Virginia Gameday...

[JeremyCuse]

Brent with some earth shattering insight there.

 

[All4SU]

Incremental progress all season is my yardstick.

 

[MD Cuse Fan]

Wasn't able to catch the game but quick look at the box score a couple things stood out:
Cook had 3 goals???
Looks like Phaup didn't have LaSalla's number today but he still took all draws. Guess Gait is going to play it like Desko and just keep running Phaup. It would be nice to have a 2nd option they could rely on for a handful of draws every game.

 

[bjred]

Agree JC, man up was the same play each time though I didn’t watch most of the fourth. Virginia learned quick that they were trying to get Seebold room on that side and were ready for it.

Did Phaup take all the draws? Why not put someone else out to change it up. We’ve all known that LaSalla had this game circled since last year. Same with Gavin. Virginia has been shooting at him for a year and a half, they’re gonna know his soft spots. Couldn’t have hurt to throw Thompson out there in the second half and maybe catch Virginia by surprise.

And how many more years are we stuck watching players try to bull their way through double and triple teams? Seebold and Dordevic need to pass the ball out when they see those doubles coming instead of taking them head on. That’s the defense they are going to continue to see until the ball spins faster. And the same thought goes for transition, if three guys are smacking at the ball carrier then someone is obviously open.

And how about some pine tar in those pockets, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the ball come out of modern day heads so easily as when they were scooping up ground balls. I think Virginia got 4 or 5 goals just off of those turnovers.

And that ends my post game armchair coaching rant

 

[SUbear]

Cavalanche.

Not much to say about this one. SU outplayed in every facet of this game.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Agree JC, man up was the same play each time though I didn’t watch most of the fourth. Virginia learned quick that they were trying to get Seebold room on that side and were ready for it.

Did Phaup take all the draws? Why not put someone else out to change it up. We’ve all known that LaSalla had this game circled since last year. Same with Gavin. Virginia has been shooting at him for a year and a half, they’re gonna know his soft spots. Couldn’t have hurt to throw Thompson out there in the second half and maybe catch Virginia by surprise.

And how many more years are we stuck watching players try to bull their way through double and triple teams? Seebold and Dordevic need to pass the ball out when they see those doubles coming instead of taking them head on. That’s the defense they are going to continue to see until the ball spins faster. And the same thought goes for transition, if three guys are smacking at the ball carrier then someone is obviously open.

And how about some pine tar in those pockets, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the ball come out of modern day heads so easily as when they were scooping up ground balls. I think Virginia got 4 or 5 goals just off of those turnovers.

And that ends my post game armchair coaching rant

Phaup went 11-32 (on paper). He had at least 2 wins taken away due to phantom holds or pushes.

Gait did say that he was going to stick with Phaup until Phaup needed a break. I can imagine him not wanting to come out of this one.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Agree JC, man up was the same play each time though I didn’t watch most of the fourth. Virginia learned quick that they were trying to get Seebold room on that side and were ready for it.

Did Phaup take all the draws? Why not put someone else out to change it up. We’ve all known that LaSalla had this game circled since last year. Same with Gavin. Virginia has been shooting at him for a year and a half, they’re gonna know his soft spots. Couldn’t have hurt to throw Thompson out there in the second half and maybe catch Virginia by surprise.

And how many more years are we stuck watching players try to bull their way through double and triple teams? Seebold and Dordevic need to pass the ball out when they see those doubles coming instead of taking them head on. That’s the defense they are going to continue to see until the ball spins faster. And the same thought goes for transition, if three guys are smacking at the ball carrier then someone is obviously open.

And how about some pine tar in those pockets, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the ball come out of modern day heads so easily as when they were scooping up ground balls. I think Virginia got 4 or 5 goals just off of those turnovers.

And that ends my post game armchair coaching rant

Part of the faceoff issue is that Gait only trusts Phaup, the minimal depth we have is no where near ready. We need at least 1 fogo if not from the portal next year

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[All4SU]

Wasn't able to catch the game but quick look at the box score a couple things stood out:
Cook had 3 goals???
Looks like Phaup didn't have LaSalla's number today but he still took all draws. Guess Gait is going to play it like Desko and just keep running Phaup. It would be nice to have a 2nd option they could rely on for a handful of draws every game.

