It's already time for conference play??

The Aggies open up their SEC Schedule tonight on the road at Auburn. Kickoff is set for 6:30PM.

Auburn is 3-3-1.
Wins: South Alabama 3-0, North Dakota 2-0, High Point 3-1
Losses: @Clemson 1-2 (2OT), UNC 0-5 (in Durham), @Duke 0-2
Tie: Lipsomb 2-2

Auburn got off to a bit of a rocky start last season too before cruising to an Elite Eight appearance. But this isn't the same Auburn team as last year (and that team lost to A&M 2-1).

Ags gonna keep the good thing rollin' in the wake of their destruction of KU. 2-1 Ags. BTHOauburn !

I think we only had 17 players in uniform at Kansas, but Mikaela will be back and I'll be looking to see if Abby and Kendall are in uniform. From here on out Mikaela needs to be careful, as another red card means she will miss the next 2 games the way I read the rules. If she gets a yellow, then G needs to really consider taking her out or her team mates need to calm her down.
Will also look to see if we play 4 on the back line. Our last time there I think it was Dotson that knocked Karlie Mueller out cold leading to a goal and there was no foul called.

Will definitely be interesting to see if we keep the 4 back look. It certainly transformed the team at Kansas.

I think Abby had surgery this week.

For?

Any work about Kendall? Was watching Mississippi and Florida last night and I counted about 18 players in uniform on the bench for Florida.

Kendall should be good to go

Beat the hell, Ags!

Lineup posted. Only change from Kansas looks to be Mikaela for Addie.

Auburn up 1-0 at the half.

Not much in the way of dangerous chances for us. Their goal was set up on a rare misplay by Stephanie. Auburn doing a good job on defense.

Very lackluster first half. Passing and spacing not good at all. The backline is just not quick enough to recover from mistakes and closing down space. Everyone looks a step slow tonight.

Our passing is really off tonight.

Good chances in the box of late, just cannot put it in the back of the net.

We can wait till the last 20 minutes of the game to show up. Have to start the game with this intensity. We're not a good come-from-behind team.

And that makes it that much easier for our opponent in those last 20 minutes as well...

Very frustrating game. Lots of miss hits in the box and just undisciplined shots. Not the showing I was hoping for. A lot of upside to the team, if they can work on finishing their drives in the box and utilize set pieces.

I'm only a casual fan, but I've never understood the offense based on putting long 50-50 balls in the air, especially during a comeback attempt.

The Auburn keeper will probably make several defender or keeper of the week teams for shutting us out. That is the third time this year we have been shut out in regulation.

Had some good opportunities on goal but could not convert in the second half. Were was Emily Bates tonight after a great game at Kansas?

I think that was the first time McKayla and Jimena had come out of a game this year. Good to see Kendall healthy.

Devastating loss tonight for A&M. Starting conference 0-1 is a big hole to climb out of if you want to win a conference title. The Florida game has become a near must win game if we want to stay in the race, especially with South Carolina much better than expected. But tonight's game was another indicator that this team is wildly inconsistent. That's the 3rd game A&M has been shutout in regulation play, mainly because we cannot consistently finish chances in front of goal. A&M had 19 shots with only 3 of them on frame, that's just ridiculously bad for such a talented squad. My guess is that we do work on it in practice and probably look good, but then in live game action we tighten up and can't execute.

When taking shots on goal the team has to be better than just kicking it straight to the GK. Why not aim for a corner instead? Crabtree misses a point blank shot early in the match (albeit a tough angle), Watt and Pounds both put their SOG right into the chest of the GK, which by the way ends up looking good even though she's not a good GK. There was shot by Watt that was headed for the corner of the goal that rebounded off the GK and would have been easily tapped in had Watt followed her shot instead of watching it. And Pounds struggled to beat one defender late in the match for a 1v1 opportunity, and then missed a shot that went right to the GK. And outside of Grace Piper, is there anyone in the A&M offense that can head the ball cleanly on goal? This particular team is one of the worst in the air that I can remember.

Outside of the last 20 minutes, the midfield was a bit of a mess. What happened to the Emily Bates we saw on Sunday that was sprinting down the sidelines and stretching the defense? Almost every time she touched the ball in the first half she turned inside instead of using her speed to the outside to beat the defender, and it usually resulted in a turnover. And her shots are almost always high and wide of the goal. Both Malherbe and McCain did not repeat their stellar play from Sunday either, instead struggling to maintain possession, and in Malherbe's case turning the ball over that led to the Auburn goal. The passing in general just wasn't crisp enough and there was a lot of hesitation on 50/50 balls which could have been won. And while Harvey played okay, I'm really beginning to wonder if the midfield actually plays with better tempo and consistency when she's not in there. I could be wrong.

