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WFU Soccer:

deacvision7 said:
Hate to say it, but I think Bobby is going to put this one on himself tomorrow... and he might not be wrong.

Ugh. I hate sports sometimes.
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We seemed rattled by physical play for the second year in a row. It's eerily similar to the ACC teams in March madness. We're great at finesse play, but completely knocked off our game by a physical team.
 
tsywake said:
We seemed rattled by physical play for the second year in a row. It's eerily similar to the ACC teams in March madness. We're great at finesse play, but completely knocked off our game by a physical team.
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Honestly, I don't think that was it from what I saw. Stanford was physical, sure, but we gave as good as we got tonight. We didn't shirk away from 50/50 challenges at all. Where I thought we lost the match tonight was an over-commitment of men forward without a cohesive plan to STOP BALL on the inevitable counter. The ball will always be faster than any player. We didn't stop it moving when they countered us.

And we didn't break them down with slick passing which made it easy and comfortable for them to defend us as we passed side to side with no clear intent.

Poor match on our part in all honesty. Bad day to have a bad day. It happens.
 
It was a great a crowd, glad I got there 40 minutes before to get a seat. Consensus around me by fans more knowledgeable in soccer than I am thought the officiating sucked and Stanford was too good.

Players definitely looked frustrated by the physicality
 
Felt like they had two extra guys on the field. We didn’t have a passing lane forwards in the final third the whole match.
 
Stanford was better but the ref was awful IMO. Should have been a Stanford foul right before the 2nd goal for example
 
deacvision7 said:
Honestly, I don't think that was it from what I saw. Stanford was physical, sure, but we gave as good as we got tonight. We didn't shirk away from 50/50 challenges at all. Where I thought we lost the match tonight was an over-commitment of men forward without a cohesive plan to STOP BALL on the inevitable counter. The ball will always be faster than any player. We didn't stop it moving when they countered us.

And we didn't break them down with slick passing which made it easy and comfortable for them to defend us as we passed side to side with no clear intent.

Poor match on our part in all honesty. Bad day to have a bad day. It happens.
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Agreed. Thru balls were too easy for them and we had no sense of urgency to close down on defense. They were in the box way too much. Our midfield got caught too high way too many times. And that's just defensively. Offensively we just couldn't finish.
 
I heard either a Stanford player or coach after an earlier NCAA game say that they might not be the best team in the NCAA but that no one worked harder. They always had us outnumbered in the midfield and when they were defending. When we played long on a counter we were usually attacking 1 on 4. When they countered it was 2 on 2. They seemed to be faster than us which I hadn't seen this year and in better shape.

Our technique wasn't able to handle the pressure they applied. We took several bad touches and payed for it. We also panicked and gave the ball away quite a few times especially in the first half. I thought they outplayed us in Winston two years ago although I missed the first half that game. I thought they outplayed us in the finals last year but I blamed that on the field. It appears I was wrong there. I now think they have just been better than us consistently. Really good season but a return to reality once again delivered by the Cardinal.
 
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The Mangler said:
I heard either a Stanford player or coach after an earlier NCAA game say that they might not be the best team in the NCAA but that no one worked harder. They always had us outnumbered in the midfield and when they were defending. When we played long on a counter we were usually attacking 1 on 4. When they countered it was 2 on 2. They seemed to be faster than us which I hadn't seen this year and in better shape.

Our technique wasn't able to handle the pressure they applied. We took several bad touches and payed for it. We also panicked and gave the ball away quite a few times especially in the first half. I thought they outplayed us in Winston two years ago although I missed the first half that game. I thought they outplayed us in the finals last year but I blamed that on the field. It appears I was wrong there. I now think they have just been better than us consistently. Really good season but a return to reality once again delivered by the Cardinal.
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I think you're being a little hard on us - we played them straight up to a tie last season in the championship. If Stanford wins their third straight championship there is no shame in us going down as the clear 2nd best team. One loss doesn't erase the dominance we displayed this season against elite competition.
 
What isnt being mentioned is how important the loss of Kevin Politz was to our defense. He was a captain of our team and ACC defender of the year. I don't know if any of Stanfords players were injured, but I doubt they were missing anyone so important.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
I think you're being a little hard on us - we played them straight up to a tie last season in the championship. If Stanford wins their third straight championship there is no shame in us going down as the clear 2nd best team. One loss doesn't erase the dominance we displayed this season against elite competition.
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We should have been better prepared. Played a much tougher schedule, have a better team, played at home.

This stings.
 
Pretty sure Logan Panchot is in Village Tavern talking shit about how ovvwrated Wake is and how Stanford was overlooked by the press. It might not be Logan, but its definitely a player and I cant find his picture on the roster.

Edit: could be Trevor Hyman, who graduated last season
 
Buttermaker said:
Great call
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I appreciate that.

Everyone said they would just go into a defensive shell and I told everyone that no it would be a wide open game with both teams having scoring chances. We had the same number of shots as they did plus twice the corners and they had more fouls.

Their keeper made a couple good saves and we missed a couple clear chances.

Proud of the guys I like our team.
 
I was struck during the introductions by the fact that 9 or 10 of Stanford starters were seniors. Seniors who had won a national championship. I was hoping that the Jordan Morris effect last year was the reason they won but I was worried about the senior factor. The only positive I could glean from the game is that Stanford is headed for a severe drop-off next year.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
I think you're being a little hard on us - we played them straight up to a tie last season in the championship. If Stanford wins their third straight championship there is no shame in us going down as the clear 2nd best team. One loss doesn't erase the dominance we displayed this season against elite competition.
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I don't think I was being harsh, I think I was being realistic. There have already been some comments that Stanford's physicality took us out of the game. That isn't what happened and I'm not sure it's what happened in the past either. Last year I thought it was the field but now I have doubts about that. We just have a hard time doing what we do against their pressure. We play the best looking soccer in the country and we are clearly a very good team. I just don't think we have been a better team than Stanford the last three years. More skilled possibly. More enjoyable to watch, definitely.
 
Can we get Ryan horn to beef up these footy stars?
 
Neurodeac said:
I was struck during the introductions by the fact that 9 or 10 of Stanford starters were seniors. Seniors who had won a national championship. I was hoping that the Jordan Morris effect last year was the reason they won but I was worried about the senior factor. The only positive I could glean from the game is that Stanford is headed for a severe drop-off next year.
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Two of them, even. Also, Morris was 2015.
 
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