UNC-Duke (R)

I left before the OT began at 2-2. During regular time, Duke was far and away the better side. Carolina had absolutely no ideas and nothing to offer between minute 15 and minute 80. They had a few good (and one extremely good) chances in the last 5 to 7 minutes. Not surprising that Duke lost on a restart. This was the only place they looked vulnerable all night.

 

Well, I saw the regulation 90 minutes before I had to leave, so I didn't see the OT.

UNC was VERY lucky to win this one. I will say this, Carolina is dangerous on set plays, and they're dangerous when Marcus Storey gets near the ball.
Jamie Watson had a good game...played really well I thought.

Heels went up 1-0 as Merritt scored off a corner. Duke then tied it on a goal by Loftus, and on this play, UNC's right back, Odgers, was exposed. He was beaten all night long, and on this play, he left Williams exposed. Loftus scored from about 9 yards out because Odgers didn't have a clue what he was doing.

UNC took a 2-1 lead on a direct by Fumo, but it never should have gone in. It did go in, because a Duke defender stupidly ran right in front on the keeper, screening him so he couldn't see the ball to catch it.

Duke scored the equalizer on a ball that was bounding around in the box, because UNC couldn't clear.

Observations. Rennie is a moron. His most dangerous Adogwa, didn't start, and only played about 18 minutes in the first half. Same with Cila. He started two freshmen up front, Perfect and Loftus, and Loftus did some nice things, including the goal (which was gift from Odgers), but Adogwa was consistently giving UNC fits. So what does Rennie do? He pulls him out of the game with 25 minutes to go in the second half. After that, UNC controlled the play and had good chances to end it in regulation. Rennie lost that game for Duke. His subs were ridiculous. Blake Camp was playing an excellent game as Duke's attacking mid, and then with 15 minutes to play, and Duke with a corner kick, Rennie takes him out and puts in a player who's barely 5-6. Camp is about 6-4. Ridiculous.

Carolina was much better when they went to three in the back, with Watson, Ashe, and Shull attacking along with Storey and Harrington.

Note to opposing teams. Want to beat Carolina? Go right after their right back, unless Elmar changes his lineup, and my guess is, this game opened his eyes a bit.

 

When you're right...

...you're right. I will however try to mix some good with the bad and ugly. I saw the whole shootin' match. UNC got on the board early and it looked like it might be a long night for Duke. Not long after that however, Carolina turned the ball over at midfield and the UNC freshman "midfielder turned right back" (as LDB says) Odgers was caught way out of place and Duke equalized. I don't think he turned the ball over one time, which the other backs did all night long, but he was clearly the one back as LDB said was "Lost" and exposed UNC repeatedly. Elmar found him a seat on the bench, and both may be learning that a freshman midfielder with no pedigree may have a tough time adjusting to play back in the ACC.

I thought the middle of the game went both ways, but mostly Duke's. The talent UNC has up top does nice things, but they seem to play more creative keep away, than finding purpose to put the ball in the net. Not much better for Duke however. Their goals came on two UNC mistakes. The one described above, and on a ball they did not clear from the box.

Right again LDB, Rennie's decision to pull key contributors when he did probably did as much to set UNC up for the win as anything they did themselves. I thought UNC had the better of play during OT, including a lovely keeper chip by Ashe that was just cleared off the line by a back, and two solid free kicks. The first taken by Fumo was off frame, and the Freshman Wes Shull buried the second one upper ninety with under 2 min to go in the 2nd OT. UNC is now 6-1-1 and Duke stands at 2-5-1. I did not see that much separating them tonight however.

 

I'd take issue with you on the middle of the game being even. I can't recall UNC having a single dangerous situation, let alone a half-chance on Duke's goal throught the middle 60 minutes. In contrast, Duke was pretty imaginative in the Carolina box, and had a number of pretty close calls, including Adogwa nearly beating the UNC keeper to 50-50 balls on at least two occasions, and, of course, the longer shot that clanged off the crossbar in the second half. Carolina's midfield was mediocre and gave the ball away far too much. I'm honestly not a huge Duke fan (like LDB, I think the coaching is, uh, iffy), but they by far had the best of this one and were very unlucky to lose.

 

With Duke-UNC, it doesn't matter who is the better team coming into the game. This matchup is almost always close. The last five years: 3-2 UNC (2OT), 1-0 Duke, 1-0 Carolina, 4-2 Carolina (Duke scored first), and 1-0 Duke. Not surprisingly, the players seem to have no problem getting motivated for this one. I was surprised that no one managed to get red carded.

Carolina looks like a young team: great at moments, completely lost at others. As the game wore down, Carolina could barely string a pass out of their own end, let alone mount an attack. That being said, Duke pressured, but failed to really force Ford Williams into anything difficult (he did marshall the box well). Contrast that to Justin Towbridge for Duke, who made 4-5 great saves, including the parry of Watson's header at the end of the game which was simply amazing. Interestingly, Shull had been stoned twice by Towbridge from close range during the game.

I will echo Ldb's comments of Rennie. It reminds me of his sparse use of Perea in year's past. Carolina really misses its big target forward (a la Kneipper). For a good while their main target off of the long ball was 5'6" Ashe.

