Linda Ullmark committed to UNC as a junior and had been on U16 roster for some camps and one U17 camp in the summer 2023 in North Carolina. I assume that the UNC coaches were convinced that she could play at UNC and they were right.
Does anybody know when Trinity Armstrong has to leave for the U17's ... does that stretch without her start tonight?
Whoops. I didn't see that coming! I didn't stop to think about Trinity Armstrong's age. She turned 17 this summer before she came to UNC, but the FIFA rules say that if you are 16 on January 1st then you qualify as a 16 year old for the entire year... hence "Under 17" until December 31. I assume she will be leaving this weekend and if the tournament goes well she will return to the US on November 4th or 5th. Consequently she will miss all of the remaining scheduled games starting next week. Since she is clearly THE key defender on the UNC roster, the Heels prospects change immensely for the remaining games. Nobody on the current roster has her skills and speed as the center back. This certainly will be the biggest task of the season for Damon. So, will the defense be Emerson Elgin, Bella Gaetino, Tessa Dellarose, and Aven Alvarez? If so will Emerson center? Will Evelyn Shores be back and play some defense? We get the toughest part of our schedule coming up starting next week. With Trinity I had been thinking that we have a chance of winning 4 of those 5 games. Without her the Heels' prospects may be greatly diminished. But who knows... Miracles happen?
I thought tonights game was a great example of how much impact Maddie Dahlien can have on a game and still, somehow, not end up on the score sheet. No points for the 5 goals scored, but ... She earned the two FK's that UNC scored on by forcing tough fouls to prevent a scoring chance. She also had the secondary assist on Faasse's second, as she played a bit of a give and go with Dellarose who ended up getting the primary. I haven't looked at the box score to see if she got the assist but I hope she did. Defensively excellent at tracking back, and was heavily involved in a lot of buildup in the second half. There was a 20-30 minute stretch in the 2nd where it felt like UNC was trying to do everything down the left hand side with her in the middle of it all. Excited to see a lot of players get their first goals tonight.
This is spot on. Dahlien may not show up in the highlights or stat sheet, but her impact was huge last night. She made the game easier for everyone else.
Also, thanks for your live tweets during the games. I enjoy reading your commentary and analysis. I go to most home games and still check your feed during the game to see what you have to say about what I just watched. I'm a relative newbie to soccer and it helps me understand it on a deeper level.
Based on results alone you have to think that Nahas should have a realistic shot in the national search!
Linda was a late bloomer so to speak in High School. Was unranked as a recruit her freshman and sophomore year. Towards the end of her sophomore year and all of her Junior year she was on fire and absolutely exploded in terms of goals and assists. It caught the attention of several top coaches and she received several offers but Anson beat everyone to the punch. Her growth was so fast recruiting services didn't really have time to catch up and properly rank her.
From a fan's point of view, how are the Heels going to deal with Stanford and Cal this next weekend with the key center defender being gone?...for a month for the FIFA U17 championship. (If the US does well and makes the championship game, Trinity will not be back in Chapel Hill until after November 4th at the earliest (the travel day). The ACC tournament will have already started and the Heels will have played the coast trip and also two critical games with Florida State and Duke (plus Clemson.) So who will step in for this critical time? Any Thoughts?
Well you can either put Elgin to CB, Dellarose to FB and Shores in the midfield bc she will return around this time. Or just put Dellarose at CB, and Shores to midfield. I really hope Shores returns for this CA trip tho.
Of course we are all awaiting Shores to be on the field again. It's been one year since her ACL tear and typically players are restricted to minutes slowly graduating to being able to play full time. But if she has been practicing with the team for the last month or so she may be able to have more minutes. We'll just have to see what the doctor has prescribed with regard to PT.
I would not count on Shores. From everything I’m hearing, she still has not participated in any “contact” practice.
I'm also not really expecting Shores to play soon, especially not on a road trip to the other side of the country. *If* she does return, it'll be against Clemson or not until Tournament, the later being when we'll likely get Armstrong back anyway.
Looking at the latest post from CP Thomas, I am amazed regarding the #1 RPI status of the Heels. Given the massive loss of players from last year (11 now with professional teams) and three key committed players for 2024 also decided to go pro, I fear that the team, may stumble this fall. The games in California this weekend without our key center back will tell us a lot and so will FSU and Duke in the following two weeks.
the 29 minutes in each game is not surprising. It's a position where UNC doesn't just have good depth, but the best depth they've had at outside back even in recent memory on some teams with incredible depth across the board. If they are even remotely concerned that she picked something up, they're going to rest her because they have the depth to do so. As an aside to how difficult minutes might be for outside backs, the Heels are increasingly playing in a 3 back this year, with the wingers playing more reserved in midfield to help defensively and improve their timing when they get into the attack. Saw that a lot with Dahlien, Dominguez, and the rest of the wingers playing in that position recently.
Since the beginning of the season Olivia has been playing decent minutes for every game. Her absence then would likely be an illness or injury. If so, I hope that she will be back soon.
Looks like Olivia Thomas is set to return tonight based on social media postings. We'll see if I'm reading too much between the lines.
A total disaster of a TV production from Cal. One camera, poor quality, struggled to keep up with the ball sometimes, and ... no replays. for those that haven't see PK call, I've got it on my X account. x.com/babranski/status/1844554828325740759 I'll be honest, if that's the angle they used to overturn the call on the field (no PK) ... yikes, it's a mistake by this officiating crew and UNC has caught a massive break. Yes the CAL defender lunges and at the very least forced Maddie to go over the challenge... but there's just no way to tell if there's contact. I can't help but wonder if they had different camera angles for the replay challenges that the TV production didn't have access to.
Clearly no contact. She goes down the minute she realizes her touch was too hard and the ball is lost to the Cal defense. But a smart play. No idea how the call on the field was no foul then you somehow see a foul on that replay . Agree with the production quality issues at Cal and Stanford. Hopefully it gets fixed for next season. Surely this UNC team is getting close to using up all of their nine lives by now? Stanford got embarrassed at home by Duke. They’ll be hungry.
Are the soccer gods using this season to make up for all those heartbreaking late goals Carolina gave up the last couple of years?