[Spiny_Norman]

Surprised that no one has reported on the recent results from Stanford's pre-season #1 teams - M Soccer, W Soccer, W Volleyball.

M Soccer is unscored upon through 2 games. But they also have failed to score themselves. Stanford opened with a 0-0 draw vs. San Jose State and drew with Maryland 0-0 on Friday. They play at Georgetown tomorrow.

W Soccer is still undefeated after a very tough overtime 2-1 win at Minnesota today. Sam Hiatt scored the game winner in the 94th minute off a scrum in front of the goal. The women play their next 7 matches at home, a brutal stretch that includes Notre Dame, #3 North Carolina, #9 Santa Clara, #2 UCLA and #7 USC. Hope that Tierna Davidson is back soon from the national team.

W Volleyball faced their first test of the season, a match on the road at #8 BYU. Stanford lost in 5 sets. The next four matches - #6 Penn State (home), #3 Minnesota (home), #2 Texas (home), #2 Texas (away), all within 8 days. Texas won't be #2 for long, however. They just lost to Wisconsin this evening. 

My advice - get out to watch these fantastic teams if you are in the area. You will see sports being played at the highest level.

[Spiny_Norman]

Surprised that no one has reported on the recent results from Stanford's pre-season #1 teams - M Soccer, W Soccer, W Volleyball.

M Soccer is unscored upon through 2 games. But they also have failed to score themselves. Stanford opened with a 0-0 draw vs. San Jose State and drew with Maryland 0-0 on Friday. They play at Georgetown tomorrow.

W Soccer is still undefeated after a very tough overtime 2-1 win at Minnesota today. Sam Hiatt scored the game winner in the 94th minute off a scrum in front of the goal. The women play their next 7 matches at home, a brutal stretch that includes Notre Dame, #3 North Carolina, #9 Santa Clara, #2 UCLA and #7 USC. Hope that Tierna Davidson is back soon from the national team.

W Volleyball faced their first test of the season, a match on the road at #8 BYU. Stanford lost in 5 sets. The next four matches - #6 Penn State (home), #3 Minnesota (home), #2 Texas (home), #2 Texas (away), all within 8 days. Texas won't be #2 for long, however. They just lost to Wisconsin this evening. 

My advice - get out to watch these fantastic teams if you are in the area. You will see sports being played at the highest level.

[Hurlburt88]

Thanks, Spiny.  There was some good commentary about a week ago in another thread about the men's draw against SJSU;  now another draw.  Will be paying attention to see if that offense can find finishers.

[Hurlburt88]

Thanks, Spiny.  There was some good commentary about a week ago in another thread about the men's draw against SJSU;  now another draw.  Will be paying attention to see if that offense can find finishers.

[Spiny_Norman]

Among the W soccer players who did not play vs. Minnesota - Boissiere, Macario, Xiao, Davidson.  Davidson is with the USWNT. Are the others injured?

[Spiny_Norman]

Among the W soccer players who did not play vs. Minnesota - Boissiere, Macario, Xiao, Davidson.  Davidson is with the USWNT. Are the others injured?

[Canalejas]

Men's soccer is currently in another 2OT match, this time against Georgetown.  The Cardinal had to score an equalizer very late in regulation to force extra time.

[Canalejas]

Men's soccer is currently in another 2OT match, this time against Georgetown.  The Cardinal had to score an equalizer very late in regulation to force extra time.

[Viking_Guy]

A couple of comments:

On women's soccer: it does appear that Macario, Boissiere, and Xiao are all injured or unavailable.  Catarina played some in the game at BYU, and IIRC they said she "wasn't feeling well," so it may have been illness rather than injury, but OTOH, she was limited in earlier games.

The issue is "the spine." Basically, Stanford was playing with a LOT of new and/or inexperienced players running up the center of the pitch.  Instead of Tierna Davidson, freshman Naomi Girma.  Instead of Andi Sullivan, Hiatt.  Instead of Boissiere, Goad. Instead of Macario, Sophia Smith and Abby Greubel.  Watching the games, we've been much more vulnerable in the middle than the Cardinal is used to - Minnesota's goal was the FIRST Stanford has given up in the run of play since the Florida game.  Last September 1.  Every other goal has been off a PK or set piece.

