Thanks a lot for doing this. Interesting that UNC is still #2 over a 10 year period when they did not win a title, presumably the “worst” ten you period in their history by far, since before then, they never went longer than 2 years without a title.
I've got a couple of gifs up looking at some of the curious calls of the night, including the PK shout the ND broadcast crew tried to sell despite Dorsey having both position and getting at least one probably two touches on the ball while the ND defender tripped over the back of her leg. 1596684138983337985 is not a valid tweet id I thought it was a reasonably well officiated game with a couple of calls going wonky but they didn't stack up too much against one team or another. I said it before but I think it's worth repeating, I thought he did a really good job absorbing the frustration and venting of the players on the field from both teams. Talia Dellaperuta in particular really chewed him out in the first and he just stopped play and talked to her and obviously just tried to get her to calm down and tell her he was doing his best. A far less tolerant, more prideful official probably would have given her a yellow. The worst officiated games for me this season have been: #1 vs Pitt, #2 vs BYU in the Sweet 16, and #3 vs UCLA early.
For those complaining earlier about the ticket situation for the College Cup, I just got a promotional email from the NCAA offering tickets for the games. The link then went to ticketmaster which seemed to work only for championship tickets and not for the semi-finals, but it is ticketmaster, there is always something wrong, and it was hard to tell what was going on. In any event, there seem to be tickets available.
depending on the platform you're reading the forum on, you might have to open the post in twitter. Sometimes my gifs get tagged as sensitive content, I have no idea why, but it then prevents it from being played on third party sites like Big Soccer without a twitter account and a second click confirming you want to see said sensitive content.
I was wondering if anybody is familiar to what's going on with Tessa Dellarose? UNC made a formation shift and I assumed her no longer being a starter had to do with that. She did not start against UGA or BYU but she seemed fine in both. Late in the first half vs BYU she took a hard foul and then had a bad slip while taking a corner. Slowed down it looked like her ankle rolled. She finished the half and seemed fine, but did not return for the second and it doesn't appear that she made the trip to South Bend. ND actually used more subs than UNC did, and now that I look at the box score some surprising names are missing. Emily Murphy and Ruby Grant can maybe be chalked up to international duty, but that would still be surprising. Tolentino? Jones? Wrigley? Sember? Faasse? When I said the Heels could lose six more players to injury and still win ... I wasn't ... I wasn't actually expecting them to put it to the test ... are the Heels really that banged up all of a sudden where we only use four subs? Is the box score wrong and I'm just forgetting that these players played? The ND broadcast was very Irish centric so it doesn't surprise me they did not notice or make note of UNC injuries ... or maybe they did and I had tuned out in that moment?
The splash screen for tickets confirms that the semi-finals indeed sold out before the field was even set.
Watching the game, I was aware that they did not do the big game changer subbing that they usually do in the second half.
I have been to 8 college cups since 2006 and don't recall ever having trouble getting tickets . Most fun was 2012 in San Diego . Hopefully a sign of increased support that tickets have sold . There will surely be fans of Friday night losers wanting to sell . I want this one bad for the Heels , but it will take 2 huge wins over strong teams. Wonder if there will be a viewing on campus on a big screen
Here's what GoHeels.com has: "The team that plays the closest to the way we play is Notre Dame," UNC head coach Anson Dorrance said. "We knew we were going to have to work extremely hard to try to match them and we were able to do so in a very positive way." "That was a lockdown defense against one of nation's best scoring teams. Our kids continue to improve and they're sacrificing their own ambitions for a team result. We didn't rotate the playing time as we normally do and the whole team was in with both feet." "We play a high pressing game and today we decided to play every player almost 90 minutes and it was a big risk," Dorrance said. "It put us in a position to be up 2-0, but by the end of the game we were exhausted." So it seems that he chose to play fewer people. I don't understand why.
The championship game will not be sold out because it is the youth (15-19) tournament that has the majority of the hold on the tickets. It was the same situation in 2018. I walked up to the gate with a small group of youth players and coaches that year and I mentioned to them about how hard it was for me to find a ticket. Those folks said that the majority of their team wasn't coming so their group had unused tickets. TLDR - roll the dice and head to Cary and ask around in the parking lot for an unused youth tournament ticket.
ah so he shortened his bench. I wonder if it was a tactic to surprise ND with and it's not something he could do again, both because FSU might be expecting it now and because of the short turnaround between Friday and Monday that the Elite 8 doesn't have to worry about. as to *why* ... the only reason I can think of is he believes defensive continuity was more important than fresh legs. Certainly they've been able to do a better job possessing and combining regardless of who is on the field this year, but defensively they've looked very shaky when lots of pieces get changed about. It wouldn't surprise me to discover Dellarose wasn't hurt enough to keep her from playing, it's just Anson was really happy / worried about changing things with how that defense was playing and didn't want to touch it for fresh legs.
