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Post by zizou on Aug 24, 2018 11:11:08 GMT -5
2 must win games this weekend in Athens vs Indiana and Charlotte. Georgia beat Charlotte last year 1-0 Indiana coach is also on the hot seat. They have been mediocre at best. They also do not play a particularly attractive style which is kind of surprising given that they coach is a former Hatter. Battle of teams struggling for respectability could lead to some serious intensity.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Aug 24, 2018 11:38:49 GMT -5
I think having a great University of Georgia Soccer squad would be sick in this state!
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Post by zizou on Aug 27, 2018 18:53:23 GMT -5
Went to the Friday match against Indiana. 2-2 was a fair result. I did see brief periods of better play out of UGA than I had seen all of last year. But both teams have limitations.
I did not see the Sunday match against Charlotte because I was taking in the Clemson-Indiana match. Clemson is missing their starting keeper and best field player (both are on International duty). The 4-2 score line flattered Indiana; Clemson were way batter. Indiana does have #3, though, who is a good player with pace; she gave both Georgia and Clemson fits.
A 5-1 score line against Charlotte is certainly better than the alternatives, but I am not going to get too excited yet. Charlotte's 2 wins (both by 1-0 scores) came against Longwood (#289) and Akron (#415). Any observations by people in attendance?
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Post by Soccer Dad on Aug 29, 2018 8:24:05 GMT -5
Charlotte vs UGA was a typical game between a mid major and a power five. Just not enough good players across the lineup for Charlotte to stay with a bottom third SEC team. UGA looked good, but what can you really tell? UGA has two Power five teams coming to town this week. They have not beaten a Power five since 2016 so they need a win. Purdue is decent, Va Tech has been sluggish, mainly due to their best players being at u20 WC.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Aug 29, 2018 8:27:35 GMT -5
Yea, we all know its all about conference play - That's where the wins have to come.
Poll came out yesterday and the SEC is always a competitive league where 1 team might separate itself -
RANK SCHOOL POINTS PREVIOUS RANKING PREVIOUS RECORD 1 Stanford (32) 871 1 2-0-0 2 UCLA (2) 834 2 2-0-0 3 North Carolina (1) 792 4 3-0-1 4 Florida State 759 6 4-0-0 5 Penn State 707 3 2-1-0 6 Virginia 694 7 4-0-0 7 Southern California 657 8 3-0-0 8 Texas A&M 648 9 4-0-0 9 Santa Clara 567 12 3-0-0 10 Tennessee 500 13 3-0-1 11 Georgetown 446 15 2-0-2 12 Duke 406 11 2-1-1 13 North Carolina State 390 16 3-0-1 14 Oklahoma State 331 NR 3-0-0 15 South Carolina 313 10 3-1-0 16 Northwestern 298 19 3-0-1 17 Auburn 274 24 4-0-0 18 Washington State 271 22 3-0-0 19 Kansas 234 18 3-0-1 20 Princeton 217 14 2-0-0 21 Texas Tech 193 NR 4-0-0 22 Florida 181 5 2-2-0 23 Texas 161 21 2-0-1 24 South Florida 154 NR 2-1-0 25 Butler 132 NR 3-0-0
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Post by Soccer Dad on Sept 4, 2018 11:43:02 GMT -5
Well the weekend has come and gone and our Dawgs have still not beaten a top conference team since 2016 (power 5 - Big 12, Big 10, Pac 12, Acc or SEC). They didnt play all that bad this weekend, but simply cannot string together anything when playing better teams. Now they get Georgia State and Kennesaw before their SEC opener against Arkansas.
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Post by zizou on Sept 9, 2018 18:02:30 GMT -5
1-0 Kennesaw State at the half. Some really unfortunate soccer. KSU looks every bit as good as Georgia in first half. But this could come down to Georgia having more athletes in second half.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Sept 9, 2018 18:21:47 GMT -5
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Post by Soccerhouse on Sept 9, 2018 18:57:04 GMT -5
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Post by Soccer Dad on Sept 10, 2018 7:57:54 GMT -5
Wow. My family and I went to the game last night. KSU played really well, and Georgia has some major problems. They are not very athletic and really struggled to connect passes. Sad to see what has happened in Athens. Congrats to KSU! 7-1. Well done!
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Post by soccergator on Sept 10, 2018 8:24:23 GMT -5
Well, might be a war between the gators and the dawgs, because the gators look really bad to start the season. Played well against UCLA, but that's really it.
They were losing to UCF last night at UCF 3-0 and the game got called due to the weather. Since they didn't complete the first half, the 3-0 deficit is erased and they start back at 0-0.
Either way -- gators can't score, very very disappointing. Not sure who is worse gators football or right now gators soccer.
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Post by soccerfan30 on Sept 10, 2018 9:58:01 GMT -5
Well, might be a war between the gators and the dawgs, because the gators look really bad to start the season. Played well against UCLA, but that's really it. They were losing to UCF last night at UCF 3-0 and the game got called due to the weather. Since they didn't complete the first half, the 3-0 deficit is erased and they start back at 0-0. Either way -- gators can't score, very very disappointing. Not sure who is worse gators football or right now gators soccer. I'm going to say Gators football, when your RB says he's going to transfer 30 minutes after losing to Kentucky you know the ship is sinking.
