UNC Women’s Soccer 2025-2026
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One thing that hasn't been brought up much when talking about Faasse, cause I don't have the numbers, is that she was filling in for OT when she was out with injury last year, too. So there were a handful of goals when she was the one up top and not OT. With a healthy OT, Faasse's production makes sense to have gone down.
Edit: Just over 1/3 of Faasse's goals last year were scored when OT was out (7 of 20). And in the tourney, she scored four goals: 2 against USC Upstate and 2 goals on set pieces... so her goal scoring within the run of play did fall a little bit when OT came back.
FSU - 2
UNC - 2
UVA - 1
Also, UCLA and USC from the Big 10 are losing one each
Reminder, this is U-17, so the players who most likely reclassified and should be high school seniors...
Watched ND on recording, here are my thoughts:
-Not a fan of Damon's tinkering with the lineup...a team with as many young players as we have needs to find some continuity...I'm just not crazy about coaches who try a bunch of tactical gimmicks thinking they are going to be the difference. Players need some stability so they can just play instinctively and not be thinking about where the hell they need to be all the time (because they are playing some new position they aren't used to). For example, moving Ullmark out wide did NOTHING to help us, and eventually he moved her back into the middle and she immediately started impacting the game again. Putting Gaetino at right back with Munson in the middle made no sense to me. Outside backs are usually the ones marking forwards...Gaetino is a CB and has an entire year under her belt there...Munson's speed is way more suited to be playing outside back so she can also get forward at times. Moving Thomas to the outside midfield spot in the second half was also a bad move to me. Yes she scored a ridiculous goal at the end, but if you actually watched her leading up to that, she looked lost out wide...she also was beaten on ND's last goal (the ND player that crossed the ball in got around Thomas first). She's just not used to defending anyone, and midfielders have to be able to defend. She lost her mark a few times badly on that side and we were lucky ND didn't make us pay for it. She's a #9 (center forward) and that's where she should play. Throwing something against the wall and seeing if it sticks isn't something you do vs the #2 team in the nation. Bottom line...too much experimenting this far into the season, especially against a team as good as ND. None of the changes appeared to help.
-I see a lot of blame on here on our midfielders...I will say this, our midfield is EXTREMELY young, so some growing pains are expected. Look at the core players there (Kennedy, Pennie, Malsom, Devey, Dellarose, Freifeld, Ullmark). Other than Dellarose, the rest of them are still very young....5 are true freshmen, and Pennie is a first year starter. That is a very talented group, they are excellent from a technical skill ability. But they are not very physical, and I have noticed that they have had some problems against the more mature and physical teams we've played (FSU / ND). We really miss Shores to sit in that holding CMF / pivot position in the middle. We are also kind of short and so not great in the air on headers either. But there is a lot to be excited about in that group if they stick around a few years. And all that being said, there are other issues to blame here at all 3 levels of this team.
-We really stunk going forward that game and resorted to just blasting long balls down the field over and over and hoping Thomas or Faasse would somehow get behind ND's entire back line. It'd be like throwing a hail mary pass on every down in a football game. It just isn't reliable against anyone decent. We got impatient and kept losing control of the ball or just booting it down the field...that's not UNC soccer and I bet Anson was really annoyed watching that game. Gaetino drives me crazy too, she resorts to bombing long balls way too many times instead of building out of the back. You can get away with it vs lesser teams because Thomas/Faasse can just outrun them, but it doesn't work against a good team like ND.
-We were shaky in the back and ND's forwards (who are elite) dribbled through us a number of times and we were lucky not to give up several more goals. Gaetino needs to go back into the middle CB position that she played last year and Munson needs to play outside back for starters.
-Gundry didn't have a great game obviously, but that 3rd goal was off of a botched touch by Alvarez, and honestly it could have been worse. She did make a few really nice saves. So it could have been better but could have been worse too. We just have to accept that we don't have an elite option at GK this year (despite carrying FOUR GKs, which seems like 1 too many).
-ND was just bigger and more physical (like FSU) and that bothered us. Their two forwards are fantastic, and made WAY more of an impact on the game than our two forwards did. I think our younger players will adapt to that as they get more acclimated to the college game, but there is no substitute for experience.