He talks about it a little bit towards the end of this video: He implies that playing fewer people gives them the best chance to win a single game, but he's not sure yet of the best way to win two.
another wrinkle to this are the awards that have been given both by TDS and then UNC. The team gave "Player of the Match" to what they're calling the "Iron 8", the players in this game who played near or all the full 90 minutes of the game. While I would put credit in the strategy I think it is a mistake to attatch individual awards to it. Both TDS and UNC are snubbing what I thought was the single greatest midfield performance of the season simply because Talia Dellaperuta, still recovering from injury with her time with the U20's, isn't fully match fit. Watching that game live I thought she was the best player by far. When I re-watched the game it only confirmed it to me. Today the inStat ratings were posted for the game, and she was the highest rated player on the field for both teams. She managed to accumulate that rating while not playing a full 90. I think it's a mistake by all to not acknowledge her performance in favor of those that only came about because of a coaching decision. Talia busted her ass for this team on that field by every conceivable measure and nobody seems to want to give it the credit it deserves. I hope they at least acknowledged it privately.
Dorrance is very much a stats person -- such as with stats kept during practices having a significant impact on decisions about who plays and when. Perhaps he has concluded, at least in part and based on the most recent bunch of years, that the stats indicate the platoon system no longer is the contributor to the end of season results that it used to be and, in fact, may detract.
To put the defensive performance vs ND in context, consider that ND scored SEVEN GOALS against FSU in the 2 games they played against them. UNC somehow managed to keep that loaded offense scoreless. Understand ND had injuries, but so did we. Really quite impressive of a performance.
Let's be transparent. Anson took advantage of his young women athletes players. He is a huge peice of crap. He isn't and will never be legend. Wait for the 30 for 30.
lol I was motivated to check the forums because of what Echigini did after her first goal and gosh it shouldn't be surprising ... like player like fan base ... winning so much lately has made y'all rotten to the core.
A bit of a lul in posting because I guess everybody is probably tired and also wary of the toxicity on this board that can sometimes exist after these two teams play. Stats are going to be interesting to look at in this one, as I think the stats at 3-0 actually favored UNC before FSU got a huge boost for the final stretch. Also, for the first time in what seems like forever, UNC actually committed less fouls than FSU. Those numbers are kind of small for me and I think it's because the official let *A LOT* go in the first half, wanting to let these two teams play. Couple of overhead kicks that nearly caught Tar Heels in the face and heavy charges from FSU let go while UNC I think were fortunate on a lot of aerial duels to not get over the back fouls called against. Not the best officiated game again, but this time I don't think there were any bad or controversial missed calls. 'Course I'm saying that as a UNC fan so I expect to hear FSU fans say this moment here or that moment there should have been a penalty or foul. And I'll look at it. Incredible performance in the midfield again. Some good possession created was kind of wasted with some unforced errors and turnovers, especially in the first half, but Moore and Dellaperuta were both monsters for the Heels in achieving and retaining possession. Emmie Allen I mean what can you say about that performance she was amazing. With how FSU plays and how they try to get under you skin especially on the corners she was awesome and didn't let things get to her. She could have really folded after that second goal squeezed through her like it did, but she stuck with it and made some big grabs down the stretch. Class act with how she handled Nighswonger and Echigini after the first goal. That could have gotten ugly if she reacted poorly to Echigini's finger point. Offensively, the usual attacking characters stepped up and Colton in particular had one of her better games of the year. Really combined well and worked well in her deeper position to keep the Tar Heels on task when they started to falter in possession too quickly, especially in the second. Getting and retaining possession was Moore and Dellaperuta's ... job well done? ... but making sure the Tar Heels didn't give it away cheaply and too quickly was Emily Colton almost all night. Concern for Maddie Dahlien who went down behind the play as FSU was starting to push on the comeback. I didn't see what happened and cringed when I saw them performing the knee stability tests. She got up and was doing some sprints soon after so hopefully it isn't serious. Did I miss anything else? I was at the game so sometimes those who have the benefit of replay and the announcers can get clued into whats happening a little better than those at the stadium.