That said, Hiatt came through, albeit in a more "scrambling" sort of goal than normal - a pinballing set of headers and blocks in the area, with the ball falling to Sam at the far post, and a low ball back across the face that the Gophers' post defender was slow to react to, and ended up not being able to clear. 

It's also not to say that the talent level is much different - there are a helluva lot of great players out on that pitch, including the new players mentioned above.  But they haven't played together that much.  I've noticed a lot of missed connections, especially on balls out of the back to the midfield.  With returns to health, (and as much Davidson as we're allowed), they'll be really good.  But, as mentioned, this is one of the hardest stretches of games outside of the NCAA tourney that I've ever seen.

And as an aside on Davidson, she started the friendly against Chile on Friday.  And scored the first goal of the game on a header from a free kick in the 8th minute.  She'll probably get called up for the qualifiers in October, and who knows how much national team camp they'll demand?  Going into the 2019 World Cup, she very well may be in the mix to start in the backline, never mind make the team.  Second game against Chile from Avaya Stadium in San Jose tomorrow night.  Will be interesting to see if she plays a more limited role, giving her a little rest before the games next weekend.

Also on alums, Andi Sullivan, Jane Campbell, and Maddie Bauer all played for the U-23s in the Nordic Cup, with Sullivan tabbed as captain and she and Bauer playing every minute, I think.  Those Stanford defenders were part of a side that ran off three straight clean sheets to win the tourney, against Norway, Sweden, and England.  

Men's team next.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

A couple of comments:

On women's soccer: it does appear that Macario, Boissiere, and Xiao are all injured or unavailable.  Catarina played some in the game at BYU, and IIRC they said she "wasn't feeling well," so it may have been illness rather than injury, but OTOH, she was limited in earlier games.

The issue is "the spine." Basically, Stanford was playing with a LOT of new and/or inexperienced players running up the center of the pitch.  Instead of Tierna Davidson, freshman Naomi Girma.  Instead of Andi Sullivan, Hiatt.  Instead of Boissiere, Goad. Instead of Macario, Sophia Smith and Abby Greubel.  Watching the games, we've been much more vulnerable in the middle than the Cardinal is used to - Minnesota's goal was the FIRST Stanford has given up in the run of play since the Florida game.  Last September 1.  Every other goal has been off a PK or set piece.

That said, Hiatt came through, albeit in a more "scrambling" sort of goal than normal - a pinballing set of headers and blocks in the area, with the ball falling to Sam at the far post, and a low ball back across the face that the Gophers' post defender was slow to react to, and ended up not being able to clear. 

It's also not to say that the talent level is much different - there are a helluva lot of great players out on that pitch, including the new players mentioned above.  But they haven't played together that much.  I've noticed a lot of missed connections, especially on balls out of the back to the midfield.  With returns to health, (and as much Davidson as we're allowed), they'll be really good.  But, as mentioned, this is one of the hardest stretches of games outside of the NCAA tourney that I've ever seen.

And as an aside on Davidson, she started the friendly against Chile on Friday.  And scored the first goal of the game on a header from a free kick in the 8th minute.  She'll probably get called up for the qualifiers in October, and who knows how much national team camp they'll demand?  Going into the 2019 World Cup, she very well may be in the mix to start in the backline, never mind make the team.  Second game against Chile from Avaya Stadium in San Jose tomorrow night.  Will be interesting to see if she plays a more limited role, giving her a little rest before the games next weekend.

Also on alums, Andi Sullivan, Jane Campbell, and Maddie Bauer all played for the U-23s in the Nordic Cup, with Sullivan tabbed as captain and she and Bauer playing every minute, I think.  Those Stanford defenders were part of a side that ran off three straight clean sheets to win the tourney, against Norway, Sweden, and England.  

Men's team next.

VG

[M T]

WVB: I guess I can understand why not many of us watched the Friday night WVB at BYU.  Still at work, I kept an eye on it online & missed my TiVo to go back & look at things. The venue was packed and noisy.  For all our All-Americans, Stanford was clearly not as good as BYU in the first two games, losing 25-22, 25-20.  But they showed fortitude by winning the next two 25-21, 25-20.  The final game wasn't close at 15-11.  (The final point was properly called after a review of a finger just catching the antenna, but for a moment it looked like Stanford still had a chance at 14-12.)
Despite hitting .394 in the 4th set, Stanford hit .203 for the match.

