If Execution Doesn’t Get Them Better, the Gators’ Hard Work Will For the Florida Gators soccer team, they had to be feeling confident coming in off of wins against a scrappy Oklahoma State team in overtime and the then top-ranked Florida State Seminoles the game before. But then came Texas A&M. And if the Cowgirls were scrappy, the Aggies were brutal. Throughout the night, the visitors from College Station proved to the crowd of 1,057 in attendance just why they were ranked as the sixth best team in the nation. Despite a strong finish by the Gators, the Aggies walked out of Donald R. Dizney Stadium with the 2-1 victory.
Although Texas A&M came away with the win, that does not mean that they were necessarily the better team. There was more to the game than Florida simply being outplayed by a seemingly superior fellow SEC team. In actuality, the worst enemies the Gators faced on Thursday night were themselves. Between a slow start and all around sub-par execution throughout the entire first period, the Gators dug themselves into a slight hole. “We should’ve came out a little bit more intense, and we were definitely on our heels just a little bit,” junior forward Savannah Jordan said when asked her thoughts on the game. While execution was not a problem against Oklahoma State, the Gators played the first period against the Aggies much like how they played the second period against the Cowgirls- defensively. Unfortunately for Florida, playing defensively does not benefit them as much as being the hunter does. The Gators look like the better team when they are playing aggressively and setting the tempo.
The more glaring mistakes made Thursday night, however, had to do with execution. Whether it be passes kicked with too much or not enough power, the aim of the passes, or a missed save by a goalkeeper, Florida missed some opportunities in its opening game of SEC play.
Also unfortunate for the Gators, the Aggies came out quick and strong scoring six minutes and 52 seconds into the contest. This came as a result of Florida’s slow start allowing Texas A&M to play on the Gators side of the field for too long finally resulting in a goal scored by Emily Bates- her third of the season. That ended up being the only goal of the first period. It was not all negative, though. In fact, there are some major positives that can be seen from the Gators’ first half alone. The most important thing to consider is that despite having an off-night in tempo and execution, the Gators still battled it out and looked every bit as good as the Aggies while making those mistakes. It should be noted that if the Gators had played the first half like the fans have come to expect, Florida might have gotten the win on Thursday.
The start of the second period didn’t go exactly as planned for the Gators either as they surrendered another goal 51 minutes and 49 seconds into the contest. With Stephanie Malherbe’s goal, Texas A&M went up 2-0. But Florida didn’t let that be the story of the second half. They battled back and played much more aggressively and attempted to clean up the execution errors from the first half. Senior defender Christen Westphal also pointed out that the Gators’ mindset for the second half was that “if our execution doesn’t get better, our hard work will.” Throughout the rest of the half the ball went back and forth almost evenly between the two teams without any more scoring done until 76 minutes and 47 seconds into the game. The Gators first and only goal finally came off of the foot of Savannah Jordan when she was able to slip the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal.
Florida continued with another strong play soon after with a threatening shot and coming very close to scoring again. But to no avail. The shot was saved and the Gators were not able to seriously threaten again. While the Gators play in the second period greatly improved, it proved too little too late after the sluggish first period. But the Gators can hold their heads high knowing they didn’t quit. When asked what she was most pleased with, Gators head coach Becky Burleigh answered, “I was most pleased with the response they had coming into the second half and battling back. After the second goal it would have been easy to fold up the tent and not do anything, but I think our team really responded.”
Game Notes:
Only one yellow card was handed out on the night, and that was to Texas A&M’s Ally Watt.
There were a total of 27 fouls committed between the two squads: 13 by the Gators and 14 by the Aggies.
Florida took 7 shots while Texas A&M took 11.
The two teams registered four saves a piece.