[Viking_Guy]

Solid win for Stanford tonight down at Santa Clara.  Lots to work on, still, but they can score.

Same issues - the Cardinal has problems controlling the middle of the pitch.  They're often down numbers, but the defense in front of the backline is not great, and it burned them tonight.

First, the good.  Sophia Smith finished a rebound off a missed clear of a Macario ball to open the scoring, and when the Broncos equalized out of a scrum off a corner kick, the Cardinal wasted little time in going back ahead, as in 31 seconds later, Malatsky got open on the right and made it 2-1.

One problem all night long, and will need to be addressed.  Santa Clara concentrated on forcing Stanford up the left sideline, where Harber and Malatsky are not nearly as threatening as Pickett and Smith on the right.  Early in the second half, a midfield turnover led to Santa Clara's Kelsey Turnbow against Harber out on the left.  Turnbow just ran laterally with the ball at her feet away from the defender, then a late reacting Girma, before hooking the ball back with her left foot into the top right corner.  Really high-caliber finish, but we needed better defending on the initial ball out wide. 

Stayed 2-2 for about 25 minutes until the 77th minute, and then, as Stanford's Twitter put it, sometimes Macario just Macario's:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1175982795165851648

If you don't want to follow the link, Catarina took a free kick from about 25 yards off the right post.  With her right boot, over the inside edge of the wall, curling away from the keeper, and quite literally far upper 90.  Hit the side netting about two feet inside the post, and probably was less than 6 inches under the bar.  

The Cardinal added an insurance goal as SCU pressed forward late.  Abby Greubel rode out a couple of challenges on the left sideline 10 yards past midfield, then found herself free with Haley in front of her.  Greubel sprung Madison through, and Haley slotted the ball under the Santa Clara keeper in about the 85th minute..  Santa Clara didn't really threaten again. (EDIT: Scratch that.  I forgot they got one really good look, again through the seam between the left center back and the left back, leading to a low burner that Rood went to ground nicely to smother and prevent a rebound.  Solid save for her, and she had no real chance against the other two goals.)

On the left side issue - after the Macario goal, I think Ratcliffe recognized he needed better defense, and put in Wesley in place of Harber.  I wouldn't be surprised to see that switch done more aggressively as the season continues.

But again, the midfield got its butt kicked.  The first Bronco goal came about after Girma got turned outside, and the Bronco forward laid a ball back to the top of the box to an onrushing midfielder, whom a trailing Breide took to the ground. Yellow card, and the ensuing free kick was blocked away for a corner.  And our corner issue (as in, no great or even really good aerial presence) came to the fore again. A looping ball in, no clearance (and this time, there was enough traffic that I doubt the keeper could've gotten there), ball pinballing around inside the penalty spot, an attempted volley clear goes nowhere, and the ball trickles into the lower right corner.

More generally, still a whole lot of uncertainty in the midfield, but it's not as if the substitutes are consistent.  Goad, coming off the bench as a sub for Doms, looked a lot more tentative and slower than the starting perfomances she had put in.  Greubel had the good possession to setup Haley, but had a few bad turnovers.  Malatskey scored the first, but didn't have enough speed to really press the Bronco outside back, and sent a beautiful setup from Macario, an open foot on a slightly bouncing ball inside the penalty spot dead-center, a good 3 yards over the bar.  By midway through the second half, it was a lot of Macario trying to take on the whole Bronco defense.

One more word, on the officiating.  Happened again tonight.  Haley turns the ball, looking forward, and it dragged down from behind about 40 yards from goal.  No card.  Later in the game, she jumps laterally with her back to goal, and wipes out a Bronco defender. Center ref yellows her, as the defender, who went down acrobatically, gets up and walks away. Early in the game, Santa Clara's keeper engaged in a little physical bout with Malatskey. As Carly came in on a through ball and pulled up because she wasn't going to get there, the keeper scooped the ball, rolled over into Malatskey's legs, then came up and gave her a shove for good measure.  Not even a short chat from the referee.  And this is a guy who gave out 6 yellow cards.   Just uneven officiating.

In any case, the better team won.  Santa Clara has a great counter-attack, with Turnbow a really good finisher, but Stanford had probably 60-40 possession, 10-5 SOG, 7-2 corners (and again, we didn't get a really good shot off of any corner.  We need someone who can win the ball in the air - praying to St. Mariah :) .) 

