A very tough night for A&M with a disheartening 2-1 loss late to TCU. It was such a shame because I thought A&M was deserving of the win overall but at least a tie. A&M led 1-0 and lost. That just can't happen at home when you have the advantage. The good news is that I do think we finally found an optimal lineup which dominated the match for about 15 minutes in the second half. In fact, during that stretch, it was some of best Aggie soccer I've seen in a while. A possession-oriented, relentless attack that just couldn't finish in front of goal. But soccer can be a cruel game and the A&M side witnessed it tonight. TCU is a good team and has some really skilled and poised players. They can hold possession for a long time and make it difficult to take away from them, forcing opponents to expend a lot of energy to regain it. A&M played their best match of the season tonight and still lost. That's a credit to TCU. They took their chances and we didn't and that was the difference.
The backline was coming off their best performance of the season at Ohio St (maybe one of the best defensive efforts I've ever seen at A&M) and for the most part was solid, running down and stopping most wide runs or penetrations into the box. Unfortunately, two major mistakes cost A&M the game. The first happened when Sample was caught too far up field after a missed tackle attempt (why is she across midfield with the midfielders in the first place?), which opened a huge hole behind her and a slotted pass forward left Katie Smith scrambling to try and cover it. The resulting 1v1 on Caldwell, who made a very poor effort on the ball, was calmly put away. The second happened late in the match with four minutes left as the little dynamo Lancaster beat Pounds for a ball and quickly split the defense between Smith and Sample (who was caught flat footed on the outside) and beat Caldwell (who needed to close the gap faster and make herself bigger and get lower to the ground) to the far post for the winning goal. At least Calzada had her usual stellar level of play once again on display tonight, shutting down almost everything on her side of the field. Seriously, what a miss by the recruiting services as she is clearly one of the ten best freshmen in America.
Both GKs had tremendous saves early in the match, with Cornog's header tipped over the bar by TCU (a truly incredible save) and Caldwell with a good save in the first few minutes on a shot from 1 yard out. Unfortunately for Kenna, as aforementioned, she had a few positioning mistakes on the ensuing goals (especially the winning goal by Lancaster) and it wasn't her best game. Also, way too many services out of the back that put the back line under constant pressure, thereby expending energy we would need late in the match.
In the aforementioned 15-minute stretch in the second half, the lineup of Hayes, McDonald, Boeckmann, Pounds, Cornog, Colvin, and Pante were just spectacular in possession and creating dangerous chances on goal. I was trying to recall a time that A&M played that well in the attacking half for an extended period against a quality opponent. Man, I wish we could play like that consistently because this team would be a lot of fun to watch. Alas, as soon as substitutions were made, our quality dropped off and we lost the momentum for the rest of the match. We probably kept that group on the sideline too long before they re-entered. I don't know if Becerra is a bit injured or just played out of position and was yanked, but she only played 2 minutes. However, Boeckmann, Pounds and Cornog (who seems to finally be comfortable and played her best game of the season) seemed to play well together and during that stretch in the second half were firing on all cylinders. Pante, who is a completely different player this year, had a great game with many wide runs and beautiful crosses into the box. Sometimes I wish she would just go to goal and create her own shot since our forwards can't shoot effectively.
Right now, it looks like the forward tandem of Hayes and McDonald work the best together, at least in creating chances in front of goal. The issue is finishing and not hesitating to take shots. We only took 11 shots tonight and had many more chances to shoot on goal. McDonald missed a great chance early in the match wide open in the middle of box, although Hayes's perfect free kick a minute later made up for it. McDonald also missed a great chance in the second half from the top of the box and crushed it over the goal. I'd like to see Hayes make a quick turn with her back to the goal and take more quick shots. We just don't look comfortable taking shots on goal at the forward position, and that's not good. When your midfield is creating many good scoring opportunities on crosses and passes into the box, your strikers need to put the ball in the back of the net. And right now there doesn't seem to be any answers from Carroll, Anderson, or Jai Smith. The loss of Geczik and Olivieri (who covered up the lack of scoring punch at this position last year) just looms large over this team right now. I wonder what Kniffen's status is for this season?
Finally, the referee crew tonight was subpar at best. Several missed calls and inconsistent foul calls in the middle of the field. At times TCU was mugging our players and nothing was called. Only 1 foul was called on TCU in the second half. That's just absurd. A&M was robbed of a few extra corners as well on bad calls over the end line.
I was really disappointed in the attendance tonight. Only 1,421 fans showed up to maybe the biggest home game of the season. I know Fish Camp had a big crowd, but what difference would that crowd have had on tonight's game instead of scheduling an empty tomato can that didn't matter? I wish we would have had some mandatory attendance for the corp tonight. And the atmosphere was pretty weak for a big game outside of the loud band that played at times. 70,000 students and only about 100 showed up. That's not going to get it done. It's time to bring back 12th Man Rewards program or something similar. Anyway, that's my rant for this season on attendance.