To my untrained eyes it looked like Phaup held his own and got balls out. We just didn’t manage to win the scrum.

 

[MD Cuse Fan]

To my untrained eyes it looked like Phaup held his own and got balls out. We just didn’t manage to win the scrum.

Appreciate the insight. Sadly hearing the other team winning the scrums isn't a surprise.

 

[SDCuse114]

Curry needs to step up big time. After the hot start vs Holy Cross, he only has one goal on 20 shots these last two games.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Couldn't watch live but saw the replay. For positives I thought there was some nice looking motion to the offense. We looked like we put a concentrated effort into off ball movement and passing after looking at the tape of the MD game. Lots of assisted goals, quite a few looks that could have been buried with better shooting, good skip passes, good movement on man up as well (just gotta bury once again). Carter rice besides that one obvious mishap, had another solid showing as an ssdm. Rosa a solid game too. Lots of their goals were in transition, rebounds, or off of broken plays and errors clearing, especially in the early going when they got out in the lead. Three of those could have easily not happened and it is a shame we fell behind early as a result of that.

Did cook finally break out of his 4 year finishing slump?? Lets hope so because we sure could use it. Some not only nice shots but nice use of deception and placement, which I really thought he didn't have in him. Berkman is a solid poised QB type attack from x. I love his skip feeds and passing in general and think he belongs out there starting at attack. Im glad we did not go to curry at attack and run seebold out of the box.

This isn't exactly positive, but once again I thought the main negatives were impatient poor shooting decisions, and general sloppiness. Limiting the failed clears alone would have made a HUGE difference in the final score. Curry takes way to many bad shots and I know he is trying to get it going but you don't get it going by taking 15 yard on the run shots lefty with no angle. At that point it feels like a selfish ego driven choice and we have no room for that. Dordevic took some bad low percentage shots today too, despite us often getting good looks in the 6 on 6 when we were patient.

Unfortunately the other big negative is some of the same offball D mistakes that plagued us last year. Murphy and Kennedy both had some noticeable lapses offball. Slides that are accompanied by a late two slide that leads to an easy goal was another familiar issue. You can blame fatigue at times but in the end it is the same guys who were making the same mistakes last year minus our best short stick and best close D. It was always going to take work and a rethinking of personnel, and today was a reminder of that. Not completely atrocious play in the 1 v 1, besides short sticks trying to guard Shutz. Couple discouraging 1 v 1 decisions from Fraterrigo who I am not at all sold on. Olexo a couple not so great moments as well, but some good moments too.

Not throwing in the towel yet. That fight to get it back to 3 in the third was encouraging. Think we are a playoff team in the end. This was a top of the top tier opponent out for revenge.

 

[DoctahLexus]

One other thing is I am SHOCKED there were no penalties on UVA for openly screaming in the face of Gavin after the first couple goals. I get being upset with the whole transferring to a rival aspect of it, but damn they seemed to totally hate the guy! It makes you wonder how it all went down. Lars is always mister sunshine and rainbows talking to press, but he clearly had no problem with the yelling at Gavin. Also some physical play to say the least, but that was going both ways. That's what the fans like to see anyhow.

 

[SkyTopBus44]

Not sure yet how much of an upgrade Gait is over Desko. People call him an innovator it looks like same old stuff to me.

Same poor clearing, stale offense no ball movement offense, at times we can’t throw and catch, same sticking with one Face-Off guy and undisciplined play all over the field that we have seen the past few years.

Sure Petro can yell and is intense. Defense still looks unorganized to me. i am overacting in the game day thread I know. I guess they play with more heart than the past few years.

just frustrated. Army is no gimme. Long for the days when we had the teams to compete for final fours every year,

 

[Powellfan]

One other thing is I am SHOCKED there were no penalties on UVA for openly screaming in the face of Gavin after the first couple goals. I get being upset with the whole transferring to a rival aspect of it, but damn they seemed to totally hate the guy! It makes you wonder how it all went down. Lars is always mister sunshine and rainbows talking to press, but he clearly had no problem with the yelling at Gavin. Also some physical play to say the least, but that was going both ways. That's what the fans like to see anyhow.

