Three Thoughts with UVA Women's Soccer's Steve Swanson

I have had the pleasure of having Steve Swanson on my HoosPlace podcast on four occasions so I was interested in hearing Steve in an extended interview with someone else, as Jeff White hosted him on the Wahoo Central Podcast, which you can listen to here.

When we first had Steve on, we though he was just going to be a 20-minute segment of our 75-minute podcast. Instead, we talked for over an hour. And each subsequent podcast got longer and I think the last clocked in at just over 90 minutes. Steve is unfailingly polite, absolutely unwilling to criticize or call out his players in public, and he is a master of “coach-speak.” Despite the hours we talked, he kept his cards close to the vest and refused to share publicly any injury news about his players.

It's more than reticence on Coach Swanson’s part, it’s more paranoia. And he’s not alone in thinking that divulged injury news can be detrimental to the team’s cause. Per the collective bargaining agreements in place in the various professional leagues, accurate and timely injury reporting is mandatory. But I’m not sure it really matters.

As an example, two years ago as the Cavaliers prepared to face off against Florida State, the best program in the ACC under former coach Mark Krikorian, and Virginia’s personal nemesis, Jaelin Howell was in Colorado training with the US women’s national team. There was a reasonable chance she would miss the UVa – FSU game. (She didn’t.) I asked Coach Swanson whether his team prepared any differently knowing that the fulcrum of FSU’s defense would be absent. He just laughed. He said there was no difference. Really? There was no wrinkle to specifically attack her replacement if she wasn’t there? Apparently not. Now, Steve knew how big the Virginia vs. Florida State game is on the calendar and he was pretty certain that Howell would not allow herself to miss this game.

Now, if Steve Swanson isn’t going to create a game plan to take advantage of the opponent missing their best player – Howell would win the MAC Herman award as the best player in the country – then I don’t know that anyone else is going to trying to gain advantage of Virginia injury news.

Which brings us to point #1.

Virginia Injury News

Swanson did not spend a lot of time bemoaning the absence of Lia Godfrey, Emma Dawson and Laney Rouse. I approve. Good coaches don’t make excuses. Jeff White did mention that Brianna Jablonowski, who I feared had been lost for the season, is just listed as “banged up.” But more worryingly, White also described Jill Flammia as banged up as well, and she missed the Louisville game. She’d had to come off from the Iowa game, and even after a nine-day layoff, she wasn’t able to recover. Make no mistake, this team is missing a lot of talent and experience from last year, even accounting for graduation departures. The team is missing so many midfielders that Maya Carter, nominally a central striker, logged over 30 minutes at the right midfield position.

The Long Layoff

Division I college programs get 20 games. Two are exhibition games and the ACC slate is 10 games. Usually the team plays eight out-of-conference games, but Swanson opted to schedule only seven games. This gave the team nine days between the Iowa and Louisville fixtures. I think from a wear and tear on your starters point of view this makes sense. This year it’s Brianna and Jill who will have been the beneficiaries, and I would hope Swanson chooses this route more often. The ACC only gets more difficult next year with the addition of Stanford in the conference. The ACC is a meatgrinder and Steve needs his full complement of players to compete.

The downside is that the players at the tail end of the bench, playing time wise, get their minutes against the George Masons and Nevadas of the world.

Consistency

Swanson acknowledged several times that the team has not played a complete 90-minute game. I would agree and the reasons seem obvious to me. Three of the team’s top four midfielders are missing, and it seems as if the defensive back line has lost confidence in the replacements: they don’t pass to them. Longer, more hopeful searching balls from the defenders to the forwards become turnovers. Somehow, Jill Flammia and Yuna McCormack need more of the ball at their feet.

The team is also strikingly toothless on set pieces. It is clear that taking short corners and free kicks has been a point of emphasis, but it’s not working. So far. Against Louisville, Alexis Theoret went to Maggie Cagle at the top of the box, but put the ball at Maggie’s back foot. Cagle had to trap the ball, put it on her right foot, and then cross it. By then, the surprise from the redirection was gone and Louisville defended the corner easily. On a free kick, Cagle broke down the sideline, expecting to receive the ball so that she could cross from the end line. Except that she was offside. I don’t know how that is even possible.

The podcast closed with a brief discussion of the women’s world cup which concluded just over a month ago. I’m sure all of Cavalier Nation was thrilled with the play of Emily Sonnett, Virginia class of 2016, who had maybe the most impactful 90 minutes of any American at the World Cup.

The podcast is a good listen (listen here). Swanson is a fine coach and an exemplary teacher. He is exactly the kind of person I want coaching at Virginia.

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