-I will now direct my main criticism toward our forwards.....Faasse has been a complete non-factor in the last two games. She honestly probably touched the ball the least of anyone in our lineup. She just looks to be constantly in no-man's land with her runs. And her and Thomas are both just looking for long balls over the top and making straight runs looking for through balls. There is no checking back to the ball or creativity involved to set others up making runs through. I hate to say it, but Faasse has been a massive disappointment for me this year...she was the national player of the year and goes through long stretches with no impact on the game at all. I think a lot of her goals last year were poacher's goals and a lot of the credit belonged to the people behind her setting those up (Dahlien, Meza, Nagai, Shores, etc.). I would have taken either of ND's forwards over her watching that game last night. I think she cost herself a lot of money not going pro after last year. Thomas is also frustrating...she looks like she could be an All American at times, and then just disappears at other times, and when she gets the ball in the box, you know she's going to try to shoot it 99.9% of the time. It's just not the kind of approach that made Anson's teams so successful. That being said, what a freaking strike she had near the end there. Those are the flashes she shows which makes you say where the hell was that for the last 85 minutes prior? There is a high bar that those two set for themselves last year, and a lot of the time they just aren't imposing their will on games like you'd expect they would. ND's forwards caused so many problems for us last night, I cannot say the same for our forwards against ND's back line. We need to get Devey down into the corner more getting crosses off into the middle like Dahlien used to do so much. Devey wants to cut back into the middle and look to shoot...I think that is some of our issue in the attack right now...everything is right up the middle and not enough of our attack is being initiated from the wide / flanking positions on the field.
-Lauren Malsom definitely had her breakout game. Two wonderful goals against a top tier opponent that kept us in the game. It could have been ugly if not for those couple of moments of brilliance. Really excited to see her continue to grow and take on a bigger role.
-I really hate that we're going to be without Kennedy and Malsom for all of those games coming up. It will force us to develop our bench (Freifeld especially will get a lot of time while they are gone, not sure who else), but I hope it doesn't cost us enough games where our NCAA bid could be in question. We already have 4 losses.
Not giving up on this team, but there are definitely some chinks in the armor this season. Damon's frustration is showing with his constant anger with the refs (I think he's picked up a yellow card the last two games), and his kind of haphazard lineup changes (see above). The talent is there though (just not a lot of depth), and I think playing all of these tough games is great experience that will pay off later. I just think that "later" may be next year. Not having Kennedy/Malsom for the stretch run is going to set us back chemistry-wise, so I'm not sure we're going to be playing our best soccer going into the NCAAs considering those two will just be coming back after the ACC tourney.
-Not a fan of Damon's tinkering with the lineup...a team with as many young players as we have needs to find some continuity...I'm just not crazy about coaches who try a bunch of tactical gimmicks thinking they are going to be the difference. Players need some stability so they can just play instinctively and not be thinking about where the hell they need to be all the time (because they are playing some new position they aren't used to). For example, moving Ullmark out wide did NOTHING to help us, and eventually he moved her back into the middle and she immediately started impacting the game again. Putting Gaetino at right back with Munson in the middle made no sense to me. Outside backs are usually the ones marking forwards...Gaetino is a CB and has an entire year under her belt there...Munson's speed is way more suited to be playing outside back so she can also get forward at times. Moving Thomas to the outside midfield spot in the second half was also a bad move to me. Yes she scored a ridiculous goal at the end, but if you actually watched her leading up to that, she looked lost out wide...she also was beaten on ND's last goal (the ND player that crossed the ball in got around Thomas first). She's just not used to defending anyone, and midfielders have to be able to defend. She lost her mark a few times badly on that side and we were lucky ND didn't make us pay for it. She's a #9 (center forward) and that's where she should play. Throwing something against the wall and seeing if it sticks isn't something you do vs the #2 team in the nation. Bottom line...too much experimenting this far into the season, especially against a team as good as ND. None of the changes appeared to help.
-I see a lot of blame on here on our midfielders...I will say this, our midfield is EXTREMELY young, so some growing pains are expected. Look at the core players there (Kennedy, Pennie, Malsom, Devey, Dellarose, Freifeld, Ullmark). Other than Dellarose, the rest of them are still very young....5 are true freshmen, and Pennie is a first year starter. That is a very talented group, they are excellent from a technical skill ability. But they are not very physical, and I have noticed that they have had some problems against the more mature and physical teams we've played (FSU / ND). We really miss Shores to sit in that holding CMF / pivot position in the middle. We are also kind of short and so not great in the air on headers either. But there is a lot to be excited about in that group if they stick around a few years. And all that being said, there are other issues to blame here at all 3 levels of this team.
