2018 CUSA Women's Soccer Tourney Info/Results

[Mean Green Matt]

5 minutes ago, outoftown said:

What I find crazy, is that playing this style, NT still isn't really any good at crossing the ball inside from the side of the 18.

We typically aren't good at creating offense against superior teams...

[Salsa_Verde]

On to extra time. Goalkeeper is the only reason North Texas is still in this game.

[Mean Green Matt]

Our offense may be struggling, but this is a really gutsy defensive performance.  My goodness.

[outoftown]

First OT over. Game was almost exclusively around the NT 18, but A&Ms chances weren't exactly must makes. Right now its hard to see NT winning any other way than through the lottery (PK shootout) though

Edited November 10, 2018 by outoftown

[MeanGreenTexan]

Ladies look to be playing for PKs.

That May be a good strategy because A&Ms energy is high.  Wear them out & win on PKs.

[outoftown]

Second OT much better so far, actually more chances for NT.

[outoftown]

A&M wins it on an OT goal.

[dml7007]

Lost 1 - 0...

 

[Salsa_Verde]

Very disappointing ending. 

[Mean Green Matt]

That easily could have been a foul on TAMU.  Wasn't shoulder to shoulder. It was a push in the back. Maybe a little too soft. Being a NT fan is hard sometimes.

[Travis]

Every year I say the exact same thing... You can find my responses from years and years ago.  Hedlunds style will NEVER win us a tournament game because our style will always lose to possession teams. Always. 

We were flat out dominated by them.

I sound like a freaking broken record.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Heartbreaker.   The way the back line was holding all game, & the way Brann was playing...  I thought for sure we’d get them in penalties.

 

Great season, yet again, ladies.  We’re proud of you!

[Travis]

If we are going to play this long ball.. our forward has to be better than what I saw tonight.  We got nothing from our forwards. 😞

[UNTcrazy727]

3 minutes ago, Travis said:

Every year I say the exact same thing... You can find my responses from years and years ago.  Hedlunds style will NEVER win us a tournament game because our style will always lose to possession teams. Always. 

We were flat out dominated by them.

I sound like a freaking broken record.

Me too, but I’m usually down voted to Hell. It’s like we’re not allowed to expect our best program to be anything more than great mid major who can’t win in the NCAA tournament. 

[Travis]

19 minutes ago, UNTcrazy727 said:

Me too, but I’m usually down voted to Hell. It’s like we’re not allowed to expect our best program to be anything more than great mid major who can’t win in the NCAA tournament. 

He has coached this way with intention. I was great friends with the soccer players during my undergrad from 2000-2004 and we would discuss tactics. They even agreed with me that possession and my style of play would be far superior than the long ball that Hedlund plays. But you gotta play the way the coach wants.

 I am honestly not sure Hedlund is capable of coaching a different style. But it is what it is. 

[Wookies]

First, I want to say I love this team and I wish all of our athletic teams fought like the soccer girls do. As with all college sports it comes down to recruiting. Next season, for the first time in school history, we have a proper facility for the soccer team. It will be interesting to see if we have an uptick in recruiting over the next couple of years.

 

[El Paso Eagle]

We take the #3 team to double OT on their home field and people are bitching. Sad

[Travis]

19 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

We take the #3 team to double OT on their home field and people are bitching. Sad

Sad? Sad that we are a solid mid major program that in all the years of Hedlund making us a great program, not only have we never won a tourney game, but a Hedlund team hasn’t even ever scored a single goal in a tourney game. Sounds like you don’t really understand soccer to understand what we are complaining about. We are bitching about the style in which we play. Which has been my point for years. I know soccer well enough to understand why we are what we are. It is like I am a prophet! 

Again, we are a top 25 team with what should be top 25 talent. I am sure there is no way the girls are happy just because they made it to OT with aTm. They expected better.  And our program is better than just to be grateful we played them into extra innings. 

Also, we were incredibly lucky to make it to OT. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by Travis

[MeanGreenTexan]

We have a pretty good football team that runs a specific style of offense that, when put up against, say: LSU, will get shut down.  Otherwise, it’s proven to win a lot of games.  In that scenario (going against LSU), would we expect Littrell to coach any differently?  Would we, as fans, expect to win?  

I don’t understand the self-back-patting critiques when we ran into a #3 seed.

We got hosed on the draw.  I have no doubt this squad would have rolled into Ft. Worth & taken care of business, forcing a game w/A&M in the 2nd round, where it should have been.

[Mean Green Matt]

1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

We have a pretty good football team that runs a specific style of offense that, when put up against, say: LSU, will get shut down.  Otherwise, it’s proven to win a lot of games.  In that scenario (going against LSU), would we expect Littrell to coach any differently?  Would we, as fans, expect to win?  

I don’t understand the self-back-patting critiques when we ran into a #3 seed.