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Post by Soccer Dad on Sept 10, 2018 13:36:49 GMT -5
One final item on last night (still in shock): All year, the Georgia coaches have discussed their youth and the growing pains. Look at the roster for KSU. It is younger. Somehow, KSU has found a way to be successful, including an additional seven players that saw action last night off the bench. UGA? Three. Something is off in Athens.
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Post by soccerfan30 on Sept 10, 2018 14:12:06 GMT -5
One final item on last night (still in shock): All year, the Georgia coaches have discussed their youth and the growing pains. Look at the roster for KSU. It is younger. Somehow, KSU has found a way to be successful, including an additional seven players that saw action last night off the bench. UGA? Three. Something is off in Athens. Often times "youth" and "growing pains" is code for "we're not competitive and this is my out"
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Post by zizou on Sept 10, 2018 14:19:47 GMT -5
How many times will the UGA Athletic Administration allow BL to stand up there and use the "we are young" excuse? Let's see, South Carolina has 8, that is right 8, Juniors and Seniors. They are a top 10 program. The bottom line is the coaches can't coach and they cannot consistently select/recruit SEC-level talent. Some of the UGA players have quality, no question. I am not going call out specific players by name, but UGA have one player starting, who plays a lot of minutes, and she has the worse technical ability of any player at any major D1 program I have ever seen. She cannot control a ball, she can barely trap a ball. Soccer Dad was at the match last night. This player is not hard to miss. I have watched most of three matches this year, and it has been the same with this player every single match. The first time I thought maybe she was having a bad night. That the UGA coaching staff recruits and then plays these kinds of players tells you everything you need to know about the state of the program. But the UGA AA thinks everything is fine and the program is headed in the right direction. Very frustrating for us UGA fans that want excellence in this program.
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Post by soccergator on Sept 10, 2018 14:20:15 GMT -5
Well for what it is worth, the gators game was just replayed -- they lost 3-0 to UCF....
Gators haven't scored a goal in 5 games. I don't see either team turning this around as they get into SEC play.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Sept 10, 2018 14:28:09 GMT -5
Well for what it is worth, the gators game was just replayed -- they lost 3-0 to UCF.... Gators haven't scored a goal in 5 games. I don't see either team turning this around as they get into SEC play. Ha, that is actually scoreless in the last 6 games...Team has talent also. Granted they have played a tough schedule so far.
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Post by oraclesfriend on Sept 10, 2018 14:54:41 GMT -5
Well for what it is worth, the gators game was just replayed -- they lost 3-0 to UCF.... Gators haven't scored a goal in 5 games. I don't see either team turning this around as they get into SEC play. Ha, that is actually scoreless in the last 6 games...Team has talent also. Granted they have played a tough schedule so far. They have played a tough schedule and did well defensively until they lost Parker Roberts (their best overall player). Plus for UCF they were without some others due to injury and red card. The lack of goals is surprising...maybe they need to shake things up a bit. Looked very sloppy recently. But this doesn't really reflect on the original thread which is why is UGA struggling and has been for a while with this state's talent. I sometimes see 3 or 4 players from one top club go to a college together. Are there no great TH or CF players that could as a group go to UGA and turn it around?
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Post by Soccer Dad on Sept 13, 2018 23:13:39 GMT -5
Ummmmm, did anyone watch tonight’s game? UGA looked outstanding. They were fast, connecting passes, strong defensively, and very confident. Beating Arkansas was huge. Congrats to the girls and coaches. Well done!
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Post by zizou on Sept 14, 2018 10:55:28 GMT -5
I only saw final score. Not near a TV. Have they been sandbagging or has Arkansas taken a step back? Regardless, huge win for this program. Now have infinitely more SEC wins than they had all of last season.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Sept 14, 2018 11:18:41 GMT -5
2nd in the SEC right now, can they hold onto the spot....... Figured I'd screen shot it, in case it never happens again. (only 2 SEC games played so far, but 2nd place is 2nd place....)
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Post by Soccer Dad on Sept 17, 2018 7:52:40 GMT -5
To the UF folks on here, what is going on in Gainesville? Vandy 2-1? Becky has never these struggles early has she?
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Post by oraclesfriend on Sept 17, 2018 9:31:06 GMT -5
To the UF folks on here, what is going on in Gainesville? Vandy 2-1? Becky has never these struggles early has she? Injuries. 2 ACLs, one foot fracture had surgery and I forget what the other one was. The 2 ACL and the foot fracture are all defenders. One U20 WNT player in Parker Roberts, one All SEC in Rachel Smith and Kit Loferski is a outside back who has had a lot of minutes her whole career there. She was a big part of the defense. Also Deanne Rose, the starting striker was on National team duty with Canada though she returned yesterday and was dangerous. The Vandy score was not reflective of the match. UF hammered the goal in the first half but couldn't score. The Gators are struggling with the final two touches before goal. The final pass is off or the shot is. This year Vandy also looks much improved. They have a lot of quality players and play quality soccer.
