2019 Colorado Buffaloes

It started with a kind offer of a place to stay in North Carolina. Alas, I've already done more traveling since the end of September than I can afford. Just for yuks, I looked at the airfare from Grand Junction to Raleigh. $717, minimum. Less from Denver to Charlotte, but still too much for this peasant. Although I do have miles on American and United.

So just for more yuks, I wonder what ridiculous amount of miles American wants for a short-notice flight from here to there, usually the minimum for a domestic round trip is 25,000 for flights that suck, flights that don't suck can be a lot more. Grand Junction to Raleigh, 10,000 miles. Cool !! The week before Thanksgiving, must be a slow air travel week, 20,000 miles for the round trip is pretty good if I can get back home for another 10,000.

No. That's 10,000 miles round trip. WOO HOO (rhymes with Roo), I AM THERE !! The flights suck a bit, a four hour layover in Phoenix and four hours in the air, arrive in Raleigh at 6AM. Leave Raleigh at 5AM, three hour layovers in Charlotte and Dallas. So what. They get me there, and back home. Flights might be better between bigger cities, like Denver and Charlotte, and there were several available both directions..

The moral of this story is that if you have miles on American or United (also reduced on United), a group of outstanding young ladies has a tough one Friday evening, and I think it would be a highly appropriate use of a greatly reduced number of airline miles to be there to support them.

Go Buffs !!

 

Game day !!

It is beautiful here, if you like trees. I like trees. This does not explain why I recently moved to a place that were it not for two rivers running through it, would have no trees.

Here's what the Daily Tar Heel has to say about the game https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2019/11/unc-womens-soccer-ncaa-tournament-colorado-preview

The nine ties in conference play is a typo, we have two.

The fifth paragraph is interesting ... we didn't have a team until 1996.

Should be good weather for the game, high in the 60's today and the rain is expected to hold off until Saturday.

 

Thanks for posting this story from the student newspaper. The young writer seems to have a good way with words and writes an interesting article, but he certainly got the wrong team identified for the original AIAW soccer tournament in 1980. I've always heard that story of Anson calling other coaches to get a tournament going. I don't have the time to research it now, but a western entry may have been Denver University, although most soccer activity was in the east at that time.

 

Could well be Denver. They pioneered lacrosse in this part of the country and have become very good at it.

Heh heh. So clever ... their team name is Pioneers. I will go away now.

Actually, time to go visit a major university and meet some Tar Heel soccer fans.

 

From Wickipedia: "The 1980 tournament was not officially sanctioned by the AIAW. North Carolina, Harvard, Texas A&M, UCLA, Cortland State, Northern Colorado and Colorado State participated. One reason for the tournament was to earn an official sanction for the sport, by complying with and fulfilling guidelines set forth by the AIAW."

 

North Carolina 1, Buffs 0

Oh My God they battled, and JJ saved (literally) the best for last. We played a LOT of defense, not on purpose, UNC saw to it that we had to. UNC came out on fire for the second half, not that they weren't in the first half, and put a low very hard unsaveable shot a couple of inches inside the left goalpost.a few minutes into the half. And at the end, it was the Tar Heels backed up as the Buffs were pushing forward for the tying goal.

The phrase "Left it all on the field" may be overused, but it certainly applied to this one. I am proud of them, and glad I was able to see it.

Shots were 20-5, on goal 10-1, corner kicks 7-0. Six of those corner kicks came early in the game. There is no statistic for how much heart a team played with. When it was over, you could tell that they knew.

 

From today's Daily Tar Heel, here's what their coach had to say about it.

"Head coach Anson Dorrance said the win didn't come easily.

“That was the most nerve-racking game I’ve ever been involved in when we’ve outshot a team 20-5 and had seven corner kicks to zero, because their ability to win balls in the air and also the long throw made everything perilous,” he said. “I want to congratulate a very scrappy Colorado team that certainly made us work for that.”"

The field did not have room on the sides for Cheynee or Kayleigh to launch their flip throws. The long throws were from Hannah Sharts, who gets flip throw distance without the flip.

