[Viking_Guy]

FM--

Your wish etc. etc.

A tough game, exposing some of Stanford's issues this season, was saved by Stanford reserve keeper Aly Gleason, who came up extremely large on several occasions; glad to see my prediction after last game worked out.  The late goal by Mariah covered up a variety of sins.

In the first half, you saw some of the influence of formation on the game.  Stanford's 4-3-3 faced off against Penn State's 3-5-2, with predictable patterns emerging: Stanford had success going over the top, but not as much trying to move the ball through a sea of bodies at midfield.  So trying to connect through the midfield, or possess the ball up the field, wasn't working really well.  The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, had trouble clearing their own half against Stanford's pressure up top.

A caveat: both teams were missing significant pieces due to U-20 play and injury.  For Stanford, Chioma Ubogagu starts at forward for the U-20s, while Emily Oliver again missed tonight's game between the pipes due to an unspecified injury.  But PSU was arguably missing more: forwards Maya Hayes, who has 4 of the U.S. U-20 team's 5 goals thus far in the World Cup, and Taylor Schram.  Between the two, they had I think 42 goals last year.

This is not to say there weren't chances to be had, but most of them were off of mistakes, set plays and deflections, no real build-ups to a classy finish.

One early chance each way got both keepers action; Natalie Griffen got free on the right side and launched a spinning ball to the far post that the Lion keeper smothered, and Costa for PSU returned the favor when no one closed her down at the top of the area, launching a hard left footed shot that Gleason corralled at the near post.  But you could see what was going on: Penn State had more going on outside the box, but trouble penetrating, while Stanford had trouble getting the ball through, but when they did, they ended up with 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 opportunities.

That didn't help when another slow closeout by Noguiera and Garciamendez at the top of the penalty area led to PSU's Christine Nairn's shot ricocheting up into the air, carrying forward toward the penalty spot.  Neither Garciamendez nor Romine recovered, and Liedle was guarding against a far side run that didn't come, allowing Mallory Weber to walk in alone and take a free header from about 8 yards.  Gleason, in one of her only iffy plays of the night, didn't come out full bore, and a driven ball got over her before she could react.  But the goal was much more on loose defending at the edge of the area and slow reaction to the deflected ball.

Only a few minutes later, Stanford responded, actually getting a bit of build up play and possessing the ball out to an open Laura Liedle just past the half line on the left.  Liedle flighted the ball forward, and Courtney Verloo, instead of trapping, flicked it on, taking just enough off the ball to settle it into the path of an onrushing Alex Doll, who beat her mark to the ball and took advantage of a keeper hanging back to slot the ball in at the far post and knot the score. 

The Cardinal actually did play their style for much of the latter part of the second half, getting a couple of good chances and not conceding much.  Griffen got around the outside to draw a foul, and Quon put in a nice free kick from essentially short corner range, but Kate Bettinger, who had another tough game, sprayed a relatively easy 10 yard open volley attempt high over the bar.  One interesting note: for much of the game, both Noguiera and Garciamendez  were making mostly dummy near-post runs, as the Lions put 2 and 3 defenders on them.  They got a couple more chances on through and diagonal balls against the 3 back formation, but more troublingly, the back line started to turn the ball over, especially Garciamendez and Quon.

In all honesty, Quon had one of the worst games I've seen her play in the last couple of seasons.  Defending a two man front line, she constantly drifted wide and forward, offering little support to Romine inside of her and leaving her alone a number of times, and also getting caught upfield on counter-attacks.  Going forward, unless she had a lot of space, she seemed hesitant to either hit the ball over the top or simply dribble at the defense, hitting intermediate balls that put her teammates under immediate pressure from the 5 man midfield, and on several occasions trying to go inside and turning the ball over directly, leaving acres of space behind her on the right.

[Viking_Guy]

FM--

Your wish etc. etc.

A tough game, exposing some of Stanford's issues this season, was saved by Stanford reserve keeper Aly Gleason, who came up extremely large on several occasions; glad to see my prediction after last game worked out.  The late goal by Mariah covered up a variety of sins.

In the first half, you saw some of the influence of formation on the game.  Stanford's 4-3-3 faced off against Penn State's 3-5-2, with predictable patterns emerging: Stanford had success going over the top, but not as much trying to move the ball through a sea of bodies at midfield.  So trying to connect through the midfield, or possess the ball up the field, wasn't working really well.  The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, had trouble clearing their own half against Stanford's pressure up top.

A caveat: both teams were missing significant pieces due to U-20 play and injury.  For Stanford, Chioma Ubogagu starts at forward for the U-20s, while Emily Oliver again missed tonight's game between the pipes due to an unspecified injury.  But PSU was arguably missing more: forwards Maya Hayes, who has 4 of the U.S. U-20 team's 5 goals thus far in the World Cup, and Taylor Schram.  Between the two, they had I think 42 goals last year.

This is not to say there weren't chances to be had, but most of them were off of mistakes, set plays and deflections, no real build-ups to a classy finish.

One early chance each way got both keepers action; Natalie Griffen got free on the right side and launched a spinning ball to the far post that the Lion keeper smothered, and Costa for PSU returned the favor when no one closed her down at the top of the area, launching a hard left footed shot that Gleason corralled at the near post.  But you could see what was going on: Penn State had more going on outside the box, but trouble penetrating, while Stanford had trouble getting the ball through, but when they did, they ended up with 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 opportunities.

That didn't help when another slow closeout by Noguiera and Garciamendez at the top of the penalty area led to PSU's Christine Nairn's shot ricocheting up into the air, carrying forward toward the penalty spot.  Neither Garciamendez nor Romine recovered, and Liedle was guarding against a far side run that didn't come, allowing Mallory Weber to walk in alone and take a free header from about 8 yards.  Gleason, in one of her only iffy plays of the night, didn't come out full bore, and a driven ball got over her before she could react.  But the goal was much more on loose defending at the edge of the area and slow reaction to the deflected ball.

Only a few minutes later, Stanford responded, actually getting a bit of build up play and possessing the ball out to an open Laura Liedle just past the half line on the left.  Liedle flighted the ball forward, and Courtney Verloo, instead of trapping, flicked it on, taking just enough off the ball to settle it into the path of an onrushing Alex Doll, who beat her mark to the ball and took advantage of a keeper hanging back to slot the ball in at the far post and knot the score. 

The Cardinal actually did play their style for much of the latter part of the second half, getting a couple of good chances and not conceding much.  Griffen got around the outside to draw a foul, and Quon put in a nice free kick from essentially short corner range, but Kate Bettinger, who had another tough game, sprayed a relatively easy 10 yard open volley attempt high over the bar.  One interesting note: for much of the game, both Noguiera and Garciamendez  were making mostly dummy near-post runs, as the Lions put 2 and 3 defenders on them.  They got a couple more chances on through and diagonal balls against the 3 back formation, but more troublingly, the back line started to turn the ball over, especially Garciamendez and Quon.

In all honesty, Quon had one of the worst games I've seen her play in the last couple of seasons.  Defending a two man front line, she constantly drifted wide and forward, offering little support to Romine inside of her and leaving her alone a number of times, and also getting caught upfield on counter-attacks.  Going forward, unless she had a lot of space, she seemed hesitant to either hit the ball over the top or simply dribble at the defense, hitting intermediate balls that put her teammates under immediate pressure from the 5 man midfield, and on several occasions trying to go inside and turning the ball over directly, leaving acres of space behind her on the right.