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WFU Soccer:

myDeaconmyhand said:
Notre Dame played very precisely in the 2nd half last night, they made far less mistakes than us, with the exception of giving up so many corners. We spent too much time losing possesion at midfield with bad through passes
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Well, when Harkes' corners can't even beat the first man and/or near post on his corners, does it really matter when you concede them?
 
I'm fairly ignorant about soccer strategy - Is our ability to score on corners a weakness that other teams strategize around?
 
wakephan09 said:
I'd argue that we are even better this year than we were when I was in school 05-09. Very, very good team.

That said, we were fucking awful last night. Terrible. And credit for almost all of that should go to Notre Dame's pressing. Somehow they managed to maintain that pressure for the entire match.
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Curious how others feel about this. I haven't had a chance to watch much this year, but I didn't think I would see a better team at Wake than the '08 team.
 
palmab03 said:
then why do all the best college teams only have 1 or 2 losses and all of them are to the other good teams?
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It really amazing when you think about it, but I guess it shows that there is a much bigger difference between really good teams and average then the scores can infer. You see so many 1-0 games, so you'd think there is such a razor thin margin between a highly ranked team and an average to below average team. However, the highly ranked teams seem to win so many of those games, there is obviously a greater margin between the teams then us "non-soccer" guys can pick up on.
 
Goals aren't really scored at a high percentage off of corners anyway, it's a pretty neutral situation, so it's not all that big a deal. One is much more likely to score from other dead ball situations. But it is something that can be counted, so people post the numbers.

And I really don't think this team is better than those 07 and 08 teams. The season's not over yet, but I think this team would have to score a bunch more goals to get close to those teams, while the defensive records are similar.

07 finished winning the National Championship with a record of 22-2-2, scoring 67 goals and conceding 14.
08 made it to the Semis with a record of 21-2-1, scoring 81 (!) goals, and conceding 17.

Those are two of the greatest college soccer teams ever.

We're at 15-2-2 now, scoring 45 and conceding 11, so it would take a hell of a run. You might be able to make an argument about the schedule strength, but I don't have those seasons' RPI numbers in front of me at a comparable time. I think we were the top seed in the country both years.

Notre Dame is just a really good team, too. It happens. I like Reaves a lot, but his was just one of, like, five fuckups in that sequence. Harrison's great, but can hold onto it too long (but because he is great it often results in greatness, though you can sense frustration among his teammates at times, and they start to get a little flat footed when he has it), and Notre Dame definitely targeted his side, especially through Lachowecki, who is gets in a lot of work down the left side. I like their midfielder Hodan (I think) a lot too, actually their entire midfield was great last night. The Notre Dame and UNC games have been good soccer on both sides.

ETA -- for the record, if you could clone players, I think '07 beats '08 and was the better team, not just because of winning it all.
 
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TBDeac said:
Curious how others feel about this. I haven't had a chance to watch much this year, but I didn't think I would see a better team at Wake than the '08 team.
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This team is better than the 08 team which was better than the Natty Champ 07 team.
 
I haven't been to a single game this season, and I've only been able to watch about seven or eight matches on tv, so obviously take it with a grain of salt. But from what I've seen, our movement, passing, and combinations are better than anything I saw from the '07 and '08 teams. It is very close, certainly. The only place where this year's team really stands out, in my opinion, is that our full backs (Bandy and ?) are much better than Evan and Lyle were (and our central midfielders are much more coordinated with them). I'm not sure if that's a result of personnel or of playing style.

While I'm not sure either Harkes or Hayes is better than Cronin, they are pretty solid as a tandem. My memory is terrible: how much did Cronin get to play with Phelan as a starter? Curfman? Solle? Wells? Those three might have already been gone by 2007. Lots of talent, though.

Tracy, Schilawski, and Arnoux were quite an attacking unit too. Probably better than Bakero, Partain, Gamble -- Idk even know who our attackers are, really.

Fresh/soph Bone = Harrison ?
 
Do any of you experts feel like this year's team is small and often less than physical? Seems like we got overpowered on a lot of 50/50's last night.
 
deacvision7 said:
Weird. I thought we were fantastic the opening 5 minutes. Bad the next 20. Solid the final 20 of the 1st half. And pretty below par the entire 2nd half. We didn't really create many chances at all after the restart.
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Funny how we all see a game differently.

I thought we were poor the first 10. We picked it up the next 10, then looked really good the final 25. Still, too many errant passes and poor touches. The 2nd half was a debacle until the last 10, when we remembered that we needed a goal. Harrison was so fun to watch, too bad he cramped up toward the end.
 
Dkin said:
Do any of you experts feel like this year's team is small and often less than physical? Seems like we got overpowered on a lot of 50/50's last night.
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I am by no means an expert, but it was pretty clear that we were much smaller than Notre Dame, especially against their defenders. The majority of our corners were taken short for that very reason.
 
For those more in the "know" than I, does this loss hurt the home field advantage we would have had until the Final 4 (if we got that far obviously)?
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
Bone did get a lot of hype, whatever happened to that dude?
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No idea.

I was never as impressed with him as I am with Jack Harrison. Harrison blows him away, IMO.


We really did miss Gamble last night with his ability to pick a pass and unlock a tight and organized defense.
 
Harrison has a sick combination of speed and quickness. He's lightning on the counter, but so good on the ball, too.
 
He can dribble (with control) faster than most 18-22 YOs can sprint, it seems.
 
Bone was drafted in the MLS but never saw playing time. He was last on Philadelphia Union before getting loaned out to a USL team, where I think he is permanently now.
 
TownieDeac said:
Bone was drafted in the MLS but never saw playing time. He was last on Philadelphia Union before getting loaned out to a USL team, where I think he is permanently now.
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He's part of a fairly large WF contingent on the Wilmington Hammerheads. Cody Arnoux was on the team as well but retired at the end of this season.
 
Maybe you can make an argument for this team's starting 11, but the 07 and 08 teams had guys like Bone, Schilawski, and da Luz coming off the bench. The same players who carried Wake to the College Cup in 2009. Don't think this team has that kind of depth, even with Gamble and Politz healthy.
 
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