Alecko, where are you? Sitting in the stands, watching his former team lose in the 1st OT to a Stl. team of 10 men. UVa outshot them 33-6, 16-0 on corners, and was fouled more by a 24-11 count. Stl. went up on a break-away by studly freshman Vedad Ibisevic and a well taken free kick by John DiRaimondo. UVa was up a man the whole 2nd half-"A finisher, my kingdom for a finisher". Oliver scored on a tap in rebound and Megaloudis on a PK. Best didn't come up big when we needed him, but he sure reminds me of Z. Thornton. Vide needs to workout with the football weight trainer for a year and come back to show his ample skills for more than 55 min a game. Dinnall was great all game, and got the ball to Littlefield all game, but Mike just looked to be a little out of his league today. Oh, well. I'll let KinleyDog give the expert analysis, and I do believe we will get better. John
Yes,Courtney, if you are out there, I should have put a [R] in the subject. I asked Alecko what he said to the UVa team before the game, and he said that he told them just to have fun.........well, I don't know how much fun they had dominating play for the 2nd straight game, with negative results. It reminds me a little of DC's problems this year. Man, StL. is a young team. I shudder to think what they will be like in a couple of years if everybody stays. I think I'm ready for the ACC to start...but I don't think my team is! John
Selling my soul for a goal Doc, thanks for the report on the game. Esky was hanging around after the game kicking balls into the net. Perhaps to take away the voodoo curse that UVA had for ¾ of the game when they couldn’t hit the correct side of the netting. The Stl. keeper deserves a lot of credit for making some tip of the finger saves in this game, and Ibisevic caused trouble for some UVA defenders. I don’t know the name of the left back on Stl, but he was a stopper the entire game. Stl. decided that they weren’t going to attack after they got their 2-0 lead, and seemed to be content getting pounded by an onslaught of strikes from UVA that came up just short until later in the game. I feel like Best showed the freshman in him this game. The first goal he came out late, but you never know if not coming out at all would have prevented the goal. The move Ibisevic put on the defender was a basic cross over, and it allowed him to gain the step. On the second goal, Best had the wall set up to his left, but when the ball was kicked, he slid to his left, and couldn’t get back in time to get a well placed ball to his right. Oliver played studly in the back. He came up on attack many times in the second half, and you could see him trying to reach crosses in the air. It was good to see him get the first goal. Freeman played well and attacked down the wing. He was pretty much given free reign as Stl. was not interested in the attack for much of the game. Hall played the entire game, and was consistent getting things moving. He’s not very creative, just bread and butter, but that is where Vide comes in. Even though small, Vide uses his body well to sneak in and take away the ball. Vide made a move on the right side to cross the ball that was as pretty as you’ll see. When Gelnovatch pulled him mid-second half, he wasn’t out of gas. Vide gave him the evil-eye, and made some gesture. Vide did not go back in even when the overtime started. No doubt about it, Vide is the playmaker on this team, and he needs to be in there. Megaloudis played really coming in for Vide, and got the tying goal on a PK. Long and Dinnal were also into the action, and you were just hoping that all their efforts would pay off. Long was hustling down the line, and serving balls to the middle. Dinnal, working through the middle was doing give-and-goes to the forwards. Dinnal was moved to forward for Cristman in the second half. Harrision came in and played a good attacking wing. I liked the way Littlefield played. He missed a few sweet crosses though that should have gone. The cross from Vide should have been knocked in, and would have provided some momentum to the Cavs. He’s a hard and tireless worker though, about as blue-collar as you’ll see. Cristman gave a good game also. He checked back nicely many times, then created opportunities by making smart movements. Holder came on the second half, and was inspiring for the fans to watch. His fresh legs gave the St. defenders fits. He barely missed on a couple of shots, and one good save by the St. keeper. In overtime, Stl. made some adjustments, and came out more aggressive. I was expecting UVA to make some as well, but they apparently came out thinking what got them back in the game would carry them in overtime. Given five minutes to reorganize his team, the Stl. coach made the moves and they eventually won the game. Too bad, cause the Cavs players deserved better.
To all UVA fans out there: I hear that Big game George doesn't have much rapport with his players...in fact...I understand his troops really don't like him at all and they might have a "chemistry" problem. Any rumblings of that in Charlottesville?
Well, yeah, this happens every year at some point in time during the UVA season. You can already get an eye full at thesabre.com >> soccer regarding what people there think of Gelnovatch. For some time now, people in C'ville have thought that the better coach is Reynolds - both from handling the players and giving them a strategy to win from. It's generally understood that Gelnovatch won't be replaced because of his connections to some higher ups. I'm not saying he needs to be, but there are other coaches that are winning with young teams.
I'm too lazy to research this myself, but is it true that UVA has only won 2 NCAA Tournament games over the last 8 years?
No, it's not true. 96: lost to George Mason 0-1. 97: beat Howard 3-0, beat Georgetown 5-1, beat American 2-1, beat Saint Louis 3-1, lost to UCLA 2-0. 98: beat Rider 3-0, beat South Carolina 1-0, lost to Stanford 3-0. 99: beat Princeton 2-1, beat Brown 3-1, lost to UCLA 2-0. 00: beat Lehigh 5-0, beat St. John's 2-1, lost to Creighton 3-0. 01: first round bye, lost to Seton Hall 1-0 02: first round bye, lost to William & Mary 1-1 (fell on PKs). They've lost their last three NCAA games (well, one tie then lost in PKs) but they have won more than two games. It's even more if you count 95 and not 03 as the eighth season. That year, they won three NCAA Tournament games before losing to Duke in the Final Four in Bruce Arena's last game as a college coach.
BBG Couple the above stat's with the ACC Tourny results and it's pretty easy to see how Big Game George got his name.
Re: BBG Pretty much. Here are the Cavs ACC Tourny results under Gelnovatch. (Keep in mind that before Gelnovatch took over, UVa had won the ACC Tournament four straight times.) 96: 1st round bye, beat Duke 3-2, lost to Maryland 2-0 97: beat North Carolina 4-0, beat Wake Forest 2-1, beat Maryland 2-0 98: beat NC State 4-0, lost to Duke 3-1 99: beat Maryland 2-0, beat Wake Forest 2-1, lost to Duke 2-1 00: beat NC State 1-0, beat Duke 3-0, lost to North Carolina 1-0 01: 1st round bye, beat Wake Forest 1-0, lost to Clemson 1-0 02: beat Duke 4-1, beat Wake Forest 1-0, lost to Maryland 3-0. The good spin here is that BGG is 5-0 in the first round of the ACC Tournament (plus two byes) and 6-1 in the ACC semis, which is a very good mark. That leads us to the bad spin. Unfortunately, after winning so many semi finals, Gelnovatch hasn’t done so well in the championship game, going just 1-5. Factor that 1-5 mark with his record in NCAA quarter finals – 1-3 – and the three times he’s lost his first NCAA Tournament game and, yeah, it’s easy to see where the Big Game George nickname originates. Hey, he is undefeated in NCAA semifinal games, however!