We went to Plummer a lot.  With 51 attacks, she hit .176.  The only bright spot was Fitzmorris who hit .385 on 26 attempts.  Otherwise, the two teams were close in serving & blocks & digs.  My rather uninformed opinion is that our blocking is really down from last year.

I didn't get a chance to watch the next two matches on Saturday, which Stanford won 3-0 each.

Stanford didn't look like a #1 team on Friday night.  I believe WVB started slowly last year.  I'm hoping that these early matches all result in a better tournament team.  While I'll be there for Friday night against Penn State, I'm wary that we need to be better to win.  For the first time, I bought season tickets as another guy at work expressed interest and the seats seemed really good, but will be out of town for Sunday & Tuesday's matches.
 
------

MSoc: I'm also not knowledgeable about soccer.  The men's game at Maryland was the first I've seen this year's team.  Again, this was a Friday night away game that was packed.  I see what others said about us  not  having someone who could finish.  We're small and it cost us.  In my opinion, Maryland seemed the  better team.  For the first 3/4 of the game, we spent most of our time on defense

While our defense has now played 900+ minutes without giving up a goal, it seemed like it could happen any minute in that game.  Maryland had two players, Bin & Pines, that played very well.
[Update -- I missed that there was a game Monday morning.  Another tie, but our scoreless streak is over. 1-1  At least we scored.]
-----

WSOC: I tried to catch the women's soccer on Sunday morning, but despite the BTN2GO site saying that it was provided free to Xfinity customers,  I couldn't get it.   Then, last night, I saw that the Big Ten channel was added to my TV channels and then I found a $28 "Bundle Discount" monthly  charge was added to my bill   ($28 for one channel??).  Maybe they thought I'd see "discount" and believe it.  I suspect I must have clicked on the wrong button somewhere.  BEWARE!  Sigh... we hate dealing with Comcast Customer Antagonists.

[M T]

WVB: I guess I can understand why not many of us watched the Friday night WVB at BYU.  Still at work, I kept an eye on it online & missed my TiVo to go back & look at things. The venue was packed and noisy.  For all our All-Americans, Stanford was clearly not as good as BYU in the first two games, losing 25-22, 25-20.  But they showed fortitude by winning the next two 25-21, 25-20.  The final game wasn't close at 15-11.  (The final point was properly called after a review of a finger just catching the antenna, but for a moment it looked like Stanford still had a chance at 14-12.)
Despite hitting .394 in the 4th set, Stanford hit .203 for the match.

We went to Plummer a lot.  With 51 attacks, she hit .176.  The only bright spot was Fitzmorris who hit .385 on 26 attempts.  Otherwise, the two teams were close in serving & blocks & digs.  My rather uninformed opinion is that our blocking is really down from last year.

I didn't get a chance to watch the next two matches on Saturday, which Stanford won 3-0 each.

Stanford didn't look like a #1 team on Friday night.  I believe WVB started slowly last year.  I'm hoping that these early matches all result in a better tournament team.  While I'll be there for Friday night against Penn State, I'm wary that we need to be better to win.  For the first time, I bought season tickets as another guy at work expressed interest and the seats seemed really good, but will be out of town for Sunday & Tuesday's matches.
 
------

MSoc: I'm also not knowledgeable about soccer.  The men's game at Maryland was the first I've seen this year's team.  Again, this was a Friday night away game that was packed.  I see what others said about us  not  having someone who could finish.  We're small and it cost us.  In my opinion, Maryland seemed the  better team.  For the first 3/4 of the game, we spent most of our time on defense

While our defense has now played 900+ minutes without giving up a goal, it seemed like it could happen any minute in that game.  Maryland had two players, Bin & Pines, that played very well.
[Update -- I missed that there was a game Monday morning.  Another tie, but our scoreless streak is over. 1-1  At least we scored.]
-----

WSOC: I tried to catch the women's soccer on Sunday morning, but despite the BTN2GO site saying that it was provided free to Xfinity customers,  I couldn't get it.   Then, last night, I saw that the Big Ten channel was added to my TV channels and then I found a $28 "Bundle Discount" monthly  charge was added to my bill   ($28 for one channel??).  Maybe they thought I'd see "discount" and believe it.  I suspect I must have clicked on the wrong button somewhere.  BEWARE!  Sigh... we hate dealing with Comcast Customer Antagonists.

[Viking_Guy]

On the men's side, I'm not nearly as sanguine.

