My wife and I just got home in Central Florida just before 3 am.
I'm awake now and might as well share a few thoughts.
1. Waaay too early to draw conclusions about many players so take what I say as first impressions w/o the benefit of TV and rewatching.
2. This is a very fast and athletic team.
3. As talented and fast as this team is, they will certainly not perform up to the level of last year's team, at least in the early going. Being young and talented is not the same as being experienced (at this level) and talented. Onyi, Beatta, Jody, LeiLanni and Lauren and Cristina will have people in their places, not sure any on them will be equalled.
4. I believe we started Addie in G with Mimi and Ran out wide and Heather and Sophia in central Defense. Carissa started in HMF while the Taylors (Huff and Suarez ) were in the forward midfield?. Dudley central fwd flanked by Giana Riley on the right and Solai Washington on the left.
5. We are similarly fast up top, but again not experienced.
6. Carissa did a decent job at HMFer, but at one point Mimi moved in there and I think she was tremendous. I think Mimi may have an AA year along with Taylor H and Dudley. Ran Iwai looked All ACC caliber IMO.
7. Simmonds came in Ran's position and looked OK., Camille Ashe came in Sophia's pos Central defender, looked OK. Nina Norshie also got a look there. Nina Norshie also got a look in Heather's spot and looked very timid and unsure with speed of the game vs junior college. McGovern played a good bit in Taylor S's position. She is small, but looks to be very skilled and clever sorta like Nighswonger was. Jimenez was in only a short time, but was not afraid to run at people and was skilled with the ball. Wriana Hudson played a lot at Fwd. Much faster than I thought she'd be. Had 3 dangerous chances that were very close, but not converted. All 3 GKers played. No opinion. Didn't get to see enough of Puerta to have an opinion. Lara Dantas is off with Brazil Claire Rain was w/o a brace, but did not warmup with the others. Didn't see Nourse or Lebdaoui play, but I could have missed it b/c there were a ton of subs.
8. I like McGovern's game, Hudson will be a stud, just not sure when. Giana Riley has the physical skills, needs to tighten up her passes. Too many give aways. Solai will be dangerous to deal with in time.
9. Missing 5 or 6 players for a month will probably yield a loss to UGA with possible losses to UF, Syracuse, SMU. I suspect one losses and a couple of draws IMO. Hopefully, all the girls will be ready for Clemson.
TCU is not a bad team. It will be interesting to see how they fare going forward.
