[oldalum]

A dominant performance; I was nervous during the game only because of the conditions (one slip could result in a goal) and because of the 5'11" Shaw who they tried to feed high balls to for headers. The game played out as most of ours do against lesser Pac-12 teams, which really shouldn't happen in a regional final--supporting my contention 3 weeks ago that Tennessee should not have been a 2-seed, and that we were treated very well by the bracketing committee. Compare them to the other 2 seeds, and to 4-seed USC! But they were game and played well and came out to play in their usual style instead of turtling back in defense, I give them a lot of credit for that. In those wet conditions, playing for a 0-0 tie and winning on PKs, or hoping for a fluke goal to win it, probably would have had more chance of success.

How terrific that really everyone played well, especially under such wet conditions. Peaking at this time, and getting injured players back on the field, is a good formula for us. In addition to all the physically amazing things Kiki does on the field (the crowd roared once when she outjumped a much taller player and made a header), she made one important play that was pure smarts: when Jahansouz went out of the goal a few yards to try to catch or punch a ball away from an attacker, mostly missed, and the ball hopped over her toward the goal, Kiki had moved to the goal line when Jahansouz went out and was there to calmly stop the ball and boot it away. A dangerous moment converted into nothing because of her soccer intelligence. And she's the outside back, not a central defender, yet she was in that right spot. Every time she is near the ball I subconsciously sit up a little more in my seat and lean forward because I might see something terrific.

From how Haley walked off, it seems she tweaked whatever had been bothering her. I hope she can recover by Friday. She seems constitutionally unable to play at anything less than 100% (this is not a criticism) but I wish she would just pass up trying to get the ball in some very-low-percentage situations and save herself for when we have control of the ball and are running our offense. As I've commented before, for probably our strongest player, she ends up on the ground more than anyone else on the team, which is mainly due to being fouled and in part to her own strong efforts to do something hard.

Getting Tierna back would be unequivocally great, even for limited minutes. We are going to face great attacking teams in the College Cup. And the emotional lift for the team would be great too. The crowd's reaction to Tegan returning to the field was indicative of this (and she played at her usual high level too).

I dearly hope UCLA ends UNC's season today.

[oldalum]

A dominant performance; I was nervous during the game only because of the conditions (one slip could result in a goal) and because of the 5'11" Shaw who they tried to feed high balls to for headers. The game played out as most of ours do against lesser Pac-12 teams, which really shouldn't happen in a regional final--supporting my contention 3 weeks ago that Tennessee should not have been a 2-seed, and that we were treated very well by the bracketing committee. Compare them to the other 2 seeds, and to 4-seed USC! But they were game and played well and came out to play in their usual style instead of turtling back in defense, I give them a lot of credit for that. In those wet conditions, playing for a 0-0 tie and winning on PKs, or hoping for a fluke goal to win it, probably would have had more chance of success.

How terrific that really everyone played well, especially under such wet conditions. Peaking at this time, and getting injured players back on the field, is a good formula for us. In addition to all the physically amazing things Kiki does on the field (the crowd roared once when she outjumped a much taller player and made a header), she made one important play that was pure smarts: when Jahansouz went out of the goal a few yards to try to catch or punch a ball away from an attacker, mostly missed, and the ball hopped over her toward the goal, Kiki had moved to the goal line when Jahansouz went out and was there to calmly stop the ball and boot it away. A dangerous moment converted into nothing because of her soccer intelligence. And she's the outside back, not a central defender, yet she was in that right spot. Every time she is near the ball I subconsciously sit up a little more in my seat and lean forward because I might see something terrific.

From how Haley walked off, it seems she tweaked whatever had been bothering her. I hope she can recover by Friday. She seems constitutionally unable to play at anything less than 100% (this is not a criticism) but I wish she would just pass up trying to get the ball in some very-low-percentage situations and save herself for when we have control of the ball and are running our offense. As I've commented before, for probably our strongest player, she ends up on the ground more than anyone else on the team, which is mainly due to being fouled and in part to her own strong efforts to do something hard.

Getting Tierna back would be unequivocally great, even for limited minutes. We are going to face great attacking teams in the College Cup. And the emotional lift for the team would be great too. The crowd's reaction to Tegan returning to the field was indicative of this (and she played at her usual high level too).

I dearly hope UCLA ends UNC's season today.