That is funny that you said that because there are some posters who questioned CB on the WBB board about them needing an eye test when clearly CB stated that Gabby W, CC, SB would get a lot of playing time and some posters question that statement by saying I will need to see them for myself. Your point that that you do not feel like you have anywhere near the information that the coaching staff does to question them is valid and I agree with you totally. When I made those statements on the WBB board, I got them from CB as well as the players that are on this year's team, but some people quickly shot me down. Thanks for stating that above because that is exactly how I felt and I could not understand how posters could say that about CB and her staff when we do not have all the information that they have. Thanks again.
UNC Women's Soccer 2026-2027
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So where would you play Gaetino? According to Damon she is a vital part of the team.I think another poster ask the same question.
She’s valuable for the team for sure but where do you put her? Well, not sure she’s a starter now as she doesn’t have the skills to beat out our other position starters. Damon recognizes that and has her getting some time up top as a sub, which is fine.
We have a lot of talent and she may be a rotational player further up the field for the rest of season. It’s crunch time now and the goal is to win the National Championship.
I trust Damon so will be interesting to see how he plays it.
We were mostly playing some bad teams early in the season, the ACC is absolutely loaded with difficult opponents, so I think this is a little bit of an apples to oranges comparison.
Agree though that it would be helpful to get Denigan more minutes going forward. We really need fresh legs in that central midfield group, the amount of running that position requires is just brutal.
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Agree…I just think it’s a trust thing. Gaetino takes more risks with her passing and positioning at times, and is more physical than the others…with a 3 back line, you just have such a thin margin of safety back there, and a turnover from one of your backs can expose our biggest vulnerability (quick counters). And conceding fouls in or around your box also puts you in danger for set pieces. I think we all know what BG has done for this team over the past 3 years, but right now if I were coaching, I’d go with this lineup as well. However, I will absolutely concede that if we play a team with a lot of size and physical strength up front, then I’d probably prefer BG over one of the other outside backs.
BG would have probably been great to slot in at the 6 if she had time to learn that position, but it’s too late in the season (barring injury) to try that. We could use more size and physicality in our midfield, but Kennedy and Pennie have the 6 on lockdown and aren’t coming off of the field in a big game.
Damon’s comment about her being “versatile” says a lot to me. I think he’s looking at where else she can help us on the field….she did well coming in as the 9 the other night, so we will probably see more of that, especially if Devey’s leg strain issue persists. I think we’ll sit Devey against Lville…as big as ACC seeding is, having her 100% for the NCAAT is more important.
All it takes is for one person to go down and BG is right back into a situation where she’s playing 90 minutes a game, so all of this discussion could be moot at any moment. Again, how lucky are we to have this kind of “problem”!
Everyone has their own favorite profile of player but personally I would put Alvarez in the top five defenders who have arrived since 2019. Behind Armstrong, King and Bell but fourth or fifth.
She is incredibly reliable - nearly always makes a smart decision and uses good technique with receiving and distributing the ball. She's adept at defending and going forward. And she has the best heading technique on the team. I get the vibes that she'd be a coach's dream in terms of following a game plan.
I agree with a back three, her best position is an outside back. But I think right back in a back four is her best position. The defensive job she did as a 17 year old against an in form Mia Oliaro in the 2024 ACC semi-final was truly epic and that win was pivotal in building belief to win the national championship.
She is incredibly reliable - nearly always makes a smart decision and uses good technique with receiving and distributing the ball. She's adept at defending and going forward. And she has the best heading technique on the team. I get the vibes that she'd be a coach's dream in terms of following a game plan.
I agree with a back three, her best position is an outside back. But I think right back in a back four is her best position. The defensive job she did as a 17 year old against an in form Mia Oliaro in the 2024 ACC semi-final was truly epic and that win was pivotal in building belief to win the national championship.
Watching USA vs North Korea on FS1 right now (FIFA U17 World Cup quarterfinals). NK is completely shelling our goal early on...it's insane how much better they are physically, and I continue to question it. They literally play like boys. They are faster, stronger, and have more stamina across the board and it's not even close. USA got completely dominated in midfield in their last game by Spain, and this game is making that one look like an even battle. We are just chasing and having no possession, a hopeful long ball to DiMaria is the only chance we're going to have. USA is not handling the pressure well...a lot of mistakes being made because they are being sped up by NK's unrelenting defensive pressure, we just look uncomfortable on the ball and not used to it. Usually this is what we do to other teams.
But I have to point out something that I really hate to see starting to creep more into the womens game. The flopping, the obvious faking of injuries / time wasting tactics in close games, and the "tactical" fouls that just completely soured me on watching mens soccer in the past 10 years.
