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2004 Texas Longhorns Soccer Spring Season

Spring 2004 Game Recaps

Mexican National Team

13 Feb 2004

The first game in the spring season was between the Mexican national team, tuning up for Olympic qualifying, and a Texas team just coming back from some time off.  Weather conditions were cold:  temperature was right at freezing, with a light drizzle of rain.  (We got two inches of snow later that night!)  Consistent with Texas not publicizing the game at all, there were only a handful of Texas fans (typical for spring season games) but about 150 or so Mexico supporters attended, several blowing their horns, and chanting 'Arriba muchachas!' so it was a good atmosphere.

My expectation was that Texas would be really rusty, and this was certainly true at the start of the game.  Mexico pretty much completely controlled the run of play at the beginning, while Texas struggled to complete a pass.  Mexico didn't convert any of their early chances, however, and about halfway through the first half, the rust started to come off of the Longhorns.  A defensive takeaway by Priscilla Fite (12) led, after a couple of passes downfield, to Kelly McDonald (13) wide open behind the Mexican defense.  The Mexican goalie deflected the shot, but not enough to keep it out of the back of the net, and so Texas took a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute.  From about this point on, the Horns were working together and playing well, and controlled most of the run of play.  Early in the second half, Kelly Wilson (27) converted a second chance try off a deflection to put Texas up 2-0.  Mexico worked hard to reduce the margin, but were held by a good kick save by Alex Gagarin (19), and later, a pass-too-many to an offside Mexican attacker that would otherwise been a sure goal.  Finally, around 30 minutes into the second half, the Mexicans finally converted, bringing the score back to 2-1.  The goal energized the Mexican team, who poured on the pressure to try and get the equalizer.  The Texas team was probably getting pretty tired by this point, as no subs were made at all for the Longhorns except switching keepers at half.  Mexico took back control of the play, as they got several scoring opportunities, at one point forcing a Texas defender to clear a ball of the goal line near the post, but couldn't find another goal, and the Longhorns claimed a 2-1 victory.

It was a very entertaining game, played well by both sides.  Brrrrr.

Region III

27 Feb 2004

I arrived at the stadium about 5 minutes after the game started, and the sun was still up, so I headed to the west side of the stands behind the benches.  I figured there would be the usual spring crowd of about 10, but instead I saw around 100 or 150 people in the stands, including none other than North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance!!

I spent most of the first half trying to identify incoming Texas recruits on the Region III team, and not paying much attention to the game.  I thought I recognized #9 as Caitlyn Kennedy, and #10 as Stephanie Logterman, but I'm not sure.  (#14 looked kind of like Logterman, too.)  Meanwhile, Region III gave up a couple of sloppy goals, and Texas went in at half up 2-0  (not counting any goals that happened before I got there.)  At the interval, now that the sun had set, I went over to my favored east side of the stands.  In the second half, Priscilla Fite added a nice goal that made the final 3-0 for Texas.  (Excepting any early goals!)  Fite has looked really good so far this spring.

There was another game after the Texas one, (I did not recognize the teams), but it was getting a little cool so I did not stick around.

It seems that this exhibition was part of the Town and Country Warriors College Showcase.  There were also games at the T&C complex in addition to Mike A. Meyers.  Teams included Baylor, Rice, Stephen F. Austin, Wake Forest and Oklahoma, as well as various youth clubs.  There was also a coaches clinic, with Anson Dorrance, Tony Capasso, and Kelly Wilson as featured speakers.

North Texas ODP

6 Mar 2004

This game saw the North Texas Olympic Development Program (ODP) team, of high school aged girls, come to Mike A Meyers to face Texas.  Unfortunately for ODP, they were not able to offer much competition to the Longhorns.  In the previous exhibition games I had seen versus high school teams (almost always, good players at that level), those teams made a reasonable challenge to Texas (albeit never winning.)  Not today.

