Texas A&M's 2012 season starts today as well as their new adventure in the SEC! They start on the road at UC-Irvine, who upset Texas A&M last year at home. The Aggies are ranked anywhere from #5 to #15 in the pre-season polls, so I think the rocky start last year still leaves questions about how they will start this season. Two wins on the road this week will give the young team a lot of confidence and make them not only a threat to win their new conference, but also make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
Though the Aggies are at a slight disadvantage opening on the road against a team that already has a game under their belts, this is a great matchup for A&M to begin the 2012 season with. UCI is not a bad team but they lost some important pieces from last year's tourney team. The graduation of Goodson and Christopher will hurt the defense and midfield a lot. A&M overmatch the Anteaters at every position on the field. The Aggies have a sure defense and one of the most stout attacks in the nation. On paper, the midfield looks solid, but I still hold a few reservations on the unit. The Aggies should cruise. I am interested in seeing how the midfield and goal keeper play tonight. Aggie fans are very hopeful about this squad. I hope to learn a little more about our squad tonight. Since the Maroon & White scrimmage was cancelled due to lightning and the Ags did not have a fall exhibition, this will be the first look at the team for many of us. Aggie Athletics will have the live audio at 9 Cental (7 Pacific): http://www.aggieathletics.com//mediaPortal/player.dbml?&id=492870&catid=0&DB_OEM_ID=27300
Great goal by Brinson for A&M, deflating to give up a goal to UCI with 30 seconds left. Let's see how they respond in the 2nd half tied 1-1.
Aggies win 2-1... UCI put up a good fight. A&M's offense wasn't exactly clicking and the defense has some work to do. But a win is a win, especially on the road.
I was encouraged by midfield play. The passing seems improved from last season. The defense has some work to do. And we saw flashes from the forwards, this attack is just sick.
Watching the game at times was unconfortable as sitting on the concrete in the stadium. While the field was nothing like A&M's, at least the grass was cut short. Saw some good things and I saw some bad things. Shea Groom is a dynamic player and needs all the playing time she can get. She creates scoring opportunities and makes things happen. Kelley Monogue is such a physical player and when she is back to 100%, will just wear down defenses, creating more opportunities to score for herself and the team. The one new player I was impressed with was Janae Cousineau, she looks like she could be a good one. Struggled some when she first got in, but once she settled in, she got better and better. Beth West had limited playing time. Noticed in warm-ups she was wearing a leg brace. Hope there is no serious injury there. Defensively, it was not pretty. Too many balls being kicked out of bounds deep in A&M's end when it wasn't necessary. Had trouble maintaining shape, creating too many gaps for scoring opportunnities on counters. Too many times there was just kicking without purpose. There were times the GK ventured too far out of her box on corner kicks. Talented team, but still a lot of work to be done. Injuries have to be a concern. Where was Nora Skelton?
A&M is back in action tonight at the University of San Diego at 9PM Central, 7PM Pacific. USD has opened with a tough calendar as they plow through a 4 game schedule in the matter of 8 days. The Toreros lost at Pepperdine (2-4) on Friday, lost at home to Cal State-Northridge (3-0) on Sunday, face the Aggies on Wednesday and then welcome Minnesota two days later. That puts USD at 0-2 on the season coming into this game. This 0-2 mark is a reversal of last year’s performance when they opened the season with wins against Mizzou and at USC. In fact, in the best season in program history, the Toreros compiled a 12-8-2 record that included their first conference championship (remember, Portland is in their conference) and a trip to the Sweet 16. En route to the Sweet 16, USD eliminated both UC-Irvine and UCLA on PKs before falling to 2011 cinderella Long Beach State 0-1. This USD team has been gutted of much of their talent and leadership. Though they rarely advanced out of the first round, USD has really become a staple of the NCAA tournament, landing there 7 times in the last 9 years. Predicted to finish 3rd in the WCC, the Toreros will really have to step up to finish that highly and make the tournament. It should be interesting to see how San Diego fares this season. I am looking forward to seeing how the Aggies come out in their 2nd game of the season. Though it is too early to worry about trends, if the team comes out flat again, there will be wailing in Aggieland. My microscope will be on the defense that looked sloppy opening night. The midfield showed promise late in the first half of Monday’s game, stringing together some good passes but faltered later so we know the potential is there. With the first game out of the way, I expect to see adjustments and get a clearer picture of this team, figuratively speaking. And actually literally speaking as San Diego offers live video that can’t be any worse than Anteater Vision.
that was a tough, unacceptable loss there should be a lot of soul searching these next two days they just need to survive the UTSA game on Saturday then start trying to solve the multiple problems the team currently has
From the stats: A&M 10 SHOTSs, SD 2 A&M 2 SOG, SD 1 I personally hate that SHOTS stat. If its not on goal, why record it? I guess so we can pontificate about why the Aggies are shooting so much off frame? Nerves? Early in the year? The SD goal scorer was with Big East champions last year.
The Aggies finally have a home game today, they play UTSA at 7pm tonight. I hope to see some improvement in several areas after the disaster last game. As the last night game before classes start, this has been designated as the "Fish Camp Game" which usually has the highest attendance of any regular season game in the country. Fish Camp is an orientation camp that is run throughout the summer for incoming freshmen students to Texas A&M. All the camps have a bit of a reunion at this soccer game. It's a pretty unique atmosphere.
After the game, and once the attendance number is available, please go over to the 2012 Attendance thread and post about the attendance and describe what the Fish Camp Game is. It's a way to pass on information about how to get really good attendance at college women's soccer games. Attendance will have to be high to be tops for the year, as Penn State exceeded 5,000 last night.
Aggies won 2-0. Still a lot of problems in the first half but second half looked much better. Still a ways to go though.
Looks like they had a great crowd (4334). Somebody else will have to explain Fish Camp and the points system for away football games. http://www.aggieathletics.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=27300&ATCLID=205669042
The crowd seems great, seemed larger than 4334. I think everyone that pays attention to that was a bit shocked by that number. I've been at games with 6 or 8 thousand and this crowd wasn't 2000 smaller than those. However, this is the only game when thousands of students are let in for free so I'm not sure if they handle the counting of them correctly. At any rate, this was the first Fish Camp game that was on a Saturday instead of a Friday and I think we got about the same attendance as usual for this game which produces a great atmosphere. Not sure what you mean about the points system for away football games. Perhaps you're talking about the 12th Man Team Rewards? That has nothing to do with football though, it's a reward system for attending non-football events. For every 12 games you attend you get some sort of reward, like a shirt or a hat or a jersey.
Watched first two games in person, and their first home game live broadcast. What I saw wasn't pretty soccer. This team has some major problems. Injuries to some key personnel and the loss of some key players from last year are currently impacting this team, and may make it hard for them to win that SEC championship like I thought they would.
It was explained that another thing the point system did was get preferential treatment for away student tickets for Big 12 football games. Obviously, that has changed, A&M no longer being in that conference. But was such a system in place? Great attendance in any case. Now if you could translate some of that to the rest of the season...
Most people thought this year would start off better since most of the talent from last year returned. What we've found out is that most of the heart from last year did not return. Once that is found I believe things will turn around. Florida will be tough to beat though.