The tactical fouls have to be taken out of this sport. It makes me sick. It's just flat out cheating. I have seen our own players do it at times, so this isn't just sour grapes....however, I just saw a NK player literally horse-collar Maddie DiMaria who had beat her on the wing to stop what would have been DiMaria runing 1v1 in the box against their center back. Absolutely ZERO intent to play the ball, and could easily injure someone that is being yanked down from behind while running full speed. What was the result, a pretty much meaningless yellow card and a free kick awarded 40 yards from goal, allowing NK to get all of their defense back behind the ball. The cost does not match the benefit. The ended what could have been the best scoring chance we have in a major game intentionally with little consequence.
FIFA needs to really think about this problem. It's no longer just something that happens sporadically. When 16-17 year old girls are now playing this way, it has become pervasive throughout the game at nearly all levels. Haven't seen 7-9 year olds employ this tactic yet, but it's probably just a matter of time.
I'd suggest a new color of card....something actually used in a youth indoor league I used to coach in. They had blue cards that the ref could issue....for particularly egregious fouls that really fell somewhere in between a yellow and a red. It was basically acting the same as a yellow card, but the offending player would be required to sit out for 5 minutes, creating a temporary man-advantage. Basically like a power play in hockey.
This would at least increase the cost to the offending player/team. I still think grabbing a player intentionally from behind on any potential scoring opportunity should be a red so that we get it completely out of the game, but I know that a red card is something most refs are just scared to use because it can cause them to decide the result of a game on a judgment call (something no ref wants the burden of carrying considering the blowback and abuse they get from fans/parents/etc).
It reminds me some of the ridiculous inconsistency with how pass interference is called between NFL and college football. Pass interference is a spot foul in the NFL. You grab a receiver 40 yards downfield, they get the ball 40 yards downfield. You do the exact same in college, you only get a 15 yard penalty and nothing else. Makes zero sense to me. Rewarding an offending team for a clear/intentional violation of rules is a classic failure of common sense.
Highly doubt it ever changes though.
But I have to point out something that I really hate to see starting to creep more into the womens game. The flopping, the obvious faking of injuries / time wasting tactics in close games, and the "tactical" fouls that just completely soured me on watching mens soccer in the past 10 years.
The tactical fouls have to be taken out of this sport. It makes me sick. It's just flat out cheating. I have seen our own players do it at times, so this isn't just sour grapes....however, I just saw a NK player literally horse-collar Maddie DiMaria who had beat her on the wing to stop what would have been DiMaria runing 1v1 in the box against their center back. Absolutely ZERO intent to play the ball, and could easily injure someone that is being yanked down from behind while running full speed. What was the result, a pretty much meaningless yellow card and a free kick awarded 40 yards from goal, allowing NK to get all of their defense back behind the ball. The cost does not match the benefit. The ended what could have been the best scoring chance we have in a major game intentionally with little consequence.
FIFA needs to really think about this problem. It's no longer just something that happens sporadically. When 16-17 year old girls are now playing this way, it has become pervasive throughout the game at nearly all levels. Haven't seen 7-9 year olds employ this tactic yet, but it's probably just a matter of time.
I'd suggest a new color of card....something actually used in a youth indoor league I used to coach in. They had blue cards that the ref could issue....for particularly egregious fouls that really fell somewhere in between a yellow and a red. It was basically acting the same as a yellow card, but the offending player would be required to sit out for 5 minutes, creating a temporary man-advantage. Basically like a power play in hockey.
This would at least increase the cost to the offending player/team. I still think grabbing a player intentionally from behind on any potential scoring opportunity should be a red so that we get it completely out of the game, but I know that a red card is something most refs are just scared to use because it can cause them to decide the result of a game on a judgment call (something no ref wants the burden of carrying considering the blowback and abuse they get from fans/parents/etc).
It reminds me some of the ridiculous inconsistency with how pass interference is called between NFL and college football. Pass interference is a spot foul in the NFL. You grab a receiver 40 yards downfield, they get the ball 40 yards downfield. You do the exact same in college, you only get a 15 yard penalty and nothing else. Makes zero sense to me. Rewarding an offending team for a clear/intentional violation of rules is a classic failure of common sense.
Highly doubt it ever changes though.
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A few things that I can think of:
-Get into the good graces of those running USA Soccer....whether or not you realize it, competitive soccer is extremely political, and being in the good graces of the right people is meaningful as a player or as a coach. You piss off the wrong people with power/influence (by withholding players), some will do what they can to limit your opportunities in the future. You also may piss of that player and their parents too (although I'm really not sure how much power college coaches have to tell players they can/cannot play in a national tournament...I know pro teams, which actually have contractual rights over players, can prevent them from playing in international games, but not sure about college teams). With the ease of leaving that the transfer portal gives, saving a player for a month may cost you to lose them for a year or multiple years down the road if it causes them to transfer.
