The CardBoard
Women's soccer 2026 - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: Women's soccer 2026 (/thread-26215.html)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - OCcardinal - 09-21-2026

(09-21-2026, 04:49 PM)M T Wrote:  
(09-21-2026, 04:24 PM)OCcardinal Wrote:  
(09-21-2026, 03:42 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  The next 5 weeks, Stanford only plays four matches total. But that is primarily because of challenging travel.

Week 1 - to Dallas and back
Week 2 - off
Week 3 - to Syracuse and back
Week 4 - home vs. Cal
Week 5 - to Chapel Hill and back
In the past Stanford had to play 2 matches on an ACC road trip. This schedule is much better.  Wake Forest and Louisville both had to play 2 games on their Bay Area trip this week and both did worse on their 2nd games.

All that shows (artisanal evidence) is that the 2 matches are tough in a weekend after cross country travel. It doesn’t show that weekly dual disruption of your diurnal rhythm is easier or harder. 

I don’t know which is harder. I hope you are right

Most of these young women have been doing cross country (and international) soccer trips since their U14 ECNL days. That 5 week schedule seems very doable.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 09-25-2026

Catching up.

The Wake game certainly showed the impact of having almost the full team back. They really didn't do much wrong after the frustrating UL loss. It will be interesting to see how the team lines up today at full strength.

A couple of concerns though and a couple of line up things I didn't love the last 2 games.

First the defense looks very good at defense - Smith is much improved 1v1, and that makes a big difference. However, distribution from the CBs isn't great, and as noted earlier Boamah struggled with this in the U20s as well. Both Young and Boamah have a bit of a habit to go walkabout, carrying the ball forward as a result, which is just high risk/low reward. That gets to my. first lineup issue -  Emri hits a great ball out of the back and looked like the best defender vs. Duke, but hardly played vs. UL and had 0 minutes vs. WF. I don't get it unless she is still having physical issues.

Second, yeah the starting midfield is scary and hooray to see Bhuta at RM and not RB vs. WF. My one slight concern is Bray and SLS played well enough this year to see minutes; so I hope the flog all the starters for a full 90 min was an aberration. Bhuta got tired around minute 70 and Nguyen started to struggle a bit later. Kohler just runs and runs.

Third, the big concern is at forward where it's been rough sledding. I hope Klinger is starting today because nobody beyond Winn has really impressed me so far. And the fact we saw Grilione twice says PR is searching too.

- Winn has clearly been the best of the bunch - she plays off teammates well, gets back on defense and can run all day; but she has struggled a bit against good teams. She was much better with a stronger team around her vs. WF.

The next tier:
- Thomas had one good game, but it wasn't very convincing; and otherwise has struggled including coughing up the goal on a turnover vs. UL. Second time this year. I wouldn't be starting her.
- Holden hasn't been very effective as a starter. The batter through opponents works better as a sub vs. tired opponents than as a starter. 
- Kral had the injury slow her development down, but she has been interesting. Some good and some bad.
- Marinos might be working her way into starting. I am not quite there yet, but it wouldn't take much to convince me from here.

At this point I am starting either:
Winn - Holden - Klinger   or   some variation of Winn - Marinos - Klinger/Winn - Klinger - Marinos
and then making sure the other 3 players are getting meaningful minutes and hope that somebody clearly emerges as the third starter.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 09-25-2026

0:0. Stanford better, but not that much better.

Forward play remains a brobdingnagian problem. Klinger didn't help today. So now I am saying we need Winn and 2 starters to emerge.

Kohler remains just a bit off - for example, the ball to Marinos at minute 52 was just too far out in front and killed the attack. Right now, she is the one who drives the offense. If she is off it's all shaky.

ACC play is going br hard with very little offense.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 10-08-2026

Women win 2:0 against a mediocre Syracuse team. This was a meh performance - slow, cautious and predictable. Stanford dominated the shots with 30 but only 7 SOG was much more representative of the game. There were many shots from distance that weren’t close to being dangerous, and Syracuse defended well overall.

- goal 1 was one of the few times they showed a faster gear and scored a nice goal on the counter though it still required an extremely creative Klinger finish to score.
- goal 2 was the only CK out of 16 that was even remotely dangerous, but Marinos finally battered it in after several cracks on goal.
- Syracuse went nowhere for 70 minutes, but got 3 really good looks after Stanford went up 2:0. One miracle save for Birkel amongst the 3.
- Kral started at RF but was ineffective. The revolving door continues. Winn at CF surprised me a little, but it isn’t a crazy idea though I would rather see Klinger tried at CF while keeping Winn wide.
- the outside backs had very little impact on offense. Combine that with the distribution problems at CB and you had a bunch of Nguyen dropping very deep inline with the CBs to help distribute and CBs carrying the ball forward. Yuck.
- almost everything dangerous from the run of play had Kohler directly involved, but she still remains a touch off on the final shot or pass. She is the only player though right now (well maybe Winn on occasion) who can switch the tempo to quicker. Badly need her to be just a touch sharper.
- a bit lucky with the officiating today. Klinger had 2 borderline handballs not called - one on defense in the box that would have been a harsh pk and one to start the second goal sequence that I was a bit surprised wasn’t called.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - OCcardinal - 10-14-2026

(10-08-2026, 10:09 PM)Hieronymus Wrote:  Winn at CF surprised me a little, but it isn’t a crazy idea though I would rather see Klinger tried at CF while keeping Winn wide.