Stanford writeup now available:
https://gostanford.com/news/2019/9/22/wo...eaten.aspx

Open Pac-12 play next weekend with one of the two marquee matchups left in the conference - at $C, Saturday at 1 pm.  Probably be the highlight of my Saturday.

VG

---

Just a hint of the physical nature of the game.  Beyond the six yellows, THIRTY SEVEN total fouls, 17 on the Cardinal.  This with a Stanford team that had been averaging low single digits in fouls per game.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

Solid win for Stanford tonight down at Santa Clara.  Lots to work on, still, but they can score.

Same issues - the Cardinal has problems controlling the middle of the pitch.  They're often down numbers, but the defense in front of the backline is not great, and it burned them tonight.

First, the good.  Sophia Smith finished a rebound off a missed clear of a Macario ball to open the scoring, and when the Broncos equalized out of a scrum off a corner kick, the Cardinal wasted little time in going back ahead, as in 31 seconds later, Malatsky got open on the right and made it 2-1.

One problem all night long, and will need to be addressed.  Santa Clara concentrated on forcing Stanford up the left sideline, where Harber and Malatsky are not nearly as threatening as Pickett and Smith on the right.  Early in the second half, a midfield turnover led to Santa Clara's Kelsey Turnbow against Harber out on the left.  Turnbow just ran laterally with the ball at her feet away from the defender, then a late reacting Girma, before hooking the ball back with her left foot into the top right corner.  Really high-caliber finish, but we needed better defending on the initial ball out wide. 

Stayed 2-2 for about 25 minutes until the 77th minute, and then, as Stanford's Twitter put it, sometimes Macario just Macario's:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1175982795165851648

If you don't want to follow the link, Catarina took a free kick from about 25 yards off the right post.  With her right boot, over the inside edge of the wall, curling away from the keeper, and quite literally far upper 90.  Hit the side netting about two feet inside the post, and probably was less than 6 inches under the bar.  

The Cardinal added an insurance goal as SCU pressed forward late.  Abby Greubel rode out a couple of challenges on the left sideline 10 yards past midfield, then found herself free with Haley in front of her.  Greubel sprung Madison through, and Haley slotted the ball under the Santa Clara keeper in about the 85th minute..  Santa Clara didn't really threaten again. (EDIT: Scratch that.  I forgot they got one really good look, again through the seam between the left center back and the left back, leading to a low burner that Rood went to ground nicely to smother and prevent a rebound.  Solid save for her, and she had no real chance against the other two goals.)

On the left side issue - after the Macario goal, I think Ratcliffe recognized he needed better defense, and put in Wesley in place of Harber.  I wouldn't be surprised to see that switch done more aggressively as the season continues.

But again, the midfield got its butt kicked.  The first Bronco goal came about after Girma got turned outside, and the Bronco forward laid a ball back to the top of the box to an onrushing midfielder, whom a trailing Breide took to the ground. Yellow card, and the ensuing free kick was blocked away for a corner.  And our corner issue (as in, no great or even really good aerial presence) came to the fore again. A looping ball in, no clearance (and this time, there was enough traffic that I doubt the keeper could've gotten there), ball pinballing around inside the penalty spot, an attempted volley clear goes nowhere, and the ball trickles into the lower right corner.

More generally, still a whole lot of uncertainty in the midfield, but it's not as if the substitutes are consistent.  Goad, coming off the bench as a sub for Doms, looked a lot more tentative and slower than the starting perfomances she had put in.  Greubel had the good possession to setup Haley, but had a few bad turnovers.  Malatskey scored the first, but didn't have enough speed to really press the Bronco outside back, and sent a beautiful setup from Macario, an open foot on a slightly bouncing ball inside the penalty spot dead-center, a good 3 yards over the bar.  By midway through the second half, it was a lot of Macario trying to take on the whole Bronco defense.

