I think it comes down to whether or not people have watched WFU play this year. They are really good and arguably in the top 3 ACC, or even in the country ... beat #1 ranked Stanford and gave UNC all they can handle before the Heels managed to get a goal against the run of play and make the game competitive in their favor. I'm really looking forward to Duke's trip out to Winston-Salem because it's a game that I can maybe go to without missing a UNC game. WFU is a deep, veteran, and skilled team with a really good coach at the helm. This is not at all a shocking result. We've could have easily seen a similar result even if FSU hasn't been dealing with so much injury and turnover.
That was a butt whuppin'. Wake was the better TEAM no doubt. When they got into the final third, they were clinical in execution. Their change the field passes both diagonal and straight ahead were perfectly placed and paced. I'm impressed. FSU are not a team yet. They are a group of talented individuals playing together sorta' like the US YNTs. The good news is that FSU just learned a valuable lesson and has time to hopefully apply some of those lessons. Time will tell. I'm guessing BP will have their attention at practices coming up.
Wake just kept their foot on the gas and never let up. I think this game says more about how good Wake is than anything negative about FSU. FSU obviously has the talent and will no doubt bounce back. But I think they’ve officially been put on notice that this might not be the cake walk to another national title most were expecting. Meanwhile UNC and Duke are now the only undefeated and untied teams in the ACC and control their own destiny in the grueling march to a conference championship.
FSU seemed inept in passing, but Wake seemed to have radar on the passing lanes. Often FSU's dribbling and ball control was simply not at WF's level . WF showed a game plan for beating FSU. As Tom said, BP can remedy. I hope that's true.
That was the other takeaway. If pro scouts were watching that game, there is A LOT of talent on that Wake team too.
Ouch. Up 2-0 with 20 minutes to play, FSU forgot how to play defense. Cary isn't looking like an end of season visit right now.
IMO we are battling some of the issues that UNC has battled recently. 'Tons of starter quality players, but having a hard time establishing an identity. Missing Nesbeth as much as anyone IMO. There is time, but we must become a team, b/c VT won 80% of the 50/50s in the last part of the 2nd half.
Shocking result - Giving up 3 late, when was last time that happened to FSU? A lot more mayhem in the ACC than usual this year not just FSU but a lot of teams - makes for an interesting post season for all ACC teams. Didn't see the game but what is going on, is it still recovery from the U20's that were missing or other bigger issues?
I agree with Tom's assessment and also that we just didn't play as hungry as Va Tech and WF. That's becoming a glaring difference between this year and 2023, when they kept the foot on the gas no matter what the score.
Even before the first VT goal, not exactly the performance you’d expect/hope from this team coming off their first loss since 2022. Not clicking yet. Bad body language. And still they managed to be up 2-0. Then they just decided to stop defending. Congrats to VT for not giving up, but FSU shot themselves in both feet in this one.
Streak of 159 (!) consecutive weeks inside the top 15 of the coaches poll - dating back to November 2011 - is no more. No. 22 in today's poll.
Hmmm. Now I'm confused because the official X account tweeted that the top 25 streak is at 88 weeks, back to 2017. And you can't be top 15 and not top 25, by my math. But game notes have been touting the top 15 streak, to 2011 (p. 1 here: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...s._Virginia_Tech.pdf?timestamp=20241004083631 )
Came away with a much needed conference win…but seems 1) we are struggling with opponents who press & pressure us…2) we are needlessly playing with fire passing around the ball in our own box & defensive third in the face of relentless 3) we are playing individual HERO BALL…with every player overconfident they can win every 1v1 situation without passing in a timely manner
We have young players who have great talent, but lack great experience. They need lots of time playing together. It may or may not happen this year. When Echegini (MAC Hermann trophy winner) transferred here from Miss St, she had scored all of 11 goals in 2 years. With better team mates and seasoning (experience) she became a great player. She wasn't a great player in her first 2 years. Patience grass hopper!
Oh no doubt, everything will gel in time hopefully in time for the postseason but definitely will gel at the latest by next season! This is natural ebbs and flows when you have to replace transcendent players like Echegini and Roque
I agree. IMO, our biggest loss from last year was and continues to be LeiLani Nesbeth. Howell and Nesbeth were studs for us at the HMFer 6 role.
Well FSU showed signs of life with a convincing win over UVA. We came out in a 3-5-2 alignment with Simmonds, Gilchrist and Van Zanten in the back. Dantas started next to Huff in the Forward MF. She has potential there, but had quite a few poor touches. Dudley didn't score, but impacted the game offensively with possession and deft touches. Huff was her normal do it all dominant self. We subbed liberally. I continue to be impressed with Hudson. You shouldn't be that nimble at 6'2". Puerta always impresses off the bench. Thought Boeckmann had her best game at the 6. Speaking of impressing despite the ideal size, I present you with Peyton McGovern who is tenacious, quick, good on the ball with excellent passes and a high soccer IQ. Still not convinced about our D as a whole, but there's time. Pitt and UNC should provide good barometers of where we are at.
I’ll be curious what BP ends up doing with Van Zanten as well. He clearly wants some speedy, tenacious players flanking Gilchrist in the three back line up but she offered so much going forward at LB. Plenty of other offensive weapons tho, so may well turn out to be the best line up. I saw the game in fits and starts while traveling but Puerta seemed active on the wing from what I saw. Wrianna woulda coulda shoulda had a hat trick. One just a bit awkwardly footed to slot home on open goal, the other a poor touch when she was in at the top of the 18 with no defender around her. Riley’s goal was beautiful. This team has so many ways to score. I really hope they make the ACC tournament just to get more game time in. They have the talent for a final four run or more… just need game time to pull it all together.
IOW, we need to become a team. A really good team is better than the sum of its parts. Currently we are a team that has lots of really good parts. Hoping we work our way into becoming a really good team!
I know not everyone agrees here, but… as an fsu fan it is really frustrating to watch Dudley get hacked every time she touches the ball. She got taken down seven times in the span of about two and a half minutes to open the second half. One is called. She pulls a shoulder and immediately gets a yellow. It’s the game and all, but I’d hope to see some of those get called from accumulation. Also Pitt player flagrantly pushed Suarez in the back twice on the same play to end the first half and no yellow there… just doing my job as a sports fan and complaining about the refs
I think you can expect to see that mode of officiating in most of our ACC games for the foreseeable future, in all sports.
I'm liking the system change by the coaches, I think they realized a couple of key players from last season are irreplaceable and need to navigate through it this way. This could be a really exciting end of the season coming up with the freshman class looking so promising.
IMO Dudley has gotten a reputation (deserved or not) of going down at the least touch. Consequently refs ignore many legit fouls committed against JD. BTW JD deserved a yellow card for her foul. She has got to learn to stay composed when refs swallow their whistle. I think that is a tactic of opposing teams, to get under her skin and have her do something like she did today. As to the Suarez getting pushed in the back 2 times, they not only didn't call a yellow, they didn't even call a foul.. That was an egregious non call. We were efficient today. We only took 14 shots today, but scored on 7 or 50%. That's remarkable.
I think it probably has as much to do with her size as reputation (where do you get the sense she has that reputation?). She went down easily on a couple of those challenges but I think if you have two 5’4” players there she gets that call more often than not, at least on the 5th, 6th, 7th time in rapid succession. Agree about her needing to keep composure and being targeted.