yea, no doubt some fundamentals are just lacking, first touch and properly weighted balls. held scoreless for 3 consecutive games, and in 4 of our last 5 games. None of these other teams quality really blow you away either, Arkansas/South Carolina/Georgia are probably the most talented teams where you see separation. The point is the gap between bottom of the league (besides mizzou) and top isn't that large. Players need to play with more confidence, composure and simplicity. Its a good defensive unit like we have discussed, now just pushed forward more with numbers and work to get back on defense.
I expect that the Thursday evening game against Tennessee will be affected by Hurricane Helene: postponed, cancelled, or moved to Knoxville. Anybody hearing anything yet?
Wow. UF concedes 2 corner kicks in the first 8 minutes, and Mizzou scores from both of them (2nd after Goldberg fouled a player in front of the net). Then UF follows up with the ol' boot-the-following-kickoff-straight-out-of-bounds play. Fuuuug-ly soccer.
I am not knowledgeable in soccer at all but try to keep up with how the team is doing. That being said, to me it seems odd that losing one player has put us so far behind and pretty much non competitive. Was this a good hire or yet another failure of the AD? Given the state of the portal and ability to get players rather easy and turn a roster, are we on the right track and just need another cycle to get the talent or are we falling further behind? I know you can only do whatever your players do best but at ehat point do you blame that on not getting players that do other things? Just seems like having 1 quality game changing player is not ehat UF soccer should be.
I think we've got a Top 10 recruiting class coming in next year. I'm not sure yet about the new coach, but the team plays solid defense. The midfield game is spotty and they just can't score. To me, Becky Burleigh waited too long to step down (and the AD allowed her to stay until she wanted to leave) and the program has fallen so far behind FSU, most of the rest of the SEC and even UCF, that's it's going to take a while to catch up. It's sad, because for a long time UF soccer dominated the SEC. There's no reason why we can't - we are THE University of Florida, but the elite p[layers have to be convinced the team will be ready to compete for a championship of some type if they're going to come here. Just not happening right now. Another failure of our AD, IMO.
Yeah. The talent level is so low that UF isn't just degraded by losing a good player, they're fatally damaged. I was really onboard with this coach; now, I'm having some doubts. But, without better players, it's really hard to evaluate. That said, I think going back to the 4-3-3 formation for this game is Muschamp-esque. Edit: I'll also say (without naming players) that I find several of the line-up choices.....puzzling.
Actually down 4 good players. 2 on offense (lost in preseason) 1-midfielder (injured at KY) and 1-defender (injured at Auburn). I too agree, choice of play and players is rather puzzling. The kickoff directive is not acceptable at this level of soccer.
Modern era recruiting class is just part of the solution. You have to bring in mature older players from the portal. One or 2 major hits in the portal can drastically change the direction of this team. Every team needs a goal scorer, but we need a handful of dynamic attackers. Selfish players who are hungry. coach is probably in over head compared to the sec competition. But the league is deep with average teams, but usually just one or 2 really really good above average teams. Bottom of the league is pretty bad and mizzou is one of them. remember - we are the only sec team to win a national title. I’m sure the coach is terrified to be the bad guy given what happened before, but it’s going to take some attitude to turn this around.
after three years with this coach we are at the bottom of the sec. But probably SS would hire somebody worst.
Scott Stricklin is a disaster. He's good at raising money, it seems, but he's slowly dragging our ahtletics down to Miss. State levels and those in control of the purse strings don't have the guts to do something about it.
yea, to bring up an earlier point - team now hasn't scored in 4 consecutive games, probably would be 5, but Tenn was postponed. Not being able to score is hard thing to fix, doubt it changes this season. They are ranked 237th in scoring offense, 10 goals, averaging 1 goal a game. worst part, when you don't make the sec tourney and then the ncaa tourney, your season is Aug, Sept, Oct -- 3 quick months -- done, that's it. Even with all the tormoil, we should be better than being ranked as the 122nd team in the country! 3 wins (i doubt they get another win) against 247th ranked georgia state, 297th ranked kennesaw state, 144th ranked Western Carolina (2nd best team in southern Conference)
Combine this with some really good recruiting for the next two classes and it appears this program is on the right trajectory.
good win tired of all the negativity so this helps. We looked a lot better tonight then the last few times I watched. Like was said keep seeing the recruiting is starting to heat up.
I only got to watch the last 30 minutes of the game. What an amazing and unexpected result! Very happy for the players and coaches.
First goals in a couple of weeks and a huge boost of confidence for this team. Florida Upsets No. 22 Texas 2-1 - Florida Gators
