Lady Vols Soccer ⚽️ Tennessee @ Virginia Tech 11/15 Friday 7PM Blacksburg VA ⚽️ NCAA TOURNAMENT First Round ESPN+

#4,078
#4,078
As a team we should have been sharper.

However, I was pleased with the play of Fox, best ball-skills defender we have had in a while, De Melo did OK, and Sullivan looked improved from earlier version of herself. Rodman looked good, and Smith.

Horan, Dunn, Morgan, Rapinoe, Ertz, all need to sharpen up.
 
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#4,079
#4,079
orangebloodgmc said:
As a team we should have been sharper.

However, I was pleased with the play of Fox, best ball-skills defender we have had in a while, De Melo did OK, and Sullivan looked improved from earlier version of herself. Rodman looked good, and Smith.

Horan, Dunn, Morgan, Rapinoe, Ertz, all need to sharpen up.
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Slept walk in game knew that Vietnam was no competition imo....
 
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#4,081
#4,081
knoxvol52 said:
Slept walk in game knew that Vietnam was no competition imo....
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Actually, that is how the USWNT has been playing for the last two years. They have been grinding out results rather than dominating games due to two main shortcomings. First, they are sloppy in possession and really can't control the game with passing and movement. Technically, they are far behind Spain, England, France, Sweden, and even the Netherlands (who is their next opponent). Second and most crucially, they often fail to make the key pass that will open things up in the final 3rd. They either don't see it or over hit it. Their first goal was an exception to that general tendency and it shows what they might become over time. But, I am not sure a month at the WC is going to accomplish what 2 years of play have not. I think this reload/rebuild is a longer term project.

As it stands, the team needs Rose Lavelle at the 10 spot because she is best at connecting the dots. The flow of the US attack improved once she entered the game. But good teams also know that they can neutralize Lavelle by playing her tight and physical.

Smith and Rodman are dripping with talent and do make plays with their speed but they are (currently) tunnel vision players who hang on to the ball too long and will dribble into traffic rather than make a pass.

In the 2015, 2019 glory days, the front line players Rapinoe, Lloyd, Heath, and Press did not have that kind of blazing speed but their vision and skill at moving the ball quickly with accurate one touch passes, made the US attack much more potent.

I don't think it was surprising that Alex Morgan made the brilliant flick pass that set Smith up for the first goal. She is a holdover from the glory days and has that sense of quick movement and passing into dangerous areas.

Rapinoe looked very rusty in this game which is not surprising since she has been out a while with injury. Or I hope it was rust and not her aging out. Hopefully, she has little left in the tank to make some plays in crunch time.
 
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#4,082
#4,082
madtownvol said:
Actually, that is how the USWNT has been playing for the last two years. They have been grinding out results rather than dominating games due to two main shortcomings. First, they are sloppy in possession and really can't control the game with passing and movement. Technically, they are far behind Spain, England, France, Sweden, and even the Netherlands (who is their next opponent). Second and most crucially, they often fail to make the key pass that will open things up in the final 3rd. They either don't see it or over hit it. Their first goal was an exception to that general tendency and it shows what they might become over time. But, I am not sure a month at the WC is going to accomplish what 2 years of play have not. I think this reload/rebuild is a longer term project.

As it stands, the team needs Rose Lavelle at the 10 spot because she is best at connecting the dots. The flow of the US attack improved once she entered the game. But good teams also know that they can neutralize Lavelle by playing her tight and physical.

Smith and Rodman are dripping with talent and do make plays with their speed but they are (currently) tunnel vision players who hang on to the ball too long and will dribble into traffic rather than make a pass.

In the 2015, 2019 glory days, the front line players Rapinoe, Lloyd, Heath, and Press did not have that kind of blazing speed but their vision and skill at moving the ball quickly with accurate one touch passes, made the US attack much more potent.

I don't think it was surprising that Alex Morgan made the brilliant flick pass that set Smith up for the first goal. She is a holdover from the glory days and has that sense of quick movement and passing into dangerous areas.

Rapinoe looked very rusty in this game which is not surprising since she has been out a while with injury. Or I hope it was rust and not her aging out. Hopefully, she has little left in the tank to make some plays in crunch time.
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This is one of the best explanations, enjoyed reading.
 
