'm even a uva fan. given that the ncaa is the stupidest organization in the world, i can understand why they let this happen. however, given that they are the most controlling dictators in the world i don't understand why they don't do something. gg must be laughing his a$$ off everytime he gets one of these recruits.
Re: touchy kaya, see there, you made me lurch all over my french cut nails. i don't doubt that uva has had good teams under gg, but i would guess that almost all are underachieving teams. as you know championships are won sometimes by the aggregate of miniscule things. i think that gg doesn't translate championship attitude to his team. i also question his ability to field his strongest team for every game. he plays his favorites of the moment, because he worries too much about someone that he doesn't get along with having an outstanding game. if you're not sucking up to him, you're not gonna see the pitch. i agree with romario, "he just can't coach". a paz
Say your name is Mike Videira and you are a highly touted h.s. senior. You are a U-18 but George puts you on his U-20 team causing Sandon to scratch his head and wonder why. Everyone assumes this is a recruiting ploy (and it probably was) but the end of the story is you decide to go to Duke. Perhaps some face time with GG made your decision to go further south.
you make a good point here DJ. the smart ones with higher skill realize what the g.meister is all about and have other options to take. the others with less skill and fewer options think that uva is their best / only hope to play at a storied program. what gg does with the conflict of the u18s and recruiting is in reality not fair to uva nor to himself.
You weren't surprised that Cincinnati came from 2 goals down to win the game? How is that? I'll bet Donigan was plenty surprised (and that's putting it mildly)
Well don't be too surprised Dscocc. The SLU defense is decimated by injuries. I was dissapointed SLU couldn't hold a 3-1 lead but not surprised as Cincy is having a fine year and they are a strong team. The regular SLU defensive back 4 is made up of All Conference performer's Kevin Wickart, SR. Marking Back, Nick Gannon, SR. Sweeper, Martin Hutton, JR. Keeper, along with Andy Pusateri, SR. Marking Back. Of those 4 players 3 of them Wickart, Hutton and Gannon missed this match due to injury. SLU was forced to play inexperienced Sophmore Keeper Jeff Sackman along with Freshman Backs Mo Benne, and Dan Guffey. Now if their regular starting defense Of Wickart, Gannon, Pusateri and Hutton would have played as a unit I would have been real surprised by the Cincy come back win and them scoring 4 goals on the veteran SLU defense.