They need to get McDonald out. She isn't participating in our attack.

Aggies lose 1-0 on an own goal. Worst performance of the year.

The home stand is now officially a absolute disaster. We need to evaluate who is playing in many of the spots on the field.

NCAA bubble watch has begun.

Nope. That's just unacceptable.

How many slow rollers did we shoot on goal tonight

Crazy how just a few years ago we were always the more talented, most athletic, and most cohesive team on the field… now it seems we're lacking in speed, playmaking, effort, heart, leadership… this isn't Texas A&M Soccer! What happened!

In the world of the transfer portal, there is no excuse for the critical holes in our roster.

When you play a 3-5-2 you would expect more from your midfield. We get nothing from our midfield other than pante

Totally agree about the midfield. Non-existent tonight except for Pante and occasionally Boeckmann. While the forwards weren't great ( except for Hayes who worked her butt off), there was very little service or ball control from the mids.

We have won 1 of our last 7 conference home games. The team had a very long meeting on the field standing in a circle after the game. The good news is there are 9 games left.

I saw Lani Carroll speaking quite animatedly during the huddle after the game. Perhaps a change of leadership (and captains) to the younger players on the team might be helpful.

Obviously, this was a frustrating loss tonight, but during the match I started to ponder why the program is struggling right now to get results. We just lost our third home game of the season in four games, and overall we've now lost 5 of the last 7 home conference games. That's just unthinkable for a program that used to dominate opponents at Ellis Field. Sadly, I'm not sure if Ellis provides much a home field advantage anymore. It was just 16 months ago that A&M was in the Elite 8 pushing North Carolina to the brink. Currently, the team sits at 0-2 in SEC play, barely above .500 and coming off the worst season in school history. We now face a daunting road schedule and a tough path to make the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

The easy answer is to just say the talent level has dropped off and some key injuries and offseason losses set us back. Yes, losing Olivieri was a big hit to the midfield and losing Geczik was a much bigger hit to the offense than most thought. And losing Kniffen to an injury didn't help either. While there have been stretches of good play and possession and scoring, we are setback by lapses on the back line or at GK. The midfield doesn't cover enough ground to help the back line after turning it over. And when the defense is solid, the offense can't generate enough chances or convert easy shots in front of goal. Usually when a team begins to find ways to lose or underachieve, it means it isn't a very good team. Unfortunately, that is the way it's trending for this A&M team right now.

But tonight reinforced my belief that the issues run deeper than talent. I lost count of the number of times we simply lost possession because we allowed the ball to bounce too far out in front of a player instead of keeping on a one-foot radius. First touches were not good, which means we're not effectively trapping the ball, which leads to easy takeaways or limits the ability to move forward quickly into the attack. Basic passes were off target, or a lack of touch put the receiver in a bad position. When all these issues are combined and when you play an opponent like Mississippi St, which loves to disrupt with pressure and physical play, it's impossible to create any rhythm. This also limits your chances on goal, so when you do have a shot in front of goal, it creates pressure that forces hesitation or a weak shot with no purpose or chance to score (see McDonald).

Some of the chemistry we saw in the TCU and Georgia game in the midfield and forwards disappeared tonight. We played 5 in the midfield at times tonight and we still couldn't maintain possession or move forward in a cohesive manner. The book on how to play Coach G teams has been out for a while now, which is why I'm puzzled why every opponent doesn't apply pressure the entire match. If you can get A&M out of rhythm and play physical, we usually aren't effective and can't create enough chances to score. In turn, that leads to frustration and mental lapses and turnovers that put the back line under pressure. And eventually the damn is going to break. Tonight was a unlucky own goal that Caldwell tried to push wide on a cross, but unfortunately bounded right into Sample's leg and bounced into the goal while trying to cover the goal line.

The lack of fundaments has been an issue for many years. I remember discussing this ten years ago at times, but A&M has been able to use its talent advantage via a one-on-one play or a free kick to find the needed score for victory. However, when that advantage dissipates, you can now see the result. A&M simply doesn't have any dangerous players that can create their own shot and win a game like this. Pante is the closest we have but it's difficult to attack the goal from the outside and get quality looks on goal. And when good crosses are sent into the box, the forwards are not positioned properly or freeze up when the ball lands at their feet. I really believe A&M should spend an entire offseason working only on dribbling, passing and trapping with no Spring games. And we need to only recruit players that show the ability to do these three things consistently. At times, we probably recruit more athletes than fundamental soccer players (especially at forward), which makes us very fast but doesn't necessarily result in as many goals as we could otherwise have had with more valued possession and good shot takers. What would we do for another Kelly Monogue right now?

