UVA wins 1-0 on a Reyering 1st half PK after Villanueava tripped in box. Reyering made a Socrates-like stutter-step on the PK and I thought he was going to get his feet tangled up in the process and muff the kick. But he didn't, and buried the kick for a 1-0 scoreline. Speaking of Villanueava, he certainly showed flashes of brilliance and dribbling skill, but he also disappeared for several stretches. All in all though not a bad debut. GG has given him the #10 shirt. I had not known that. UVA has some fine defenders. #4 the central defender, a freshman, looks really really good, as does the right back #3. UVA's attack seemed pretty aimless. It seemed for the fnal 2/3 of the match UVA was content to just grind out the 1-0 result. Reyering and Cristman seemed to be tracking back pretty far to get the ball, and then they would try to dribble through the entire Davidson defense, with not much effect. Colaluca played reasonably well on the wing, but almost every time he cut to the middle with the ball. I could be wrong, but he just looks out of his element on the wing. Burke was solid in the net. Made some nice kick saves to stop a couple dangerous Davidson chances. All in all an underwhelming effort by the boys in white. But it is early days, the team I believe has only been together since Aug 9.
how did davidson look? Obviously they don't have the talent or athletes that uva does, but how did they play?
They appeared to me to be well-organized and well-coached. They are stout in the back. They looked dangerous a couple times on counter attacks. Their problem tonight is they could not contend with the team speed of UVA. Several times a Davidson player would run with the ball into space, with runners on the move in front of him, only to be run down from behind my a faster UVA player and dispossessed. Makes it hard to play soccer that way. Nonetheless Davidson has a good, solid squad, they held UVA to 1 goal, and they no doubt will get better as the season progresses.
Very impressed with Villanueava. No wasted motion, calm almost nonchalant on the ball...body control and mannerisms of another Texan that wants out of NY. Very dangerous on the left wing, but clearly belongs in the middle. You could see him moving players around as soon as he would get centrally, when he and Murphy would switch. He admitted that he fell in the box for the PK...he is so good at running at people and has a slight build...just hope he doesn't get a "Freddy" rep, and start losing calls for going down easily. Pool and Sourmash (don't have my roster with me) were strong in the back...the big guy is slow and will need to cut down on fouling from the back on head balls, but is a huge physical presence that UVA needs there as the other defenders are on the small side. As prev. mentioned, the two big strikers track back alot and do way too much disrupting work that the central mids. should be doing...the wings had a lot of space that didn't get utilized enough. I still wonder how the chemistry will develop, as GG tries to get all that talent PT, and switching lineups. Despite being a freshman and all the hype...I think George will eventually turn the team over to JV in the middle and this could be the year that there is so much talent that even GG can't screw it up.
Here's my write-up. Sorry took so long to produce. UVA vs Davidson (8/25/06) at UVA FINAL 1-0 UVA Penalty Kick Summary: UVA had too much talent and speed for Davidson to counter. Though UVA must be disappointed that they could only tally 1 goal via a penalty. Lineups. UVA 4-4-2 1st Half ---Cristman-----Reyering Villanueva -------------Colaluca -------------Murphy------ --------------------Holder--------------- Williams—Soumare—Poole—Short ------------Burke------------------- UVA line-up had Murphy (AM) in a more defensive role. At times, he was even with Holder. This would what I would call a donut shape. Both Villanueva and Colaluca like to hedge to the middle. This leaves large gaps down the flanks. Seems that no one on UVA wants to play outside – too bad that FIFA restricts a game to 1 ball. UVA would be dominant if everyone got their own ball (chuckle). No subs! Davidson started in a 4-4-2, but quickly realized that they needed to be in a more defensive set-up. They shifted Antunez into a more DM/Stopper role from his forward position where he started. I’ve record the opening positioning in the 1st half diagram – in the 2nd half this configuration is more reflective of the majority of the Davidson defensive positioning. --------Antunez--Lavan------------------ West---------Baltz---------Griffin-- ----------------Wilkie------------ Bassett—Adeleye—Hoak--Sonneland --------------Ashton------- Sartoio in for Sonneland at 24 (This is College time, counting-down) Turner in for Lavan at 11:10 Reiter in for Wilke at 11:10 2nd Half UVA ---Cristman-----Reyering Villanueva -------------Colaluca -------------Murphy------ --------------------Holder--------------- Williams—Soumare—Poole—Short ------------Burke------------------- Ayotte in for Murphy at 30:55 Hinkle in for Cristman at 30:55 Barlow in for Villanueva at 25:00 Mitchell in for Coluca at 11:18 Davidson – 2nd (4-2-3-1) ---------------Lavan------------------ West---------Baltz---------Sartorio-- --------Wilkie------Antunez------ Bassett—Adeleye—Hoak--Griffin --------------Ashton------- Turner in for West at 33:33 Bracken in for Griffin at 23:10 West in for Wilkie at 18:01 Bolan in for Lavan at 16:00 Smith in for Turner at 16:00 Lavan in for Bolan at 8:19 Turner in for Bassett at 8:19 UVA observations: Match was between men and boys. UVA was much too fast/quick for Davidson. Additionally, they started playing very fast – making the ball do the work. