[Viking_Guy]

Separating this thread out, Stanford now leads 2-0 midway through the second half (the livestats froze at minute 60 a bit ago).  Goal by Ryan Walker-Hartshorn after Mariah Lee has a "jam it in out of a scramble" shot saved off the line.  Ryan set up her patented spin move at about 6 yards and buried the ball.

And Jane Campbell comes up with a brobdingnagian stop out of a scramble to keep a clean sheet.

Will update as the game progresses.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

Separating this thread out, Stanford now leads 2-0 midway through the second half (the livestats froze at minute 60 a bit ago).  Goal by Ryan Walker-Hartshorn after Mariah Lee has a "jam it in out of a scramble" shot saved off the line.  Ryan set up her patented spin move at about 6 yards and buried the ball.

And Jane Campbell comes up with a brobdingnagian stop out of a scramble to keep a clean sheet.

Will update as the game progresses.

VG

[BostonCard]

Thanks VG.

BC

[BostonCard]

Thanks VG.

BC

[Viking_Guy]

And Walker-Hartshorn does it again, the same spin move from about 14 yards out, with Arizona all trying to deny Stanford holding the ball in the corner.  The ball leaks to Ryan, off a feed from Mariah(?), and she spins and unleashes a left past UofA's keeper.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

And Walker-Hartshorn does it again, the same spin move from about 14 yards out, with Arizona all trying to deny Stanford holding the ball in the corner.  The ball leaks to Ryan, off a feed from Mariah(?), and she spins and unleashes a left past UofA's keeper.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

GAME REPORT

Again with the craptacular stream, about which more in the next post.

Stanford won 3-0, holding a 1-0 for the majority of the game and then a couple of late insurance goals from Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, who has been MIA for a lot of the season.


The Wildcats are a "dump and scramble" team - they don't try to possess and move forward.  Instead, they rely on dump and chase tactics, with the ball only taking a momentary pause in the midfield before being launched at Stanford's endline.  For a while, when combined with some high physical pressure, it threw Stanford off their game, but midway through the first half, and for all but about 10 minutes of the second, the Cardinal was able to calmly cut them up when they moved through the midfield, or switch the point of attack easily enough at the back.

The problem for Stanford is translating possession into consistent aggression in the attack.  Their overwhelming drive to possess the ball means that often, given a choice between a slightly risky diagonal or square ball and a minimally risky backpass, they'll backpass.  Which means the other team knows that pressure on Stanford's midfield can relieve pressure on their defense.

The other symptom or expression is in the final third - Stanford seems content to launch 25 or 30 yard shots, or dribble into open areas wide, rather than to take on opponents' defenders in the box; I've mentioned before that for such a great possession team with so much on-the-ball time, they really don't draw many PKs.

Today was a case in point.  Early on, a lot of 20-25 yards bouncing balls that never really threatened the keeper, and little attempt to attack into a retreating Arizona backline.

The key moment of the game was a bit of hard work by Kyra Carusa, who is "sneaky physical."  She's not really big, but is solid, and knows a lot of the little tricks to get around her defender.  In this case, the defender tried to shield Carusa off the ball with her right shoulder as the ball trickled toward the endline about 6-8 yards off the near post of the Arizona goal.  Kyra did an archetypal swim move, swinging her left arm up and over the defender's right, driving it downward and pinning it, then stepped around to send a right-footed cross low across the face of goal.  Megan Turner met it in the center of the goal about 6 yards out and hammered it back to the right, giving the keeper no chance.  1-0 Stanford 17 minutes in.

The balance of the half, Stanford had the majority of the possession, but few really good chances - their best shot may have been an "at the horn" 40 yard shot from Rosen that just cleared the Arizona crossbar.  On the other hand, Arizona, while they took some speculative attempts from distance, didn't have a shot on frame in the half - most were over the bar and forcing Campbell to retrieve the ball out of the top netting.

