Players are their own brand now. They can develop that in many ways. Anyone who knows MR and her father knew the writing was on the wall the minute she was not an instant starter. Schools that promote their "stars" will be more desirable to some over schools that are less social media savvy. What one person sees as a developmental environment, another sees as not getting the opportunities they deserve. It is what it is.
It seems to me that the 2023 competition season is well over and the last 6 pages have essentially been trying to digest the post season happenings with regard to how the roster will look in 2024. So let's start a new 2024 UNC page so that we can communicate smoothly right into the 2024 season. Thanks to everyone who has contributed this year.
Players, parents, recruits, alumnae and donors, I want to congratulate two of our ACC competitors (FSU and Clemson) in getting to the championship weekend and Florida State for winning it all in spectacular fashion. One of the elements I never tired of telling this 2023 Tar Heel team was their capacity to compete with anyone, including the team that ended up the 2023 National Champion. Below is the box score for our match with FSU. We had a 58% to 42% ball possession dominance, a shot and corner kick superiority and (what ended up our Achilles heel) we gave up a goal with 7 seconds to go that allowed them to escape the game with a tie! Yes, we played the game at home which was clearly an advantage, but the last time we played the game in Tallahassee (fall of 2022) we won and in our last four games in the post Mark Krekorian era we have only one defeat. I am proud of our continued “player development” record. Below are the top five players nominated for the US Soccer Player of the Year and the US Soccer Youth Player of the Year. Wonderfully we have two in each group. If you can spare a second please vote for Crystal Dunn, Emily Fox, Ally Sentnor and Savy King! Speaking of legacy: Tisha Venturini-Hoch becomes our 9th Tar Heel elected to National Soccer Hall of Fame!!! Tish had an amazing career for us AND for the National and Olympic Teams for the United States!!! For all of my Tar Heels out there … we love weddings and what a spectacular wedding for Bridgette … everything was extraordinary and to see 14 former players, made it a wonderful reunion for me … thank you Bridge, Patti (mom) and Gary (dad). Exams are finishing up here in Chapel Hill. The weather is absolutely beautiful with the sun out and the pick up games of the off season in full force. If I don’t connect any earlier, Merry Christmas from Paradise!! Anson
Not really sure where this post belongs but it feels more pertinent in the 2023 thread: The initial NWSL draft registration list has been announced with 2+ weeks still to go before the deadline. Obviously this number can change but there's only 3 Tar Heels on it after scanning: Emmie Allen, Maycee Bell, and Emily Moxley. I think a few other players we expected to leave have gone pro over seas (Isabel Cox to Australia for example.) Honestly continue to be very surprised by the Emmie Allen saga. She was considered a weak spot of this UNC team her entire albeit breif career. Wildly athletic with tremendous upside, her mechanics and fundamentals are not good, and her decision making has been questionable at best. She was barely "D1 college" ready, let alone pro ready. I am mistified by this decision to go pro...
The announcers said in at least one game that the coaches raved about Emmie, saying she is a pro in how she eats, how she trains, how she handles herself. So I suspect that praise led her this way. Also, your now former keeper coach is NC Courage keeper coach, correct? Maybe he assured her that they would take her at some point if she is available during or after the draft. They did just lose a #2 keeper to Bay FC.
Over-hyped and in my opinion clueless on corner and direct kicks. If Nona Reason has not been run-off, she will be a more than able replacement. If she has decided to transfer, which I would not blame her due to lack of playing time, I still am not concerned about this situation as it at least we hopefully will not have two more years of soft goals scored against UNC from corner and direct kicks late in games that make wins into ties and ties into losses. Assuming they get a new keeper coach, maybe he can finally resolve this issue that has cost UNC minimum 4 losses including the National Championship in 2022 and hurt the team in the BYU debacle.
Hammering this young woman is pathetic. Calling out individual players negatively is sad. It's a team game-- team defense--everyone is accountable. You don't know what has been going on with her or the team. Be a fan and appreciate this incredible program or just be quiet. Don't you think her family reads these boards? Try some empathy.
I'm not really sure how I'm hammering her? Maybe I didn't articulate this well enough, but I was coming from the perspective that I hate that she's leaving. She's a good enough goalkeeper to help UNC win a championship if she gets her fundamentals right. Everything she's struggling with are the easiest things you can set right. It's hard to teach what she's great at, but it's easy to teach what she isn't. A new goalkeeper coaching coming in at UNC might have gotten her on the right path and the Heels could suddenly win with a depleted team backed up by a NT level performing keeper in net. I don't see that as a "piling on" opinion that hammers her. I've been down that road plenty of times on this board where I've been harder than necessary on players, but this is far from it. Maybe I'm just the last person in a long line of people who have seen Allen's struggles and commented on it before you've commented on it as being too much. Since she is going pro and leaving the team, I mean that's pretty much it for the "piling on" here from UNC fans... yea? Now she's going pro and if it's the NWSL she can deal with *those* fans ... which I tell you if you compare what's said about players on twitter by those fans vs what is said here...
I don't think you said anything out of line. We're not talking about high schoolers here. We're talking about a woman who chose to go to a school with serious national title aspirations. And who plays the most visible position on the pitch. Your posts about UNC players have always seemed in-bounds to me.