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HT WSoc Santa Clara 1 Stanford 0 - Printable Version

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HT WSoc Santa Clara 1 Stanford 0 - washingtonismoney - 08-17-2012

Inevitably a review half of the game, half of the network/streaming.
****

In general the network and streaming have been pretty good for the first live event ever. They've gotten some pretty good announcers, including the LA MLS play-by-play commentator, it would seem they're not skimping on Olympic sports. I thought the game production was a bit weak at times--they missed a substitution; granted, NCAA substitution rules are stupid and might be unfamiliar to them, but still.

The streaming was generally of sharp quality, though it stuttered at times. In comparison to, say, ESPN3, I'd guess of slightly worse quality, but not so much worse that you want to break a window or something. So far, so good.

****

Anyway, the main benefit is seeing them at all. We all know football's driving the boat; even if olympic sports are being carried along in its wake that's simply a good thing. This is my third time seeing the team in three years (the other two were the championship games), and that's really too bad for me--the head coach is excellent in getting the team to play an attractive, dominant style. He's not so good on in-game adjustments, but American coaches' grasp of putting together a team, developing them, and cohering them into a great style is so poor that Stanford's coach can dominate with that and superior talent.

At the moment, the team doesn't look like it's meshing terribly well. Like many good American teams, it can build up with skill to the final third, but gets a bit robotic near the opponent's goal. This is exacerbated when the opponent retreats its forces behind the moat and builds a wall, as is happening a bit. The team's also missing Chioma Ubogagu, who's representing the US in the under-20 women's world cup in Japan (congratulations!), as she'd provide some one-on-one ability that would be great in really unbalancing the defense.

EDIT: and the goal. Against the run of play. Perhaps a mistake on the part of the goalkeeper. These things happen. Much more worried about the offense than defense.


Re: HT WSoc Santa Clara 1 Stanford 0 - fullmetal - 08-17-2012

Doh!  Here's to a second half offensive resurgence...

Re: HT WSoc Santa Clara 1 Stanford 0 - washingtonismoney - 08-17-2012

F: Stanford 6 Santa Clara 1. The Brits would say Stanford "put them to the sword," which sounds about right. The Santa Clara coach made the bold yet understandable choice to push for the second goal (on the rationale that 1 wouldn't be enough...which was exactly right.) So, uh, yeah. Good job there, ladies.

Re: HT WSoc Santa Clara 1 Stanford 0 - 81alum - 08-17-2012

I biked over to the game to attend my first women's soccer game but it was sold out!  Wonderful to see the rising popularity.  Don't know if it was the national championship, the Olympics, or the fact that the opponent was a local team.  So home again to watch on TV. 

How many of those 6 goals were off corners?  It seemed like Stanford started the second half and went 3 for 3 on goals off of corner kicks.  Wow.  In the post game interviews they mentioned they had been working on set-piece plays.  Well, they worked.

Re: HT WSoc Santa Clara 1 Stanford 0 - Viking_Guy - 08-17-2012

81Alum--

Actually, only the first was directly from a corner, a hammered header by Mariah Nogueira off a wonderful driven corner to the back post by Courtney Verloo, was off a set piece.  But it definitely opened the flood gates. Two others were out of the confusion after the first ball was cleared.

As WIM mentioned, the first half was disconnected.  For me, the weak link was through the midfield; a whole lot of balls sprayed over the sideline, not a great work rate, and no real connection between the backline and the front, with the exception of Nogueira.  I think Radcliffe did make a good halftime adjustment by pushing Mariah up a little more; no one was really ready to step into the Teresa Noyola role of distributor, and the goal was a direct result of both miscommunication and poor midfield play - a turnover on the left side gave Santa Clara a breakaway opportunity, with both of Stanford's center backs matched up alone and Garciamendez way out on the left.  A long cross from the left sideline floated across the goal mouth over Kendall Romine, and Klei for the Broncos put in a nice volley.  I do think it was not the best play by keeper Lindsay Dickerson.  The mistake wasn't that she didn't come out on the ball, as Romine was in good position to recover if Klei tried to do anything beyond a one-touch; but her footwork on retreating to the post left her completely flat-footed against the shot, so that even though she was on exactly the right angle, taking away the post, she couldn't get any lift to push the ball over the bar.  She also made an absolute hash of a backpass in the second half, turning the ball into the middle of her own goal mouth, then taking a second touch and pushing the ball far enough away from herself to turn an easy clear or ball reversal into a 50-50 ball inside her own 6-yard box.