SECOND HALF

The other part of the Arizona offense that I should have mentioned, as OldAlum said in a prior thread, is their flip throws.  From the left side, they have a defender who can launch the ball into the center of the penalty area from the midfield stripe.  Today, she was lofting the ball a bit, not driving through it and creating a "deflection" chance, but it still created a lot of opportunities for Arizona to scramble a ball home. 

This was a bit of a problem earlier in the year for the Cardinal, as part of a general difficulty in dealing with high balls into the box.  Often times, they would bounce, which should NEVER happen on long service.  I remember in the game at Utah (? I think) a long ball in that bounced once, was flicked closer to the net, then bounced again before a Ute player poked it home in the middle of three Stanford defenders.

This game was MUCH cleaner in that respect.  Arizona kept trying it, and Stanford kept dealing with it cleanly.  One positive was that, with the majority of the flip throws coming from the left, it wasn't lined up for the offensive player running at Michelle Xiao, again covering at left back for injured Tegan McGrady and Stephanie Amack (and I do wish I had some info on them - I know Amack was injured in the C.al game (I think), but the Pac-12 video coverage cut away during the injury timeout and I never got a clear sense of what had happened.  Xiao is a great player, but she gives up a lot of size against most forwards and wing midfielders, today being no exception.

So what do we have?  Arizona trying to generate chaos, and Stanford trying to play a clean passing and possession game.  Today, the Stanford plan prevailed.  Arizona did not record a SHOT, let alone a shot on goal, for the first 30 minutes of the second half.  And by the time they had, Ryan Walker-Hartshorn had scored Stanford's second, again with her defender on her back, back to goal spinning style, converting a scramble in the box, with one ball saved off the line, into a goal by striking the ball low and clean from about 5 yards out underneath the keeper before she could react in the 76th minute.

Arizona turned it up a notch, pushing the ball deep into the corner and generating their two best looks of the game about 15 seconds apart in the 77th minute, with Campbell getting down to her left on a shot from about 9 yards out of a service in from the left corner, then coming out to claim a higher shot shortly after.

And the Wildcats really had nothing more to offer.  If you maintain your defensive shape, and don't let them in behind you, they're not going to pick you apart out front.  The final score, as I mentioned, came when Walker-Hartshorn found herself 1v1 with a defender on the right side of the box at about 16 yards, following a scramble in the right corner as Stanford tried to stand on the ball and run the clock out.  All of Arizona's backline were outside the area in that corner except for Ryan's defender, and when she received the ball and spun left, there was only a keeper to beat, and she did that low and right.

Gameball for me to Carusa, who again, does the dirty work - possession with back to goal up top, "working the body" with her array of sneaky physical moves (she had one called back in the second half where a Wildcat defender had her in a clinch from behind, and Kyra gave her a little bit of the "Charles Barkley backside clearout," knocking her to the ground and spinning inside onto the ball.  I REALLY wanted the ref to let that one go.

Next match next weekend, at Cagan, on the schedule for Friday, vs the winner of Florida/Duke tomorrow at 11 AM PST.  Hopefully with a better viewing experience; ESPN3 might pick it up.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

GAME REPORT

Again with the craptacular stream, about which more in the next post.

Stanford won 3-0, holding a 1-0 for the majority of the game and then a couple of late insurance goals from Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, who has been MIA for a lot of the season.


The Wildcats are a "dump and scramble" team - they don't try to possess and move forward.  Instead, they rely on dump and chase tactics, with the ball only taking a momentary pause in the midfield before being launched at Stanford's endline.  For a while, when combined with some high physical pressure, it threw Stanford off their game, but midway through the first half, and for all but about 10 minutes of the second, the Cardinal was able to calmly cut them up when they moved through the midfield, or switch the point of attack easily enough at the back.

The problem for Stanford is translating possession into consistent aggression in the attack.  Their overwhelming drive to possess the ball means that often, given a choice between a slightly risky diagonal or square ball and a minimally risky backpass, they'll backpass.  Which means the other team knows that pressure on Stanford's midfield can relieve pressure on their defense.

