Well, obviously it's frustrating to lose in the 89th minute on a rebound in the box after a great save, but overall it wasn't a bad night for A&M. Keep in mind this is arguably one of the best women's college soccer teams ever assembled and the Aggies almost escaped with a 0-0 tie with a team made up of mostly underclassmen. The Seminoles will lull you to sleep with their precision passing in the back and then strike when you make the slightest mistake in coverage. The box score will say FSU dominated every category and possession (70-30!), but A&M made the Seminoles work extremely hard to get any real chances on goal. I wouldn't be surprised if A&M is the fastest, most athletic team they play all season. How many times did we see the FSU flankers frustrated with their inability to get past our defenders or fast outside mids and forwards working back in defense? You could see it on their faces and it was fun to watch. Outside of maybe the '07 bunch, I don't remember another A&M team that could match up with elite attackers and make them listless for most of a match. A fair score line in this one would have been 2-1 FSU when you take into account the horribly missed PK call for A&M in the first half and the offsetting over-the-line probable goal for FSU in the second half. So yes, the Seminoles deserved to win the game, but the encouraging part is that the Aggies can push a team of this caliber on the road.
The game unfolded about as we expected with A&M hunkered down behind the ball and FSU passing around the backline with tentative forays into the offensive third in the first half. In the second half the coaches moved us up a bit into the attack and it quickly resulted in space for the Seminoles to work and a few scoring chances. So we had to back off a bit until the team got confident enough to run at FSU in the last 20 minutes or so. I really would have liked to see OT because we were gaining some momentum late in the game.
Staying with the positive, let's start with the back line, which I have to say was absolutely phenomenal tonight. Yes, there were a few mistakes here and there, but when you are facing an unrelenting attack from elite players, holding FSU scoreless for almost 90 minutes is a great accomplishment. And couple that with a terrific performance from rising star Kenna Caldwell and it makes you very confident in this group going forward. It's going to be tough to score on A&M this season. It was difficult to see what we started in formation-wise tonight but it looked like a flexible 4-4-2 that morphed a few times throughout the match with Geczik moving into the midfield position as the match wore on. But the Kolb-Sample-Smith tandem was impenetrable most of the night and it was the best backline in a long time, maybe a couple of years. It's seriously time to start talking about Katie Smith being flat out the best player on this team. How many times did she use her speed and strength to shield FSU forwards or simply knock them off the ball? I don't remember her beaten once all night or even out of position. There was one sequence late in the second half when she was a step behind FSU's fastest forward, recovered and sprinted to win the ball away from her and shield it out for a goal kick. Not many defenders in the country could that against FSU. I'd like to see her in a race with McDonald. She also made a long run forward past the entire FSU team late in the game that almost resulted in a goal from her cross into the box. If she continues at this level of play, Smith will be an All-American this season. Sample had a solid game as well, stepping up several times to win crosses into the box or stopping potential opportunities in the box. She did have a few errant passes forward but she is very dependable. Kolb, who really struggled against Baylor, was moved to outside back and had a much better match tonight. She consistently stayed with her forward and made it difficult to get past her. With Pante moving into the midfield, maybe Kolb will be a permanent addition to the back line because of her skill and speed to stay with athletic attackers. FSU did have a few breakaways and crosses that should have scored in the second half, but those were not the fault of the back line, instead mistakes in the midfield on errant passes.
At forward we found out that Maile Hayes was not a one hit wonder as she harassed FSU defenders and midfielders the entire game. Her motor is just amazing and she created the first half chance on goal with a sweet stop and go that left the FSU defender in the dust and then delivered a perfect pass to McDonald for a shot that was blocked by an FSU hand ball. She had a few other forays in the second half, but mainly she just uses her athleticism to win a lot of 50/50 balls. Of all the freshmen, she has been the biggest surprise and I'm sure the coaches are very excited about her future. It will be interesting to see if Ali Russell (who didn't play tonight) can keep the starting spot up top. I might be tempted to have them both on the field as their tenacity could feed off each other. McDonald had a good game as well, mostly coming back as an extra defender when FSU moved into the offensive third. She is so quick that she snuffed out several attacks and stole the ball a few times as well. Jai Smith and Natalie Abel also logged minutes off the bench, with Jai making several good effort plays. Of course the main issue with the group is that their purpose is to get shots on goal and score. Even with Laney Carroll out with a nagging injury, creating only 2 shots on the night won't get it done against anyone. They didn't get much help from an inept midfield, but even creating a few more chances 1v1 to get shots off is what is needed going forward.
