Duke Women's Soccer 2024

Shockingly good result! Looking at Missouri’s schedule, its worst losses were 2-0 twice to ranked teams and its other loss was 2-1 at Miami. Not a great team but our result is clearly the best against it including #10 Memphis and #23 Saint Louis.
 
How good has Duke’s defense been? They have allowed a mere 22 shots during the 5 game shutout streak. Not shots on goal….shots of any kind!

For the season ( 6 games), Duke has outshot opponents 133-31. Shots on goal has been 59-14!!!!
 
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AGDukesky said:
Shockingly good result! Looking at Missouri’s schedule, its worst losses were 2-0 twice to ranked teams and its other loss was 2-1 at Miami. Not a great team but our result is clearly the best against it including #10 Memphis and #23 Saint Louis.
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There was once a time when their coach was supposed to be the main candidate to replace Robbie once he retired, but now he might be helping a former player speed up the end of her tenure.
 
She had a pretty good run at Minnesota before taking over Mizzou 2 years ago. The previous coach at Mizzou was getting rocked in the SEC. On the surface, this looks like a heavy multi-year rebuild. They struggled to score last year and looks like that may be a problem this year as well. I don’t know if Missouri has the club level depth on the girls side to build it up in state alone (St. Louis is a hotspot on the boys side)
 
This Duke team is playing completely differently than it did last year. Completely. I was in the stands last night, and we were just so incredibly aggressive! If we lost the ball, the press was on, and the vast majority of time, we won the ball back very quickly. In years past when we've lost the ball, we've retreated and let the opponent build and attack. Our back line seems to have the speed to deal well with counter-attacks when the opposition manages to even connect on one, so last night we spent almost no time sitting back. We closed to the ball ferociously. I can only remember a few touches by our keepers that weren't risk-free back passes from our own defenders. There was an at-'em ball saved by Freeman in the first half, and a kerfuffle in our box late in the second half when our deep bench was in, but other than that, we just weren't threatened.

That was an impressive performance from our Blue Devils.
 
A few things to note
1) Last year, we typically played 4 in the back. Groff for reasons known only to Church was in the midfield. She excelled at outside back earlier her career. Our starters last year at outside back were slower and less physical. They were constantly backing up and ceding space. This year we have seeming switched formation to a 3-4-3. Groff and Chico provide a greater level of physicality and athleticism that last year’s starters. I was screaming to the heavens last year about making this switch and making the personnel and tactical switch. I do believe that injuries to last year’s starters may have ultimately forced this, but the results speak for themselves. Honestly, it was obvious to most observers this had to happen. I do believe that Church’s one flaw is that he unflinchingly loyal to kids even when there are other better options out there.

2). Last year’s wingers were slow and alarmingly unathletic vis a vis top shelf ACC standards. Walters and Hase have been manna from heaven. Massive upgrade there. We had 2 kids transfer out that filled those roles previously to Utah and UNC. You must have fast, aggressive wingers. We got them now.

3). That speed/physicality factor also applies to the midfield. We got killed in the middle of the field winning balls. Teams would run thru us. He tried to solve it by moving Groff away from her natural position into the midfield. It didn’t work. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Oliaro is both technical and physical. You can’t knock her off the ball. A true difference maker. And Teter fills the role that Sophie Jones used to play. A natural on field leader and strong technical player

Losing Rader hurts a lot and may be the reason we don’t win a title. But our depth is excellent. We have had 4 season ending injuries already (Rader, Martinho, Piper and Bruster). A star recruit from last year that quit the sport for unknown reasons (Clemens) but stayed at Duke. And another player that appears to be redshirting (Evans). Next year’s recruiting class might be the best ever.
 
I have a slightly soft spot for Clemson because coach Eddie Radwanski was the sparkplug for the Greensboro/Carolina Dynamo back in the mid 90s.

And they still have Siri Mullinix on staff. She does a lot of thankless behind-the-scenes stuff at US Soccer.

That said -- it's still Clemson.
 
I've really been impressed with this team's ball handling and playmaking skills. Crisp and timely passes, good spacing, teamwork and patience. Its so much better than previous years and this extends into the second team where you can hardly notice any dropoff in execution. I imagine its a combination of talent and strategy in which the new 3-4-3 configuration must be integral. Coach Church surely now realizes he should have gone to this sooner. This improvement partially makes up for the season ending injuries of four team members, including two starters.
 
DoubleBlue said:
I've really been impressed with this team's ball handling and playmaking skills. Crisp and timely passes, good spacing, teamwork and patience. Its so much better than previous years and this extends into the second team where you can hardly notice any dropoff in execution. I imagine its a combination of talent and strategy in which the new 3-4-3 configuration must be integral. Coach Church surely now realizes he should have gone to this sooner. This improvement partially makes up for the season ending injuries of four team members, including two starters.
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Your first sentence nails what I'm seeing in our play.
 
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