Spring Break
Inconsistent offense has UConn sputtering to the finish line
Kevin Meacham
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Sports
If you've walked around campus in the last week, you no doubt saw the advertisements for the Big East quarterfinal against DePaul Saturday night at Morrone Stadiuim.
Well, actually, you saw an advertisement for "UConn vs. DePaul/Pittsburgh," as the Blue Demons had to win a preliminary-round game to make it to Storrs.
And it's interesting, because there have been years when UConn men's soccer could have played a combined all-star team from DePaul and Pittsburgh and come through with a victory.
This is not one of those years. And if you were one of the 2,015 who braved a Saturday night downpour, you saw a typical UConn 2008 performance.
Four shots on goal. An inability to string together more than two good passes. A total lack of creativity on offense.
"We didn't play well," said senior midfielder Dori Arad. "[DePaul] showed up, we didn't."
It's not even clear that the Blue Demons did that much. Willy Lara didn't so much score a goal as he did clean up the garbage about 12 feet from the end line, following a corner kick.
The Blue Demons, who have hit the back of the net even less often than the Huskies this season, managed two other shots on goal, one an 88th-minute counterattack beautifully saved by Josh Ford.
That play, incidentally, came after almost 10 minutes of methodically dribbling - and an occasional aimless cross into the box - against 10 defenders.
And then there's Ray Reid, the 12-year coaching veteran who knows high-class soccer when he sees it. How did he describe his team's performance Saturday?
"Choking," he said. Asked to clarify that, he said, "playing under pressure." Well, OK then.
Now, Reid is a guy who puts the "grrr" in gruff. He's a guy who goes to sleep on the wrong side of the bed and never moves. Naturally, after such a poor result, Reid was in rare form.
"Stop talking about our offense," Reid growled. "We didn't play well as a team."
Hopefully, Reid isn't taking his own advice. The Huskies are, for whatever reason, an offense dependent on set pieces, unable to control possession and make anything happen in open-field play. As the Huskies learned Saturday, that leaves UConn with no margin for error on defense.
Well, actually, you saw an advertisement for "UConn vs. DePaul/Pittsburgh," as the Blue Demons had to win a preliminary-round game to make it to Storrs.
And it's interesting, because there have been years when UConn men's soccer could have played a combined all-star team from DePaul and Pittsburgh and come through with a victory.
This is not one of those years. And if you were one of the 2,015 who braved a Saturday night downpour, you saw a typical UConn 2008 performance.
Four shots on goal. An inability to string together more than two good passes. A total lack of creativity on offense.
"We didn't play well," said senior midfielder Dori Arad. "[DePaul] showed up, we didn't."
It's not even clear that the Blue Demons did that much. Willy Lara didn't so much score a goal as he did clean up the garbage about 12 feet from the end line, following a corner kick.
The Blue Demons, who have hit the back of the net even less often than the Huskies this season, managed two other shots on goal, one an 88th-minute counterattack beautifully saved by Josh Ford.
That play, incidentally, came after almost 10 minutes of methodically dribbling - and an occasional aimless cross into the box - against 10 defenders.
And then there's Ray Reid, the 12-year coaching veteran who knows high-class soccer when he sees it. How did he describe his team's performance Saturday?
"Choking," he said. Asked to clarify that, he said, "playing under pressure." Well, OK then.
Now, Reid is a guy who puts the "grrr" in gruff. He's a guy who goes to sleep on the wrong side of the bed and never moves. Naturally, after such a poor result, Reid was in rare form.
"Stop talking about our offense," Reid growled. "We didn't play well as a team."
Hopefully, Reid isn't taking his own advice. The Huskies are, for whatever reason, an offense dependent on set pieces, unable to control possession and make anything happen in open-field play. As the Huskies learned Saturday, that leaves UConn with no margin for error on defense.
Be the first to comment on this story