The men's soccer team, almost always a Top Twenty contender, lost last night, 1-0, at a mediocre St. Francis (PA) team, their second consecutive
1-0 setback to even their record at a very disappointing 3-3 mark. The three losses include a 3-2 loss to an unremarkable East Tennessee team.

This team has too many good players, outstanding East Coast recruits,
to, after another very good season last year that included two sensational wins against #1 ranked squads, find themselves adrift in the doldrums of mediocrity.

There has been a lack of intensity, poor combination passing and an inability to control the ball in all but one game.

If you read Coach Norris' post-game remarks on today's Tribe web pages,you can read between the lines and see he is seething after the loss to St.Francis.

These losses to unranked, lackluster programs doom us from qualifying for the NCAAs this season in any other way than winning the CAA championship.

I look for a different Tribe team to come out after last night's debacle.

I was dreading this post eventually making its way on here, because I was hoping it was a bad dream. We are certainly not performing to our abilities on the field.

From my memory, our goalie last year was a freshman who started almost every game and performed quite well. He is not our starter anymore. Anyone have any idea what the explanation for demotion? Coaches comments state that the current goalie outperformed in camp, but that seems hard to believe.

Tribe men hosting UNC Tuesday night at the MADhouse.

Need a big rebound win from last week. Hope the locals pack the house, because will be broadcasted on NSCAAtv.

http://www.nscaatv.com/

Tribe - Tar Heels

NSCAA game of the week online.
Free.
7PM tonight.

http://www.nscaatv.com/091614--william--...h-carolina

Certainly not going the Tribe's way so far

Another poor, disorganized effort before a great Tribe crowd of 861.

Gave up two poorly defensed early goals and that was it...draining any hope.

Team now shutout three consecutive games.

We have some of the most heavily recruited guys in the East. What's going on?

not good... did we lose tons of players from last year's team?

we don't look like a functional team.

We're driving home from W'burg at noon to go to the men's soccer game at #13 G'town at 4:00. Hope to see good Tribe support from our WMA fans.

#RisingTribe

We beat UMBC tonight 2-1 in extra time.

Losses piling up now. 0-1 home loss in 2OT to UNCW to open conference play, now 3-6.

Something has to change.

Still no answer on our GK. Last year the Freshman started the whole season and played quite well. Not starting at all this season. Anyone know something?

Of course, it looks like lack of offense is our real problem, but often the GK acts as a secondary coach, advising positioning changes to his FB and MF. Perhaps this is the spark we need?

Defense wasn't bad last night when it counted. UNCW had like 12 or 13 corner kicks, but all were defended. The offense just wasn't doing anyting

Looks like we have been shutout in 5 of the last 6 games and only given up 7 goals in those 6 games (1 goal given up in 5 games and 2 in 1 game to #1 ranked UNC). The goaltending is definitely not the problem and while he advises positioning changes, he can do it in his backfield but not really up top which is where our issue is.

We need to score. This is an offensive problem not defensive problem. We have scored 10 goals in 9 games and 4 of those were in 1 game, 2 goals in 3 games and shutout in the other 5.

I agree we need to score and that our primary problem is offense. Its just hard to pinpoint how to spark the team. I haven't seen any games yet, so not sure what the major deficit has been, but from the stats, it seems that we put way fewer shots on target than the other teams. We are usually fairly equal in overal TOP, shot attempts etc.
Accuracy can usually be judged in practice, so I assume that the best snipers are on the field. Therefore, what do we change?

For those interested in the Charlotte game: http://ninernation.net/index.php?topic=2...624434#new

Charlotte tonight ranked #21. If it's any consolation, we have had a pretty tough schedule. UNC was #1. Georgetown #13. UNCW is now #22 (wasn't ranked when we played them though). CAA play might be a bit easier for us.

(09-30-2014 04:38 PM)nogretheogre Wrote:  Charlotte tonight ranked #21. If it's any consolation, we have had a pretty tough schedule. UNC was #1. Georgetown #13. UNCW is now #22 (wasn't ranked when we played them though). CAA play might be a bit easier for us.

Charlotte is ranked 12th in another poll, and 6th in RPI, as well. CAA play will be better for us, and I can't help but think the stiffer OOC will benefit us.

At least we scored.

This is not the consistently high-level Tribe mens soccer team we've had for decades. We have a good many heavily recruited players from top soccer high school programs, but the guys just haven't meshed. And it appears they won't

I think people forget how good of a coach Al Albert was for so long. He basically started the program from nothing and made it into a regional and sometimes national power house. Coaches like that don't come through colleges that often. I'd argue that he was the best coach in any sport in the 20th century for the Tribe.

(10-01-2014 05:14 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  I think people forget how good of a coach Al Albert was for so long. He basically started the program from nothing and made it into a regional and sometimes national power house. Coaches like that don't come through colleges that often. I'd argue that he was the best coach in any sport in the 20th century for the Tribe.

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