One more word, on the officiating.  Happened again tonight.  Haley turns the ball, looking forward, and it dragged down from behind about 40 yards from goal.  No card.  Later in the game, she jumps laterally with her back to goal, and wipes out a Bronco defender. Center ref yellows her, as the defender, who went down acrobatically, gets up and walks away. Early in the game, Santa Clara's keeper engaged in a little physical bout with Malatskey. As Carly came in on a through ball and pulled up because she wasn't going to get there, the keeper scooped the ball, rolled over into Malatskey's legs, then came up and gave her a shove for good measure.  Not even a short chat from the referee.  And this is a guy who gave out 6 yellow cards.   Just uneven officiating.

In any case, the better team won.  Santa Clara has a great counter-attack, with Turnbow a really good finisher, but Stanford had probably 60-40 possession, 10-5 SOG, 7-2 corners (and again, we didn't get a really good shot off of any corner.  We need someone who can win the ball in the air - praying to St. Mariah :) .) 

Stanford writeup now available:
https://gostanford.com/news/2019/9/22/wo...eaten.aspx

Open Pac-12 play next weekend with one of the two marquee matchups left in the conference - at $C, Saturday at 1 pm.  Probably be the highlight of my Saturday.

VG

---

Just a hint of the physical nature of the game.  Beyond the six yellows, THIRTY SEVEN total fouls, 17 on the Cardinal.  This with a Stanford team that had been averaging low single digits in fouls per game.

VG

[ca245]

Early in the game, Santa Clara's keeper engaged in a little physical bout with Malatskey. As Carly came in on a through ball and pulled up because she wasn't going to get there, the keeper scooped the ball, rolled over into Malatskey's legs, then came up and gave her a shove for good measure.  Not even a short chat from the referee.  And this is a guy who gave out 6 yellow cards.   Just uneven officiating.

On the SC goalie: goalies, when they get to a ball ahead of an attacker, normally just drop down on it to make sure it is secure and does not pop out. The first time, where she got to the ball and then kept rolling into Malatskey, I thought it was odd; maybe she lost her balance. But then she did it at least once more later in the game. I think she was trying to draw a card on a Stanford player for "crashing" into her. I've seen plenty of players taking a dive to draw a foul on an opponent, but this is the first time I have seen a goalie do this.

[ca245]

Early in the game, Santa Clara's keeper engaged in a little physical bout with Malatskey. As Carly came in on a through ball and pulled up because she wasn't going to get there, the keeper scooped the ball, rolled over into Malatskey's legs, then came up and gave her a shove for good measure.  Not even a short chat from the referee.  And this is a guy who gave out 6 yellow cards.   Just uneven officiating.

On the SC goalie: goalies, when they get to a ball ahead of an attacker, normally just drop down on it to make sure it is secure and does not pop out. The first time, where she got to the ball and then kept rolling into Malatskey, I thought it was odd; maybe she lost her balance. But then she did it at least once more later in the game. I think she was trying to draw a card on a Stanford player for "crashing" into her. I've seen plenty of players taking a dive to draw a foul on an opponent, but this is the first time I have seen a goalie do this.

[oldalum]

The teams are probably not fond of each other.

It seems like Macario was playing attacking mid some of the time, which helps us get the ball through the midfield into the attacking third because she can do that on the dribble. When she plays center forward she is swamped with defenders anyway. She also helps us in that we can pass it to her in more crowded territory (not immediately on her) and she can handle it in traffic. Sophia Smith had a good game.

Wesley is good on defense but in this game at least turned the ball over promptly with bad passes. We still have too many passes going right to a defender. Doms lost it a lot too.

I thought Santa Clara does a better job this year than we do working the ball downfield. They are really well coached in how they want to do that. They also do an unusually good job of bottling up our sideline attack, and Rood had to just boot the ball downfield a lot on goal kicks. Seems like Rood had a solid game, except for the time she was caught too far out of the goal and the SC kick missed by a couple of feet.

Good to see Civana on the sideline out of her wheelchair.

[oldalum]

The teams are probably not fond of each other.

It seems like Macario was playing attacking mid some of the time, which helps us get the ball through the midfield into the attacking third because she can do that on the dribble. When she plays center forward she is swamped with defenders anyway. She also helps us in that we can pass it to her in more crowded territory (not immediately on her) and she can handle it in traffic. Sophia Smith had a good game.

Wesley is good on defense but in this game at least turned the ball over promptly with bad passes. We still have too many passes going right to a defender. Doms lost it a lot too.

