FSU actually has 5 players due to them listing Jordyn Bugg with her club team. Talk about testing the depth!
With regard to having a 2024 team, it's going to be real interesting. For the first half of the season the Heels will be lucky to break even in that the line-up will sorely miss Dellarose and Dahlien at the U20 tournament, and therefor have only 2 players who started last year (both of which had injuries and missed half of the season, and even Shores may or may not be able to play depending on how her ACL has healed.) The remaining 9 starters will be 3 players who got some PT last year (Fasse, Sember, and Elgin) and and then 6 frosh and possible transfers to get 11 on the field. Known frosh will likely be keeper Gundry, defenders Alverez and Armstrong, midfielder Ullmark. The last 2 starters may then be two other freshman Ashley Pennie and maybe Caitlin Mara. If this were the case, we're looking at 6 frosh, 2 sophs, 2 juniors, and one senior. We know of 2 transfers for sure: Liv Migli from Duke, and keeper Marisa Shorrock. Migli may come on strong and be a starting forward, but I'm not betting on it. The second half of the season will be with Dahlien and Dellarose returning (with no injuries, I hope). It will take a perhaps 4 games to get a good flow going, and so making the ACC tournament will be a challenge. But if the Heels can produce, we may hope to make the NCAAs.
Well, Dang! Old Brain stressed tor various reasons makes big mistake in last night's post above. Somehow I got it in my head that Dellarose was on the U-20 roster of the current domestic campl and Aven Alvarez was not. Woke up this morning and can't believe I did that. In reality we will see the final rosters later. So, nothing really changes to the point that UNC will be really short handed for the first half of the season. Just ignore the brain fart.
Other confirmed transfers: Aria Nagai (Princeton), Clare Gagne (Brown/ GK) Also I know Hannah Johann terminated her Frankfurt contract to go study at UNC and she was with the team in a photo a week ago so she could be playing too. That’ll make 4 goalkeepers
Also I’m not sure Dellarose will be going to the WC, since she was not called up to this camp but Alvarez was so she could be. Our non-conference schedule will help with this young team, not playing the top teams in the country. Denver, North Dakota, Seton Hall and Columbia could be easy wins, Colorado Georgia Arizona I’m not familiar with how good they will be but good chance of winning. Duke is a hard game. We could easily go 8-0-0 to start the season, or 7-0-1/7-1-0. But I like this non-conference schedule because it can help us get some wins before conference play. From the roster so far I could see (if fully healthy) Gagne or Johann Dellarose Alvarez Armstrong Elgin Ullmark Shores Pennie Sember Thomas Dahlien I would love to see Dominguez or Means get good time, along with Smith getting time. I think Wojo could get time but I’m not sure how good she is.
Thanks uncfan for ferreting out more commitments. Woof!... we have not had 4 keepers in my memory. I suspect that red shirt freshman Abby Gundry and Hannah Johann will be vying for the starting keeper (and maybe platooning as Anson has done before.) German citizen Hannah is 21 years old and has 3 seasons of club ball at Eintracht Frankfurt under her belt. The other two would surprise me if they start, but one never knows.... I see that graduate student Aria Nagai is an All-Ivy midfielder in her senior season. So I would think that she may be getting significant playing time in the first half of our season. I suspect that we will see some new names yet, as the staff works to make us viable. So the schedule coming out this morning does not surprise, as Anson has chosen what in the past would be unthinkably weak competition for the first half of the season. But the circumstances being what they are, y'gotta do what you have to do. Presumably, with 2 key players coming back from the U20 world cup, the Heels will be better prepared for the meat of the ACC schedule. I think that most probable losses will be to Georgia, Duke, and possibly Wake Forest in the first (nearly 2/3) of the season for a 8-3 record, . The second half of the season (ACC schools) is going to be dicey for the last 7 games. Virginia, Stanford, Clemson, Florida State, and Duke will be real tough. Playing away games at FSU and Stanford will be key games with the odds well in their favor. So I will not be surprised if we end up with a record of from 12-6 to 8-10 with the posted schedule . If we make the ACC tournament it will be a surprise and we will be paired with one of the strongest teams. Making the NCAA will be a wonderful miracle. But anything can happen!