-We really stunk going forward that game and resorted to just blasting long balls down the field over and over and hoping Thomas or Faasse would somehow get behind ND's entire back line. It'd be like throwing a hail mary pass on every down in a football game. It just isn't reliable against anyone decent. We got impatient and kept losing control of the ball or just booting it down the field...that's not UNC soccer and I bet Anson was really annoyed watching that game. Gaetino drives me crazy too, she resorts to bombing long balls way too many times instead of building out of the back. You can get away with it vs lesser teams because Thomas/Faasse can just outrun them, but it doesn't work against a good team like ND.
-We were shaky in the back and ND's forwards (who are elite) dribbled through us a number of times and we were lucky not to give up several more goals. Gaetino needs to go back into the middle CB position that she played last year and Munson needs to play outside back for starters.
-Gundry didn't have a great game obviously, but that 3rd goal was off of a botched touch by Alvarez, and honestly it could have been worse. She did make a few really nice saves. So it could have been better but could have been worse too. We just have to accept that we don't have an elite option at GK this year (despite carrying FOUR GKs, which seems like 1 too many).
-ND was just bigger and more physical (like FSU) and that bothered us. Their two forwards are fantastic, and made WAY more of an impact on the game than our two forwards did. I think our younger players will adapt to that as they get more acclimated to the college game, but there is no substitute for experience.
-I will now direct my main criticism toward our forwards.....Faasse has been a complete non-factor in the last two games. She honestly probably touched the ball the least of anyone in our lineup. She just looks to be constantly in no-man's land with her runs. And her and Thomas are both just looking for long balls over the top and making straight runs looking for through balls. There is no checking back to the ball or creativity involved to set others up making runs through. I hate to say it, but Faasse has been a massive disappointment for me this year...she was the national player of the year and goes through long stretches with no impact on the game at all. I think a lot of her goals last year were poacher's goals and a lot of the credit belonged to the people behind her setting those up (Dahlien, Meza, Nagai, Shores, etc.). I would have taken either of ND's forwards over her watching that game last night. I think she cost herself a lot of money not going pro after last year. Thomas is also frustrating...she looks like she could be an All American at times, and then just disappears at other times, and when she gets the ball in the box, you know she's going to try to shoot it 99.9% of the time. It's just not the kind of approach that made Anson's teams so successful. That being said, what a freaking strike she had near the end there. Those are the flashes she shows which makes you say where the hell was that for the last 85 minutes prior? There is a high bar that those two set for themselves last year, and a lot of the time they just aren't imposing their will on games like you'd expect they would. ND's forwards caused so many problems for us last night, I cannot say the same for our forwards against ND's back line. We need to get Devey down into the corner more getting crosses off into the middle like Dahlien used to do so much. Devey wants to cut back into the middle and look to shoot...I think that is some of our issue in the attack right now...everything is right up the middle and not enough of our attack is being initiated from the wide / flanking positions on the field.
-Lauren Malsom definitely had her breakout game. Two wonderful goals against a top tier opponent that kept us in the game. It could have been ugly if not for those couple of moments of brilliance. Really excited to see her continue to grow and take on a bigger role.
-I really hate that we're going to be without Kennedy and Malsom for all of those games coming up. It will force us to develop our bench (Freifeld especially will get a lot of time while they are gone, not sure who else), but I hope it doesn't cost us enough games where our NCAA bid could be in question. We already have 4 losses.
Not giving up on this team, but there are definitely some chinks in the armor this season. Damon's frustration is showing with his constant anger with the refs (I think he's picked up a yellow card the last two games), and his kind of haphazard lineup changes (see above). The talent is there though (just not a lot of depth), and I think playing all of these tough games is great experience that will pay off later. I just think that "later" may be next year. Not having Kennedy/Malsom for the stretch run is going to set us back chemistry-wise, so I'm not sure we're going to be playing our best soccer going into the NCAAs considering those two will just be coming back after the ACC tourney.
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UNCBullmarket, I agree with you but I have one question for you. Each year we always have players playing with the USA teams during the middle of the season. We have two freshman that just got called up and we do not have any depth. Explain to me what Damon is suppose to do when this keeps happening. Some of yall said that there are players on the bench who are not ready right now, so explain to me what he is suppose to do? Hopefully we will have more depth next year if players do leave to go pro at the end of this season. I know recruiting is a must but if some schools are already giving out NIL money, then again, explain to me what Damon is suppose to do. BC has already stated where the NIL money is going and the last time I checked, soccer was not one of them. I would love to hear you thoughts on this situation.