I thought Santa Clara does a better job this year than we do working the ball downfield. They are really well coached in how they want to do that. They also do an unusually good job of bottling up our sideline attack, and Rood had to just boot the ball downfield a lot on goal kicks. Seems like Rood had a solid game, except for the time she was caught too far out of the goal and the SC kick missed by a couple of feet.

Good to see Civana on the sideline out of her wheelchair.

[DenverCard]

Viking_Guy,

Thanks for the great summary and perspicacious assessment of the game.  Makes me realize that one can watch a game but not see a lot of what is happening.

In contrast to the 7-0 blow-outs or the games in which the opponent packs in their defenders to limit the damage done, last night's game was really entertaining.  Santa Clara has a good team with a number of skilled players.  Seemed like the first hour of the game was pretty even, as reflected in the 2-2 score for much of the second half, but that Stanford controlled the last third of the game, apart from a smattering of offensive forays by Santa Clara.

The streaming coverage of the game was quite good.  The announcer was entirely knowledgeable about Santa Clara's players, but also had good information about Stanford's.  He was well-versed on recent games between the two teams, and he knew soccer.

I too noticed that the Santa Clara goalie seemed to make an effort to unnecessarily initiate contact with the Stanford forwards.  Rather than to seek a penalty in doing so, I took her actions as an effort to intimidate -- to communicate the message that if you came too close to her, you were going to get hit.

Glad to see Madison Haley get a goal.  I think she is sometimes too prone to pass when taking on another player affords a better chance of a good shot on goal.  Similarly, there were too many efforts by the team collectively to thread the needle with diagonal passes from near the top of the penalty box when from that distance, attempting a shot on goal is the percentage play, in my estimation.  Conversely, Sophia Smith is too prone to try to beat players with the dribble.  It seems like she is using tactics that worked prior to college when most players were much less skilled but which usually fail against college talent.  It'll be important for her development to gain a better sense of the location and runs of her teammates.

Also happy to see less of the "safety-first" approach from last year when Stanford repeatedly passed the ball backwards for the sake of control at the cost of taking chances with the ball to generate attacks.  To their credit, Santa Clara was always looking to move the ball forward, and I was impressed by how often their long vertical passes connected.  But as VG pointed out, that may reflect a weakness of Stanford's midfield as much as anything.

[DenverCard]

Viking_Guy,

Thanks for the great summary and perspicacious assessment of the game.  Makes me realize that one can watch a game but not see a lot of what is happening.

In contrast to the 7-0 blow-outs or the games in which the opponent packs in their defenders to limit the damage done, last night's game was really entertaining.  Santa Clara has a good team with a number of skilled players.  Seemed like the first hour of the game was pretty even, as reflected in the 2-2 score for much of the second half, but that Stanford controlled the last third of the game, apart from a smattering of offensive forays by Santa Clara.

The streaming coverage of the game was quite good.  The announcer was entirely knowledgeable about Santa Clara's players, but also had good information about Stanford's.  He was well-versed on recent games between the two teams, and he knew soccer.

I too noticed that the Santa Clara goalie seemed to make an effort to unnecessarily initiate contact with the Stanford forwards.  Rather than to seek a penalty in doing so, I took her actions as an effort to intimidate -- to communicate the message that if you came too close to her, you were going to get hit.

Glad to see Madison Haley get a goal.  I think she is sometimes too prone to pass when taking on another player affords a better chance of a good shot on goal.  Similarly, there were too many efforts by the team collectively to thread the needle with diagonal passes from near the top of the penalty box when from that distance, attempting a shot on goal is the percentage play, in my estimation.  Conversely, Sophia Smith is too prone to try to beat players with the dribble.  It seems like she is using tactics that worked prior to college when most players were much less skilled but which usually fail against college talent.  It'll be important for her development to gain a better sense of the location and runs of her teammates.

Also happy to see less of the "safety-first" approach from last year when Stanford repeatedly passed the ball backwards for the sake of control at the cost of taking chances with the ball to generate attacks.  To their credit, Santa Clara was always looking to move the ball forward, and I was impressed by how often their long vertical passes connected.  But as VG pointed out, that may reflect a weakness of Stanford's midfield as much as anything.

[oldalum]

 The announcer was entirely knowledgeable about Santa Clara's players, but also had good information about Stanford's.  

