Virginia Women’s Soccer Escapes VCU 1-0

Maggie Cagle gives Virginia a win they perhaps didn’t deserve

Maggie Cagle scored the game-winning goal and Virginia women's soccer improved to 6-0 on the season with a 1-0 win at VCU. / Virginia Athletics

On Thursday night, the #4 Virginia Cavaliers headed east on I-64 to take on VCU in Richmond.  The drive is just a little over an hour, but the Cavaliers played like they had jet lag.  The first half was as desultory a 45-minutes as I have seen in quite some time.  Virginia, a team averaging just over 16 shots per game, had exactly one shot in the half; which is the same number of shots that the Rams took.

The only excitement in the first half was the news that Lia Godfrey, who had missed all of last season and who has been extremely slow recovering her match fitness this summer, was getting her inaugural start this season.  Godfrey didn’t measure up to her previous, lofty, All-American standards, but it’s still good to see her getting more playing time.

The problem for the day is that Virginia head coach Steve Swanson lined the team up in the 4 – 2 – 3 – 1 formation, otherwise known as the “Christmas Tree.”  He’s been tinkering with this for much of the non-conference slate but I am ready to pull the plug on the experiment.  The problem is that defensive midfielder Alexis Theoret, the best player on the team, is completely marginalized in this alignment.  I don’t know if she just doesn’t know how to move in front of the back four when she’s got a partner in that back midfielder role, or if it is somehow by design, but the simple fact is that Theoret does not see enough of the ball in this formation.  On the night, Theoret had just 32 touches on the ball.  She was repeatedly looked off by Maggie Cagle and Godfrey, the team’s two most creative players, and the back four by-passed Theoret, and her partner in the double-pivot, Ella Carter, all game long.

If Theoret touches the ball more, she can dominate a midfield, even with a still-recovering Godfrey, and despite the absences of Jill Flammia, Emma Dawson, and Yuna McCormack.

Intermission:  Speaking of McCormack, she scored at the women’s U20 World Cup, hitting the team’s opener versus Morocco.

Gisele Thompson assists the USA U-20's first goal of the U-20 Women's World Cup.

Yuna Carole McCormack scores. Good pass from Thompson:
pic.twitter.com/5jXuyhAkK5

— Kamran Nia (@kamran_nia) September 5, 2024

But back to the dreariness of Virginia v VCU, the team opted to play the ball through centerbacks Moira Kelley and Tatum Galvin.  It would not surprise me at all if both had 100+ touches on the ball which is just a criminal imbalance vis a vis the amount of time Theoret had on the ball.  When a team commits to changing the point of attack by swinging the ball from Samar Guidry on the left to Galvin to Kelley and then to Laney Rouse, the game slows down.  VCU did sit back deep – they came in 0 – 4 on the season – but they did not park the bus and they were pretty aggressive on counters, fashioning three fine looks on the night.  But a team sitting back like this can easily shift side to side and nullify this new angle of attack.  What midfield play there was probably won by VCU.

It doesn’t seem like rocket science to me.  Theoret turns on the ball better than anyone in the ACC, so every time she touches the ball, the angle of attack has changed.  I don’t know if the 4 – 2 – 3 – 1 has been implemented to hide Godfrey’s lack of mobility, but it is too easy to defend.  For the sixth time this season, Swanson praised the other team’s organization:  It’s not an easy place to play and they were very good, organized and hard to break down tonight.

Give the ball to Theoret!

Soccer is a game of two halves and the Hoos came out more brightly in the second half. The team struggled in find any space in VCU’s penalty box.  Virginia would log 12 shots in total, and all, save a Cagle header that went just wide, were taken from outside the box.  This isn’t a good sign, either.  Goalkeepers have gotten better in the past 20 years and across all levels of soccer, fewer and fewer goals are scored from deep.  Meredith McDermott, the team’s central striker the past two years, has missed the past two games, and not having her as a target may be a contributing factor as Linda Mittermair, who has replaced her centrally, seems an ill-fit.

Maggie Cagle finally broke the deadlock in the 77th minute.  Following a short clearance from a free kick, Cagle pounced on the ball and launched a speculative shot from maybe 30 yards out.  The VCU keeper tipped the ball up, into the crossbar, and the ball deflected down sharply and off of the keeper into the back of the net.   It was the only goal that Virginia would score, but then, it was the only goal that the team needed to secure the team’s sixth win of the season.

Maggie Cagle with the strike to get us on the board in the 77th minute!

📺 ESPN+#GoHoos | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/qs1mGa62j2

— Virginia Women's Soccer (@UVAWomenSoccer) September 6, 2024

While the Galvin and Kelley partnership is becoming more solid – Galvin played scrub minutes the past two seasons and Kelley is new to Grounds this season – and Guidry and Allie Ross had strong games, especially in the first half, the rest of the team looked sluggish.  Or as I said at the beginning of this piece, jet-lagged.  Theoret, when she did get the ball, was not as incisive as usual, Cagle couldn’t beat anyone on the dribble and was pushed off the ball repeatedly, and Godfrey, well, she still looks more than a step slower than when we last saw her.  That’s Virginia’s three most creative players.  I think Virginia was lucky to escape with a win in this one.

Next Up:  Virginia’s last game before the beginning of the ACC slate is Sunday, August 8th at 2:00pm.  The women host Howard at Klöckner and the game will be carried on ACC Network Extra.