We got hosed on the draw.  I have no doubt this squad would have rolled into Ft. Worth & taken care of business, forcing a game w/A&M in the 2nd round, where it should have been.

Hedlund also said postgame this should have been a second round matchup. 

[Mean Green Matt]

12 hours ago, Mean Green Matt said:

That easily could have been a foul on TAMU.  Wasn't shoulder to shoulder. It was a push in the back. Maybe a little too soft. Being a NT fan is hard sometimes.

Quoting myself here but TAMU finally posted the replay and I no longer think it was a foul. 

[GrandGreen]

There was not much of a talent difference between the two teams.   Playing at A&M could very well have been the difference in the game.

A&M basically had three times as many shots and corner kicks as NT.   The odds of winning that kind of game is very low.  

How much of that scoring chance disparity  is due to style versus skill  is debatable.

What Hedlund has accomplished is amazing considering the facility and support NT has.   

Hedlund has always got the best of the second tier players out of the metroplex.  The new facility should enable him to improve recruiting.   

Hedlund has never recruited international players or many not from this area.  I would like to see him expand his recruiting to other areas for at least a few players. 

[Travis]

3 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

We have a pretty good football team that runs a specific style of offense that, when put up against, say: LSU, will get shut down.  Otherwise, it’s proven to win a lot of games.  In that scenario (going against LSU), would we expect Littrell to coach any differently?  Would we, as fans, expect to win?  

I don’t understand the self-back-patting critiques when we ran into a #3 seed.

We got hosed on the draw.  I have no doubt this squad would have rolled into Ft. Worth & taken care of business, forcing a game w/A&M in the 2nd round, where it should have been.

This was not a talent difference. Simply watch the game. It was completely a tactic and strategy difference. It doesn’t matter who we play in the tournament, they will all be good. We have had lucky draws before against the likes of Tech and SMU and Hedlund still never delivered.  Again, philosophy results have always struck its ugly head because this style will never win tourney games when you are up against a strong possession team that uses the midefilwd as it is intended. I said this about 10 years ago and I continue to be correct. I was really hoping to be wrong this year because our team is far more athletic than years past. 

 A good midfield is like solid offensive and defensive lines... if they do well, the teams likely do well. Our philosophy doesn’t use them as we should. Just a bunch of Hail Mary’s. 

But what do I know? I have only played competitively most of my life while also coaching (and officiating) for about 8 years. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by Travis

[Travis]

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

There was not much of a talent difference between the two teams.   Playing at A&M could very well have been the difference in the game.

A&M basically had three times as many shots and corner kicks as NT.   The odds of winning that kind of game is very low.  

How much of that scoring chance disparity  is due to style versus skill  is debatable.

What Hedlund has accomplished is amazing considering the facility and support NT has.   

Hedlund has always got the best of the second tier players out of the metroplex.  The new facility should enable him to improve recruiting.   

Hedlund has never recruited international players or many not from this area.  I would like to see him expand his recruiting to other areas for at least a few players. 

Aggies dominated because of style. Not talent. They utilized their midfield and possession the way they should.  They created a bunch of scoring opportunities. Our keeper played lights out that allowed us to stay in the game. Well, that and the fact that one Aggie made a real dumb bone headed play by not being greedy enough to take the shot that is right in front of you. 

[blurbeard]

Congratulations on a great year ladies winning both CUSA championships and now dominating their sport with 7 CUSA titles! We're so proud!  

On advancing in the NCAA tournament, it's more about the draw then the direct system UNT plays. If you watch enough womens college soccer UNT, Baylor and Arkansas are identical with the way they play. Very direct, utilize their speed/ athletes and extremely physical...when you read alot of the coaches game quotes, most schools hate playing these three schools in particular and all three teams consistently lead in fouls/cards each year! Now the question is can you win in this tournament with a direct system? Yes... Baylor with a little luck last year went all the way to the Elite 8 and won the Big 12 this year and Arkansas won last night, although it was UALR but they have advanced in recent years. Arkansas also got to the SEC championship game the last two years. The only diference I see in these three programs is Baylor and Arkansas have more depth then UNT but hopefully with the new stadium Hedlund can build his depth instead of relying solely on his starters! Now as far as A&M, they get the best talent out of Texas every year (5 star recruits) Very silly to say the talent is the same because its not even close! Hedlund finds athletes with speed and fits them into his system to counter these national type players he cannot get. A&M was ranked as high as #3 in the country this year...that's the talent they have, if your read the box score,  Emmitt Smith's daughter couldn't even get off the bench last night, that's how deep they're. So what our women did last night to almost steal a win against that team/environment was simply amazing and they should be commended not torn down! I believe this program will advance someday when they start hosting or their draw becomes more fair to their RPI...this year they got screwed and right now all the NCAA committee is doing is throwing us to the wolves!