On Sept. 11, the Tar Heels fell to Southern California by a score of 3-0. It was just the fourth time the team had been beaten by multiple goals since 1985. And on Friday in its ACC opener, UNC lost 1-0 to N.C. State. This was the first time the Tar Heels had lost to the Wolfpack since 2002 — and just the second time ever.
North Carolina (5-2-1, 0-1 ACC) is used to being the team that makes history, but now the 2016 team is coming up on the wrong side of it.
So what’s wrong with the Tar Heels? The problem might start in the attacking third, where the team is painstakingly young.
“What we’ve got to figure out a way to do this season is to gain some experience with a group that’s relatively inexperienced,” Coach Anson Dorrance said. “And we do have some experienced players, and maybe we can get them to bleed into the less experienced. But tragically, right now for us up top there’s not a lot of experience.”
Without a veteran presence on the front line, the Tar Heels have only scored 12 goals in eight games. If the Tar Heels continue at the same clip, they could potentially break the 2014 team’s record for the fewest goals scored in a season (31).
The absence of forward Jessie Scarpa — who chose to redshirt the 2016 season to play for the U.S. U-20 national team this fall — has certainly hurt the Tar Heels, but the team is not without attacking talent. First-years Zoe Redei and Bridgette Andrzejewski have combined to score five of the Tar Heels’ 12 goals. But recently, the pair — and the rest of the team, for that matter — has failed to put the ball in the back of the net.
“We have a lot of opportunities to score, and it’s not like we’re playing really badly,” said sophomore midfielder Dorian Bailey. “It’s just we’ve got to be better in the final third.”
In the losses to USC (6-2) and N.C. State (7-2, 1-0 ACC), North Carolina tallied at least 10 shots but couldn’t finish. The Tar Heels outshot the Wolfpack 12-4 but rarely created chances inside the other team’s box.