He also pronounced our players' names correctly, which the extremely annoying and unhelpful Pepperdine announcer could not.

[oldalum]

 The announcer was entirely knowledgeable about Santa Clara's players, but also had good information about Stanford's.  

He also pronounced our players' names correctly, which the extremely annoying and unhelpful Pepperdine announcer could not.

[Viking_Guy]

A couple more thoughts and responses--

Yep, the announcer was really solid.  Much higher caliber than the average streaming webcast level.

One thing I've noticed, from teams with which we are more evenly matched: leaving one player high, to make it more risky to switch sides of the field through the backline.  Yesterday, a ball from out wide pushed back to a center back led to a switch MUCH less often, and often led to either a ball back to the keeper to clear or a long ball forward by Girma or Hiatt.  It worked pretty well, until the attacking players for Stanford started dropping much further back to get the ball.

On the midfield - one other issue I was noticing was our mids playing defense as if (surprise) they practiced against us all the time.  A number of times, I watched a Stanford midfielder approach a Bronco midfielder who had the ball and their back to Stanford's goal, and run inside them as if to intercept a back pass.  And then the Bronco would simply turn, and the defender would be out of position and trailing on the inside.

Yes, it was very good to get Haley off the schneide, especially given her missed PK against UCSB.

The unbalance to Stanford's attack was so noticeable because Santa Clara would leave Malatskey, Greubel, or whoever was playing wide on the left pretty much in a 1 v 1 all the time.  A ton of throughballs from a covered middle to the left side led to very few threatening chances until Greubel left two Broncos on the ground before feeding Haley late.  The center backs were staying home, instead of providing additional cover, correctly realizing that the immediate threat on the left was less dangerous than taking one bit of attention off Haley, Macario, and Smith.

And yes, it was a MUCH more entertaining game than either of the parked bus frustration fests last weekend.  Santa Clara played enterprising and attacking football, and given the history, they know Stanford's tendencies and weaknesses, and how to get in Cardinal heads.

One other thing - our bench is MUCH shorter than it has been in the recent past.  Only three subs used, and for fairly limited minutes  Makes me a bit worried about depth going forward. 

Lastly, on lineups.  Stanford officially plays a 4-3-3. which often works out to more of a 2-3-4-1 (L-R: Girma and Hiatt at CB, Harber, Breide, Pickett; Malatskey, Macario, Doms, Smith; Haley).  When subs come in, Greubel for Haley pushes Macario up top with Abby on the left, Wesley a 1 for 1 with Harber, and Goad a 1 for 1 with Doms.   We've occasionally played the back as a diamond, with Hiatt in the stopper/deep holding mid role, but if the other team brings two forwards up top, or a 4-2-3-1, we generally stay in a flat four across the back.

That beginning formation, especially with as wide as Pickett tends to play, leaves Breide trying to cover an awful lot of the center of the pitch in front of the defense, and that's a lot to ask.  And the reason why Santa Clara was able to play those long balls through the middle.  We end up with Harber, Malatskey and Doms near the left touchline when the ball is out there, and Macario higher up the pitch, leaving the center of the pitch with about a 40 yard by 30 yard space being covered by one Stanford player.  (Sorry if I'm not expressing that clearly.) Andi Sullivan, Tierna Davidson, even a Kirsty Zuhrmuhlen (one of my favorite unsung players), they could control that space.  Right now, Stanford isn't.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

A couple more thoughts and responses--

Yep, the announcer was really solid.  Much higher caliber than the average streaming webcast level.

One thing I've noticed, from teams with which we are more evenly matched: leaving one player high, to make it more risky to switch sides of the field through the backline.  Yesterday, a ball from out wide pushed back to a center back led to a switch MUCH less often, and often led to either a ball back to the keeper to clear or a long ball forward by Girma or Hiatt.  It worked pretty well, until the attacking players for Stanford started dropping much further back to get the ball.

On the midfield - one other issue I was noticing was our mids playing defense as if (surprise) they practiced against us all the time.  A number of times, I watched a Stanford midfielder approach a Bronco midfielder who had the ball and their back to Stanford's goal, and run inside them as if to intercept a back pass.  And then the Bronco would simply turn, and the defender would be out of position and trailing on the inside.

