I still think Cole did really well last season. Gibbs was dissappointing last nite, it seems like every season he's gone a little downhill, which is sad because we've seen his skills and talent and that makes it harder. But the lack of a midfield didn't help any. I'm also not saying that Arena is good, just that he's come a long way since his freshman year, and he has more heart than a lot of them do. Kentucky and MD play at noon on Sunday, followed by UVA and Rhode Island at 2:30. Me and some of my buddies are gonna try to get there before MD-Kentucky ends because I'm curious to see how that goes. Matt Oliver is technically a junior now, he was red-shirted his first season. Kentucky was pretty dirty. There was a decent amount of soccer, but a lot of elbowing and kicking people. The game in general was extremely dirty, 5 Kentucky yellows, 3 for UVA, and then one red card for each team. 27 fouls for Kentucky, and 20 for UVA. There were a lot of calls that should have been that weren't, and also a lot that were called and shouldn't have been. Here's a link to the game story: http://virginiasports.ocsn.com/sports/m-soccer/recaps/083002aaa.html
Kaysolel, or whatever you name is (jeff). good luck with your academy, who is your contact within the uva staff, they might be interested to read your comments about winning on other threads.
Kentucky beat Maryland 2-1. Now sure who scored the goals, I got there after all the scoring was done. Kentucky's coach was yelling and screaming until the clock COMPLETELY ran out, when he was finally happy and screamed "YES!!!!" UVA and Rhode Island started out really rough, I don't mean rough like physical, which it was but not to the extent of the Kentucky game, but rough as in sloppy. UVA really struggled to maintain possession, and had issues getting the ball through the midfield. Hunter Freeman once again had a great game, outshining most of the older players. Ryan Kelly was way off today and made a lot of errors. Rhode Island had the first goal (in the second half) and it took UVA awhile before Alecko Eskandarian finally put one in the back of the net. The second goal came when Alecko took a shot that (I think) came off the post, and Rob Wright was there to finish it off. Still no sign of Joe Vide, thought #18, Joe Villaneuva got a few minutes playing time. Phillip Long and Paul Johnson each got a decent amount of time out on the field.
Esky with 3 goals and a helper just 2 games into the season. Safe to say he has little left to prove at the collegiate level. Unles he really wants his degree, this should be his last semester in C-ville.
I'm 95% sure he really does want the degree. He might change his mind, I'm sure he'll get more than a few offers before the season is out, but it's hard to tell what his decision will be.
I was disappointed in the level of play today. Maryland was very lethargic, Thompson showed nothing. Seth Stammler was far and away the best player on the pitch-very poised and skilled on the ball, though ditzed around a bit much at times when a simple clearance may have done better. Sasha and the ref were at each other the whole 2nd half-Sasha was clearly frustrated. UVa did not play well either.URI clearly must have raised their game from friday. Kenny A. did yoeman's work all game. As Courtney noted, Kelly was awful-still made all tourney though-must have been great on Fri. My man Gibbs was subbed out in the 1st half, and never returned. Freeman is the real deal, very quick feet, and quite physical despite his slight build. Johnson didn't show much before he made his exit. Long worked hard at left wing and showed potential. Eskie was doubled and tripled any time he touched the ball, and has been mentioned previously, did not get much service from the midfield-basically just long balls launched from the backs coming up the touch lines. All in all a disappointing afternoon.......but it's early in the season. John
Show me a team that has to convert forwards and midfielders to defenders, and I'll show you a team that's got big problems. Maryland teams are known for being soft, and they proved it again today.
Kelly had a pretty good game on Friday, scoring one of UVA's 3 goals, but I wouldn't say it was good enough for the all-tournament team. Then again, I wasn't really impressed with this year's tournament at all, so I guess it works out. What bugs me though is that even with the subs Gelnovatch made he left Kelly on the field the entire game, leaving him out there making the same mistakes over and over again. Gibbsy didn't have a great game on Friday nite, but today he wasn't given much of a chance to as, once again, UVA had a lot of trouble getting the ball forward. Here's hoping for improvement all around, but yeah for UVA for winning the tournament.