The other symptom or expression is in the final third - Stanford seems content to launch 25 or 30 yard shots, or dribble into open areas wide, rather than to take on opponents' defenders in the box; I've mentioned before that for such a great possession team with so much on-the-ball time, they really don't draw many PKs.

Today was a case in point.  Early on, a lot of 20-25 yards bouncing balls that never really threatened the keeper, and little attempt to attack into a retreating Arizona backline.

The key moment of the game was a bit of hard work by Kyra Carusa, who is "sneaky physical."  She's not really big, but is solid, and knows a lot of the little tricks to get around her defender.  In this case, the defender tried to shield Carusa off the ball with her right shoulder as the ball trickled toward the endline about 6-8 yards off the near post of the Arizona goal.  Kyra did an archetypal swim move, swinging her left arm up and over the defender's right, driving it downward and pinning it, then stepped around to send a right-footed cross low across the face of goal.  Megan Turner met it in the center of the goal about 6 yards out and hammered it back to the right, giving the keeper no chance.  1-0 Stanford 17 minutes in.

The balance of the half, Stanford had the majority of the possession, but few really good chances - their best shot may have been an "at the horn" 40 yard shot from Rosen that just cleared the Arizona crossbar.  On the other hand, Arizona, while they took some speculative attempts from distance, didn't have a shot on frame in the half - most were over the bar and forcing Campbell to retrieve the ball out of the top netting.

SECOND HALF

The other part of the Arizona offense that I should have mentioned, as OldAlum said in a prior thread, is their flip throws.  From the left side, they have a defender who can launch the ball into the center of the penalty area from the midfield stripe.  Today, she was lofting the ball a bit, not driving through it and creating a "deflection" chance, but it still created a lot of opportunities for Arizona to scramble a ball home. 

This was a bit of a problem earlier in the year for the Cardinal, as part of a general difficulty in dealing with high balls into the box.  Often times, they would bounce, which should NEVER happen on long service.  I remember in the game at Utah (? I think) a long ball in that bounced once, was flicked closer to the net, then bounced again before a Ute player poked it home in the middle of three Stanford defenders.

This game was MUCH cleaner in that respect.  Arizona kept trying it, and Stanford kept dealing with it cleanly.  One positive was that, with the majority of the flip throws coming from the left, it wasn't lined up for the offensive player running at Michelle Xiao, again covering at left back for injured Tegan McGrady and Stephanie Amack (and I do wish I had some info on them - I know Amack was injured in the C.al game (I think), but the Pac-12 video coverage cut away during the injury timeout and I never got a clear sense of what had happened.  Xiao is a great player, but she gives up a lot of size against most forwards and wing midfielders, today being no exception.

So what do we have?  Arizona trying to generate chaos, and Stanford trying to play a clean passing and possession game.  Today, the Stanford plan prevailed.  Arizona did not record a SHOT, let alone a shot on goal, for the first 30 minutes of the second half.  And by the time they had, Ryan Walker-Hartshorn had scored Stanford's second, again with her defender on her back, back to goal spinning style, converting a scramble in the box, with one ball saved off the line, into a goal by striking the ball low and clean from about 5 yards out underneath the keeper before she could react in the 76th minute.

Arizona turned it up a notch, pushing the ball deep into the corner and generating their two best looks of the game about 15 seconds apart in the 77th minute, with Campbell getting down to her left on a shot from about 9 yards out of a service in from the left corner, then coming out to claim a higher shot shortly after.

And the Wildcats really had nothing more to offer.  If you maintain your defensive shape, and don't let them in behind you, they're not going to pick you apart out front.  The final score, as I mentioned, came when Walker-Hartshorn found herself 1v1 with a defender on the right side of the box at about 16 yards, following a scramble in the right corner as Stanford tried to stand on the ball and run the clock out.  All of Arizona's backline were outside the area in that corner except for Ryan's defender, and when she received the ball and spun left, there was only a keeper to beat, and she did that low and right.