You didn't mention that Brooke Holden didn't play.  Hope she is okay.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 10-17-2026

Beat Kal yesterday 3-1. The team was… fine? Clearly better but not completely dominant. Kal could move and hold the ball some, but didn’t generate any real chances beyond the CK goal. Stanford scored from somewhat unlikely places in this one - Bhuta’s first in 2 seasons, Kral’s second of the year, and Grillione which was somehow her third this year.

Holden played but only at the end. No Emri as usual. Hurt again? Other?

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - oldalum - 10-17-2026

Nice that our 2 graduating senior field players both scored a goal on senior night.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 10-23-2026

Stanford vs. UNC at Chapel Hill today at 3 pm. Match will be featured on the ACC Network.

UNC is ranked #2 in the country. But they lost their last outing on Sunday at Wake Forest.

How do we feel about Stanford finishing in the top 6 and playing in the ACC tournament? It might mean 1 or 2 more cross-country trips. Maybe better to have some time to rest. Stanford is currently 8th in the ACC with 4 matches remaining.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 10-23-2026

(10-23-2026, 01:37 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  Stanford vs. UNC at Chapel Hill today at 3 pm. Match will be featured on the ACC Network.

UNC is ranked #2 in the country. But they lost their last outing on Sunday at Wake Forest.

How do we feel about Stanford finishing in the top 6 and playing in the ACC tournament? It might mean 1 or 2 more cross-country trips. Maybe better to have some time to rest. Stanford is currently 8th in the ACC with 4 matches remaining.
Historically very unlikely after today’s 1-0 loss. Haven’t watched yet, but the stats are pretty equal.

I think this team needs the games to work on the offense against better teams, but it likely won’t happen. That’s the fourth time they have been shutout in conference play in only 7 games by the way. Nobody has stepped up at RF so far and I kinda think Winn and Klinger should be flipped, but i am starting to conclude that the forwards just aren’t good enough to be a real contender this year and mixing and matching can’t fix it.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 10-24-2026

Still have only watched a few minutes, but I am going to go off on the official. Obvious orange card worthy foul in the box on Winn in the second minute. Somehow even after replay, no foul or PK. The NC homers spun it as the shot had already been taken which is irrelevant. The ball was being held by the GK; so it was still in play and that is all that matters. The exact same play just happened Sounders vs. SD in MLS and replay correctly overruled the no call and a pk was awarded. Also note that Winn was injured on the play and did not return. It was a really bad tackle - something UNC does on a regular basis.

Proof - as the WNBA regularly shows - that giving an incompetent clown replay solves nothing. An incompetent clown with replay is still an incompetent clown. Just with replay.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Jamesy - 10-24-2026

(10-24-2026, 09:02 PM)Hieronymus Wrote:  Still have only watched a few minutes, but I am going to go off on the official. Obvious orange card worthy foul in the box on Winn in the second minute. Somehow even after replay, no foul or PK. The NC homers spun it as the shot had already been taken which is irrelevant. The ball was being held by the GK; so it was still in play and that is all that matters. The exact same play just happened Sounders vs. SD in MLS and replay correctly overruled the no call and a pk was awarded. Also note that Winn was injured on the play and did not return. It was a really bad tackle - something UNC does on a regular basis.

Proof - as the WNBA regularly shows - that giving an incompetent clown replay solves nothing. An incompetent clown with replay is still an incompetent clown. Just with replay.

I found the unc Homer announcers justification that the ball had already been shot to be particularly egregious. They're saying that if the ball is gone you can just take out the player?!?! Obviously not but that's how they spun it. It's even worse that there was contact and no ball! 
It's a foul anywhere on the pitch at any time and I am baffled how it wasn't called there.

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 10-28-2026

Stanford would be seeded 11th if the NCAAs started today according to the preliminary top 16 ranking from the tournament committee. 

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-women/d1/di-committees-top-16

RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Papa John - 10-29-2026

Caught bits and pieces of Stanford's 4-1 win over NC State. Stanford pretty much dominated the parts that I saw, all in the second half.

Stanford came into the match tied for 10th (!) in the 17-team ACC and as I type this have moved into 8th. The Card have a big match at home vs highly ranked Notre Dame on Sunday and then on the road again next week for the final regular season match, vs Boston College.

As others have mentioned, only the top 6 make the ACC tournament, which starts Sunday, Nov. 8. Stanford would have to finish 3rd or 4th to host a first-round game, which means leapfrogging at least 5 teams. That might be possible, but it seems extremely unlikely.