I knew he would. Over on the US Junior National Team board I've been singing his praises. Good to see he's backing it up, heh. IMHO, Freeman can play anywhere in the backline and midfield except attacking midfielder. This kids tactical sense is very developed. His skills are good and his physical abilities are excellent. Freeman has a good shot at seeing USMNT duties in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if he entered the MLS SuperDraft after his freshman season. Yeah, I think he's that good. -Tron
Missing the # 10 I think it's pretty obvious that the Hoo's miss Martino much more than we may have thought. There is no clever playmaker to make that one insightfull pass that unlocks the defense. Kenny looked to play that roll yesterday, and he did well with winning and keeping possesion with the back pass as his main release, but is not the answer to the "#10" question. Dinnel may yet come closest to filling that roll, but didn't stay on the pitch long enough yesterday. I'm not used to George using all the subs that he did Sun. I guess he is developing depth and looking for combinations, but I just don't think he has that playmaker on his roster. Vide must be hurt-Courtney should know this-and maybe eventually he will be the answer. John
Re: Missing the # 10 That would be my guess, but I'm not sure. You're totally right, UVA is definately hurting for one really dependable playmaker. Having Eskandarian up front doesn't do too much good if they can't get the ball to him effectively. Tron, I might have to go check out that board then, looks like you might have another member of the choir. If Freeman keeps up with how he's been playing, and develops even more, there's no way UVA will have this guy for four years.
in response to blockbuster who is your contact within the uva staff, they might be interested to read your comments about winning on other threads. [/QUOTE] I don't really have an inside scoop on what UVA does or plans to do... it is only my opinion on what might happen. I don't think the coaching staff really cares what some random fan thinks about winning or predicts about their program. I think it is evident by the numbers of UVA players that move on to a higher level that serious development work goes on during the player's stay at the school. For all I really know, however, UVA could be all about winning the national title and very little about player development. One more comment about Kenny Arena. I was definitely hard on the guy as he is not that bad a player- he is just no Kyle Martino and it was hard to watch him try to fill those shoes this past weekend. Hopefully someone else can move into the middle and start to show some skills and dazzle us with highly entertaining soccer like we were able to see nearly every time out last year.
response to jmsdoc..... You said: >I was disappointed in the level of play today. Maryland was very lethargic, Thompson showed nothing. Seth Stammler was far and away the best player on the pitch-very poised and skilled on the ball, though ditzed around a bit much at times when a simple clearance may have done better. Sasha and the ref were at each other the whole 2nd half-Sasha was clearly frustrated. First of all thanks for the report. Abe Thompson is still not at 100%; Sasho said that he is no better than 85% after having been out for almost 16 months. And btw, it is Sasho with an 'o' at the end, not an 'a'. Not surprised that you say Stammler was the best player. Compared to all Maryland's other bluechip talent, Seth Stammler came in with much more modest credentials; he had been an all-state player in Ohio, but not an A-A, and yet he is now a key player on the team and certainly one of their most versatile. It will be interesting to see how the team responds to these results this weekend.
I haven't seen UVa play this season, but is this what role they're playing him in? Me either. Seth has pretty much proved himself to be the Terps most consistent, and versatile player over the past 2 years. Here's hoping he keeps it up and stays healthy, the Terps need him on the pitch.
Kenny Texan-I did not see fri.'s game, but Sunday it did appear that Kenny was in the playmaking roll. Dinnel appeared to move to the middle early in the game, and I thought was distributing fairly well, but was taken out midway through the half, never to return. UVa had so much of the posession that it may have been the fact that everybody was more foward than would have been possible against a team that was putting more pressure on them. As I stated earlier, I don't propose to do the indepth analysis that I frequently see on these boards. He did seem to make a concerted effort to follow his passes, and to try to make himself available for switching of play. URI was pretty well packed in, which may frequently make a "playmaker" look ineffective. John
In response to Kayasoeil You say in your August 30th post on another thread"Very Compelling... UVA will be one of the first to embrace this publicly (they do so in practice now, ask their coaching staff)." You were referring to the issue of "come to my school, winning a ring is NOT our primary goal.... now you are saying you are only a fan, which are you, just speculating or what When is the new soccer training/academic center sched to open?
I am only a fan. No, I was referring to the latter part of that sentence which talked about focusing on development. I am sure (in my own speculative sense) that they are concerned about winning- my prediction that they might one day publicly market themselves as a real choice for players who want to play in the MLS but want to go to school for whatever reasons during the same timeframe as their peers- is just a hunch. We will soon see if I am right or wrong.
I heard Bruce Arena speak one time to a group of soccer parents where he said that winning wasn't that important, and that it wasn't even important at the college level. He said that college soccer had a higher purpose, and that it wasn't about winning championships. Of course, that's easy for him to say. Maybe Gelnovatch has taken this philosophy to heart?