[Hieronymus]

IMHO the second half was pretty lopsided, as evidenced by corner kicks: WSU had 10 versus our 1! In all my time of watching Stanford W soccer, I can't remember an opponent getting 10 corner kicks in a half. WSU put on a very strong, active high press, and we had a world of trouble getting the ball out of our half of the field. Lots of turnovers that produced attacking chances for them. Ratcliffe kept yelling for our players to kick long ball over them to a "target" holding player on our team, and the times we did generated some chances, but I think the team should learn a lot from film review of that second half: the very top ACC teams are probably going to play us the same way.

Bhuta had a penalty kick blocked, on the ground and to the corner at the GK's right. The WSU GK is very good (2021 Pac-12 GK of the Year). She lined up cheating noticeably toward that side and easily got in front of it despite a decent pace on the kick. That will be another learning moment. Bhuta redeemed herself with the goal on a good cross from Montoya. The WSU players were very fast and Harvey had a tough time due to her lack of speed.

Kitahata was in control of the ball whenever she was in, scoring a couple minutes after she was subbed in late in the first half. She and Aikey and Evans are our studs. I was impressed with frosh Jaden Thomas and others. Inexperienced but promising.

The corner kick count was weird. One kick often ended up being 2 after the ball would deflect out off the original corner, and there were just a lot of deflections period. Part of that was Craig struggled with balls in the air. 

Long and short though, I think the corners count overstates a WSU edge. The shots were 6-8 in the second half for WSU and only 2 were on goal for them. I also only remember one really good chance that Craig saved. The other big chance Emri blocked and the shot never got on goal. Possession second half was 46-54 for WSU as well. So a little edge for WSU, but not a big one for my eyes.

[Hieronymus]

IMHO the second half was pretty lopsided, as evidenced by corner kicks: WSU had 10 versus our 1! In all my time of watching Stanford W soccer, I can't remember an opponent getting 10 corner kicks in a half. WSU put on a very strong, active high press, and we had a world of trouble getting the ball out of our half of the field. Lots of turnovers that produced attacking chances for them. Ratcliffe kept yelling for our players to kick long ball over them to a "target" holding player on our team, and the times we did generated some chances, but I think the team should learn a lot from film review of that second half: the very top ACC teams are probably going to play us the same way.

Bhuta had a penalty kick blocked, on the ground and to the corner at the GK's right. The WSU GK is very good (2021 Pac-12 GK of the Year). She lined up cheating noticeably toward that side and easily got in front of it despite a decent pace on the kick. That will be another learning moment. Bhuta redeemed herself with the goal on a good cross from Montoya. The WSU players were very fast and Harvey had a tough time due to her lack of speed.

Kitahata was in control of the ball whenever she was in, scoring a couple minutes after she was subbed in late in the first half. She and Aikey and Evans are our studs. I was impressed with frosh Jaden Thomas and others. Inexperienced but promising.

The corner kick count was weird. One kick often ended up being 2 after the ball would deflect out off the original corner, and there were just a lot of deflections period. Part of that was Craig struggled with balls in the air. 

Long and short though, I think the corners count overstates a WSU edge. The shots were 6-8 in the second half for WSU and only 2 were on goal for them. I also only remember one really good chance that Craig saved. The other big chance Emri blocked and the shot never got on goal. Possession second half was 46-54 for WSU as well. So a little edge for WSU, but not a big one for my eyes.