Many great points in this post but I will offer two defenses for the experimentation we are seeing from the coaches: 1) I think we can all agree that this team is underperforming to what we think they are capable of, so I get the urge to tweak. and 2) I think some of the dabbling in the ND game may have been in preparation for two key midfield players soon to leave; need to see who can fill in.
Though I fully agree that what we saw towards the beginning of the ND game simply was not working.
The gameplan to beet UNC is to be physical with us. TN and UGA showed it can work and every decent team has replicated it since. So that makes Nahas's job to work the ref for fouls as much as he possibly can.
Nahas gets frustrated by the dangerous tackles on our players that don’t result in yellow or red cards, as he should. Our smaller players are just being bullied. All of the positional experimentation is a long term strategy which hopefully will pay off later. Loosing Shores from the midfield late was a big deal, IMO.
The Heels were underperforming in the 3-5-2, which he went back to for ND.
We were starting to play better in the 4-3-2-1 and only had one loss since we moved to this formation... we didn't do well against FSU, but that wasn't because of the formation.
We were starting to play better in the 4-3-2-1 and only had one loss since we moved to this formation... we didn't do well against FSU, but that wasn't because of the formation.
Bubba said “revenue share” $ would go to football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball. NIL $ is up to donors, fans, and corporate sponsors to provide to teams/individuals.
That's a good point. But I would like to see them be successful with a 3 back. They have 3 good defenders that should be able to hold. The problem is that there isn't a solid 6 that can go a whole game.
I think the biggest problem with the three back the way Damon has us playing it (not like in the old Anson days of the 3-4-3) is that you're asking your wingers to compensate too much on defense, so if we get a stop, we have nobody available to run the break and get out into wide spaces to serve balls in. Or, if you do, it makes your offense and break too one dimensional - it can let defenders target just one side. At Notre Dame, Linda was stuck far back on the right side playing defense, and when we pushed the ball, she was still tracking back and gassed at having to sprint back to cover. Devey is doing this when we are in the 4 back and we've seen that she makes less offensive runs until we have made a sub and she's allowed to play midfield. We definitely do not have the depth to ask those players to do that for a full 90 minutes and still be successful.
The beauty of a 4-2-3-1 is that if one of your defenders pushes up offensively one of the sixes drops back in their place so you keep your structure and ability to defend if the opponents get on the break. Or if a back winger gets caught up, they can shift and you still have three backs defending 75% of the space before a six can drop back. And on offense, when your central midfielder gets the ball, the two wingers spring up and it gives you three options in attack while maintaining a triangle for possession in the midfield with the sixes. Or if your winger gets the ball, the central midfielders can spring forward and the winger comes back into the center.
I'm not saying we should play a 4-2-3-1 every single year for the rest of time, but with the personnel we have available and the lack of depth, I don't know a formation that better suits us. And it did work really well for us last year. It worked well against FSU... they got one goal off a shot they really shouldn't have gotten. When our younger players continue to grow and we get some depth in the next few years, a 3-5-2 should make much more sense.
If it were me with the personnel that we have, I'd do below... sucks for Dellarose (she played there her FR and some of her SO years), but Kennedy and Pennie do well in the central midfield but not on the wings. And Dellarose has a great left foot to serve balls in. Malsom subs in for Thomas and/or Ullmark... Freifeld comes in for Devey... you can have Brown come in for a bit and let Dellarose play in the six for a while... or Mara can come in and let Gaetino play in the six for a while.
Olivia Thomas
Bella Devey, Linda Ullmark, Kate Faasse
Riley Kennedy, Ashley Pennie
Tessa Dellarose, Hope Munson, Bella Gaetino, Aven Alvarez
I obviously don't attend practices, but in the limited time Brown has come in as a sub on defense, she hasn't been responsible for anything bad happening. I don't know why she doesn't get at least some minutes... and if so, then you could let Dellarose play the six and have either Kennedy or Pennie come off the bench and help with the legs. Playing a four-back also makes playing Mara at CB more attractive, too, because she has speed next to her in Munson to compensate for her lack of wheels. It just offers the most flexibility with limited options.Bella Devey, Linda Ullmark, Kate Faasse
Riley Kennedy, Ashley Pennie
Tessa Dellarose, Hope Munson, Bella Gaetino, Aven Alvarez
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When they were gone earlier, Eden Bretzer started and so did Eres Freifeld (we were still without Dellarose)... but thankfully we played Milwaukee, Rice, and UNCG at that time so we were able to use a lot of bench players late in the game.
