So as I said earlier I did watch the National Championship game for Women's Soccer between Stanford and UNC.
As a side note Stanford has some ridiculous streak in having a National Championship in at least one sport every year for a while. (not sure about the exact date) I don't think I need to tell you how good North Carolina is at Women's Soccer.
Before the game I thought that North Carolina would win because they are North Carolina. I did think that Stanford would give them a good run for their money, which they sort of did. If my memory serves me correctly their best chances to score came when they were offsides. Other than that I'm not sure that I remember any other great scoring chances.
North Carolina scored early and I think that served them very well because they are North Carolina and they have a well known reputation. I think it gave them a huge mental edge early in the game.
Mental edges is all I can really talk about because there is no way I could possibly explain tactics, although I did learn that forwards try to split two defeders the way North Carolina's forward did. She also had a great chance to score in the 2nd half and I was surprised she didn't convert, but it didn't matter.
I think the team that will beat North Carolina is the team that treats them as if they are Northwest Podunk Alabama Community College. I think the fact that they are North Carolina gives them a mental edge over opponents. Somehow I think the opponent might go "oh jeez here we go again, it's North Carolina."
This reminds me of another thing. I think it's amazing what the jersey numbers are at North Carolina. There must be so many players with high numbers because so many must be retired.
At UNC, focus is being a unit and a team. They do their work and they focus on doing their work well even if its "just" practice. Players are ignored when they create drama, and the few who persist are shown out the door earlier rather than later. Player selection is based on statistics during training and competitive spirit as opposed to senority or personal preference. Anston fosters leadership & taking personal responsibility on and off the field. He shares ways to beat his team at coaching conferences.
ReplyDeleteI believe the team that will beat them is the one that does not allow itself to get caught up in individual rivalary and leave everything else off the pitch when then train and when they play.
Yep, it certainly takes more than just what I said to beat them. Those things that you brought up are very important.
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