The defense was decent and Lopez had a really good game against Dodson, but we are slow and we don't close down space at the 20 yard mark fast enough. The Auburn goal came on a simple counter dribble and time to slot the ball in the back corner of the net. I thought Morche misplayed it a bit by jumping too early, but it was a good shot. I'm still really concerned about the counter attacks and some indecision in goal despite have Cally back there to help at times with 4 in the back. There were several times when Cally pushed forward and didn't get back, leaving the vulnerable 3-back set that has had problems all season.

The whole team just seemed a step slow most of the night and didn't have that sense of urgency that they had against Kansas. This shouldn't be a tired team with all of the rest and even a cancelled game early in the season. Yes, the last 20 minutes A&M put a lot of pressure on Auburn, but it was too little too late. A&M is not a good come from behind team. When we get out to an early lead the game can snowball in our favor quickly because we play looser and faster. But it seems every time we give up a goal early we tighten up and starting feeling the pressure and start forcing things or making bad decisions on the ball.

While I do admit we probably aren't the team that I expected coming into the season, there is still way too much talent and the pieces in place for this group to be 4-2-1 through 7 games. That's just not acceptable. A&M is now 11-10-2 since 2015 in SEC play, a very troubling statistic for a program that used to cruise through conference play with 1 or 2 losses. The coaches really need to get control of this season quickly or there will be a lot of questions in the offseason. The good news is that A&M has gotten a break in the scheduling because many of our opponents are having good seasons, thus our RPI is still around #30 with time left to win games against high RPI opponents in the SEC. The bad news is that losing to Auburn (#75) could end up being a bad loss.

HiddenAg2 said:

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... tonight's game was another indicator that this team is wildly inconsistent.

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Says it all. Still plenty of time to recover.

Quote:

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When taking shots on goal the team has to be better than just kicking it straight to the GK.

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after seeing the lopsided box scores of our losses and draws i thought it was just bad luck but after seeing us in the 2nd half tonight for the first time since i watched the opening game, we have a really overzealous offense. dont want to mention any names, but a couple players look way out of sorts.

I missed the first half of the game but my quick take was we played much better when Arrieta was on the left wing and Bates on the right. Just my opinion but Bates has much better instincts on goal than Pounds or Watt. If it up to was me, I'd flip Bates with either Watt or Pounds. She'd have less defensive responsibility and can focus more on offense because over the past 3 years, when Emily is making plays, we play well.

I only caught the last 30 minutes. We pretty much dominated possession, if you can call it that. Our ability to strike the ball is pretty bad. We took numerous shots and rarely hit them anywhere near the goal. Movement off the ball is nonexistent, which kills any form of an attack. We have to finish better and we have to work to get better chances.
The Kansas game is the offense we are capable of, why we cannot improve on consistency is beyond me. Everyone needs to do a better job.

Ugghhh!!! Reminds me a lot of last year. The movement is inconsistent, the skill level below where it needs to be to support a possession style game, etc, etc etc.

This should be a far better team than last year but as of now it appears to be only marginally better. when the team moved the ball quickly and unselfishly they look good. When they hold the ball too long or just launch it aimlessly we look vulnerable. Speed of play and movement are the keys this year but it has not emerged at any consistent level yet.

As of today I'm very disappointed. Let's see what happens next Thursday.

When the ref handed the ball to Mikaela for the second half kickoff Mikaela said "thank you". It seemed like we gave up trying to work the ball through the midfield and just hit it long.

During the game Dave and Kristie commented halfway through the second half that we had not taken any shots in that half. Looking at the box score we took a shot at 41:41 late in the first half and the next shot was not until the 69:48 mark, almost 25 minutes into the second half. Including that shot, we took 14 shots and had 3 corners the rest of the game.

Expected more from Watts - getting less !

Expected more from team - getting much less !

Malherbe a factor in first few games - little lately ( out of position ? ) . Bates and Pounds only real shooters .

Crabtree fast but extremely slow to get off shots - should have more goals ( one this season ?).

Expected more goals like in Kansas - instead we were shutout 2 of last three !

We made the Auburn keeper SEC Defensive Player of the Week and put their goal scorer on the Top Drawer Soccer Team of the Week.