Unfortunately we have to address the main weakness of this squad, which to this point is the truly abysmal midfield. It's perplexing because there is talent here, beginning with Olivieri, who is just simply struggling right now. She just doesn't seem comfortable and cannot keep possession as she did just a few months ago. She does deliver some very good passes across the field from time to time, but she had several sloppy passes forward or just simply stopped instead of moving forward into the attack. She is not in the flow with her teammates and she is clearly frustrated. She also is a focus of opponents now and she will have to adjust to being bumped and fouled all season long and learn how to play through it. We need her in top form to be a good team this year. It only got worse for the rest of the midfield. Mia Pante was just awesome in her first few games but tonight seemed a bit lost at times against the talented Seminoles. Playing outside mid (and sometimes at forward) she struggled to touch the ball and was not much of a factor at all. She is just too talented to be that ineffective. I wonder if moving her inside next to Olivieri would help? Coming off a strong effort against Baylor, Taylor Pounds just wasn't effective in holding possession and moving the ball forward from the defenders. Kendall Bates really struggled and lost possession several times throughout the match and made errant passes forward, including a bad giveaway in midfield that led to an FSU should have been goal. And Geczik, who is on her third position change now, was up and down throughout. Kate Colvin, who continues her perplexing decline from last season's form, logged significant minutes but it was scary when she touched the ball because it was hard to tell where the ball would end up. A bright spot was Carissa Boeckmann, who came off the bench to provide some good minutes and created some real possession and chances forward in the second half. We might need to let her just grow into the position as a starter because she has the talent. A&M did play five in the midfield at times tonight, and with the forwards stepping back to help, there is no excuse to be this poor coming off last season. It seems to me that there isn't the movement off the ball to provide the triangle options for passes to keep possession, which made last year's group pretty good. I saw several times when a mid would have the ball, look around unsure what to do, then simply stop moving forward and reverse it backward or just lose it entirely. FSU is really good at pressuring the ball when they lose it, so it did force us into many mistakes. Although this isn't just an opponent issue as we couldn't hold possession against North Texas or Baylor either. I really don't know the solution here but the coaches will need to figure it out quickly with three more Top 10 opponents ahead of them. I do think that A&M will be able to more fully challenge FSU next year at home with some incoming help in the midfield from Georgia Leb and Sydney Becerra.
The TCU game is going to be critical for this team's psyche. We really need a result for momentum heading into the big Clemson game next week. TCU hasn't forgotten the 1-0 loss at the end of last season and they have a good team. Can A&M gain some possession and play into our strengths in the attack? One of the strengths of this team is that there really aren't truly defined positions with all the athletes in this bunch and the coaches can put together a lot of different combinations. The key to success will be finding the right mix against each opponent and the ability to quickly adjust in the flow of a game to counter as needed.
The game unfolded about as we expected with A&M hunkered down behind the ball and FSU passing around the backline with tentative forays into the offensive third in the first half. In the second half the coaches moved us up a bit into the attack and it quickly resulted in space for the Seminoles to work and a few scoring chances. So we had to back off a bit until the team got confident enough to run at FSU in the last 20 minutes or so. I really would have liked to see OT because we were gaining some momentum late in the game.
Staying with the positive, let's start with the back line, which I have to say was absolutely phenomenal tonight. Yes, there were a few mistakes here and there, but when you are facing an unrelenting attack from elite players, holding FSU scoreless for almost 90 minutes is a great accomplishment. And couple that with a terrific performance from rising star Kenna Caldwell and it makes you very confident in this group going forward. It's going to be tough to score on A&M this season. It was difficult to see what we started in formation-wise tonight but it looked like a flexible 4-4-2 that morphed a few times throughout the match with Geczik moving into the midfield position as the match wore on. But the Kolb-Sample-Smith tandem was impenetrable most of the night and it was the best backline in a long time, maybe a couple of years. It's seriously time to start talking about Katie Smith being flat out the best player on this team. How many times did she use her speed and strength to shield FSU forwards or simply knock them off the ball? I don't remember her beaten once all night or even out of position. There was one sequence late in the second half when she was a step behind FSU's fastest forward, recovered and sprinted to win the ball away from her and shield it out for a goal kick. Not many defenders in the country could that against FSU. I'd like to see her in a race with McDonald. She also made a long run forward past the entire FSU team late in the game that almost resulted in a goal from her cross into the box. If she continues at this level of play, Smith will be an All-American this season. Sample had a solid game as well, stepping up several times to win crosses into the box or stopping potential opportunities in the box. She did have a few errant passes forward but she is very dependable. Kolb, who really struggled against Baylor, was moved to outside back and had a much better match tonight. She consistently stayed with her forward and made it difficult to get past her. With Pante moving into the midfield, maybe Kolb will be a permanent addition to the back line because of her skill and speed to stay with athletic attackers. FSU did have a few breakaways and crosses that should have scored in the second half, but those were not the fault of the back line, instead mistakes in the midfield on errant passes.