-It's very good exposure for the program to have your team well represented amongst what are supposed to be the best of the best. When you go to recruits and say we had two current and two future UNC players on the national team that just played in the U17 World Cup, that can be difference making. Knowing you are going to play somewhere in college (or at the club level in high school) that is a known pipeline to the top level is huge, and many kids dream of playing for their national team. I wouldn't call these national cups "meaningless". And we don't "always lose" them. USA (women) is the defending Olympic champion and has a real chance to win the upcoming World Cup in 2027.
-It's great experience for your players to go train with the other top players in the country and compete against the other best players in the world. It makes them better.
It's really frustrating for us as the fans of the teams that lose their players, but I imagine that for Nahas (and the other college coaches impacted) it is a choice of long-term benefit over short-term sacrifice.
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Agree on all these points. Also not all of these players are going to make the full USWNT, and the chance to represent their country could be a career highlight. For those who do play at the senior international level, it must be valuable experience to have been in a tournament before - presumably a strange and pressured experience and on the field you have to pick up quickly the manager's idea and gel with other players.
Once the players want to play these tournaments, the coaches basically have to let them.
Once the players want to play these tournaments, the coaches basically have to let them.
I never understood why the schedules for this type of thing can't be changed
Thanks for the wonderful post. This is the same thing I stated a week ago about the Duke player during the same thing one of our men's player the same exact scenario. In that game because it was Duke no foul, no call was made. It was almost as if the referees decided that they were not going to make a call or they must have gotten paid.
I think the biggest problem is that our (American soccer) seasons do not line up with the overseas league schedules at all. There has actually been a lot of rumblings about changing both college soccer and NWSL’s seasons to align with European pro leagues so the many conflicts that arise won’t be such a problem for our leagues in the future. And I think it will happen soon. NWSL is in fierce competition for the best talent worldwide now and changes like this need to happen. And if NWSL changes, college soccer is going to have to change along with it considering that college is basically the main domestic feeder into that league (for now at least).
Lindsay Heaps was on a podcast with Mewis recently talking about her early career. She said that Anson was the only person that "really understood her" because he didn't try to sell her on Carolina - not the legacy, the facilities, the family, academics, etc. He just told her that he would get her on the national team and that's all that she wanted to hear. And the U's are a direct pipeline to the WNT.
BTW, she said that he still texts her after every USWNT match. And not just "good game" or "tough loss", but he gives her feedback on her performance. She said it's like a paragraph.
BTW, she said that he still texts her after every USWNT match. And not just "good game" or "tough loss", but he gives her feedback on her performance. She said it's like a paragraph.
Notre Dame beat Stanford, and so now it looks like we'll end up 2nd. I think this could actually be great: a sense of injustice could fire our players up. It also puts us on a collision course with Wake in the semi-finals, and I want that rematch.
I'm still a little confused as to how good Notre Dame and Stanford are. I thought we looked clearly better than ND when we played them but they have otherwise had a great conference so far. Meanwhile, I thought Stanford were terrific against us but they are relying on results to go their way to make the ACC tournament.
I'm still a little confused as to how good Notre Dame and Stanford are. I thought we looked clearly better than ND when we played them but they have otherwise had a great conference so far. Meanwhile, I thought Stanford were terrific against us but they are relying on results to go their way to make the ACC tournament.
I do not like how this was done. The powers that be who are making these decisions do not or will not want to consider the fact that a Hurricane was the reason why FSU and UNC was not able to play. People lives were at stake all the way around. I do not understand why they did not have a better system in place to handle this usually circumstances. Our young women are being penalized for no reason on something that was out of both UNC and FSU control. This again is another form of bias against one of our teams IMO. We clearly beat ND at our place. One only have one lost.
Stanford were missing some key players earlier in the season (some at U20 World Cup, some injuries)…the team they have now is significantly more complete and healthy than the team that lost some games earlier. Pretty sure at one point they were ranked #1 very early on just based on the talent on that roster. They are Final Four good enough if they get hot. The ACC is just loaded.
The league’s response on this was that the coaches were given a chance to vote preseason and the choice was to use total points as the deciding factor, not points per game. So they punted and just said that (even though it makes zero common sense) they didn’t want to go against what was decided before. It’s the perfect example of bureaucracy drowning out common sense decisions.
I would expect that the coaches will vote to change this next chance they get now that the flaw in that method has been exposed for all to see. It is what it is and we just have to play the hand we’ve been dealt.
I’m more pissed off that a girl can spit on another in plain sight and get absolutely zero punishment (and then go score a game winning goal a week later). Just unbelievable incompetence and lack of leadership from the league and from Stanford’s athletic department.
