An unranked team is coming to Ellis Field to face the #5 team in the nation tonight. That's wouldn't be unheard of if not for the fact that Texas A&M is the team that is currently unranked.

After a rough few days on the road, the Aggies limp back home to face the top team in the SEC, South Carolina.

The Gamecocks are currently 10-0-1, with the only scuff on their record coming in the form of a 1-1 tie at Oklahoma in their season opening game. South Carolina is 4-0 in conference play with wins over Georgia (3-0), Auburn (1-0), LSU (3-1) and Kentucky (3-0).

SC has outscored their opponents 28-5 this season and has 6 total shutouts on the year. South Carolina is averaging 2.5 goals per game while giving up a measly .45 goals per match.

Junior forward Savannah McCaskill (#7) leads the team in btoh goals and assists, with 10 and 6 respectively. McCaskill was 2014 SEC Freshman of the Year and was 2015 1st team All-SEC. She's looking to contend as SEC Offensive Player of the Year as her stats have her on top of the league.

Senior midfielder Chelsea Drennan (#11) has added 5 goals and 3 assists on the year. Texas native, Sophie Groff (#5) is another player to watch on this South Carolina attack.

South Carolina has two new goalkeepers seeing action this season. Mika Krzeczowski has seen the bulk of minutes in goal, earning 8 starts this year. She has allowed 4 goals while totaling 21 saves. Hunter Pfeifer has 3 starts this season, allowing 1 goal and making 3 saves.

The last two teams that the Aggies have faced have not been great teams. Unfortunately South Carolina is a GREAT team. The Ags may get some pieces back to help fend off South Carolina, but an Aggie win would go down as quite the upset. Still, the Aggies need to get back on track tonight to mend their post-season hopes.

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We can't lose this game if we want to make the NCAA tournament. USC scores significantly fewer goals on the road than at home, so hopefully we can focus on shutting down #7 and escaping with a tie.

we will probably go back to a 4 person back line, and we might as well play 3 forwards if we are just going to kick long balls...

Big game for Coach G tonight. His streak of NCAA tournaments is on the line. He needs to find a way to win this one.

Agree we should return to a 4 back. It would be great if Malherbe is able to play tonight, as she could certainly be useful in containing McCaskill, as well as taking some of the midfield burden off of Harvey. If Harryman returns too, all the better.

May seem rather early in the going to say it, but this game is pretty much do-or-die.

Maybe we could get TexAgs to batter & fry up a soccer ball for this game?

Malherbe will be back, but I don't think she'll be on McCaskill much. I think Paulson will have most of that duty. Harryman will not be back for this game.

Zero shots in the first half.

But no goals allowed either.

Aggies not very dangerous on the Offense tonight. South Carolina wins 1-0.

Refs missed a hand ball on the goal. Game changing missed call.

Quite a heartfelt effort, but a bit of bad luck (with controversy) on the South Carolina goal, dooms the Aggies. Of course, a game is the sum of its parts and the lack of offensive output (zero shots in the first half), combined with an inability to possess for any extended period contributed as much to the loss as anything.

Liked the line up change at halftime with Pounds joining Harvey, Malherbe, and Arrietta in the midfield, leaving Crabtree as the point forward. Seemed to be effective. Have been wanting to mention (but keep forgetting) the overall fitness level of the Aggies, which has been impressive to me. Good to see Malherbe back on the field, even in somewhat limited minutes. Pounds and Harvey worked and worked. Those two want to win as badly as anybody.

Unfortunately, our outside backs continue to be problematic. So many long, aimless balls launched to the other team, over the opposite goal line, or straight out of bounds. A great free kick opportunity near the end of the game was squandered because they simply were't paying attention. This needs to be better.

Given how well South Carolina is playing, their depth and individual talent, a 0-1 loss wouldn't have been horrible under most circumstances. The fact that it was very much a must win game makes it pretty awful. I haven't done any math, but am sure somebody (Hidden? Expert? Redd?) will calculate whether the team can conceivably still make the SEC Tourney. Not even thinking about the NCAA's at this point.

The second half was a different game. The match was marred by some bad calls (And no calls). I am inconsolable.

We can still make the SEC tourney, no problem. But we're out of the NCAA unless we win the SEC tournament.

Stupid hand ball

Thanks Redd - I figured you'd know the answer.

What's the rule on number of yellow cards? Is Mikaela Harvey in danger?

The better team won tonight. Sc spacing was so much better than the ags.

