armchair
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The Vols have announced their 2016 soccer schedule. It's a decent lineup, particularly because the team will play 12 of its 19 regular season games at home. More specifically, the Vols will play 6 of their 11 SEC games at home--a good thing.
The non-conference schedule is a mixed bag. There are a handful of somewhat uninspiring matches (Southeast Missouri St. to open the regular season, Liberty, Indiana State, East Tennessee State, and American University, all of which are must-wins for this program this year. And there are two other non-conference games with a lot more luster-- both against teams from the formidable Pac12 conference. We play the University of Washington at home and BYU in Provo, Utah. Washington was a very respectable 5-5-1 in the Pac12 last year, and BYU was an excellent 7-1-1. BYU only lost 3 games last year--and two of them were to powerhouse Stanford. I saw one of those games (on TV)--and BYU was impressive. The Cougars, if they are anything like last year's team, will probably be our toughest opponent all year, and that includes florida. A tie or a win against Washington would be a nice confidence booster going into the SEC schedule.
It looks like the SEC has come to its senses and started playing more Thursday-Sunday conference games, which is much better than the Friday-Sunday games the conference has been playing in recent years and which do not allow the players much rest. There are still at least three Friday-Sunday combinations on the Vol schedule, but also two or three Thursday-Sunday combos. What will be challenging is that UT will play BYU in Utah on a Friday, and then fly to D.C. to play American 36 hours later! That's going to be tough--and we will need a result against American.
I hope Pensky plays Wilkinson as a lone striker this year and gets more of his midfield talent on the field--especially some attacking/playmaking talent. The 4-3-3 he favors has been notably ineffective for three years. We shall see.
Tennessee Soccer Releases Schedule for 2016 Season - University of Tennessee Official Athletic Site
The non-conference schedule is a mixed bag. There are a handful of somewhat uninspiring matches (Southeast Missouri St. to open the regular season, Liberty, Indiana State, East Tennessee State, and American University, all of which are must-wins for this program this year. And there are two other non-conference games with a lot more luster-- both against teams from the formidable Pac12 conference. We play the University of Washington at home and BYU in Provo, Utah. Washington was a very respectable 5-5-1 in the Pac12 last year, and BYU was an excellent 7-1-1. BYU only lost 3 games last year--and two of them were to powerhouse Stanford. I saw one of those games (on TV)--and BYU was impressive. The Cougars, if they are anything like last year's team, will probably be our toughest opponent all year, and that includes florida. A tie or a win against Washington would be a nice confidence booster going into the SEC schedule.
It looks like the SEC has come to its senses and started playing more Thursday-Sunday conference games, which is much better than the Friday-Sunday games the conference has been playing in recent years and which do not allow the players much rest. There are still at least three Friday-Sunday combinations on the Vol schedule, but also two or three Thursday-Sunday combos. What will be challenging is that UT will play BYU in Utah on a Friday, and then fly to D.C. to play American 36 hours later! That's going to be tough--and we will need a result against American.
I hope Pensky plays Wilkinson as a lone striker this year and gets more of his midfield talent on the field--especially some attacking/playmaking talent. The 4-3-3 he favors has been notably ineffective for three years. We shall see.
Tennessee Soccer Releases Schedule for 2016 Season - University of Tennessee Official Athletic Site