But the larger issue was the lack of any really incisive movement down the flanks, especially against a typically Jerry Smith compact Bronco defense in the center.  Add to that a whole lot of stray or lazy touches (a lot of lunging toe-pokes that turned the ball over), and the 1-0 lead looked pretty solid.

I think at halftime Paul told his veterans to take over, and gave Verloo a push.  Courtney started the second half much more aggressively, and Nogueira playing a lot higher in the center of the field.  It paid off in the aforementioned tying corner kick, and shortly thereafter, Verloo served in a ball that Sydney Payne got a body on to settle, but in a confused box it squirted through and Rachel Quon pounced with a nice outside of the boot settle and a calm finish to the far post.  Verloo again played a part with a wonderful dummy to let the ball through to Payne at about the penalty spot, then Garciamendez took advantage of a "liberal" interpretation of the "passive offsides" rule (speaking as a keeper, I would've called it off). Payne was inside the six-yard box and 3 yards offsides when a ball was flighted in just over her head.  She made no attempt to play it, although she did NOT keep moving backward.  Alina rushed through behind Payne and popped a header in back to the near post against a confused Bronco D, and neither official signaled offside.  My understanding of the passive offside rule was that a player could recover from an offside position if she took no offensive action and was not "involved in the play."  It's hard to imagine a player inside the crease with a cross floating just over her head as uninvolved in the play.  If that interpretation held, every team would put a "screener" directly in front of the goalie on every set piece.

In any case, a couple of nice finishes by Natalie Griffen, a nice slicing run through a flat-footed Bronco defense onto a throughball for a breakaway finish and a bullet from outside the top of the box that hit the upper 90 at the near post after flying directly over the heads of two Bronco defenders who made no effort to get a touch on the ball, but managed to completely screen their keeper, finished the scoring.

The scoring outburst does disguise some issues:
(1) Backup keeper.  Emily Oliver is out with an injury, and Dickerson didn't have much of a chance to shine after the early goal, and had that problematic play on the backpass in the second half.  I expect Gleason might start the next game.
(2) Midfield - while I mentioned Noyola, the other player we missed was Kristy Zurmuhlen.  She provided another strong defender to complement Nogueira, which allowed Noyola to roam free.  We need more out of McCann, Farr and Bettinger, although Rosen had a nice run of play in the second half.  In the 4-3-3 last year, we essentially played a 4-2-1-3, with Zurmuhlen and Nogueira behind Noyola; tonight the formation seemed a lot flatter in the first half, and the outside mids didn't provide much until the backline started overlapping in the second half.
(3) It would've definitely been nice to have Chioma or Marjani Hing-Glover out there; at points in the first half, we really didn't have a lot of pursuit speed up front, which kept our pressure from being more effective.  It worked in fits and starts, but Santa Clara found room and time to get some good rhythm for the last 30 minutes of the first half.

I know, nit-picking a 6-1 game.  But Santa Clara really didn't play well; they were also missing a U-20 player, MF Julie Johnston, their freshman keeper spilled a lot of rebounds, and their defense really lost its shape after the Quon goal - Payne was unmarked at the penalty spot on the third, and Griffen waltzed through them for one and shot through them for her other.  I think #13 Penn State on the road will be a stiffer test; they beat #10 Virginia at home 3-1 today.  Stanford plays them in State College next Friday, and stays in Happy Valley for  #15 West Virginia, who lost to La Salle 2-1 today, next Sunday.

Two other results of note: two home team upsets, as Wisconsin beat #3 Northern Indiana Parochial College and Portland beat #8 North Carolina, both 1-0.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the broadcast: the production values were solid - good broadcasting team, and lots of reporters, but the people in the truck were obviously not really soccer-experienced.  A LOT of onfield action got missed with sideline interviews, and promos that took up the entire screen; they seemed to think that every stoppage in play would give them 30 seconds or so to run some piece.

All in all, though, a nice first shot at it.  Especially considering the dearth of women's games that Stanford actually streamed last year.

VG


Re: HT WSoc Santa Clara 1 Stanford 0 - Viking_Guy - 08-17-2012

One other mention - a nice first game for freshman Laura Liedle, starting at left back.  She got caught a bit on the goal, but that was mostly because of the midfield giving up the ball inside of her.

VG