RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Aug 27, 2023 22:20:55 GMT -5
1-5 final. Very hard to say out loud, but Hoyas thoroughly out-played throughout the match. Stanford is a very good team and playing in mid-season form. They pressed all over the filed, transitioned to the attack quickly and efficiently and finished clinically off of Hoya's sloppy defense. Hoyas looked like a team just starting the season after a coast to coast trip; we relied for the most part on long balls trying to free a forward, but the Stanford D was composed and always in position. Lots for Coach Wiese and his staff to work on, but we started last year slowly and finished strong. I expect no less this time around. Yeah, this was like a perfect storm: a team clearly feeling the effects of travel/playing a game that ended after midnight Eastern Time a couple days ago, having your Big East Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year out and his replacement making his college debut, and a top-rate team in Stanford. I think one thing we learned during the rough patch last year is just how much the team depends on having a goalkeeper who can organize the defense - and a backline amenable to being organized. It's still a bit of a mystery to me as to why Koehler had a hard time seizing those reins, given his past spot starts and extended tenure as a team captain, but the righting of the ship coincided with Schewe's breaking out from the pack. Setting aside whatever has been going on with the men between the posts, I have one other hypothesis. The TV commentators were an interesting bunch, as one of the pairing was 1990 USMNT World Cup shirt-earner Chris Sullivan. Some people find Sullivan grating, as he sprinkles random Italian ("Il Fantasista!") and Spanish words throughout his commentary, even as he does things like repeatedly forget what Jacob Murrell's name is. But he has an encyclopedic knowledge of soccer history, and his ability to get players and coaches to open up to him is doubtless enhanced by his 19 caps and decades around US soccer. At one point, Sullivan mentioned that he had talked to Jeremy Gunn, Stanford's coach, about Georgetown's style of play. Per Gunn, Georgetown switches between a 4-4-2 when defending to a 3-Box-3 in the attack, privileging the number of passing angles this formation provides. Now, switching formations between O and D is common, and who knows what sort of schemes the top-flight club coaches are employing these days. But I can imagine a dynamic in which lack of experience with this particular formation rotation could be causing problems on the defensive end in particular, where shape is most important. The other thing about a 3-Box-3 is that it is supposed to be a possession-centered system - no lobbing long balls over the top! So whether they intentionally departed from this approach after falling behind and needing to chase goals or whatever else, I get the sense that maybe having the first two goals of each game come via long balls dropped in has caused a bit of a deviation from the practiced and preferred tactics. Or not. Just spitballing here.
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RG
Century (over 100 posts)
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Post by RG on Aug 28, 2023 10:31:20 GMT -5
Lots of good points here. No doubt that the long trip and short hours had an effect. Hoyas seemed sluggish and a bit off the whole match. I can't comment on the keeper situation, but i do think that Wu's departure has left a huge hole in the middle of the defense that will take a little time to rectify. Wu was BE defender of the year for a reason; cool, calm and collected, in the right place at the right time and able to keep the defense organized. While Stanford surely deserved their win, three of their goals were basically 1 on 1s with the keeper, completely unmarked. I am sure that as the season progresses, the defense will coalesce and tighten up, especially in the middle. As for the switching between O and D, Stanford had so much of the possession and we chased so much that any cohesive switch was difficult, at least from what I saw. When we did have the ball, we sent long balls into the box, hoping that one of the 2 forwards might get lucky, but Stanford's defense was pretty tight for the whole match. When we did try to put a few passes together in the midfield, Stanford's pressure and in the end, some sloppy passing pretty much presaged the way the match would go.The Hoyas have a very talented and experienced team and I imagine that the coaches will use this as a way to reassess, regroup and move forward.
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DanMcQ
Moderator
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Post by DanMcQ on Aug 28, 2023 15:31:18 GMT -5
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Aug 30, 2023 17:57:00 GMT -5
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Aug 30, 2023 22:37:34 GMT -5
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Aug 31, 2023 2:41:24 GMT -5
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 1, 2023 15:16:29 GMT -5
Ed and some of the other basketball staff are in the house to watch the Hoyas *hit on Pitt
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 1, 2023 16:04:45 GMT -5
Goal #1
Goal #2
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 1, 2023 16:36:45 GMT -5
Goal #3
Goal #4
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Elvado
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by Elvado on Sept 1, 2023 17:14:54 GMT -5
Very nice bounce back for the guys.
Good to see some very nice combo play and some high quality finishing.
Love the new kit as well.
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 2, 2023 8:13:29 GMT -5
Very nice bounce back for the guys. Good to see some very nice combo play and some high quality finishing. Love the new kit as well. Yeah, new kit looks good. Some good photos of it here: To me, the best thing - aside from the general enjoyment of stomping stupid Jay Vidovich's* team once more - was the sheer energy level. Linhares was busting his butt *on defense* deep into a 4-0 game. They just looked like they wanted it more than Pitt, who seemed a step behind all day - not because they didn't have the athleticism, but because they couldn't seem to match the Hoyas level of giddyap and go. The tight high press early on really threw Pitt off their game. I hope we see that more and more. *Stupid Vidovich reference: Yeah, this jumped out at me... really, coach? You're gonna say that your team rolled over and not shoulder any of the responsibility yourself? Or emphasize the positive, since it was the most successful season in your program's entire history? Or give any credit to your opponent? That's a big yikes from me, dawg.
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 2, 2023 16:13:39 GMT -5
As Coach Wiese said during the Coach's Corner...this kind of stuff is going to keep happening, and good teams are going to refuse to play non-con at Georgetown, until we get lights on Shaw and can play night games.
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 2, 2023 18:50:01 GMT -5
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 4, 2023 11:30:06 GMT -5
Big Ed back in the house for this one. Much respect. As a certain recently departed singer might say... Man, it's a hot one.
Fordham is leggy and appears to be made up entirely of 26 year old foreign grad students, but they simply do not have the Hoyas' quality.
To be honest, the whole thing has a bit of an exhibition feel. No one really wants to be out here playing in 90° weather before noon. The Hoyas goalies wearing the 2019 field kit only adds to the scrimmage vibe - washer and dryer must've gotten Labor Day off.
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 4, 2023 12:37:03 GMT -5
Ok, well, I was wrong and all due credit to Fordham, but... I am absolutely livid at the center ref, who decided to compound his error in failing to stop play for a Hoya head injury by inexplicably stopping the clock when the Hoyas were fouled with 41 seconds left, leaving extra time on the clock that enabled Fordham to get the tying goal with 10 seconds left.
You...you just cannot do that. There's no excuse. It wasn't an honest mistake, a "didn't see it" or heat of the moment judgment call. It was an intentional decision to punish Wiese for showing him up over the failure to stop play for Cole Parete's head injury.
I'm sure he didn't think it would impact the result, but it did, and you can't have that. People have been fired for far less.
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Elvado
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by Elvado on Sept 4, 2023 12:37:15 GMT -5
Terrible finish to this one.
Have to see these leads out.
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 4, 2023 13:15:58 GMT -5
Not mentioned: this play should not have happened, because one of the Georgetown players was concussed and forced to continue attempting to play
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 4, 2023 13:49:43 GMT -5
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 4, 2023 14:38:45 GMT -5
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
Posts: 4,597
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 4, 2023 19:15:16 GMT -5
Pain:
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