Finally, I think the mental aspect of the game has become a big issue as well for the program. This team has a fragile psyche and no real leadership on the field. We don't have the ability to overcome bad moments or crushing mistakes in the back. After we fell behind tonight, I didn't see any spark or energy until the last ten minutes of the match. The coaches have a very difficult task in front of them in convincing this group that it can still be a successful season. Right now it doesn't look good.

After we beat LSU in Baton Rouge last year everyone thought the team was going to take off since we had most of the injured players back. Since that win we are 1-5-1 in conference games and have been outscored 11-6 in those games. We are also now missing Ali Russell who had knee surgery today.
MSU only flew in today and arrived at 2:18 this afternoon according to Flightaware.

Hidden nailed two glaring weaknesses of this team and several previous A&M teams: (1) first touch; and (2) ability to maintain possession when physically challenged.

We've seen it over and over. Until those two issues are improved, teams will come in, get rough, force our players to make desperation passes that the recipient won't control well, and thus gain possession from A&M. Then, our players will defend in a much less aggressive manner than the opponent does, allowing the opponent to maintain possession. If the opponent executes that basic strategy and finishes one or more opportunities, it gets a W.

Tonight, Miss St used one of its most physical players--Elle McCaslin (No. 9)--for twice as many minutes as she's averaged this year. And that worked out great for them. She was rough and disruptive--exactly as designed. The "rough them up and get them uncomfortable" strategy worked on us yet again.

Mir San Mir said:

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Lani Carroll needs to be at center mid. Can cover ground (unlike our current mids) and creates opportunities.

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I've been shocked all season how we use her

not sure I posted after the loss to UGA, this loss was worse.

sadly our best ability is the ability to give up terrible goals. I have never seen so many from an A&M team. We knew scoring would be tough this year and it has been. We needed to hang our hat on a solid defense and for the most part we have been good, but then we have some head scratching play and give up an easy goal.

I am not sure if this goal was worse than the one that trickled in last week or not.

MSU played a simple ball on a freekick from midfield to the top of the 18. Cornog misheads it and it gets behind our D to a MSU player who puts a weak shot past two defenders across the face of the goal. Caldwell gets a hand on it but deflects it right into the path of Sample who taps it in for an easy own goal. Not sure Sample had enough time to do anything other than have the ball just bounce off her. Even if it missed her it was an easy tap in for the MSU player who was running to the back post. Inability to clear the initial header, mark the player who got the ball after the header or to get between the player and goal put Caldwell in another tough position.

Our inability to score is correlated with our inability to connect on good passes. we have too many crosses to nowhere, due to both bad crosses and players not in good position. Way too many giveaways on simple passes and an overall slow buildup that rarely puts the defense on its heels. Part of the passing issue is our inability (especially bad this game) to trap/receive the ball with any level of skill. I think the physical play and then falling behind causes the youth on the team to press and lose some of the fundamentals.

Our coaches really need to reevaluate our formation and strategy. What we are doing is not working. If we had Geczik I would definitely go to a 4 person back line. I'd much rather have our outside backs pushing up to take part in the attack then full relying on the outside mids to do everything. Taking pressure off our outside mids to constantly be thinking about defense should help them play better. Without Geczik maybe Matula is who should go there. I'd play Cornog or Pounds at the 6. We need a center mid who can move with the ball up the field, either Pante or Carroll. Our outside mids would be Pante/Carroll and Colvin. I'd keep McDonald up top but actually work with her to make her a better striker. Hayes is up top as well. This is a small change from our current formation but should help solidify the back line. I would not play our outside mids as wide as we are frequently playing them, I think it hurts our passing and ability to control the ball in the midfield. Moving to a 4 back set with a single 6 would lend to narrowing up the mids a little anyway. I would greatly increase the number of diagonal runs toward the goal and toward balls played to the corner flag ahead of mids or forwards. This in combination with our weakside players more routinely getting into better receiving positions should increase the number of chances we have at goal.