Stanford still plays the high-pressure, take the ball back style that has produced three straight national champions.  It can be fun to watch,

But they are significantly smaller, and really not very fast; in the game against Maryland, they couldn't get past the bigger Terrapin defenders.  And set pieces were not a strong point; beyond Mosharrafa, they're not particularly strong in the air.

Stanford won't be outworked, that's for sure, which can make up for a lot,  But they are giving up possession too easily, looking for those perfect balls to split a defense, and hitting passes that are lower probability than they should be.

Their best chances are what resulted in the goal today - high pressure leading to a turnover deep in the opponent's end.  Today, Bashti converted.  Against Maryland, Bashti stole the ball and fed Wehan, who, instead of hitting the ball with his left, tried to pull it back to his right and got blocked.

They also gave up nearly THIRTY shots today.  Ten on goal.  If Thomas didn't come up big, they would've lost.  It feels like other sides realize our offense is not a brobdingnagian threat, and are really pressing forward - I don't recall a Cardinal side facing that many shots in the last few years.

More to the point, as I mentioned last week, we just don't appear to have that "danger" player, that both puts the ball in the back of the net AND pulls the other team's defense out of shape to open spaces for the other attackers.  Bashti appears to be our most consistent threat, and that's a problem - as with others, I think he's better as a change of pace player, rather than as a starter.  Most especially because he's not a "target" forward; when he plays back to goal, he seems to want to get rid of the ball as soon as possible, often hitting really low-percentage chip and deflection attempts trying to spring outside players forward.

All of this is off a small sample size - three games.  But (1) the men's team doesn't appear to have many significant injuries or players unavailable - there's no Macario or Davidson who is going to come back and change the tenor, and (2) the issues with scoring, absent Foster, were already there last year.  Losing Werner hurt this team a lot.

But again, they graduated almost all of their starters from last year.  This year is going to be very much a work in progress, and we've seen what Gunn can do, and how much his sides improve over the course of the season.  

VG

[Viking_Guy]

On the men's side, I'm not nearly as sanguine.

Stanford still plays the high-pressure, take the ball back style that has produced three straight national champions.  It can be fun to watch,

But they are significantly smaller, and really not very fast; in the game against Maryland, they couldn't get past the bigger Terrapin defenders.  And set pieces were not a strong point; beyond Mosharrafa, they're not particularly strong in the air.

Stanford won't be outworked, that's for sure, which can make up for a lot,  But they are giving up possession too easily, looking for those perfect balls to split a defense, and hitting passes that are lower probability than they should be.

Their best chances are what resulted in the goal today - high pressure leading to a turnover deep in the opponent's end.  Today, Bashti converted.  Against Maryland, Bashti stole the ball and fed Wehan, who, instead of hitting the ball with his left, tried to pull it back to his right and got blocked.

They also gave up nearly THIRTY shots today.  Ten on goal.  If Thomas didn't come up big, they would've lost.  It feels like other sides realize our offense is not a brobdingnagian threat, and are really pressing forward - I don't recall a Cardinal side facing that many shots in the last few years.

More to the point, as I mentioned last week, we just don't appear to have that "danger" player, that both puts the ball in the back of the net AND pulls the other team's defense out of shape to open spaces for the other attackers.  Bashti appears to be our most consistent threat, and that's a problem - as with others, I think he's better as a change of pace player, rather than as a starter.  Most especially because he's not a "target" forward; when he plays back to goal, he seems to want to get rid of the ball as soon as possible, often hitting really low-percentage chip and deflection attempts trying to spring outside players forward.

All of this is off a small sample size - three games.  But (1) the men's team doesn't appear to have many significant injuries or players unavailable - there's no Macario or Davidson who is going to come back and change the tenor, and (2) the issues with scoring, absent Foster, were already there last year.  Losing Werner hurt this team a lot.

But again, they graduated almost all of their starters from last year.  This year is going to be very much a work in progress, and we've seen what Gunn can do, and how much his sides improve over the course of the season.  

VG

[oldalum]

And as an aside on Davidson, she very well may be in the mix to start in the backline, never mind make the team.  

IMHO she's a lock to make the team because of her quality and versatility (CB, OB, and holding midfielder), and I'll bet (play money) that she starts. I think she's started every match this year so far. While she's made a few mistakes, they were easily correctible ones, and she's made numerous terrific plays--the kind that the best athletes make at the most important moments against the best competition (with the match against Germany a prime example). She's shown recently that she can make excellent free kick deliveries into the box, as well as receive them!