I know this is a very different UNC team, but teams in this type of situation frequently overachieve. IMO, they'll be fighting (competing) like a Mama Bear for her cubs! I'll believe UNC doesn't make the NCAAT only if and when it happens. Good luck!
Thanks, Tom. You may be right. (I hope so.) I'm quite impressed with FSU holding on to some of the top players while many others have reneged to go pro. IMO, FSU will take the NCAA trophy again this year. Cheers!
I would be very surprised if we didn’t make the NCAA tournament. This is going to be a hard season, but I think we have the players to do so. Dahlien and Thomas with no injuries will be a good front line, Fasse and Sember will score good amounts too. Elgin Alvarez Armstrong Dellarose is a great back line. The midfield depends on who steps up. Shores healthy was great last season, so when she fully recovers I think she’ll be great. Ullmark & Pennie will fight for a starting spot and both are pretty good. I would be very surprised if we are not a NCAA tournament level team..
Crazy. Assume most of those are just temporary gap fillers for all the open spots, but definitely a whole new era in Chapel Hill with the changing of the landscape.
We already knew of the new players who will likely see significant playing time this season. From what I can take from the announcement based on the information given, the four new names appearing on this list (Gagne, Bretzer, Look, and Williams) in my opinion will likely see minimum playing time (although, surprises do happen) but will in any case be of value to the team in practice, etc..
Talia DellaPeruta is the newest addition to Feyenoord Women. The 22-year-old American is acquired by the Rotterdam club from Sampdoria and has signed a contract for two seasons. DellaPeruta began her career with Tophat Soccer Club and went on to play for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Last year, she played for Sampdoria. She played ten games in the Italian Serie A. The German-born but American raised midfielder is overjoyed with her Dutch adventure. "My first feeling at the club is very good." "I received a warm welcome and it immediately feels like a family. I hope to help the team with my experiences and look forward to the start of the season," DellaPeruta, American youth international, said via Feyenoord's official channels. DellaPeruta will play with shirt number 27.
Exhibition One in the books. 5-1 Win over USL Super League side DC Power... of whose quality and capability I have zero frame of reference for. Was this a win that said a lot of about UNC or more about DC Power? A lot of unknowns about where to place the value in tonight's game. Some of this may accurately reflect the path to watch going forward, some of it may be totally unrelated to how the season pans out. Some of it may just be me blowing smoke out my ass. Who cares ... I'm just really excited to talk about games again. Evelyn Shores did not play tonight, but she seemed fine and in good spirits. No obvious mobility concerns, and she did that toe tapping dance with Maddie Dahlien after the win. I didn't notice or recognized any more walking wounded. Two goalkeepers dressed tonight. Returnee Abby Gundry came in late in the game and was forced into a couple of saves including a chip attempt that she got back for, albeit with some audible consternation. The starter was newcomer Clare Gagne, a Graduate transfer from Brown with strong hands. She had to make one big save and got beat on another that was hard to blame her on. Tall, red hair, loud and hoarse commands from the back. Looks like she will feature in goal. Two other goalkeepers did not dress, an incoming freshman from Germany in Hannah Johann, and a graduate transfer from Yale in Marisa Shorrock. Neither were dressed but both participated in warm ups and seemed fine. Johann in particular was working for a long time. The starters in the first half were, in a 3 4 3, Gagne in goal with Freshman Bella Gaetino centering Tessa Dellarose and early commit Freshman Aven Alvarez. A box of sorts in the midfield with Ashley Pennie, Aria Nagai, Emerson Elgin, and Bella Sember. That midfield did surprisingly well. Finally up top featured Olivia Thomas, Kate Faasse, and Maddie Dahlien. A *ton* of new faces on the field, and I'm sure I didn't see some of them. Some of them I did see, and some of them stood out enough where I took notice. Freshman Bella Gaetino appears to be the choice for CB and she played well. Has a brace on her right thigh. Took a bad knock on a very late foul in the first, but continued on ... I think she played the whole 90. The outside backs switched up around her and included mostly Duke transfer Migli, Alvarez, Dellarose, and Armstrong. A few other players may have come in at some point, but I'm fuzzy on that. I could have sworn I remember seeing #17 Mara out there. The back line tonight was ... shaky. Late in the game after it was more or less over, the three back started to be exploited to the extent that Nahas made changes and audibly ordered for a 4 back. Olivia Thomas and Maddie Dahlien were both good, which means outstanding but tempered by the likely hood that the opposition wasn't up to the task. Dahlien