In this case, you can let Bretzer come in for a little bit for Freifeld or Thomas and let Faasse go up top. You can have Brown come in for Freifeld and let Devey go up to the midfield. You can Mara come in and shift things around for Gaetino to play the six.
Olivia Thomas
Eres Freifeld, Linda Ullmark, Kate Faasse
Tessa Dellarose, Ashley Pennie
Bella Devey, Hope Munson, Bella Gaetino, and Aven Alvarez
Eres Freifeld, Linda Ullmark, Kate Faasse
Tessa Dellarose, Ashley Pennie
Bella Devey, Hope Munson, Bella Gaetino, and Aven Alvarez
In this case, you can let Bretzer come in for a little bit for Freifeld or Thomas and let Faasse go up top. You can have Brown come in for Freifeld and let Devey go up to the midfield. You can Mara come in and shift things around for Gaetino to play the six.
Switched to the 4-2-3-1 in the second half and scored two goals in the run of play. Team looks super comfortable in it.
Damon played a 4-3-3 early.
Up 3-1 with 6:30 to go.
Damon played a 4-3-3 early.
Up 3-1 with 6:30 to go.
Maddie Dimaria committed here. Big time pick up.
Huge pickup. The best part is, she turned down going pro and will play college..which is almost unheard of in the current landscape for a player of her caliber
Yeah, they're in a 4 back because the talent level forces it, which is unfortunate. It's just one of those years that the weaknesses dictate the formation and that's ok. I agree that they've been at their best in that formation. But Tessa is looking healthier and was a big improvement in the 6 last night. Aven and Devey have worked well together all season, so I'd match them up on the same side. Just a couple to tweaks, but overall in agreement.
Along with some others, I just don't understand some of the decisions. Playing OT back is a disaster. Munson did ok going forward last night, so she has some attacking skills, but I just don't get how that really helps this team. Devey continues to demonstrate that she is the best all-around player out there and I think using her as an attacking mid on the wing is the right position for her. But bringing up Munson and Gaetino just seems to be a waste of effort and talent. Whether they like it or not, those two are damn good defenders and belong side by side in the back. After all of my enthusiasm for Malsom last week, I was disappointed last night. A non-factor.
Every time Aven went for a header, the whole stadium physically cringed and held their breath.
One remaining thought - I had a perfect angle for Kate's shot last night and it was flipping brilliant. She had a very slim window that was closing quickly, and she just slotted that thing like a pro. I was looking right down that channel like a tunnel. So encouraged to see her take that shot rather than dumping off.
Super happy we won, but I have to be real here...
I thought last night was the worst game we've played all season, and we were saved by a few moments of excellence (OT's free kick right before halftime, KF first goal, and of course OT's perfect cross to KF for the header). Otherwise, we were really disappointing and played down to our competition. That was not a good BC team, I'm sorry. They had a couple of decent players and were scrappy, but we should have ran them off the field. We struggled to maintain any kind of possession...I'm amazed at how impatient they played when we had the ball. Just constantly trying to rush the ball forward and force things that are not there, or just bombing hopeful long balls that 90% of the time end up in turnovers. Tons of instances of overdribbling by our players into trouble instead of getting their heads up and seeing their open teammates. Very little recycling or switching the point of attack and being patient when nothing was there.
This is another game where I feel like Anson was probably cringing as he watched. It was not good soccer, it was not UNC womens' soccer to me. We won only because we have more talent and a couple of our best players bailed us out. We were not tactically better, we did not outwork BC, or do anything that screamed to me that this is one of the better teams in the country right now.
I'm getting frustrated with Damon a little bit in these games against lesser teams. I completely get the close losses to FSU and ND, but being tied on our home field with 15 minutes to go to BC, being tied at halftime at home vs Milwaukee, etc. Those are red flags to me. Maybe it's inexperience, but this group is really bad about playing down to the level of its opponents in games like last night. They get away from the way they need to be playing all the time, and start forcing things and end up with just a ridiculous amount of unnecessary turnovers.
