I'm having a hard time recalling a bigger collapse over the last 15-20 years of A&M soccer, especially giving up 4 goals in a 6-minute span, but this might be the biggest home loss (score-wise) in A&M history? Talk about a tough way to go out for the seniors on this team, especially since they came into the game with an 11-0-0 mark and could have had the best home record for any senior class in a season. A&M had been a dominant team at home this season, but not today. This is a bit of a hard game to analyze because things went south so fast for A&M around the 20-minute mark of the 2nd half the momentum was just too much to stop at that point for Tennessee. First, the Vols played really well, one of their best performances of the season, and beat A&M at their own game. They took advantage of several defensive mistakes and buried them in the back of the net. 4-0 was a harsh result for A&M because we certainly had some chances to take the lead in early in the 2nd half.
Tennessee had a slight advantage in the run of play overall due to a dominant first 15 minutes or so, but A&M started applying good pressure and had enough possession through the final third to turn the game around until the barrage of mistakes sunk them. However, at times it was tough to string more than 2 passes together before turning it over, and the lack of communication was poor. I'm concerned that this team has actually regressed in the last few weeks in fundamentals like trapping, accurate passing, and shot-taking. I saw a lot of things out there that are coachable fixes, so it makes me wonder what exactly is going on in practice. Even without a few starters and players out of position, A&M has enough talent to play better than what we saw this week.
Coming into this week A&M had one of the top offenses in the nation and had scored in 31 consecutive matches. This week A&M was shutout twice, once by lowly Alabama. Watt not being available for the game proved that without her ability to stretch a defense and open space for her teammates, the Aggies are just not very good offensively and don't have many true weapons. Emily Bates did have some good runs at the defense in the 2nd half, but her shots were either blocked by a defender or saved by the GK. Why does it seem like every GK we play has their career game against us? Smith was ineffective and for some reason Asdis doesn't want to dribble the ball forward when there was space to do so, instead trying to hold the ball or go backwards. We need to keep moving forward when the pass is in transition into the attack. Crabtree did what she could off the bench, as did Cooper, but why didn't we get any real shots from McCain? She might be the best shooter on the team and just wasn't aggressive enough to take a shot near the top of the box. At least Ritchie played pretty well in the attack today, with several good services from the corner or in the open field and came close to scoring from long distance.
I have to address the 6-minute meltdown, but it's tough because I actually though that Jordan Hill had played an excellent match up until her couple of big mistakes on the giveaways that led to a couple of goals. She played admirably in place of Alston, who was injured early in the match and didn't return. The first goal was just plan bad marking on the back post where it looked like Lopez let her man run free for an easy tap in. The second and fourth goals were the defensive mistakes, while the third goal by Shaw was one of the best individual efforts and finishes I've seen at Ellis Field by an opponent in a long time. That was a top-level goal. And I think Morche probably should have saved at least one those giveaway goals. But in the end it was just a shocking collapse for a team that had been so tough to score on at home.
So, the loss today was a sour note to end the home schedule and it was damaging to A&M's postseason positioning. A&M didn't drop far in the RPI (from #8 to #11) because of the boost to SOS after playing Tennessee, but right now I couldn't see the committee giving us any more than a #4 seed after today. And unfortunately, we finish the season at South Carolina, which will be inspired to play A&M after coming off a stinging loss in OT to LSU today. That's not a game I expect A&M to win or even tie at this point, especially if Watt is not available. It's amazing what can chance in the course of one week, from dreaming of a #1 seed to now wondering if A&M could get past a 1st round match at home. But I think A&M is headed for a showdown on the road at either Baylor or Texas in the 2nd weekend of the NCAA tournament. The good news is that A&M has more talent than either of those squads and will have a chance to win those games. The bad news is that A&M would have to get by a tough opponent in the 2nd round, and unless we find a way to get back into rhythm offensively we won't be around to play either of them anyway. Right now we need to get back to the fundamentals of the game and how to be the aggressor at the start of matches. And the coaches need to find the right combination of players for the postseason.