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#4,089
#4,089
turbovol said:
RE the Vols Soccer schedule, it's a pretty unambitious nonconference lineup. That's not to say there won't be some stiff challenges:
California, SMU and Indiana will be tough games. Indiana was not good last year--but it's a team in a big conference and it had a lot of ties last year.
What's more, I think they've got a very tactically astute coach--a Dutchman who was the top assistant at Duke before getting the Indiana job a couple of years ago.) They will be tough to beat. We played SMU last year and that game ended 1-1. It was a physical match that we should have won--Vols had a ton of shots but could only put one in the net. Cal will be a test.

Lipscomb will not be a pushover--it's been one of the top programs in its admittedly small-school conference for a few years. We played and beat a good Lipscomb squad in the NCAA a couple of years ago. Jacksonville State was bad last year--3-13, worst team in its conference. Florida Atlantic was a .500 club in a smaller conference, and Radford is a very small school. It's a lot of opponents that had poor RPI rankings last year, and so unless some of these opponents have much better years in their conferences this year, they're not going to help our RPI much--unless we're able to beat Cal, Indiana and SMU. Beyond that, if I were a coach, I would want two better lead-in games to my SEC schedule than Radford and Florida Atlantic. I'm not sure how much those games will prepare us for Arkansas. I'm not sure why soccer programs are always so late getting their schedules finalized--perhaps because it's summer--and we're later than most everybody, every year.
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This schedule is weak and was made to make Kirt look good til conference play. UT had zero physical play last year and that is on Kirt and his style
 
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#4,095
#4,095
Join our Fantasy game

C/O said:
For those wanting to play FPL again or try it for the first time. The league code to join is ‘zfp2q5’ without the ‘ ‘ of course.

If youve never played before it’s simple and free. The members here would be glad to answer any questions anyone has about how to play.
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#4,096
#4,096
mad4vols said:
Shocked that Jamaica tied France but heard Shaw got a red card.
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Didn't see much of the second half, but believe France dominated possession, shots, etc. but Jamaica, like most of the underdogs, worked
very hard defensively and France was unable to put the ball in the net. Shaw took a lot of knocks in the match--including one in the head courtesy
of Renard on a first-half corner kick--as she got a lot of defensive attention from the French. She made a dumb foul late in the match--don't think
it was all that much, really--but the ref carded her for the second time and off she went. She now misses their next match. A great result for Jamaica,
to say the least.

The match followed a pattern we've seen with almost all the underdogs sitting back, mostly, and having enough team athleticism and defensive commitment to make it hard for the superior team to score. England, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia, all had to grind out wins. Norway got beat and Canada and France were tied. A bit surprising--but then again, not really, as at the WC everybody works hard defensively and you get a lot of tight games. There has been very little "open" (up and down the field) play, but we should see a bit more of that when the better teams start playing one another. Japan has had the most impressive win so far. That team has fallen off a tiny bit in recent years but still plays an excellent, precise game of soccer, can run all day, and could be formidable in this tourney.
 
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#4,097
#4,097
turbovol said:
Didn't see much of the second half, but believe France dominated possession, shots, etc. but Jamaica, like most of the underdogs, worked
very hard defensively and France was unable to put the ball in the net. Shaw took a lot of knocks in the match--including one in the head courtesy
of Renard on a first-half corner kick--as she got a lot of defensive attention from the French. She made a dumb foul late in the match--don't think
it was all that much, really--but the ref carded her for the second time and off she went. She now misses their next match. A great result for Jamaica,
to say the least.

The match followed a pattern we've seen with almost all the underdogs sitting back, mostly, and having enough team athleticism and defensive commitment to make it hard for the superior team to score. England, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia, all had to grind out wins. Norway got beat and Canada and France were tied. A bit surprising--but then again, not really, as at the WC everybody works hard defensively and you get a lot of tight games. There has been very little "open" (up and down the field) play, but we should see a bit more of that when the better teams start playing one another. Japan has had the most impressive win so far. That team has fallen off a tiny bit in recent years but still plays an excellent, precise game of soccer, can run all day, and could be formidable in this tourney.
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With Shaw out might give some playing time to Simmonds
 
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