Texas A&M hosts the Alabama Crimson Tide tonight for Aggie Soccer's Senior Night. The match is set to kickoff at 7PM. A senior night ceremony will precede the game to honor Aggie Seniors Kendall Bates, Daria Britton, Jordan Burbank, Macie Kolb, and Karlina Sample.

Alabama is currently 8-7 on the season with a 3-3 mark in conference play and is #57 in RPI (3 spots behind A&M). Alabama's conference results include wins over Missouri (2-1), LSU (1-0), and Mississippi State (1-0). Losses have come to Ole Miss (1-3), Vanderbilt (0-3), and Arkansas (1-3).

Alabama has scored 23 goals this season while also allowing 23 goals.

It's been Ashlynn Serepca, a grad transfer from Virginia that has passed the Crimson Tide in both goals and assists. Serepca has 5 goals on the season and 3 assists, but has yet to score in conference play.

Another grad transfer (Oklahoma), McKinley Crone has seized the goalkeeping role for Alabama. She has allowed 18 goals and totalled 38 saves while contributing to 5 shutouts. She's credited with an 8-4 record.

A&M is 8-3-1 all-time against the Crimson Tide. The Aggies won last year's matchup 2-0.

I believe A&M will win this game as they fight to ensure they make the field in Orange Beach, just for the SEC Tournament. There's a lot of work to do before we can think beyond the conference tournament, but that's the goal at this point.

Promotions:
SOCCER Fri 15th Alabama 7 PM

• Kids Night Out
  
  • $12 Package that includes 2 tickets (Family member & Child) and a $12 concessions voucher, Additional tickets $3 each.
  • To purchase the package click HERE
• Youth A&M Soccer "Shirsey" Giveaway
  
  • Youth sized A&M Soccer "Shirsey's" available for the first 500 kids.
• Senior Night
  
  • Come out to Ellis Field early to celebrate our Aggie Soccer seniors!

Bend it Like Small

Barbara Olivieri fires one home just moments after the second half whistle!

Game should be over. Beautiful cross right in front of the goal for us and should have been headed home for a 2-0 lead from like 5 yards out.

Like dropping a wide open bomb in a football game.

Being outplayed and out passed by Alabama. The Aggies midfield play is non existent and therefore there is no connection between our back line and the offense. Pounds looks like she is lost with no control, direction-less passes and silly fouls (one led to a free kick and the Alabama goal). Bates is just not playing fast enough or strong enough. A&M could use more physical players (like Maile Hayes) on the offensive side of the ball (not having Laney Carroll doesn't help either).

It was a disappointing game for sure tonight on Senior Night. I really hope Sample considers returning for another year since she has another year or eligibility because of freebie last season. Alabama is not a good team and we made them look much better than their .500 record would indicate. Of course the problem with that argument is that A&M is also a losing team that has been slowly sinking all season. I had forgotten that A&M had lost 4 consecutive home games (double the school record) and after tonight's 1-1 draw is winless in 5 matches at Ellis Field. A&M will need to beat (or at least tie) Vanderbilt next weekend to avoid its first losing home record in a season. That is truly unbelievable for an A&M soccer team. Never thought I would see it under Coach G.

There were stretches when A&M played well, especially in the second half, and we should have scored at least 3 goals with two easy finishes in front of goal whiffed. Alabama was quicker in the midfield and gave us fits in possession. We had some really poor performances in the midfield tonight. Olivieri scored a textbook goal from another assist by Pante, but there were times when her frustration led to entanglements with Alabama players and sometimes just stopping when she lost the ball. She's so talented but she has to give maximum effort out there and set an example for her teammates. I won't mention the others in the midfield because most of them had brutal games.

Katie Smith was the hero tonight with 3 incredible goal saving tackles, otherwise the Tide would have walked out with an easy win. And Sample also had some very good stops to solidify the defensive effort. The Bama goal came on a set piece when someone just didn't mark their player at the back post and it resulted in a header past Caldwell.

It does worry me that this team seems to be used to losing and underperforming, something that the coaches cannot allow to take hold moving forward into the offseason. I know it's ridiculous to mention at this point, but I remember Florida's slow program fade beginning in similar fashion about 5 years ago. I'll discuss in more detail in the post season summary, but I think some changes in approach and attitude may be necessary.

Our RPI is at 54 and we will be in no better than 10th place in the conference after the weekend.
I don't think I've seen Olivieri play so much in the defensive half as last night.
We have won 1 of our last 7 games. Our last home win was September 8.

I don't question this team's desire to win, but I don't think they fully grasp how important maintaining possession is to winning. One easy example: watch what happens on throw-ins. The general practice of this team is to throw it as far downfield as possible, regardless of whether that will maintain possession. And, inevitably, it results in a 50-50 ball, usually a contested, uncontrolled header. Why do that?? A throw-in is the one situation in soccer in which you have complete three-dimensional control of the ball, without a defender pressing you. It ought to be easy to throw that ball to a teammate in a way that maintains possession 75% of the time. Just throwing it a long way down the sideline doesn't increase your chances of creating a dangerous scoring opportunity. It just creates a 50-50 header opportunity. A mature team typically realizes that winning comes from maximizing the dangerous scoring opportunities you create. And creating dangerous opportunities comes from controlled possession. So, everything should be focused on that.

In terms of actual on-field performance, I think you're right MooseHerd. But G talks a lot about being a possession-focused team, so the disconnect between that and the on-field performance is, to me, notable.