I think the limit on yellows is 6 or 7 during the regular season. It resets for the postseason. If we can win our next 6 we can make the NCAA but we will have to win some in the SEC tourney. Our upcoming opponents have better rpis than all but UCLA and FSU of our non conference opponents but we need to win, and you can't win without scoring a goal. Our effort and possession was much better in the 2nd half. If we play the rest of the way the way we played the second half and can score a goal somehow, we can make the tournament.

quote:

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I think the limit on yellows is 6 or 7 during the regular season. It resets for the postseason. If we can win our next 6 we can make the NCAA but we will have to win some in the SEC tourney. Our upcoming opponents have better rpis than all but UCLA and FSU of our non conference opponents but we need to win, and you can't win without scoring a goal. Our effort and possession was much better in the 2nd half. If we play the rest of the way the way we played the second half and can score a goal somehow, we can make the tournament.

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I think it's 5 yellows before she has to sit a game.

I just don't see our RPI moving up enough even if we win our next 6, maybe though.

The first 40 minutes of the game was a joke. Never though I'd see a game in which the ags basically park the bus. We had the ball in our offensive half of the field for almost zero time and rarely connected a pass going forward. South Carolina connected so many good passes and many numerous nice runs to get on the end of some great passes. Even with that, they never really threatened in the half which makes sense since we had decided to play so defensively.
Finally with about 5 minutes left we decided to move forward and actually had some possession. We carried that momentum throughtout the rst of the game. We played them about even the last 50 minutes. We definetely caused them some problems when we pressured their back line. Unfortunately we could never get in the position to threaten. I really thought we should have looked to shoot more from a little deeper to give us a chance at sneaking one under the bar, getting a corner, or opening up some passing lanes.
Defensively we kept McCaskill in check on all but 1 play and she got a goal. A defensive error plus keeper error, coupled with a missed call... To be fair the position of the play, the two girls and the ball, made it difficult for either official to see it, but it was a clear handball.
Harvey still running her mouth. If I'm the other team I would be after her all game. She has too much skill to be hurting her own game by getting cards for being a hothead.
I haven't looked at it too closely, but 7-1 the rest of the way may get us in. That's winning 7 straight and losing 2nd round of sec tourney. If we lose a regular season game we probably need to win three in the tourney.

Our first half was miserable. Our inability to possess is a real detriment. To be very direct, only five of our current starters can justify being starters for a top half SEC team.

Injuries have had a tremendous negative impact on this team because we have such limited quality depth and experience. The ladies are working their butts off but isn't enough to get it done.

It's even more obvious on the offensive side of the ball. The shift in lineup in the second half was a good move by the coaches.

The handful of top players we have will have to put lots and lots of minutes on the field if the team expects to get into the post season. The younger less experienced players do not have what it takes yet to be game changers. Maybe in the future but not this year.

Getting Mahlerbe back was an important step. Bates is needed desperately but she is weeks away. Harryman doesn't matter at this point. The defensive unit does a good job defensively. It would better if they had some offensive skill like the group from a few years ago but that's not going to happen. We are lucky if some of them can even connect a pass so I'm willing to accept that they are good defenders who work very hard and have maintained a positive attitude.

I would love to see them advance to the post season but I'm willing to take less as long as they continue giving it all they've got and never giving up.

First off McCaskill clearly got away with a hand ball on the winning goal that should have been disallowed. That was ridiculous that the linesman didn't call it as it was right in front of him. So, yes, the game should have gone to OT and probably ended in a tie as neither team was really threatening at that point in the game. But the bottom line is that despite a better team effort in the 2nd half, A&M has lost its third straight match for only the 4th time in school history. And it's not like they've lost to 3 straight elite teams; yes, South Carolina is a good top 10-15 type of team but does anyone think they would beat UCLA, Florida St, Virginia, or Stanford on a neutral field? The Gamecocks have a very good backline and a superstar player in McCaskill that literally carries the offense herself. I could be wrong but I don't see them as a College Cup type team.

The first half was a complete disaster for A&M. Beyond just the horrid play and lack of any rhythm or offensive attack at all, look at this stat line at the half - 0 shots, 0 corners, 7 fouls, only one sequence of more than 2 passes connected in the offensive side and only 1-2 forays into the South Carolina final third. That's about as bad a half of soccer I've ever seen a Coach G team play. Yes, the wind had an effect on the game, but you just cannot be that awful even in less than ideal conditions. The 2nd half was obviously much better across the board and there was more of an effort to make things happen, but in the end only 2-3 real chances to score and only 3 shots total the entire game. Ouch. I did a quick historical check and this is by far and away, from a statistical perspective, the worst offense in school history. A&M averages 1.33 goals a game, a truly dismal and pathetic offensive stat. The previous worst goal per game average was right at 2.00. And if you take away the one outburst of 4 goals against Rice, we would be under a goal per game. I can never remember a team at A&M that so utterly collapsed after losing one player (Bates) on the offensive end. A&M is struggling to even get shots of any kind off in the final third. Thankfully A&M has a more or less solid defense that can keep it in games.