looked dominant and dangerous on the edge of the DC Power defense, while Thomas' back to goal prowess was on full display. She drew a penalty with her receiving the ball with her back to goal right in front of goal, and she took it to put UNC up 2-0. Thomas was probably the MVP tonight, which is funny considering how often I thought she was just ... absent ... in this game. She had a stretch of 5 minutes or so in the first half where she was all over the place and completely dominant. Earned the PK, took the PK, and then an absolute wonder goal on a partial transition chance to put UNC up even more. In the second half, another transition chance lead to her nearly breaking the post on a shot from a tough angle. The rebound came back to her, and she squared it over to Freshman Linda Ullmark for the goal. The PA announced Bella Sember scoring on Thomas' assist, but unless it took a deflection off Sember and I missed it, that was definitely #7 Ullmark who had the finish. Ullmark looks promising. She's so very quick and the speed is very deceptive. In addition to the goal that she apparently didn't score, she scored another with that speed by simply closing with the keeper way faster than I think anybody expected. Poked the ball away, did a wide turn around a back tracking defender, and then finished reasonably calmly into a partially open net as the keeper was still scrambling to get back. 2 goals for her... maybe. The two new players in midfield are going to be an interesting pair to follow. There's so much promise and potential in both of them, although one of them is probably in their final year. Aria Nagai is a graduate transfer from Princeton. I think she's Japanese, and I'm sorry if this is racial stereotyping, but she plays a little bit like Japanese players do ... at least from having watched them with the other Nahas. She's shifty with the ball, seems to read the field well, makes reasonably good decisions, and in general looks like she want's to be someone who pulls the strings for UNC in midfield the same way Narumi Miura does for the Courage. I should add I don't know if she's actually Japanese or some other nations descent, (roster says she's from Va), but I couldn't help make the connection. The other player is Freshman Ashley Pennie, and I am personally very excited to see how she develops and builds through the season and her career. She got a ton of minutes tonight and we got to see plenty of her. Some unpolished passing, some not so great decisions in the directions she chooses to go in, but ... there is an intangible energy and potential about her that Nahas probably could explain better than me. All the things that are difficult to coach she seems to excel at, while all the things she struggled with in that game are traditionally something that improve with coaching. She has outstanding speed of thought, moves with the ball extremely well, and has an excellent sense of flow in the game. Clean up some of the bad passes and she could be a truly wonderful 8 that replaces those gigantic shoes of Sam Meza. Goals were 1) Dahlien on a cut inside, 2) Thomas from the spot after she earned it, 3) Thomas on a bomb from long range, 4) Ullmark on a square from Thomas, and 5) Ullmark again after she pilfered the goalie. The goal against I'm not 100% certain about as I was caught typing a previous play while I was live tweeting. I looked up, saw a diagonal that UNC looked to have coverage for, 1 vs 3. Looked down, typed a bit more, looked up and suddenly the Powers player is in the box in acres of space with a UNC defender appearing to have been juked out of her shooes to the point there was 6 yards of separation as the attacker cut in to the spot in a preposterous amount of space with no cover coming in to help. Terrible break down in coverage and risk management in transition. I've hit a wall a little bit here in what I wanted to talk about. I'm sure there are more things I figured I would say during the game that I've since forgotten about, but I'm getting a bit tired. I'll probably add some stuff and certainly if anybody has questions ask them. It might trigger other notable things that I've not touched on.
It seems the EREDIVISIE signs few international players, especially Americans. The squads look to be largely domestic players. Is that normal? Talia seemed to not impress with Samdoria, as she announced her leaving the club at the end of the season. While her younger sister Tori moved on to AS Roma, a bigger club, after an impressive stint in Serie A (where she had played before her freshman year at UNC). Good for Tori. Seems to be a restart for Talia.
Yeah, the squads have quite a high proportion of young players like Lily Yohannes from Ajax, who iirc already played CL football as a 16 yo last season! We're a starting league with little financial clout. So basically our best playsters get bought by the English, French or German top clubs as soon as they show high potentials. The clubs with reasonable financial means are Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and FC Twente in that order, but minnows compared to for instance the English clubs. So there's not much financial room to sign up foreign players.