[oldalum]

And as an aside on Davidson, she very well may be in the mix to start in the backline, never mind make the team.  

IMHO she's a lock to make the team because of her quality and versatility (CB, OB, and holding midfielder), and I'll bet (play money) that she starts. I think she's started every match this year so far. While she's made a few mistakes, they were easily correctible ones, and she's made numerous terrific plays--the kind that the best athletes make at the most important moments against the best competition (with the match against Germany a prime example). She's shown recently that she can make excellent free kick deliveries into the box, as well as receive them!

[Viking_Guy]

OA--

I think it will all depend on who's healthy and in form next summer, for the WNT.  I do think Ertz is a lock at (most likely) holding mid or center back.  I think O'Hara, if healthy, is one of the OBs. But Sauerbrunn and Dahlkemper haven't been lighting the world on fire at center back.  Especially with France, Japan and others playing more quickly, they may be getting a step slow.

Will watch with interest tomorrow night.  After the WCQ draw in the morning.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

OA--

I think it will all depend on who's healthy and in form next summer, for the WNT.  I do think Ertz is a lock at (most likely) holding mid or center back.  I think O'Hara, if healthy, is one of the OBs. But Sauerbrunn and Dahlkemper haven't been lighting the world on fire at center back.  Especially with France, Japan and others playing more quickly, they may be getting a step slow.

Will watch with interest tomorrow night.  After the WCQ draw in the morning.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

I didn't realize the WCQ was going to be quite so long for the women.

The CONCACAF women's championship serves as qualifying for next year's World Cup.  I was watching for the results of the draw this morning (and boy, is USSoccer's website bad), but then noticed the schedule.  It's for TWO full weeks between October 4-17 (and I'm assuming a few days before October 4.)

However, on the bright side, that does seem to work with the Stanford schedule, as far as missing Tierna goes.  Stanford ends its death march of ranked opponents on September 30 at home against $C.  Hopefully, Davidson can play that game and then hop a plane to (of course) North Carolina for the Group A matches.  But the toughest group match is going to be the first one, against Mexico (10/4), followed by Panama (10/7) and Trinidad and Tobago (10/10).  So I'm wondering if the WNT will try to get her there earlier.

The games directly impacted would be at Oregon (10/4) and Oregon State (10/7), at ASU (10/13), and home vs. Utah (10/18). On the front end, we host the biggest weekend of the Pac-12 season with the Bruins on 9/27 before the Toejams, and on the back-end, we host Colorado on 10/21.  That run of games after $C is about the softest part of the conference schedule - I would rate those four games as the easiest, given that we play UW, WSU, and C.al all on the road after Colorado.

And that compacted schedule is just deadly, especially for an older team like the U.S. 2 off days between full international matches is EXTREMELY short; feels like another indicator of FIFA/CONCACAF's disdain for the women's game.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

I didn't realize the WCQ was going to be quite so long for the women.

The CONCACAF women's championship serves as qualifying for next year's World Cup.  I was watching for the results of the draw this morning (and boy, is USSoccer's website bad), but then noticed the schedule.  It's for TWO full weeks between October 4-17 (and I'm assuming a few days before October 4.)

However, on the bright side, that does seem to work with the Stanford schedule, as far as missing Tierna goes.  Stanford ends its death march of ranked opponents on September 30 at home against $C.  Hopefully, Davidson can play that game and then hop a plane to (of course) North Carolina for the Group A matches.  But the toughest group match is going to be the first one, against Mexico (10/4), followed by Panama (10/7) and Trinidad and Tobago (10/10).  So I'm wondering if the WNT will try to get her there earlier.

The games directly impacted would be at Oregon (10/4) and Oregon State (10/7), at ASU (10/13), and home vs. Utah (10/18). On the front end, we host the biggest weekend of the Pac-12 season with the Bruins on 9/27 before the Toejams, and on the back-end, we host Colorado on 10/21.  That run of games after $C is about the softest part of the conference schedule - I would rate those four games as the easiest, given that we play UW, WSU, and C.al all on the road after Colorado.

And that compacted schedule is just deadly, especially for an older team like the U.S. 2 off days between full international matches is EXTREMELY short; feels like another indicator of FIFA/CONCACAF's disdain for the women's game.

VG