Yes, it was very good to get Haley off the schneide, especially given her missed PK against UCSB.

The unbalance to Stanford's attack was so noticeable because Santa Clara would leave Malatskey, Greubel, or whoever was playing wide on the left pretty much in a 1 v 1 all the time.  A ton of throughballs from a covered middle to the left side led to very few threatening chances until Greubel left two Broncos on the ground before feeding Haley late.  The center backs were staying home, instead of providing additional cover, correctly realizing that the immediate threat on the left was less dangerous than taking one bit of attention off Haley, Macario, and Smith.

And yes, it was a MUCH more entertaining game than either of the parked bus frustration fests last weekend.  Santa Clara played enterprising and attacking football, and given the history, they know Stanford's tendencies and weaknesses, and how to get in Cardinal heads.

One other thing - our bench is MUCH shorter than it has been in the recent past.  Only three subs used, and for fairly limited minutes  Makes me a bit worried about depth going forward. 

Lastly, on lineups.  Stanford officially plays a 4-3-3. which often works out to more of a 2-3-4-1 (L-R: Girma and Hiatt at CB, Harber, Breide, Pickett; Malatskey, Macario, Doms, Smith; Haley).  When subs come in, Greubel for Haley pushes Macario up top with Abby on the left, Wesley a 1 for 1 with Harber, and Goad a 1 for 1 with Doms.   We've occasionally played the back as a diamond, with Hiatt in the stopper/deep holding mid role, but if the other team brings two forwards up top, or a 4-2-3-1, we generally stay in a flat four across the back.

That beginning formation, especially with as wide as Pickett tends to play, leaves Breide trying to cover an awful lot of the center of the pitch in front of the defense, and that's a lot to ask.  And the reason why Santa Clara was able to play those long balls through the middle.  We end up with Harber, Malatskey and Doms near the left touchline when the ball is out there, and Macario higher up the pitch, leaving the center of the pitch with about a 40 yard by 30 yard space being covered by one Stanford player.  (Sorry if I'm not expressing that clearly.) Andi Sullivan, Tierna Davidson, even a Kirsty Zuhrmuhlen (one of my favorite unsung players), they could control that space.  Right now, Stanford isn't.

VG

[warren65]

Sorry to be late to this thread.

Really appreciate Viking Guy's insightful analysis.  The more one understands this game, the more fun it is to watch.

I watched only on the live stream, but it seemed to me that Stanford possessed the ball much better in the second half.  Maybe that's because Macario and Smith stayed in the midfield more.  Agree that Smith's attempts to dribble through the defense were largely unsuccessful.  Maybe that's Smith's inexperience, but I wonder if the coaching staff instructed those two to do more of that in the second half.  Macario had the skills to set up some nice attacks piercing through the SC defense.

I want to second everything that's already been written about Macario's game deciding goal.  Yes, she's done that sort of thing before.  It is still an amazing talent.  Well beyond what would be basketball's three point line, Macario takes the ball (with her feet not her hands) and guides it around or over an obstructing line of defensive players into the narrowest of windows (the uppermost far left portion of the goal).  Macario gets the ball to curve to add to the deception.  Yes, there is more tolerance for error than getting a ball into a basketball hoop, but it is still off-the-charts amazing.

[warren65]

Sorry to be late to this thread.

Really appreciate Viking Guy's insightful analysis.  The more one understands this game, the more fun it is to watch.

I watched only on the live stream, but it seemed to me that Stanford possessed the ball much better in the second half.  Maybe that's because Macario and Smith stayed in the midfield more.  Agree that Smith's attempts to dribble through the defense were largely unsuccessful.  Maybe that's Smith's inexperience, but I wonder if the coaching staff instructed those two to do more of that in the second half.  Macario had the skills to set up some nice attacks piercing through the SC defense.

I want to second everything that's already been written about Macario's game deciding goal.  Yes, she's done that sort of thing before.  It is still an amazing talent.  Well beyond what would be basketball's three point line, Macario takes the ball (with her feet not her hands) and guides it around or over an obstructing line of defensive players into the narrowest of windows (the uppermost far left portion of the goal).  Macario gets the ball to curve to add to the deception.  Yes, there is more tolerance for error than getting a ball into a basketball hoop, but it is still off-the-charts amazing.