I was surprised by this too, shame on the refs for letting this happen not once but twice without a call. Funny that it was Cormier yelling at him seeing that he put his name in the transfer portal a year ago.

 

[DoctahLexus]

I was surprised by this too, shame on the refs for letting this happen not once but twice without a call. Funny that it was Cormier yelling at him seeing that he put his name in the transfer portal a year ago.

Exactly! Dickson too! Like you guys really can't relate? He was your back up goalie for crying out loud!

 

[DoctahLexus]

Appreciate the insight. Sadly hearing the other team winning the scrums isn't a surprise.

I thought we had excellent wing pieces last year in Kennedy and Dearth. Not much more you can ask for on the wings then those two. Last year I thought it was a lot of losing the clamp so quickly that the wings cant get involved, rather than having poor wing play. This year the battles are consistently not going our way. Olexo and rice not getting it done as starters on the wing this year. Is Drago really not good enough to get some run on the wing?

 

[DoctahLexus]

Not sure yet how much of an upgrade Gait is over Desko. People call him an innovator it looks like same old stuff to me.

Same poor clearing, stale offense no ball movement offense, at times we can’t throw and catch, same sticking with one Face-Off guy and undisciplined play all over the field that we have seen the past few years.

Sure Petro can yell and is intense. Defense still looks unorganized to me. i am overacting in the game day thread I know. I guess they play with more heart than the past few years.

just frustrated. Army is no gimme. Long for the days when we had the teams to compete for final fours every year,

I saw lots of quality ball movement on O today! Agree on the D unfortunately, but the O had some good passing today IMO. Night and day compared to MD game.

 

[SkyTopBus44]

I saw lots of quality ball movement on O today! Agree on the D unfortunately, but the O had some good passing today IMO. Night and day compared to MD game.

Fair enough, after the first quarter much better in offense.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Fair enough, after the first quarter much better in offense.

To me the issue was both bad shooting and bad shot selection. Also Nunes playing as advertised did not do us any favors there. Dordevic and Curry as good as they are off the dodge, still not getting it done in either shot selection or passing. Not having the elite ball movers of Rehfuss Hiltz and Scanlan hurts us too.

 

[Ozone!]

I saw lots of quality ball movement on O today! Agree on the D unfortunately, but the O had some good passing today IMO. Night and day compared to MD game.

This team will be much better late in this season. Great to see in game coaching adjustments making impact!

 

[Bigmancuse]

Change the wing play. Olexo no good

 

[MD Cuse Fan]

I thought we had excellent wing pieces last year in Kennedy and Dearth. Not much more you can ask for on the wings then those two. Last year I thought it was a lot of losing the clamp so quickly that the wings cant get involved, rather than having poor wing play. This year the battles are consistently not going our way. Olexo and rice not getting it done as starters on the wing this year. Is Drago really not good enough to get some run on the wing?

I agree with you that Kennedy/Dearth as players were good on the wings, but I still feel wing play overall has been an issue going back 4-5 seasons now. I wasn't able to see the game today but I did think overall Olexo was pretty good last week as an LSM. Good question about Drago, we have a lot of poles on this roster, I'm not sure what it says that most of them haven't gotten a shot at some point? Like the younger Kennedy brother, clearly he's not as good as his brother but don't recall that he's seen the field at all.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Curry needs to step up big time. After the hot start vs Holy Cross, he only has one goal on 20 shots these last two games.

That's who he is, I like Curry but he's been wildly inconsistent his entire career and will dissappear for weeks on end. He's a good player but he's not a #1 middie

 

[JustSayin]

Yes, there is still work to be done. I think the inconsistent play will eventually get resolved over time. In spite of the score, I still like a lot of what I've seen. The team plays with passion that will eventually turn to execution. We need more work in the midfield where faceoffs and ground balls were sore spots. Again, there was more poor shot selection, sloppy passing and still carrying the ball too much on offense as they did in the Maryland game last week. And going 1 for 7 on man-up, Yikes. There were a number of very questionable calls aka bad calls ... Phaup was mugged.

I don't think 4 days is enough to clean up the sloppiness before Army invades the Dome. With the exception of Rutgers Army has played 3 cupcakes ... but I still like our chances.