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 10-15 minutes. Then, it was mostly individual accomplishments. During one series in the middle of the first half, UVA had several one touch passes that created space for a SOG – Cristman to Reyering to Holder to Murphy, then back to Cristman (for a weak shot). Not surprising, it included some of the more experienced players. Tactically, UVA seemed to prefer to get the ball wide to Colaluca and Villaneuva, then to curl into the goal rather than driving to the touchline and crossing. The biggest obstacle that UVA will need to overcome is the brain-trust of Gelnovatch, McGinty, Chulis and Arena (the wrong one). Not the sharpest tools in the shed. Case in point, the tendencies of their players. Villaneuva needs to play in the middle. Bring in Barlow and sit Murphy. Either that or sit Colaluca if he won’t stay wide. Also, Cristman is a stiff – successfully stifling attack after attack. How you can be satisfied with a 1 goal lead over Davidson and essentially take the foot off the gas for the last 30 minutes is ridiculous. UVA is going to pay for these types of tactics. How to attack UVA? I’d make Colaluca play defense. This isn’t something that he seems to like to do. Additionally, Williams is awfully small. Attacking down the UVA right (Colaluca’s side), forcing Short to step up while tying up Poole and Soumare with your forwards. Holder will need to shade right to pressure/cover. Then, a tall powerful right midfielder could man up to the smaller Williams on the far side of the goal. Alternatively, I’d let Holder get the ball and then pressure him to make decisions. His passing ability is suspect (except for simple square or heel passes). To combat Villaneuva, I’d contact Ajax and try and get them to reconsider (smile). Colaluca and Villaneuva are very similar. Exceptional ball skills, collapse into the middle too often, pretty small. Villaneuva is much stronger, though. His balance is amazing as well. It’s very difficult to knock him off the ball. I really want to see Villaneuva against better competition, but I think he’s ready for professional competition. His speed and quickness was a thorn in the Davidson defense all night. At the 36’ mark in the 1st half, from midfield, Villaneuva just ran up the sideline beating defenders at will. Subsequently, he delivered a 40 yard lead pass on stride to one of his forwards. Just wow! The penalty was set-up by Villaneuva beating 1 defender at the sideline 30 yards out, then, he beat the next and was able to maintain his balance right out side the box. Finally, he was tripped (easy call – ref had no choice) in the box for the PK. Prior to the PK, he had another similar play where he beat multiple defenders with both quickness and strength to the end line and crossed the ball for a terrific opportunity. No goal due to offsides on Cristman. Cristman is useless. Reyering wasn’t too effective. Burke was steady. Barlow looked good in the 2nd half. The UVA defense is fairly young – 2 Jrs, 1 So, 1 R-Fr. They played smartly, not making too many errors. They weren’t really tested that much since Davidson played very simplistically. Davidson Observations: Just too slow. They have some talented players, but just are not good enough for big time college soccer. They should terrorize adult recreation leagues for years to come. Even some of their players who could play, there are too many holes with the other players not talented enough. Ashton (GK) should study hard, because I’m not sure that he has any future as a GK for any successful adult recreation team. He’s horrible. Antunez is a good prospect that I’d like to see again. He might have a shot at a professional career. He is very quiet and confident on the ball. Adeleye has good speed and ball control. That’s about it for Davidson though it was nice to see Clint Peay (Asst. Coach) again.
Thats a great review of the game, surprising to hear that the Virginia offense isn't clicking like they should. It is early though and they are probably getting used to playing with eachother again and will improve as the year progresses. Did you also see the UCSB game? I'm interested in hearing an in-depth review of that thriller as well. I'll be down to Charlottesville this Saturday to see their game vs. George Mason as I have nothing planned for this weekend, I was hoping to see the UCLA game but now that it has been postponed til Monday I won't be able to attend.
Yawn. Another size fetish. In the games I have seen so far (wasn't at Davidson game), Matt Williams was the best UVa defender. Outside defenders tend to be smaller than center defenders, and outside mids don't tend to be all that big, either. Your complicated tactical fantasy has no real relationship to the way that players play those positions.
Agreed UVA needs to sharpen up the central midfield. We need better passing out of the middle. With the talent on the field we should be creating a lot more scoring chances. Villanueva is the real deal. Either slide him into attacking mid with a good passer behind him or leave him outside and get better passers slotted in the centrl roles. Burke is solid in net and the defense looks to be pretty solid.