 

Am I hallucinating or did I hear something about Rennie saying this would be his last season. God, I hope so. If it's not true, it should be. When he started out, he was one of the first in the ACC (along with Arena and Dorrance) to succeed with American players instead of recruiting foreigners (a la Clemson and NC State). He did pretty well because he was able to recruit some of the great American talent of that era - Joey Ulrich, Ken Lolla, Mike Jeffries, Tommy Kain, John Kerr, etc. etc. Now? I don't get to see them play anymore, but it sounds like he's just a dinosaur.

 

I need to add something about Rennie's coaching in last night's game. Ian Carey, a talented sophomore midfielder, never saw the pitch, because Rennie thought the game was "too physical" for him. Okay, Carey is a little guy...like Trevor Perea...and while he's not as good on the ball as Perea, he's a darned good player and is one of the most intelligent players I've seen. This kid makes great runs, gets into open space to get it and give it, plays hard nosed defense, he can play in the middle or out wide...and Rennie leaves him on the bench.

Plus, if Rennie had started Adogwa, he probably could have scored one or two goals on Odgers before you can say Blue Devils. Teams with big strong forwards will hammer UNC's back line, (i.e., Abe Thompson could have a field day in Chapel Hill).

 

Wymer leads the team in goals scored, and he also wasn't put in the match.

 

This will come across as a smart ass comment but it's not meant to be.

After reading all these reports about the, let's face it, bizzare coaching decisions that Rennie is making, I am honestly wondering if he isn't starting to get a little senile or suffering from Alzheimer's.

I mean, it's one thing to be out coached tactically but to continually just not use your better players as much as possible, or not play them at all, it just doesn't make any sense.

As others have noted, Rennie was once one of the premier coaches in the college game but he just seems to have fallen into an abyss of logic. He's only 59 so it's probably a little early for senility to kick in, but, it's also not impossible.

 

Rennie's senility

Sandon, that's not a smart ass comment, that is a backhanded cheap shot, personal attack. You spend too much time backing losers like Terp Fan( incidently,Terp Fan is already back to posting his innane threads; see Terps backline thread), and too little time supporting people like Rennie that dedicate themselves to the sport. It is beyond partisan to insinuate you believe Rennie may have an elder affliction. I find your "abyss of logic" comment that is based soley on posts to be especially offensive. Have You ever seen posters from this board in person? They are the pudgy, little nerds with their pants pulled up just below their tits, and their sweat stained Terp hat pulled down enough to bend their ears and make their heads look like a wingnut. Don't expect a censure from our moderator, however, because she probably thinks this is OK, but "Terp is a joke" is not.

 

changing the focus from the coaching situation...

i saw the whole game last night, and i'm wondering how we're ranked in the top 20 with the defense we have...or don't have. hopefully we'll find someone who can take a stronger role in the back because i don't see odgers becoming a decent right back during the season. maybe we can put allison there?

and with our forwards...did anyone else notice how watson got fouled every other time he came near a ball? he just doesn't have the physical presence that kneip had last year but i guess not a lot of guys do. at least watson is really speedy and can run around all night up top. one thing that really impressed me, though, were the quality services from dead balls by fumo.

overall, i'm glad we've had a good start to the season and hope we can keep it up for the rest of the year...GO HEELS

 

Re: Rennie's senility

That's hilarious. I like it! My pants were pulled up so high during the game, that my occasional exhorations came out in a really high-pitch (OUCH!),

Rennie is far from senile. That's a laughable suggestion also. Duke had a very different substitution pattern for the UNC game than in all their previous games. I don't pretend to understand what was going on, but it seemed so dramatically different that you can only infer that "something" willful was going on.

At the beginning of the season, I thought Duke looked like the most cohesive unit I'd seen there in a long time. Not as individually gifted as previous teams, but the most "together". To the kids credit on the bench at the start of the game, I saw most of them standing and supporting their team just as you would hope. As the game went on, I thought they looked a little confused as to what was happening. I hope the coaching staff hasn't given up on this team so that they start "playing for next year"--that would be a mistake, as I think they're playing pretty well despite the results. Cila and Odogwa are not finishing well, but they can't finish from the bench. And to leave Carey and Wymer out of a long game entirely (especially when fresh legs were lacking in OT), well as a fan I just didn't "get it".

 

First of all, Rennie's dedication to the sport is this: he's dedicated to making sure his summer camp is one of the biggest in the country so he can pull in 300K or more per year....and that's the fact, Jack.

Look, Trevor Perea was one of the best midfielders in the country, and his last two years at Duke, Rennie had him coming off the bench more than he was starting. And don't believe the reports about him being injured...that was garbage....Rennie puts guys in his doghouse and it's nearly impossible to get out. Wymer has been in the doghouse his whole career. Is Carey in there now? Who knows...but the word from the inside is that Rennie didn't use Carey because he thought the UNC game was going to be "too physical" for him. Are you kidding me? He played him against Maryland, a much more physical team than UNC.

In the Maryland game, Duke was down 2-0, and with 18 minutes to go in the match, he pulls Adogwa off the field for no apparent reason. Look...Adogwa is Duke's most dangerous player. Imagine if Sasho took Abe Thompson off the field at a crucial point in the match...or Elmar taking Storey off the pitch.

I know Rennie and Tarantini are friends...maybe they're trying to see which one can be the worst coach.

And finally, concerning UNC, Allison is a decent defender...and he's got some toughness which you have to have in the ACC. Odgers has no toughness whatsoever, and that became plain as day in the Duke game. Allison should be in there, or Dixon Soffee. McGinty played left back...and that guy was good in there...Duke didn't do anything on that side of the field.