Carrie Schmit was absent, and Kristin Teter started in her absence.  I saw no sign of midfielder Nicole Breger, which makes me suspect that she may have left the team.  Sonya Lee was also missing, with Kelly Pflugner wearing her former jersey number 8.  I thought that Texas recruits Caitlyn Kennedy and Leslie Carpenter were part of this ODP team, but I did not see either of them.  The weather was perfect: warm, not humid, and enough clouds in the sky to keep the sun out of my eyes.  A fantastic day to watch a soccer game.

Kelly McDonald started the scoring 5 minutes into the game, and the Texas goals started piling up.  Six minutes later, Teter headed in the second UT goal.  At 24 minutes, Ashley Foster converted a pass from Kelly Wilson to make it 3-0.  Ten minutes later, Kelly Wilson got her first goal of the day, and two minutes later she fed another pass that Foster converted to make it 5-0.  Just another two minutes later, Wilson dribbled past most all of the ODP defense and scored to make it 6-0.  A long 5 minute drought for Texas passed until Foster dispossessed an ODP defender near the goal, and converted to make it 7-0 Texas where it remained until halftime.

Things did not improve for ODP in the second half.  Melissa Adrouny came in at goal for Texas at the interval, replacing Alex Gagarin.  Five minutes into the half, Teter headed in another goal.  It was just four minutes more until McDonald scored to make it 9-0, and another eight minutes until Wilson nutmegged the ODP goalie and converted to make it 10-0.  It took two more minutes until McDonald scored once again for a hat trick.  At 27 minutes into the second half, Nikki Thaden fired a blast from 25 yards out to make the score 12-0.  Eleven minutes later, Foster converted another pass from Wilson, for her fourth of the day.  After another five minutes, Wilson again dribbled past much of the ODP defense, looking like statues, and set the score at 14-0 Texas, where it remained until the merciful end.

The Texas bench included Lauren Field and seemingly Vanessa Martinez (who I thought had used up her eligibility) but neither entered the game.  I'm not sure why, especially considering how out of hand the score became.

Tennessee

27 Mar 2004

Head coach Chris Petrucelli, Kelly Wilson and Nikki Thaden were absent for this game, along with Tennessee's Keeley Dowling, training in China with the U-21 National Team, meanwhile beating all the Chinese teams they played (including the full national team!)  Tennessee won this game 1-0.

Recap by Tennessee

Estudio Tecnológico de Monterrey

18 Apr 2004

The U-21 contingent was also absent for this game, and Kelly McDonald did not play either.  On the other hand, Texas eventually played all their goalies as field players, mostly at forward, and ex-Longhorn Vanessa Martinez was in the lineup for Monterrey Tech, where she had played before Texas.  The game was at the intramural fields, a fact that UT never bothered to announce.  A very windy day, but pleasant temperature and humidity, so the IM fields were a very nice place for watching soccer today.

Monterrey had the best early chances, first hitting the post in the 8th minute.  At the 23rd minute, Alex Gagarin had to make a good save to hold it scoreless after Monterrey got behind the Texas defense with numbers.  Texas didn't get their first shot on goal until the 28th minute, and didn't really look too sharp or organized.  Meanwhile, Monterrey's coach was very animated, yelling constantly at his players and also the referees, who didn't blow the whistle much.  GK Dana Hall started at forward, and Melissa Adrouney played some of the half in the field as well, plus the second half actually in goal.  Texas put the ball in the net at the 41st minute, but it was offside, so the half ended at 0-0.

Alex Gagarin and Hall got to play a lot in the field in the second half, and had some of the best scoring opportunities.  Monterrey scored the first goal in the 16th minute, off a header, to go up 1-0.  Finally, in the 42nd minute, Alex Gagarin scored for Texas to even the score at 1-1.  Monterrey had a good chance in stoppage time, but it went off the side of the net, and they had to settle for a 1-1 draw, a result that they certainly earned.

Baylor

22 Apr 2004

GK Melissa Adrouny scores to tie the game at 2-2, but Baylor adds another to beat Texas 3-2.

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