Gameball for me to Carusa, who again, does the dirty work - possession with back to goal up top, "working the body" with her array of sneaky physical moves (she had one called back in the second half where a Wildcat defender had her in a clinch from behind, and Kyra gave her a little bit of the "Charles Barkley backside clearout," knocking her to the ground and spinning inside onto the ball.  I REALLY wanted the ref to let that one go.

Next match next weekend, at Cagan, on the schedule for Friday, vs the winner of Florida/Duke tomorrow at 11 AM PST.  Hopefully with a better viewing experience; ESPN3 might pick it up.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

On the streaming front:  found an interesting post on another forum today about the rights to stream the post-season.  Here's the relevant language:

2015-16 NCAA Championships Live Video Streaming Rights Policy In accordance with the NCAA's digital rights agreement with Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. (“Turner”), Turner owns the exclusive rights to stream all NCAA Championships live via the Internet, mobile applications, and related devices, except for those Championships which fall under a prior national television and/or digital rights agreement (i.e. ESPN, CBS). If Turner elects to exercise its right to distribute an NCAA Championship event via live video streaming, NO SECONDARY STREAMING RIGHTS WILL BE GRANTED to university athletic departments, university television networks, student-operated television networks, local/regional television networks or other media outlets (collectively, “Third-Parties”). If Turner elects NOT to exercise its video streaming rights, certain Third Parties MAY REQUEST PERMISSION TO VIDEO STREAM select NCAA Championship events (the “Event Coverage”) from Turner. All requests must be submitted to Turner online at

So Turner holds the rights to events not chosen, but teams can request permission to stream.  What's interesting is that there is a KZSU stream of audio (that of course didn't match up with the video at all due to lag issues), so there must be a rights issue involved somewhere.  I wonder if that's what prevents an audio stream.  Although I do think Stanford could do a better job with the production itself - witness the quality of the women's basketball stream vs. the soccer one.  The fixed cameras and positions in Maples sure do help.  One would think that some student employees could be sufficient for DAPER to get better quality - it felt like a single guy with a "two shot" camera - one wide, one telephoto - with no zooming capability, as I mentioned in the last thread on this.

So I guess again, I'll hope for a better viewing experience next week.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

On the streaming front:  found an interesting post on another forum today about the rights to stream the post-season.  Here's the relevant language:

2015-16 NCAA Championships Live Video Streaming Rights Policy In accordance with the NCAA's digital rights agreement with Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. (“Turner”), Turner owns the exclusive rights to stream all NCAA Championships live via the Internet, mobile applications, and related devices, except for those Championships which fall under a prior national television and/or digital rights agreement (i.e. ESPN, CBS). If Turner elects to exercise its right to distribute an NCAA Championship event via live video streaming, NO SECONDARY STREAMING RIGHTS WILL BE GRANTED to university athletic departments, university television networks, student-operated television networks, local/regional television networks or other media outlets (collectively, “Third-Parties”). If Turner elects NOT to exercise its video streaming rights, certain Third Parties MAY REQUEST PERMISSION TO VIDEO STREAM select NCAA Championship events (the “Event Coverage”) from Turner. All requests must be submitted to Turner online at

So Turner holds the rights to events not chosen, but teams can request permission to stream.  What's interesting is that there is a KZSU stream of audio (that of course didn't match up with the video at all due to lag issues), so there must be a rights issue involved somewhere.  I wonder if that's what prevents an audio stream.  Although I do think Stanford could do a better job with the production itself - witness the quality of the women's basketball stream vs. the soccer one.  The fixed cameras and positions in Maples sure do help.  One would think that some student employees could be sufficient for DAPER to get better quality - it felt like a single guy with a "two shot" camera - one wide, one telephoto - with no zooming capability, as I mentioned in the last thread on this.

So I guess again, I'll hope for a better viewing experience next week.

