Smith on Soccer
Capital commentary
- September 28 2009
As we approach the midway point of the 2009 CIS soccer season, the fortunes of the three Ottawa teams could best be summed up in the words of the old Clint Eastwood movie: 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly'.
Coach Steve Johnson and his uOttawa Gee-Gees women's team represents 'The Good'. In what is becoming an annual procession to the OUA playoffs (and in most years, CIS nationals) Johnson has taken full advantage of a number of talented returning players and added some new faces to once again have his team at the top of the OUA East Division.
Fifth-year veteran Catherine Scott, whose determination, distribution and vision are complimented with the ability to hit as sweet a dead ball as you will find at this level, is complimented by a number of equally important performers throughout the line-up: stopper Gillian Baggot, midfielder Elise Desjardins and striker Courtney Luscombe, just to name a few.
It is easy to see why Johnson has had so much success during the 16-year history of the program. By sticking to a tried and trusted formula of team discipline and organization while mixing in the basic principles of possession, support and penetration, his team is continually able to play to its strengths and exploit the weaknesses of the opposition.
2009 is proving to be no different as the Gee-Gees continue their march to what they hope will be another visit to nationals, this year being held in Toronto, come mid-November.
While it might be a bit of a disservice to coach Sandy Mackie to imply that his Carleton Ravens men's squad is 'The Bad', in no way does this imply anything other than the fact that Mackie is in the midst of a major rebuilding phase and the Ravens are not having the 'good' success the program has enjoyed in recent years.
Gutierez, Berjawi, Park, Langford, Deebank, Robles and D'Angelo, all important players over the last three or four years, are gone. Added to that list are goalkeeper Karl Wasslen and defender Nick Persichino, injured veterans Mackie would have been counting on to provide leadership and direction to a very young and inexperienced group of raw rookies and second-year players.
Persichino is out for the season with a back injury while Wasslen may be able to return at some point later in the season.
As many of the new players get their feet wet (there were seven first-year players starting one recent game) it is easy to see why the Ravens would struggle early in the season.
After six games, they had two wins, two losses and two draws, not exactly the worst of starts for a program with so many turnovers from last year. However, it is the lack of goals that is the major concern. In those six games, 10 goals have been scored. Considering that seven of those came in one game against an overwhelmed RMC team, only scoring three goals in the other five fixtures is nothing to write home about and represents the biggest obstacle to Coach Mackie in 2009 and subsequent years: Where will the goals come from?
Carleton Ravens men's soccer has been fortunate over the years to have had some of the best strikers in CIS history wear that red jersey: D'Angelo, Dewar-Morris, Lapointe, Lanos: players who knew the road to goal and had the ability to score at crucial points of the game and important periods of the season.
The $64,000 question for Mackie is who will be the next name added to that list. Hopefully, that individual will emerge over the remaining eight regular season games.
Finally, we come to 'The Ugly'.
Unfortunately for the Carleton Ravens women's soccer program this really has nothing to with their on-field performance. An embarrassing 'hazing' incident has brought attention to the team for all the wrong reasons.
It was to be a new era for the program. A new Coach, Alex McNutt, had arrived with much fanfare in taking over from the departing Andy Nera. While the Ravens had been in decline the past few seasons, Nera still achieved some success by taking them to the OUA Final Four the past two seasons (finishing fourth on both occasions).
After five games of the 2009 season, things were moving along fairly well as McNutt tried to put his stamp on not only the players but the program itself. Two wins, two losses, one draw.
And then it blew up in a way that no-one could have foreseen. A team party went terribly wrong and a hazing incident occurred which cast serious doubts on the Ravens finishing their schedule.
Without going into the details (which have been few and far between), it was a black mark not only on the team but the school athletics department and the university as well.
Director of Recreation and Athletics, Jennifer Brenning, acted swiftly in suspending the team for two games, reinstating it only after she was convinced the squad had shown remorse and were taking responsibility for their actions.
So on a lovely Wednesday evening there were the Ravens on opposition turf at Matt Anthony Field to take on their cross-town rivals the Gee-Gees as they tried to put events of the last ten days behind them.
To their credit, they came out with a lot of energy and passion, putting in a hard shift for most of the game. However the same old deficiencies that were prevalent during the last number of years were still on display: an inability to keep possession of the ball and the lack of creating quality chances in the attacking third.
These two combined made it very difficult to do the other thing the Ravens seem to have difficulty doing, scoring goals. It all added up to another winless game against the Gee-Gees as 'The Streak' continued and reached thirty-two.
Make it now 25 losses, seven draws and zero wins. Now, THAT is ugly.
1 Comments
Fqlsda Oct 09 3:41 a.m.
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