Soccer Rutgers Women’s Soccer Falls Short in Big Ten Tournament Finale

[UMRU]

Few thoughts:
First off, the proponents of the O'Neill didn't play to win theory need to disabuse themselves of that notion. He did.
2] Michigan played an excellent game. They were very quick & crisp all over the field.
3]Michigan's high press gave us trouble moving the ball out of our D end. We have had trouble with that in other games but have done better breaking it.
4]Their goal was soft. It made it's way past 1 or 2 of our girls & our goalie was absolutely hugging the post right at the goal line. Though the shot wasn't hard it was to the far side along the turf & she couldn't get there.
5] Michigan beat us to every lose & 50/50 ball in the first half, which leads to the next point.
6] Our girls came out with no urgency or fire & Michigan came to play. Just supposition but I believe that our girls may have felt that they were going to win. I know that even though I try to never, ever get ahead of myself, deep down I felt that we were going to win. To me that was the main reason that we lost. It is very difficult to change a team's overall play on the fly during a soccer game. At half time we got our heads out of our backsides & came out hard in the 2nd half, but though we had the pressure on couldn't find the back of the net. Began to press & force shots & passes as time dwindled down. Believe we will come out strong in the NCAA's. Looming question is Gabby's status & if she is a no go how we address it.

I don't agree with this at all. Being out coached often looks like "our team had no urgency". UM coach was well prepared for RU's style of offense. Zero shots in the 1st half was not by accident

 

[DC8690]

You can complain all you want about coaching style, but the fact is our girls did not play well in the first half. Many many passes to no one, the score should have been much worse. This is not on the coach, this is on the girls. Unlike other sports you cannot just call a timeout and regroup your team, sometimes you just need your team to play through their issues until halftime. I thought we did well in the second half, and had a few chances, the goal just didn’t come. Sometimes even the best teams/players have off games. Sunday was ours. Hopefully we regroup and make a run in the NCAAs.

 

[RUonBrain]

You can complain all you want about coaching style, but the fact is our girls did not play well in the first half. Many many passes to no one, the score should have been much worse. This is not on the coach, this is on the girls. Unlike other sports you cannot just call a timeout and regroup your team, sometimes you just need your team to play through their issues until halftime. I thought we did well in the second half, and had a few chances, the goal just didn’t come. Sometimes even the best teams/players have off games. Sunday was ours. Hopefully we regroup and make a run in the NCAAs.

Not to pick on her, but the Michigan attack which led to the goal was initiated when Ali made a soft pass on our side of the field near midfield to no one.
We did that way too often, and we paid for that particular misplay.

Hating seeing it against us, but Michigan’s style of play was beautiful to watch (at least in that one game).
Anyone watch their semi-final 4-1 win over Purdue?
I wonder if it was a similar approach.