Here is the entire article https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2019/11/unc-womens-soccer-ncaa-tournament-colorado

 

I bet Taylor Kornieck still going to make 1st team All-American(there not that many 6 ft 1 agile mids out there, lol). When are the all star announcements usually made?

 

The Buffs are very fortunate to have you as a fan! You don't whine and point fingers at players, coaches, tactics, or the game plan at every loss, you don't bash the opponent or question the officiating, you don't question recruiting, you just support the players, the coach, the TEAM. Consistently. Many of us on this board could learn much from you. Respect.

 

Thank you. Although I have been known to question the officiating on occasion (the USC handball not called last year, or the Florida State "situation" this year).

I am not and never have been related to anybody on the team, so I don't take anything personally. My son is a Buffalo, class of 2000, majored in skiing, but what he learned from the School of Business has served him well, so I have a lot of respect for the university. I paid out-of-state tuition, then I moved.

I worked with university students for many years and have an affinity for them which is easy to extend to players on other teams. I was thrilled to run into the Michigan team at the airport Monday morning after watching their effort at North Carolina the day before.

And I am not that knowledgeable about the sport. I read other posts on other threads and there are people there who know WAY more than I do. I remember someone called Gilmoy (I think) on a Washington State thread, who obviously saw things in a game that would completely elude me. And unkiemark on our thread. Speaking of Washington State, where did their thread go? They have quite a team this year.

The Buffs have taken me many places I would never otherwise have been (Columbia, Lawrence, Ames, Lincoln, St. Paul, Lubbock, Waco, Stillwater, Norman, and now Chapel Hill), and repeat visits to places I have been (Stanford, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City). I flew from Frankfurt to San Francisco to see the Buffs play Stanford and Santa Clara. My life is richer because of this team. And the sport took me to Germany for a month in 2011 for the Women’s World Cup.

But, I have moved away. From a few blocks to Prentup Field, it is now 250 miles and two big mountains to go over. I did catch six games this year, Kent State & Texas, at UCLA, at Utah, and a pair of UNC’s, but it will be difficult now to keep up with them. Hopefully health and finances will hold up enough to get me to a few games.

I like Grand Junction more than I thought I would, but I miss my team.

 

Highlights of the North Carolina game. Probably exists somewhere besides Facebook,

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=678201602706444

 

Holy smokes. What a great outing for JJ. What’s more amazing is the professional coverage at this 2nd round game vrs the crap we got in the elite 8

 

Looks like a couple of Buffs are entering the NWSL draft. I saw both JJ and Zuniga on the list. Havent seen Kornieck on the list. But found her highlight film with an agent...Maybe going overseas? Anyone know?

 

Re Taylor's video ...

The first goal was at Washington State in 2016, her first Pac-12 game, 89th minute, score 0-0, shots on goal 7-0 Cougars. Our only shot on goal won the game.

The second one is the goal that broke the record for career points.

Good video. Great career.

 

You never know, she might end up in the NWSL or in a sunny place abroad.

 

BIG congratulations. Isn't she the third Buffalo drafted by Orlando?

 

Well done Taylor K.
She will be joined by CShorts from Denver drafted by Orlando as well. Seems like Fl likes our CO players.

 

I dont understand why Chris Henderson of AWK is bashing the Kornieck pick????

 

SB Nation also seem to agree with that view and say Taylor is a poor passer. I think she is strong technically two footed and can pass and finish. I still remember a U-19 international game in La Manga and the two outstanding players in that team were Sophia Smith and Taylor.

 

The criticism is of Colorado’s style which is very direct and doesn’t have a lot of competed passes. It’s extremely one dimensional so the metrics for players is poor compared to a player on a team that values possession. Taylor will not doubt be fine as she’s technically proficient but it’s a worry that her college metrics might prove to be accurate at the pro level and she won’t be able to rely on headers and her physical gifts to score goals. Can she fit in a system and connect passes? I personally think so but her college numbers don’t show it (and her lack of consistent national team success points to the fact that at the highest level she’s not quite there.) She was a stud in Colorado’s system tho.