I notice our best player comes off the bench. Is he a little hurt still? What's the reason he does not get the start?
I don't think so. I think it was a strategy and game plan decision from Tom. UK had a CB that looked a lot like a DE. Probably about 6'2" and 250 lbs. Malik Henry Scott is a pro caliber forward. He's quick and exceptional from a technical standpoint. He puts a lot of pressure on defenders who try to go with him 1 v 1. Thomas Wells is super fast and puts a lot of pressure on backlines to be very precise. Meinhard is deceptively quick for a guy his size and his on ball technical skill has backlines giving him a ton of respect. At times they give him too much space, such as the goal he scored last night. They're so worried about him blowing by them they give him a lot of space to keep him in front of them and he hammers a shot from 25 yds that no GK in the world is getting to.
Taka is that pesky flea. He is the Antonia Reed of the soccer team. He's always in your face, he gets under opponents' skin and gets them focused on something that is not beneficial to their teams.
And let's talk about TU's 5'10" GK. Outside of his inability to punt the ball, this kid will make every save a 6'4" GK will make and he gives your team an additional field player to play the ball through. UK knew this and they essentially sat back and let TU pass the ball around in the back and didn't chase when the game was still 11 v 11 and TU was still able to find the spaces both wide and in the middle and created some really nice attack. TU was unlucky not to be up 2-0 when the red card came as MHS hammered that shot from 30 yds just wide and the GK was nowhere near it.
IMO, 11 v 11 TU was the better, more complete team.