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Post by Soccer Dad on Sept 24, 2018 9:05:56 GMT -5
Tough weekend for the Dawgs. With the big "girls" in the SEC coming up on their schedule, they needed a win against Mizzou. They tied. Then as expected, they were pretty dominated by Texas AM. Now its on to play really hot Vandy.
This is the hardest part to understand about UGA (and specifically this coaching staff). The girls look to have dead legs....already. How? Every team carries 24-28 players. How does your team get dead legs. By the way, dead legs does not mean you are not hustling or physically fit enough to play, it means your legs are tired and therefore you are slow or less explosive. I really think these girls need rest. Something is off as this same thing happened the last two years.Maybe it is fitness, but they look slow from the jump, not 30 minutes in. The SEC season is a grind. Managing that is one of the keys to good coaching/leadership.
Congrats to UF on getting the goal scoring going on.
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Post by zizou on Sept 24, 2018 19:37:36 GMT -5
Tough weekend for the Dawgs. With the big "girls" in the SEC coming up on their schedule, they needed a win against Mizzou. They tied. Then as expected, they were pretty dominated by Texas AM. Now its on to play really hot Vandy. This is the hardest part to understand about UGA (and specifically this coaching staff). The girls look to have dead legs....already. How? Every team carries 24-28 players. How does your team get dead legs. By the way, dead legs does not mean you are not hustling or physically fit enough to play, it means your legs are tired and therefore you are slow or less explosive. I really think these girls need rest. Something is off as this same thing happened the last two years.Maybe it is fitness, but they look slow from the jump, not 30 minutes in. The SEC season is a grind. Managing that is one of the keys to good coaching/leadership. Congrats to UF on getting the goal scoring going on. Two things: 1. Regardless of anything else, this team looks like they committed themselves, as a group, to being more fit this season. There was a quite obvious difference in fitness between UGA and the SEC teams they played last year. This year the team actually LOOKS like a bunch of committed athletes. That is huge as far as I am concerned. 2. It may be that they have dead legs. And may have been reacting slowly from the opening whistle for this reason. I only saw the second half so I don't know how they started. But what I saw in the second half is about what I would expect from a team full of thoroughbreds (aTm). So did UGA look sluggish because aTm are just quicker athletes? Because the UGA coaching staff do not know how to periodize training over the course of a season? Or because it is hard to travel and play a top quality opponent at their place? UGA looked slow to react. Remember the Cruyff quote: "What is speed? The sports press often confuses speed with insight. See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster." UGA had essentially no anticipation in that match. That could be mental, could be physical. We will see what happens over the next few matches. Will give us more data to draw our conclusions.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Sept 25, 2018 8:09:37 GMT -5
Yea - I think the next 3 games will tell us what they really are - Vandy, South Carolina and Auburn
And it looks like the Gators have finally found some offense, granted it was against the 2 worst teams in the league. Lais Araujo for the Gators is a very exciting watch. True Brazilian flair.
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Post by Soccer Dad on Sept 25, 2018 9:24:13 GMT -5
Great post zizou. That is very fair commentary.
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Post by zizou on Sept 30, 2018 17:04:16 GMT -5
Watching the first half of UGA-Vandy match. Total domination. 4-0 Vandy.
UGA had a few moments of decent play, but not enough to make much of a dent in Vandy. You can see that UGA athletes are not of Vandy calibre, either in general physical capability or soccer-specific skill. One way you can tell is the difference in number of fouls, and the type and reason for those fouls. Mostly poor challenges because the UGA defender cannot handle the player they are marking. And then Vandy scores 3 as a result of set pieces. Not to mention number of shots (10 to 4) and corners (2 to 0).
UGA subs actually brought some stability in final 15 min or so of half, but that was also against Vandy subs.
I bet Ella Shamberger is glad she dropped UGA verbal commitment and went with Commodores at this point.
Let's hope UGA gets it together in second half and makes this respectable. I suppose they can start by doing what BL says he wants - get the ball into wide areas and play outside to inside. But I don't see it helping right now. Unless Vandy falls to pieces they just have too much quality. It is evident in essentially every matchup.
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Post by Soccer Dad on Oct 1, 2018 7:50:46 GMT -5
No words. I couldnt watch the last part of the game as it was painful. I go back to what I said in an earlier post, they just look slow. The fouls were because they had no chance of staying with their mark. Do you think they simply dont know how to recruit talent that can play at this level? There are players on the field that just really look bad. Hate to put it on the players, but not sure the SEC was the right choice for some. But hey, their coaches keep putting them out there.
This is going to get worse if they cannot change their energy level and defend better on the outside. Just really really sad for the kids (and parents) we know there. They are better than this.
One more thing, can they maybe consider keeping the ball moving when on the attack? This 1v1 stuff looks silly considering the lack of production. How about some combination play?
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Post by atlfutboldad on Oct 1, 2018 8:15:41 GMT -5
Much like college football, uga should have zero problems getting half of the top 10 players in the state every year. They don't really even NEED to leave the state. I imagine their facilities are about as good as anyone. I'd bet most of these girls even grew up in uga households.
So that makes you wonder if the top players are staying away from athens due to this coaching staff.
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