North Carolina State

[fknbuflobo]

Simply Deplorable!  Worst showing in several years!

[bigzipguy]

I have not witnessed them play this bad at home since a regular season loss to West Virginia several years ago.

[malonepioneer12]

Agreed - terrible showing.  Seemed to be a lack of effort, lack of focus and lack of skill combined into one terrible evening.  Too bad the weather was amazing and the team stunk.  I am concerned about both the left back and right back position. Hopefully Zajac can help the offense when he returns.  

[Blue & Gold]

Once again Jared Embick sounds just a little bit too nonchalant about the loss for my taste.  Michael Beaven/ABJ: North Carolina State tops Zips 2-0 with two first-half goals

 

I appreciate that Jared is even-keeled, but I think I'd like to see him get a little pissed once in a while.

[TennZip]

10 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Once again Jared Embick sounds just a little bit too nonchalant about the loss for my taste.  Michael Beaven/ABJ: North Carolina State tops Zips 2-0 with two first-half goals

 

I appreciate that Jared is even-keeled, but I think I'd like to see him get a little pissed once in a while.

Bashing the players in the media serves no purpose.

    Jared and Leo and others will get their points across behind the scenes in practice.

The 2015 team had a brutal butt kicking in their 2nd match at Old Dominion and they rebounded to make it to the final four.

 Last year's team had a bad first weekend out west.

      This bad loss and the incentive of playing against 2 former Zips.....should help the Zips rebound on Saturday against Pitt.

       

[Spin]

What a way to try out ESPN+. I hope this is no indication of how the season is going to go...

[Zip_ME87]

This team looks tentative and not confident. They dig a hole and allow the other team to dictate the game. They have to take ownership and help each other figure it out. Jared's quotes from the Beacon Journal article pretty much sum it up. Need to clean up the unforced turnovers, too

 

“I think our inexperience showed at the start,” UA coach Jared Embick said. “We kind of came out a little slow, lacked maturity and were a little naïve. Good teams will punish you. Friday we were able to come back from being down 1 [and rally for a 2-2 draw with Butler], but you can’t continue to go down goals and expect to get back into games. … We gave up two goals on three shots. Once they got the lead, it played into their hands.”

 

“We were not good enough in the midfield, not good enough in the back and then up top we just couldn’t get enough service,” Embick said. “This will be a good one to learn from. We have been in this situation before, so we have got to learn quickly. We have another opportunity against Pittsburgh [on Saturday].”

 

“We knew this would be a year where we have some transition in terms of the lineup and experience,” Embick said. “We still have enough talent to do better than we did tonight. We just didn’t perform. … We have got to be more assertive and more aggressive.”

 

[fknbuflobo]

I am now officially over Captain Marco Micaletto's gifted strength of foot. 

(Well, not really.)

 

Yes, Marco sees the whole field well. 

He knows where the ball should go and has the rare strength and accuracy to get it there, from seemingly anywhere.

What a sweet stroke that boy has!

But.

Just because Marco can deliver a world class long ball does not mean that ball will be received by another world class foot.

Many of Micaletto's aerial passes were fumbled out of touch last night.

I lost count on how many.

 

On this team, I suggest that Marco would be better suited closer to goal, in the 3 layer of a 4-2-3-1.

Let him send those bombs in as long range shots on goal.

We may sacrifice some in distribution by deploying Marco further up the pitch.

But Zips need to change.

Our offense was strangled by NCS last night.

Wolfpack did not forward press.

And they kept their back line very high.

SO, their entire squad was compressed into 35 yards of field length.

 

And then they simply dared us to pass into midfield, which we suddenly suck at doing.

How many unforced turnovers did we have?

Ballgame.