Don't see 6 yellow cards on a team very often.

This was a miserable game for A&M and there simply isn't much to be positive about, but I don't want to give up on the team this early in the season. I'm sure the coaches will make adjustments and the newcomers will find their stride eventually and we will be a much better team in October. However, it's been a long time since an A&M team has looked this bad in the basics of the game. First touch, control, accurate passing, spacing, anticipation. It's just shockingly poor right now. Obviously having Ali Russell and Laney Carroll out for the first two games doesn't help things, but I don't know how much difference they would have made when you can't keep any sustained possession and your teammates look disjointed and confused most of the time. It's such a mess right now in the middle of the field I don't know if it can be fully repaired this season.

We could write off the FSU game a bit because they're the best team in the country and it's on the road. But tonight there are no excuses to be this inept against an evenly matched side. The most perplexing thing about this team so far is that it's basically the same team that lined up against UNC in the Elite 8 three months ago minus Carroll and Ziemer (replaced by McDonald and Hayes). So how could we be this lacking in fundamentals? Maybe the team was tired after a long road trip out East, maybe someone like Ziemer was the glue to the team that we didn't realize, or maybe the constant shuffling of players at different positions has lost our synergy? I don't know but it's really disappointing.

I lost count the number of times we gained possession in the midfield, stumbled over the ball then made a poor pass into "space" that a teammate had no chance of receiving, only to see TCU quickly regain control. TCU did put us under a lot of pressure and made us uncomfortable, but when you see talented skill players like Olivieri losing possession or making poor passes and then looking frustrated, you know something is wrong. Nothing is clicking and there is no chemistry on the field right now. Even Mia Pante, who looked so good in the exhibition matches, is a complete non-factor and barely seems to touch the ball. If the goal was to move her into the attack or provide crosses, it's not working. Kolb was really good there last season and provided a lot of services into the box, so maybe we have to go back to her and move Mia back into her natural position next to Sample as a wing back. How many times have we even been able to play overlapping runs this season? What happened to going wide and crossing, where most of our dangerous chances came from last year? Notice that our lone goal this season tonight came from a cross into traffic from Geczik which allowed McDonald to touch a nifty pass back to Pounds for the shot on goal. We have to make that an emphasis the rest of the year. I can't figure out what position Geczik is playing as she started on the back line then moved up to high outside midfielder. Bates continues to struggle. And Colvin off the bench was ineffective. There is little movement off the ball to anticipate passes and we can only string together 2-3 passes before losing it.

That makes it hard for our forwards to do anything productive as we witnessed tonight. McDonald is good at harassing opponents and pressuring the ball, but once she has it, she must be more assertive to get around a defender with one move and then take a shot. Too much dancing around with little to show for it. Hayes has a great motor but she will need to take some shots if she is to remain at a striker position. I'd put her next to Barbara in the midfield to gain more possession. When was the last time A&M was outshot in 4 consecutive games (even though 2 were exhibition)? We really need Carroll back asap because we don't have much of an offense right now. She has been injury prone early in her career so I'm worried about her durability long term. And it doesn't help that Abel and Williams are also out now with injury so we have little depth.

The back line was solid most of the night but there were mistakes and a few coverage misreads. The own goal by Sample was unfortunate but it was probably going to be tapped in anyway by the TCU forward if she had missed the ball. Caldwell was caught off guard on the second goal when we couldn't deflect the ball away in the air so that was a bit of a fluke. Katie Smith (the only real bright spot tonight) had another solid game and was the target of some dirty play by TCU's Collins, who tried to take her out of the game early in the match with a hard foul that IMO could have been a red card. Overall TCU played very physical and deserved a few red cards. The referee really missed a few calls and wasn't tough enough early on TCU. There were at least two occasions when the final TCU defender dragged down our attacker going to goal, which by the book is a red card offense. Those really matter because in the end the Horned Frogs got away with it with no damage. A&M did commit a lot of fouls but they were clean and mostly soft offenses.

A&M is an extremely poor first half team and you just cannot start games like we have this season and expect to win. There is no energy or cohesion and we are on our heels for the first 30 minutes or so before we decide to start playing. If we played the entire match like we did the final 20 minutes tonight, we walk out with at least a tie. This will be a big week for A&M to regroup and put something together in practice that can translate to a game, otherwise we will be 0-3 after the Clemson game. Get back to triangle passing and four players around the ball at all times, which worked so well last season. More give and goes and more wide play with crosses into the box. In other words, fundamentals in how to possess and create chances on goal. I'm now a bit worried about this season and the team psyche can't be good right now. We need to create some momentum next weekend.

There are a few highlights on 12thman.com. In the post game comments G acknowledged the slow start: "We can't come in and play as poorly as we started and expect to get a result against a quality team like TCU".

Jimma said:

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I disagree on being physical. I've only seen the Florida State game and this one and in my opinion both Florida State and TCU have been much more physical than A&M. The only exceptions might be Olivieri and Sample. Harvey was a take no prisoners type player and she didn't take crap from anyone. Her style of play appeared to have inspired her teammates when the team was down.

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If you saw similiarities between FSU and TCU, it's probably because the TCU head coach, Eric Bell, was a long time assistant coach for the Seminoles. He's been at TCU for a while now, but the influence is still there.