As precarious as the season now is considering our low RPI and even winning out might not be enough to make the NCAA tournament, I may be even more concerned that the Coach G and a few of the players seemed completely detached from reality as it relates to the current state of the team. Reading some of the quotes following the game are borderline delusional. Contrast that with Harvey, who has been a hothead and picked up multiple yellow cards and at times been disgruntled, but at least she recognizes that this season is on the precipice of disaster and she hates losing. Coach G has never missed the tourney and his worst record at A&M was 14-8 in 1998. It will be a true challenge to avoid losing more than 8 games at this point and I would not rule out a losing record overall - something that was unthinkable before the season started. Remember that, although not at the level of recent years, this team still has more talent on paper than a majority of its opponents. We have several key injuries, only 1 true threat at forward (or offensively for that matter), and a bunch of freshmen thrown onto the field before they were ready, but we should expect better results than 2-3 against these five opponents in an average-at-best conference.

A lot of us praised the coaching staff for their game plans and development of players last season despite a rough stretch in conference play that led to an Elite 8, so they now deserve some criticism for not having this team playing with better fundamentals and just doing simple things like completing more than 2 passes before turning the ball over. Right now the only strategy I can see is for the outside backs to either turn around and pass back to each other or the GK, or to simply kick the ball long and hope for the best when there is only 1 lone forward in attack. I do think that having Pounds in the midfield is the best option at this point in order to get her involved in the game. And with Harvey nowhere near 100%, she is not able to run at a defense and create chances on her own. I don't know what's happened to Arietta but she is not the same player we saw at the beginning of the season. Moreover, I think the freshmen have hit a wall and are struggling for the most part now as well. Anyway, this will really be a good test of this coaching staff's ability to improve a team that is struggling.

Is it possible Coach G in the first half elected to play defensively to conserve energy to get ready for more offense the second half ?

Just for funsies, here's a screen grab of the zoomed in replay of the handball they showed last night on the broadcast (and in the stadium).

To be clear, USC was the better team and deserved to win. But, 98% of ALL hand balls are unintentional. "FIFA" It is a fowl if the player "strikes" the ball which 7 did case closed. It was in clear view of the linesmen who blew it.

Bad call
Bad coaching

What's confusing to me is... our coaching staff hasn't forgotten how to coach. They have to be going crazy seeing all the inconsistency on the field. Our staff has never been ones to get up and yell during games, but it's also weird to see the same mistakes over and over with minimal in game correction.

It's just all so confusing. I would've never thought this year would be the one to break the streak of making the tournament, but I guess it had to happen some day?

We have had this referee before. He lacks confidence in his decisions and is unable to sense the overall game flow and adjust accordingly. As a result his decisions lack consistency and he addresses dissent by making a production of talking to the players. Examples:
Harvey is taken down (no call), then she takes a USC player down on a 50/50 chance (foul). She slams her fist and mouths off (yellow card). A little later a USC player mouths off at length about a call (no warning, no discussion).
A hard-kicked ball from 10 yards away caroms off Arrieta's arm before she can get it out of the way (hand ball). A bouncing ball in the penalty box is deflected down to her feet by Savannah's hand and she scores (inadvertent contact). This last call is the most egregious, as referees are normally very cautious about making it if it will impact the game (it did) and it is not crystal clear (it wasn't).
(The Eagle article said the referee saw the hand ball but said it was an inadvertent touch and didn't contribute to the scoring shot. Obvious joke)

hsvag said:

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(The Eagle article said the referee saw the hand ball but said it was an inadvertent touch and didn't contribute to the scoring shot. Obvious joke)

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That just pisses me off even more.

Poor coaching, injuries are no excuse for G he has to find a way to overcome these things.

This team is underachieving up front. I called this out early on and was ridiculed on this board. Facts are this.. the least productive offensive team in Aggie soccer history.

Perplexed Ag said:

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Poor coaching, injuries are no excuse for G he has to find a way to overcome these things.

This team is underachieving up front. I called this out early on and was ridiculed on this board. Facts are this.. the least productive offensive team in Aggie soccer history.

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You were ridiculed because you called G a mediocre coach.