Dog gone. Thanks for bringing that up. I am pissed too. I had forgotten all about that. Does the team who win the conference get something? I thought they did and if so, this is why I am pissed off on that stupid rule which I know now that all of the coaches had voted on. Now I am beginning to wonder how many of our young women are going to not make any of the the 1st team, 2nd team, and freshmen team in soccer as a result of coming in second when we all know we got cheated and we should have been first in the conference. To be honest, we should have more than one player make the all freshmen team, but I got a feeling that will may only have one freshman young lady to make that team and some others are going to be left out for making that team as well as for the first and second teams. Another form of bias IMO.
I'd say the ACC can't get out of its way, but then soccer math has always confused me too.
Looks like Florence (Flo) Ibsen reclassed and has committed to UNC. I don't know much about her, but she's been to some US Soccer training camps.
I hope she doesn't wear #10 for us next year!
She had to be pretty good in order to be called up to a few US soccer training camps.
Poof - Maddie DiMaria to ACFC.
Sucks, but was probably inevitable.
Sucks, but was probably inevitable.
Oh. Oh no!
I am pretty sure that she tried to reclassify to 2026 to play at UNC this year. That fell through for some reason and probably will be the missed opportunity for her to suit up for UNC.
I will keep her on the recruit list for now, absent full confirmation she will not defer her contract. But this seems like a pretty sure thing:
Angel City signs 17-year-old Maddie DiMaria to four-year deal
A two-time Gatorade girls’ national soccer player of the year, Maddie DiMaria scored 24 times in 23 appearances with the U.S. U-17 team.
www.latimes.com
edit: looks like she is listed on their roster and will likely play immediately, so we will have all teh confirmation we need soon enough.
Player Roster | Players & Squad | Angel City FC
See the full Angel City FC roster. Player bios, positions, squad numbers, and stats for every player on the current NWSL squad.
angelcity.com
Press release seems to say she may be activated their next game, which is in the playoffs on Saturday. Seems a little crazy that they allow new recruit signings during the playoffs. This is Sentnor's team FWIW
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Nice! Added Flo Ibsen to the recruiting list at the top of this thread
UNC Women's Soccer 2026-2027 - Forums
Snapshot of the 2026 team: Starters Lost: Sr F Kate Faasse - 2024 NPOY, 2025 3rd Team All-ACC - 11 G, 6 A, .204 SH% - graduated, Houston Dash So MF Linda Ullmark - 4th Team A-A, 3rd Team All-ACC - 7 G, 8 A, .121 SH%) - went pro, Houston Dash Sr MF/D Tessa Dellarose - 3rd team 2024 All-ACC -...
She appears to have played in CA as a soph, but for Gotham FC in NJ as a Jr
It's frustrating to miss out on that type of talent. But, Damon is definitely pulling in top-tier recruits so that we can truly return to the days of "reloading" the roster. It wasn't that long ago that we felt consistently overlooked by this type of player for FSU, Stanford, etc.
DiMaria brings a different shot to their offense which they need if they’re going far in this postseason. And yeah, roster changes this late in the season is just crazy.Oh. Oh no!
I am pretty sure that she tried to reclassify to 2026 to play at UNC this year. That fell through for some reason and probably will be the missed opportunity for her to suit up for UNC.
I will keep her on the recruit list for now, absent full confirmation she will not defer her contract. But this seems like a pretty sure thing:
Angel City signs 17-year-old Maddie DiMaria to four-year deal
A two-time Gatorade girls’ national soccer player of the year, Maddie DiMaria scored 24 times in 23 appearances with the U.S. U-17 team.
edit: looks like she is listed on their roster and will likely play immediately, so we will have all teh confirmation we need soon enough.
Player Roster | Players & Squad | Angel City FC
See the full Angel City FC roster. Player bios, positions, squad numbers, and stats for every player on the current NWSL squad.angelcity.com
Press release seems to say she may be activated their next game, which is in the playoffs on Saturday. Seems a little crazy that they allow new recruit signings during the playoffs. This is Sentnor's team FWIW
Subs were interesting:
Bella Gaetino in for Devey
Summer Denigan in for Riley Kennedy, moves Antonucci (starter) back to the double 6
Amari Manning in on the wing for Strawn
Was surprised how they were going to fit everyone and it appears Kennedy was the one to sub out to give others time
Bella Gaetino in for Devey
Summer Denigan in for Riley Kennedy, moves Antonucci (starter) back to the double 6
Amari Manning in on the wing for Strawn
Was surprised how they were going to fit everyone and it appears Kennedy was the one to sub out to give others time
Gave up a goal on a great corner kick set piece and Munson responds with a banger near upper 90 with the left foot. Up 2-1.
Munson rocket with her left foot for a brace.
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