Re: Credit to Coach Radwanski

Credit to Coach Radwanski

Re: Credit to Coach Radwanski

DougKingsmoreCrusade

Game Changer [1939]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 964

Joined: 2023

Sep 20, 2024, 1:03 AM

Yeah. Though I will say this: Auburn and Virginia Tech have both turned out to be significantly better than expected.

Auburn is proving to be a lot better than people thought. They were unranked to start the year and picked 11th in the SEC, but they have since gone undefeated (8 wins 1 tie) and vaulted all the way to #6 in the rankings, the second-highest ranked team in the SEC. On the other hand, they did suffer a disappointing draw against Vandy tonight in their 1st conference game. And besides Vandy and Clemson, the only other power-4 team they've played so far is Ohio State, so it hasn't exactly been a killer schedule. But even if they come back down to earth a bit, they're still likely a much better team than we thought at the time.

Virginia Tech also seems to be outperforming expectations after being picked to finish 10th in the ACC. They actually got ranked, but have since fallen out of the top 25. They did receive some votes in the latest poll, however. They are having a historically great start to their season, albeit it's a low bar for them. They have now started ACC play 2-0 for the first time since 2009 (the 2nd win was against Syracuse though, so take that with a grain of salt). But it was their 1st win against Clemson since 2014. Admittedly, they haven't played a tough schedule, but they have been mostly winning, compiling 7 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie. One of the losses was against Liberty, another team receiving votes, so that one really isn't bad. The one real dud is the other loss, which came against a bad Northwestern team, one of the worst in the BIG10. But regardless, the VT loss also looks like it won't end up being as bad as we might've thought.

Of course, with all that being said, even if those 2 losses are against better teams than we realized, the Tigers still have plenty of issues and haven't played well against good competition. There's no denying that, especially sitting at 0-2 now in the ACC. The good news is, the women play 10 conference games, so there is a bit more leeway to recover from a bad start. The bad news is, the next game is at Florida State. Probably the hardest possible game in women's college soccer, especially for Clemson. As much as I hate to say it, expecting the Tigers to finally defeat the team that has owned them for years now is gonna be a very tough ask, especially at their place and when Clemson isn't playing well. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it would be very surprising to me if the Tigers don't leave Tallahassee 0-3. And then the next game is at Pitt, another good ACC team, so it really doesn't get much easier. I think coming out of those 2 games at 1-3 would be a win, 0-4 a disaster but a very real possibility, 2-2 would be almost a miracle. This is really a terrible couple of games to come up on when you're desperate for wins.

Realistically, I'm hoping for a split on this road trip. If the Tigers can come out of it 1-3, then they'll get their 2 easiest conference games of the year back-to-back at home against Boston College and Miami, 2 of the worst teams in the league. If Clemson manages to handle business in those, that would put them back at .500 with 4 games to go. It would get more difficult again from there, but that would at least give them a realistic shot at finishing .500 or better in the league. So yes, it's been a disappointing season thus far, but don't give up yet.

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Re: Credit to Coach Radwanski

Clemgalalways® You're welcome, glad y'all are interested.

Agreed. I'll admit I was skeptical of that #3 ranking the 'Devils came in with having played just one conference game. But perhaps I shouldn't have been, because that one ACC game was a 1-0 win against then #2 North Carolina at home. They did lose their season opener on the road against Ohio State (who were unranked at the time) 1-0, but Ohio State has since climbed up to #17 in the rankings, so perhaps that loss isn't as ugly as it first looked.

Outside of that, Duke's played pretty easy competition, but they've blasted 'em. 4-0 over UNC Wilmington, 5-0 over ETSU. They also dispatched a couple of weak power-4 teams in the non-con. 3-0 over Nebraska (worst or 2nd worst team in the BIG10) and a 7-0 beatdown of Missouri (worst SEC team). They were also scheduled to play Tennessee, which would've been an interesting one, but it got canceled. Duke also routed Furman in a scrimmage 9-0, for what it's worth. None of those teams are world-beaters by any stretch, but those scorelines are impressive regardless. And they certainly looked the part tonight.

Early on in the match, the unfortunate thought that went through my head was: "This looks just like what you'd expect from the #3 team in the country playing against an unranked team." Which is, of course, literally what it was. I think Clemson's fall out of the rankings is deserved, but I was still hoping the Tigers would play well enough to indicate that despite the recent disappointments, they were still capable of holding their own against a top-10 level team. But sadly, that was not at all what we saw. The most concerning aspect to me was that the Tigers looked completely overmatched from a physical standpoint over large portions of the game, especially the first 20 minutes of the 1st half. The tactical adjustment by Eddie did at least slow Duke down and give the Tigers a pulse offensively for the rest of the game, but Duke found more success in the 2nd half by getting back to their press and that physical offensive push up the middle, which caused some mistakes by the Tigers and ultimately led to their next 2 goals.

Dukes 2nd and 3rd goals felt like mirror image replays

Credit to Coach Radwanski