Some clean up thoughts from Exhibition play after game #2. Gagne appears to be the starting goal keeper. Gundry came in late game one, but I lost track of the position in game two and can't say if Gagne played the full 90 or came out late again. The back 3 seems to be in the most flux, with all kinds of combinations being used in the two games. Gaetino centering Dellarose and Faasse might be the preferred 3 with Dahlien available, but when the U20's are upon us Faasse will push up and Aven Alvarez appears to be the front runner for the right CB spot. There's also Migli, who looked good at right back, and Trinity Armstrong, who played a mix of left back and CB. The midfield feels pretty solidified, with Sember and Elgin being more forward while Nagai and Pennie drop back more. I'm not sold on Pennie yet ... the potential is there and screaming at my instincts to like her, but there needs to be improvements to her game as the season goes a long. Right now she's not done much for this team in regards to triggering attacks forward. Despite looking good at possession retention under pressure, that isn't enough. I don't really have a good bead on who they might use instead of Pennie. I think Wojnovich came in and spent some time in the same position, so maybe? Unless I missed another player coming in and getting a serious look there, the defensive midfield feels kind of barren at the moment. Two exhibition games against over-matched opponents isn't enough sample data, but man am I still feeling high on Linda Ullmark after these two games. It looks like Nahas has decided to work her in the line-up by moving Faasse back to outside back, and Ullmark will almost certainly feature during the U20's window. The combination of Target Forward Olivia Thomas, Power Winger Maddie Dahlien, and True 9 Linda Ullmark ... that could be a wholly unexpected three headed monster. We'll see. Gagne Faasse / Gaetino / Dellarose Pennie / Nagai Elgin / Sember Ullmark / Thomas / Dahlien ... Ullmark alone has given me so much more hope for this team than I would have expected after exhibitions.
Good to see your observations regarding today's game, Babs. My wife and I were able to make the game today and got a sense of the team. I agree with you that Ullmark should see a lot of playing time. I am relieved that Alvarez is not on the final roster of the U-20 team posted on Thursday, so the only one that we will be missing from the UNC roster will be Dahlien who will probably be missing from August 21 until September 24 assuming the US gets to the championship game. (Also assuming that Tracey Kevins will want at least a week if not more time to work with her team before traveling down to Columbia.) The trip to Colorado next week will be a good measure of where the UNC women stand this season. Both Denver and Colorado will test the Heels and if we come out with two wins it will be a good omen. Georgia coming to Chapel Hill on the 22nd will be a very tough game as they may end up in the top 4 of the SEC. The bigger picture is how soon the Heels can coalesce into a cohesive unit. Today looked like one might expect- a group of players all vying to be seen at their best, and getting it together late in the game to score a few goals. Progress, but along way to go. In my personal view I think that the defense looked strongest when Armstrong was in the center. She was much more active than Gaetino with passing and running up the middle. Combine her with Armstrong and Dellarose and it seemed more dynamic. In the midfield I was disappointed with Nagai as she seemed to be relative immobile and her passes seemed to be slow rollers (as opposed to crisp passing) but she did seem to be careful with the ball. Fasse is a workhorse and did a good job today..did a lot of running but did not get many passes from the middle. Pennie deemed to dissapear from time to time and she passed back more to the defense than she was looking tor an offensive move (eg Fasse). I thought that Elgin controlled then ball well and did a fair job of passing in the midfield, and, indeed Ullmark was great coming out of the midfield. Gaetino needs to be factored into this mix somehow, (and....Will Shores be available in a few weeks... or is she down for the season.) Williams was very good up front...lots of moves, with good percentage of scoring. I'm not sure of how the front line will work but I loved the back and forth on the left side with Dellarose in the second half resulting in lots of chances (and 3 goals.) Crossing my fingers for getting this all sorted out as the season moves forward.
We all expected it was close, and here we are. Anson Dorrance has retired. Notified the school yesterday, will have a press conference tommorow on 8/12 at 2pm. Have to say I didn't expect him to retire at the very start of a season, so I hope he's OK and nothing medically is happening that is forcing him to bow out. https://goheels.com/news/2024/8/11/womens-soccer-dorrance-announces-retirement-after-47-seasons