BC could have VERY easily taken the lead late in that game last night. That corner kick with maybe 15 minutes left...we left someone WIDE OPEN right in the middle of the box, and thankfully her header went wide. I was so frustrated / unhappy at that point. We had sleepwalked through 75 minutes and had given a very average (to be nice about it) BC team all of the momentum on our own field. Thank goodness we found a way to save the game at the end. If I'm Damon right now, I'm pissed off and today would NOT be a fun practice for the players. You wouldn't see a single soccer ball...I'd make them watch the film of the game and point out all of the poor turnovers, and then we'd do a hell of a lot of running.
Also, he's got to start playing some of the bench more whether he wants to or not...with Kennedy and Malsom about to leave, he's got to get more minutes out of Freifeld, Bretzer, Brown, etc. as we're going to have to rely on them a lot down the stretch here. This is part of why I'm so disappointed in the performance last night. It should have been over at halftime, and then we could have gotten some more minutes for our bench. But instead our play dropped down to BC's level and we had to pull a houdini act in the last 10 minutes to get out of there with a win. Damon needs to raise the standard and expectations of his starters. A team good enough to beat Alabama 4-0 should not be tied with BC after almost 80 minutes, especially at home.
Glad Faasse got it going at the end there...she had not had a good game (for about the third straight match) up until she stepped up and saved us with that great strike to put us up 2-1. Let's hope that gets her going a little bit, because we need more from her.
I thought last night was the worst game we've played all season, and we were saved by a few moments of excellence (OT's free kick right before halftime, KF first goal, and of course OT's perfect cross to KF for the header). Otherwise, we were really disappointing and played down to our competition. That was not a good BC team, I'm sorry. They had a couple of decent players and were scrappy, but we should have ran them off the field. We struggled to maintain any kind of possession...I'm amazed at how impatient they played when we had the ball. Just constantly trying to rush the ball forward and force things that are not there, or just bombing hopeful long balls that 90% of the time end up in turnovers. Tons of instances of overdribbling by our players into trouble instead of getting their heads up and seeing their open teammates. Very little recycling or switching the point of attack and being patient when nothing was there.
This is another game where I feel like Anson was probably cringing as he watched. It was not good soccer, it was not UNC womens' soccer to me. We won only because we have more talent and a couple of our best players bailed us out. We were not tactically better, we did not outwork BC, or do anything that screamed to me that this is one of the better teams in the country right now.
I'm getting frustrated with Damon a little bit in these games against lesser teams. I completely get the close losses to FSU and ND, but being tied on our home field with 15 minutes to go to BC, being tied at halftime at home vs Milwaukee, etc. Those are red flags to me. Maybe it's inexperience, but this group is really bad about playing down to the level of its opponents in games like last night. They get away from the way they need to be playing all the time, and start forcing things and end up with just a ridiculous amount of unnecessary turnovers.
BC could have VERY easily taken the lead late in that game last night. That corner kick with maybe 15 minutes left...we left someone WIDE OPEN right in the middle of the box, and thankfully her header went wide. I was so frustrated / unhappy at that point. We had sleepwalked through 75 minutes and had given a very average (to be nice about it) BC team all of the momentum on our own field. Thank goodness we found a way to save the game at the end. If I'm Damon right now, I'm pissed off and today would NOT be a fun practice for the players. You wouldn't see a single soccer ball...I'd make them watch the film of the game and point out all of the poor turnovers, and then we'd do a hell of a lot of running.
Also, he's got to start playing some of the bench more whether he wants to or not...with Kennedy and Malsom about to leave, he's got to get more minutes out of Freifeld, Bretzer, Brown, etc. as we're going to have to rely on them a lot down the stretch here. This is part of why I'm so disappointed in the performance last night. It should have been over at halftime, and then we could have gotten some more minutes for our bench. But instead our play dropped down to BC's level and we had to pull a houdini act in the last 10 minutes to get out of there with a win. Damon needs to raise the standard and expectations of his starters. A team good enough to beat Alabama 4-0 should not be tied with BC after almost 80 minutes, especially at home.
Glad Faasse got it going at the end there...she had not had a good game (for about the third straight match) up until she stepped up and saved us with that great strike to put us up 2-1. Let's hope that gets her going a little bit, because we need more from her.
