Virginia Women's Soccer Slide Down the ACC Continues

This is what home field advantage looks like in women’s soccer.

In home play, the 18 ACC teams have combined for an 83 – 30 – 24 record, which is a .693 winning percentage.  Conversely, away from home, the ACC has a combined 40 – 42 – 23 record, or .490.

Louisville possesses one of the most striking home/away splits having scored 40 of their 42 goals at home and allowing just one of their 11 goals scored on them to date. 

In other words, Lynn Stadium is a tough place to visit, and for the reeling Cavaliers, the schedule could not have been crueler.

Louisville has all the ingredients to make life tough for Virginia.  They press high, even going so far as to just knock the opening kickout deep out of bounds just so they can get right into their press.  They have speed up top, and in playing a 4-4-2, they can crowd the midfield to nullify Virginia’s possession.

Most games, the first ten to fifteen minutes are spent with both teams probing each other, trying to figure out where there is going to space and which 1 v 1 matchups they will want to exploit.  For this game, the entire first half felt as the two teams were trying to get a handle on how they were going to play.  To be frank, both teams looked a little tight.  Virginia came in after a disastrous West Coast swing, while Louisville, tabbed to finish 14th in the coach’s preseason poll, looked surprised to be in line with an ACC tourney invite through seven games.

The game was turgid; the normally elegant Ella Carter was caught in possession three times in the first eight minutes.  Continuing the tactical tweak of playing the long ball over the top of the defense (dating back to the Virginia Tech game,) the Hoos hoisted several speculative passes.  I would love to have seen Kiki Maki play with Rebecca Jarrett, because Maki strokes the ball beautifully, but no current Cavalier possesses the pace to be much of a threat.

Maggie Cagle, twenty minutes in, had a lovely chip shot that hit the bar, but that was about it from either team.

The second half was a different story.

It began with a bang for the Cavaliers, as it has so many times this season, as two minutes in, Lia Godfrey stole the ball in midfield and drove down with Cagle and Liv Rademaker to her right.  Godfrey fed Cagle, who passed it wide to Rademaker who put it slotted back to Cagle.  Cagle turned the ball and had picked out a wide right open goal only for her shot to get deflected in anyway.  1 – 0 to the good guys, but the game slowly got away from Virginia.

The game announcers had been going all game about how Louisville’s primary tactic was to be direct, playing either on the counter or just hoofing long balls deep and, if they didn’t connect, pressing high.  On the night, this worked for Virginia as the Cardinals ran the Hoos off the pitch.  After earning zero corners in the first half, Louisville had four in the first 15 minutes of the second and corners reflect a defense under pressure. 

Fifteen minutes into the half, Louisville had a lovely cross that rolled across the face of goal; no one was there for Louisville, but then, no one was there for Virginia either.  Eight minutes later a curling header drew the finest save of the season from keeper Victoria Safradin, and twelve minutes later she was forced into a second fingertip save.

Basically, all the deep balls wore out the Virginia back line.  Tatum Galvin and Kiki Maki played all 90 minutes, as is per usual for most centerback pairings, and as is customary for a Steve Swanson defense.  But with every closeup, especially for Galvin, you could see the fatigue etched into her face.

With four minutes left, Louisville’s Amelia Swinarski got the ball in the scrum, spun left and slotted past Safradin.  This is a poor video highlight, but this turn, and her explosion first step, was made possible by the fatigue of the Virginia defense.

Now, there is an obvious fix to this.  Maya Carter has been coming in for Rademaker, slipping into center while Galvin slides out to the left.  Trying to provide the width, running up and down the pitch when she’s not playing central defense, might be too much for Galvin.  Rademaker only played 55 minutes this game.  Maybe give her more minutes and use Carter to give Maki and Galvin a break.  If Rademaker doesn’t have the engine to go more minutes, she is just a freshman after all, then Laughlin Ryan can fill in for her.

Swanson also has to make a change at center forward where he is getting zero production on the year.  Try Allie Ross there, who I am pretty sure has not played a minute of central striker in her three years on Grounds.  On one play tonight, Cagle drove baseline and crossed it in.  Now, the ball was out of bounds and the Louisville players did stop playing, but the cross went to Ross who finished with a deft back heel.  I’m pretty sure that none of Virginia’s central strikers could have finished that nicely.

Virginia currently sits tied for fourth in the ACC standings, tied with Louisville and the surprising NC State Wolfpack.  Virginia has a game in hand, but a wounded, but still-dangerous Florida State comes to Klockner as Virginia returns home.  There is time for Virginia to right this ship after getting just two points from their last three games, but Swanson is going to have to pull a rabbit out of his hat.  Teams are doubling and tripling Cagle out wide and doubling Godfrey in the left channel.  The book on Virginia has been written, we’ll have to see how the Cavaliers respond.

Next Up:  Virginia hosts Florida State next Thursday, October 23rd.  Gametime is 6:00pm and the game is on the ACC Network.