At forward we found out that Maile Hayes was not a one hit wonder as she harassed FSU defenders and midfielders the entire game. Her motor is just amazing and she created the first half chance on goal with a sweet stop and go that left the FSU defender in the dust and then delivered a perfect pass to McDonald for a shot that was blocked by an FSU hand ball. She had a few other forays in the second half, but mainly she just uses her athleticism to win a lot of 50/50 balls. Of all the freshmen, she has been the biggest surprise and I'm sure the coaches are very excited about her future. It will be interesting to see if Ali Russell (who didn't play tonight) can keep the starting spot up top. I might be tempted to have them both on the field as their tenacity could feed off each other. McDonald had a good game as well, mostly coming back as an extra defender when FSU moved into the offensive third. She is so quick that she snuffed out several attacks and stole the ball a few times as well. Jai Smith and Natalie Abel also logged minutes off the bench, with Jai making several good effort plays. Of course the main issue with the group is that their purpose is to get shots on goal and score. Even with Laney Carroll out with a nagging injury, creating only 2 shots on the night won't get it done against anyone. They didn't get much help from an inept midfield, but even creating a few more chances 1v1 to get shots off is what is needed going forward.
Unfortunately we have to address the main weakness of this squad, which to this point is the truly abysmal midfield. It's perplexing because there is talent here, beginning with Olivieri, who is just simply struggling right now. She just doesn't seem comfortable and cannot keep possession as she did just a few months ago. She does deliver some very good passes across the field from time to time, but she had several sloppy passes forward or just simply stopped instead of moving forward into the attack. She is not in the flow with her teammates and she is clearly frustrated. She also is a focus of opponents now and she will have to adjust to being bumped and fouled all season long and learn how to play through it. We need her in top form to be a good team this year. It only got worse for the rest of the midfield. Mia Pante was just awesome in her first few games but tonight seemed a bit lost at times against the talented Seminoles. Playing outside mid (and sometimes at forward) she struggled to touch the ball and was not much of a factor at all. She is just too talented to be that ineffective. I wonder if moving her inside next to Olivieri would help? Coming off a strong effort against Baylor, Taylor Pounds just wasn't effective in holding possession and moving the ball forward from the defenders. Kendall Bates really struggled and lost possession several times throughout the match and made errant passes forward, including a bad giveaway in midfield that led to an FSU should have been goal. And Geczik, who is on her third position change now, was up and down throughout. Kate Colvin, who continues her perplexing decline from last season's form, logged significant minutes but it was scary when she touched the ball because it was hard to tell where the ball would end up. A bright spot was Carissa Boeckmann, who came off the bench to provide some good minutes and created some real possession and chances forward in the second half. We might need to let her just grow into the position as a starter because she has the talent. A&M did play five in the midfield at times tonight, and with the forwards stepping back to help, there is no excuse to be this poor coming off last season. It seems to me that there isn't the movement off the ball to provide the triangle options for passes to keep possession, which made last year's group pretty good. I saw several times when a mid would have the ball, look around unsure what to do, then simply stop moving forward and reverse it backward or just lose it entirely. FSU is really good at pressuring the ball when they lose it, so it did force us into many mistakes. Although this isn't just an opponent issue as we couldn't hold possession against North Texas or Baylor either. I really don't know the solution here but the coaches will need to figure it out quickly with three more Top 10 opponents ahead of them. I do think that A&M will be able to more fully challenge FSU next year at home with some incoming help in the midfield from Georgia Leb and Sydney Becerra.
The TCU game is going to be critical for this team's psyche. We really need a result for momentum heading into the big Clemson game next week. TCU hasn't forgotten the 1-0 loss at the end of last season and they have a good team. Can A&M gain some possession and play into our strengths in the attack? One of the strengths of this team is that there really aren't truly defined positions with all the athletes in this bunch and the coaches can put together a lot of different combinations. The key to success will be finding the right mix against each opponent and the ability to quickly adjust in the flow of a game to counter as needed.