VG

[TheFarm07]

Thanks for the recap Viking Guy.  I hope we can keep up the good play in the final rounds of the tourney.  3 down, 3 to go hopefully!

[TheFarm07]

Thanks for the recap Viking Guy.  I hope we can keep up the good play in the final rounds of the tourney.  3 down, 3 to go hopefully!

[oldalum]

Amack was injured against San Jose State early. She was dribbling the ball across the top of the box with a defender right on her, took a kind of awkward shot that was closed down (and was possibly hit) by the defender, and went down. I have no knowledge about the injury but I'd guess an ankle sprain from landing wrong after losing her balance in the air. If it is, I'm hoping it's mild enough that she'll have healed enough to play on Friday; having both her and McGrady out would be a big blow to the team, they are both so valuable.

[oldalum]

Amack was injured against San Jose State early. She was dribbling the ball across the top of the box with a defender right on her, took a kind of awkward shot that was closed down (and was possibly hit) by the defender, and went down. I have no knowledge about the injury but I'd guess an ankle sprain from landing wrong after losing her balance in the air. If it is, I'm hoping it's mild enough that she'll have healed enough to play on Friday; having both her and McGrady out would be a big blow to the team, they are both so valuable.

[Viking_Guy]

Thanks OA; I was wondering.  I knew that McGrady was injured before that - she got chopped down a lot in the last few games of the season as she went forward.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

Thanks OA; I was wondering.  I knew that McGrady was injured before that - she got chopped down a lot in the last few games of the season as she went forward.

VG

[cardfan77]

The beginning of the match was quite scary.  Arizona was very aggressive and physical with their long balls and scramble plays.  Stanford was little uncomfortable and had a hard time controlling possession.  Luckily Stanford recovered and adjusted well.

Arizonaʻs flip throws were dangerous but fascinating to watch.  The ball traveled 30-40 yards for each flip throw.  Stanford did a great job defending the flip throw.

Great game by Stanford.  Some players are currently injured.  Hopefully each player will be healthy and ready to play  on Friday when they face the winner of Duke vs Florida.

[cardfan77]

The beginning of the match was quite scary.  Arizona was very aggressive and physical with their long balls and scramble plays.  Stanford was little uncomfortable and had a hard time controlling possession.  Luckily Stanford recovered and adjusted well.

Arizonaʻs flip throws were dangerous but fascinating to watch.  The ball traveled 30-40 yards for each flip throw.  Stanford did a great job defending the flip throw.

Great game by Stanford.  Some players are currently injured.  Hopefully each player will be healthy and ready to play  on Friday when they face the winner of Duke vs Florida.

[Viking_Guy]

#3 seed Duke knocked off #2 seed Florida in Gainesville, 2-1.

As I mentioned above, Elite 8 game scheduled for this Friday at Cagan.  Hoping for a nice late start to take advantage of the body clock difference working in our favor for once.

Chalk heavy results - 1 seed Penn State vs. 2 seed West Virginia, and that bracket plays the winner of 1 Virginia (who beat $C 2-0 today) and #2 Rutgers, our bracket of 1 Stanford v 3 Duke.  Only exception is that overall #1 Florida State gets unseeded TAMU, who beat #3 UNC and then Ole Miss today in PKs.  Games next Friday and Saturday.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

#3 seed Duke knocked off #2 seed Florida in Gainesville, 2-1.

As I mentioned above, Elite 8 game scheduled for this Friday at Cagan.  Hoping for a nice late start to take advantage of the body clock difference working in our favor for once.

Chalk heavy results - 1 seed Penn State vs. 2 seed West Virginia, and that bracket plays the winner of 1 Virginia (who beat $C 2-0 today) and #2 Rutgers, our bracket of 1 Stanford v 3 Duke.  Only exception is that overall #1 Florida State gets unseeded TAMU, who beat #3 UNC and then Ole Miss today in PKs.  Games next Friday and Saturday.

VG