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2021 Wake Forest Soccer Thread

The Hill is reverting back to being $0
 
They broke up the Congregation and everything has fallen to shit (for the men, ladies are crushing it!)
 
Women lost 1-0 to #7 Virginia. The Hoos dominated the 1st after scoring early. The 2nd was back and forth. The women had four corners in the last two minutes. Just couldn’t pull it out.
 
Okay - someone want to explain how the heck this happened?

Sure. (3-1 final, btw.)

1) Pitt, like any Jay Vidovich team, prefers to attack than defend. We caught them on two counters (one a short-field counter off a great bit of backline pressure) and a set piece. Overall, chances were about even...

2) ... but as is frequent in soccer, the superior finishing team prevails. Kyle's first finish and Tubbs's header were both clinical, and after that we got to sit on a two goal lead and let Pitt chase the game.

3) What you're really asking is that we played up to our talent level for the first time this season. Through a combination of injuries and players (who, lest we forget, are teenagers) having nightmarish games, we haven't really been able to strut our stuff thus far. On top of that, Pitt, like any Jay Vidovich team, isn't gonna constantly foul us or try to be overly physical, but will instead try to actually play. The bones of this team made an Elite Eight run last spring and then added the top recruiting class in the country. We have a top 5 roster in terms of talent, and we have a very good coach. This may well prove to be a bit of an anomaly on the positive side (Pitt is very good), but it's also pretty clear that the VCU and (especially) Louisville results were anomalous on the negative side. And some inconsistency is to be expected, because, again, these are teenagers.

4) Garrison Tubbs had a monster game at CB. So great to see him play that well after the rough start to his season.

All told, we're still a good team. We had key players make crucial mistakes that killed us (Tubbs against VCU, Prince Amponsah against Louisville) and soccer is a game of fine margins. At the same time, we have a pretty decent track record to show that they are both good players; Tubbs showed that tonight. Just a question of getting the gears clicking and eliminating some of those mistakes.
 
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Are we back?

I think the main problem with the team is that the front line is very lacking in a consistent finishing touch. Very often, we are down on the attacking end of the field, but instead of being able to finish a chance it is wasted or just given to the other team. This then forces our defense and midfield to have to be very reactive instead of the usual way we like to play where we are in control of the game. Overall, I feel like if the attackers are able to find their touch/our freshman are able to contribute/niang comes back from injury we will find ourselves much more in line with our PITT performance as opposed to the Louisville performance
 
I think the main problem with the team is that the front line is very lacking in a consistent finishing touch. Very often, we are down on the attacking end of the field, but instead of being able to finish a chance it is wasted or just given to the other team. This then forces our defense and midfield to have to be very reactive instead of the usual way we like to play where we are in control of the game. Overall, I feel like if the attackers are able to find their touch/our freshman are able to contribute/niang comes back from injury we will find ourselves much more in line with our PITT performance as opposed to the Louisville performance

I would say you're largely correct, with the minor quibble that I think we lack the creativity to get the ball into good scoring positions consistently, not the finishing touch. Kyle has a three year track record as an excellent in-the-box finisher, and Omar is lethal from 18-25 yards... but we don't necessarily get into positions for them to exploit that. (Also, anyone else that wants to step up to shoulder some of the goalscoring burden would be great... Chase Oliver maybe?) Having Niang back would be immense; he looked ridiculously good against Coastal, would add more creativity, and would be a mechanism to break the lines against pressing teams (which is how Louisville stymied us).
 
I would say you're largely correct, with the minor quibble that I think we lack the creativity to get the ball into good scoring positions consistently, not the finishing touch. Kyle has a three year track record as an excellent in-the-box finisher, and Omar is lethal from 18-25 yards... but we don't necessarily get into positions for them to exploit that. (Also, anyone else that wants to step up to shoulder some of the goalscoring burden would be great... Chase Oliver maybe?) Having Niang back would be immense; he looked ridiculously good against Coastal, would add more creativity, and would be a mechanism to break the lines against pressing teams (which is how Louisville stymied us).

Sorry, you're 100% right. I was trying to say we are largely ineffective in creating chances for that final dagger blow. Thus leaving us with horrible barely even half chances that cant be converted. I do want to say I have been disappointed in some of the chances that Holcomb has missed this year though. And i'm talking about against the likes of Bucknell and George Mason. As a senior there are some plays that need to be put away. That being said, again you are right. its the lack of getting into clear chances that is hurting us more, which in turn makes the final touch that much more complicated
 
Sorry, you're 100% right. I was trying to say we are largely ineffective in creating chances for that final dagger blow. Thus leaving us with horrible barely even half chances that cant be converted. I do want to say I have been disappointed in some of the chances that Holcomb has missed this year though. And i'm talking about against the likes of Bucknell and George Mason. As a senior there are some plays that need to be put away. That being said, again you are right. its the lack of getting into clear chances that is hurting us more, which in turn makes the final touch that much more complicated

We're in agreement on basically everything. I agree that Kyle's missed a few chances, but no striker (maybe Aguero) has a 100% conversion rate.

For what it's worth, State high-pressed us hard in the spring with a lot of success, so expect them to do the same on Friday. Should be a good progress update before we host Clemson (who was the first team to use the high-press against us consistently since Bobby arrived) the following week.
 
The Wake Forest women, who are 8-1 on the season (the one loss coming in the last game to #7 UVA; WF is 0-1 in conference), play at 6-2-1 BC tonight. The ACC is again stacked this year (FSU is #1, Duke is #2, UNC is #4 and UVA is #7). Tonight's BC game is the type of game the ladies need to win to make it to the NCAAs.
 
From their social media graphic it looks like its going to be on the ACCNX, you need a cable subscription with a provider that carries the ACC network to be able to watch it. Then you go through the ESPN app or website on your smart tv/tablet/computer/phone.
 
From their social media graphic it looks like its going to be on the ACCNX, you need a cable subscription with a provider that carries the ACC network to be able to watch it. Then you go through the ESPN app or website on your smart tv/tablet/computer/phone.

Follow-up to this: almost all soccer games (men and women) that ACC teams host are available through this, including our home games. If you can't make it to Spry, it's fairly easy to watch, and is a lifesaver if you want to watch road games. The quality of the telecast will vary from school to school, and every school will have homer announcers in their favor, but it's a lot better than following a stats tracker.

(It also works for things like field hockey and volleyball, if you want even more Wake sports.)
 
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