I have no great answer for that. As a coach, sometimes you're just stuck with the players/roster you have. He has to find ways to get some of the players on the bench a little more playing time....unfortunately right now, in the games vs weaker teams (like BC last night) we are playing down to the level of our opponents. This is killing any chance we have to get some of the bench players more time on the field. See my prior post above. Super frustrated that we let BC hang around for so long....we should have put that game away by halftime.
Otherwise, the coaching staff just has to grind every single day at practice to try to develop the bench players and really push them to work on the things that are keeping them off the field. That is easier said than done, and usually happens very slowly. I look back and Dean Smith and Roy Williams, and how good those guys were at developing depth over the course of a season. It frustrated me at times, but you can't deny their results over the long term. I used to always say that Roy's substitution patterns would always cost us a couple of regular season games each year, but the tradeoff was that we were usually much more prepared once the postseason rolled around, and he could go to his bench and depend on them not to crap the bed if he needed to. That's really hard to do when you are in those shoes though...it's human nature to want to leave your best players on the field for as long as possible.
Damon has just got to push the team to raise its standards and focus against lesser teams so that we can put them away and A) get some rest for the starters, and B) get some opportunities for the bench players to gain some game experience. We've played pretty decent soccer against the better teams we've played, but it has gotten really sloppy against the weaker teams for some reason. That's just a mentality/focus thing that can be fixed, but he's got to get on them about it.
And then of course, it comes down to recruiting and the transfer portal now. Your point about NIL is a good one, and I don't know what to say about that, other than that I hate what NIL and free transfers have done to college athletics. As slimy as it feels, I guess the other thing Damon (and every other coach out there) has to also do now is become a fundraiser. He's got to reach out to prominent alumni and boosters and beg for more financial support if he's going to be able to go out and buy the top talent. I just hate that this is what we've turned college athletics into now.
The biggest thing though is that he's got to keep raising the level of play and really push his young team to play up to their potential, game in and game out. Building that long term, consistent level of success will attract talent even when maybe the money isn't there. Players want to win and they want to play with other great players, and a lot of the kids coming through are already from relatively well off families, so money is not the end all be all for all of them (but obviously is for many). If you know how much it costs players to play top notch academy/ECNL travel soccer in high school, you know most of them already come from money to even be able to afford that.
Your point is a real one though...there is no easy solution to any of this, and coaches today live in a world that is very difficult if you aren't being bankrolled in a way that allows you to keep up with the Joneses when it comes to talent. You can be the best coach in the world, and still have very average results if you don't have the players capable of executing what you want/need them to do.
Damon is still experimenting with formations and preferred positions with his starters. A lot of emphasis on BG launching long balls from right this game. Starting Ullmark at the 9 didn’t work, although she was much more effective playing mid and carrying the ball forward. I don’t know if it was planned or improvised, but switching Faasse to the left side opened her up for the two goals. Still need to find a more effective center mid to control play and direct the transitions from defense.
Great moments for Thomas: she nailed that moving ball on the set piece for an undefendable shot. And her footwork to clear a lane for the cross to Faasse's header created a superlative assist as well.
Just feels like it's a bit late to still be messing with the positions.
I get that it didn't look great last night, but I think they took what was given, which was a lot of open field in the middle third. Gaetino and Munson made several long runs into attacking positions without a lot of pressure. That doesn't quite explain the bombing, but that's been going on since the beginning of the season. I don't have an issue with that as Gaetino is really pretty good at it. The problem is the lack of receiving/ball handling on the other end of those. Again, fundamentals just aren't there. I hate to keep harping on this, but it is a major problem.
How good is 5-7 F/MF Maddie Dimaria of Fenton, MO?
- Reigning Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year... earned as a HS Sophomore.
- TopDrawerSoccer.com 2027 #1 recruit
- PrepSoccer.com 2027 #1 recruit
- She was pulled up to the U-17 USWYNT that Kennedy and Malsom are headed to in a couple of weeks. This will be her first cap at the U-17 level (previous experience on U-16 and below) She is one of 7 players 16 years old or younger.
She was the NATIONAL Gatorade Player of the Year as a FRESHMAN... that was the first time ever a freshman won the award. Very excited! But will keep cautious that she'll likely have multiple offers to skip college before long... she's only 16.
Carolina Reyna is a tarheel. Mentioned a while back that she had strong UNC connections so no big surprise there. But wow..what a 1-2 punch back to back days for UNC women's soccer and Damon Nahas
I would like to officially welcome both of you young ladies to the family. Go Heels!
What a difference having a coach makes in recruiting! 