I extrapolate my opinion by watching this kind of reffing especially as it pertains to JD game after game.
A TDS article on Lauryn Thompson committing. Lauryn Thompson, Forward, Indy Eleven Pro Academy Class: 2026 IMG Academy Player Ranking: No. 13 Commitment: Florida State A top recruit in the class of 2026, Lauryn Thompson is heading to an ACC powerhouse. She had several programs showing interest, but the level at FSU drew her towards Tallahassee. “Florida State's environment is highly competitive but close knit and truly professional from the coaching staff all the way through to the players,” Thompson told TDS. “Everything is geared to the success of the team first and your development.” The former U.S. youth international is also eligible to play for England. She’s currently at the World Cup now with England’s Under-17 team, coming on as a substitute in its group game last week. Having lived in Florida before moving to North Carolina, she had the chance to attend ID camps, allowing her to get to know the coaching staff. At the end of the day, she felt like the opportunity at Florida State would help her improve on the field. “[Its] professional environment that I believe will help me ultimately achieve my athletic and academic goals,” Thompson said. Six players have committed to Florida State for that class. Related Topics: Atlantic Coast
It was a professional environment with MK, not BP. Amazing how kids still buy that sell at FSU. Now FSU just buys a lot of good attacking players that comprise a college team more talented than most. But they already look much less pro and much more college. And there's a reason the former staff is in NWSL.
When I see "professional environment" I don't think of style of play. More like how the players are treated and supported off the field. Or maybe how there is a large group of highly talented future pros, creating competition for places. It can mean a lot of things besides gameday tactics.
What is even a professional environment? isn’t it about out talenting teams at every level? USWNT did the exact same thing at the Olympics with their attacking talent. seems more like a good pitch to me to play fun, attacking football when you can do the same as a pro player and develop your skills.
With regard to a "professional environment", I always thought that it was to focus primarily at developing better skills and team play without any unnecessary other distractions other than interaction with pro coaches and staff. So I always thought that college soccer was by definition was not "professional", given the huge distraction of taking and passing college courses, having access to parties and other social lures, and social issues. No?
If you ask 10 different coaches what a professional environment is, I suspect you get different answers, with small to large differences in some.
About as dominant of a performance as you’ll see against Carolina (other than, ya know, the 2 corner kicks). 26 shots, 18 on goal. Player of the game for unc was the keeper to keep it to just 4 goals. Could have been way more out of hand. Washington and Dudley both missing hat tricks by inches. Awesome game, fun to watch this team on the run. Maybe the coaches will update the laughable #17 ranking and get it closer to the RPI (was #7) and Massey (#5 rating, #1 power). I’d love to hear from the voters who the 16 teams are that they are more scared to see in their bracket than fsu. Even just restrict the answer to teams with the same or worse records… I’ll wait.
Have to say FSU came out and bullied UNC in this game, and the Heels really struggled with the physicality. Even if I do think the official could have done a better job reigning some of it in (Dudley had how many fouls?), it was clear that wouldn't have made a difference. This has to be one of the most athletic teams I've ever seen from FSU. A team really tooled around route one athleticism and brute strength dominating a young UNC team that's become more oriented around possession and space manipulation in the last few years. That fourth goal gave me flashbacks of classic Abby Wambach Alex Morgan with the USWNT. Hope to see y'all again soon, hopefully at Dorrance.
and yet none getting called on contact against her, including when she’s getting pushed in the back while she’s on the ground… funny that.
I'm assuming you're referring to the incident with Alvarez, a defender that Dudley has so much more height and strength on. It is laughable bias that you think that was anything other than Dudley being dramatic trying to draw a foul... it's also pathetic what-about-ism when compared to the fact that Dudley had half of FSU's 14 fouls in this game and managed not to get a yellow.
The coaches have an agenda against FSU for whatever reason just like the top 16 ranking. But it’s whatever, FSU just has to keep winning. They dominated Virginia, Pittsburgh and North Carolina which is a great start.
Watch the play. She’s on all fours. The player extends her arms into her back and pushes her to the ground. In what world is that not a foul. Yes she’s a tall woman. That’s a foul and harder than anything she served all game. The card against Hudson was similarly laughable. Being tall isn’t illegal.
now see, the comment about Hudson makes it clear you got blinders on, because even the FSU commentators got it right. Hudson's yellow was for accumulation. She had back to back near identical sequences where she tugged and pulled UNC runners from behind as they were advancing up field with the ball. It wasn't for the "final" challenge she made, which yea, is never a yellow.
A comment I have made before from an outsider: ACC fans complain about the refs too much. From an outsider's perspective, it is not a good look for the conference.
To be fair, this win against UNC is FSU’s first real top 20 win. Sure Virginia is still in the top 20 in the RPI, but FSU beat them after everyone else had already ran them over. After FSU tied SMU, lost to Wake Forest and lost to Va Tech they had to drop in the rankings and didn’t really have a statement win until now to launch them back up the rankings. I’d fully expect them to be in the Top 10 this week now though.
I think officiating in college sports in general has much to improve upon. Football and basketball are asking the same questions, and not just in the ACC. Plus wasn’t it just last night when Arkansas fans were raging against their ref on Twitter? Even the official Arkansas team account tweeted out video of the bad call.
There are always missed calls in every game. You just don't want to see critical bad calls or missed calls, like the UCLA non call against UNC in the ? natty game? or the non call in the box when we played Santa Clara. That said, I've been watching FSU vs UNC for over 20 years. For many years (up until about 12 years ago, the games looked like this. A bigger, stronger, faster and deeper team playing against a less talented team and shallow (depth). FSU occasionally won one, but not many. This is not meant as disrespect or a shot at UNC, just my opinion in watching. This doesn't mean we are going to win anything. This is soccer afterall, and the best team is not always the team with the best players individually.
Personally I think there's a problem with the accepted standard and culture in officiating that exists in all professional sports. On one hand leagues today will always say that faith in officials is necessary, but the standard to protect that faith is non-existent transparency with little apparent attempts to make improvements. as an aside, I found lasik's recent tweets hilarious. https://x.com/lasikdotcom
I think it's safe to say we need to work on set play defense! Ullmark has a cannon attached to her leg. There are a couple of permanent dents in the cross bar.
FSU is up to #4 in the RPI ranks based on games through 10/25. UNC remains at #1, with Arkansas #2 and Mississippi State #3. Duke is #5.
An FSU writer from another site had this to say. "I think that FSU was clearly the best team tonight and is the best team in the ACC and probably the nation the way that they are playing now. However, what UNC has been able to do this year is nothing short of remarkable. The Heels lost 21 (yes, 21) players from last year's team including a head coach who had been there since 1979. Despite all of that UNC was #1 in the RPI coming into this game. Before the season there was a lot of speculation about whether Carolina would even make the NCAA Tournament and they were at #1 in the nation in the RPI before this game. Really impressive." UNC deserves a shout out for what they have accomplished as noted above. They will probably make a lot of noise in the NCAAT. Duke vs UNC should be a great match to watch next week.