I wrote this for the Sears Board but thought some here might find it interesting. And I was afraid if I put it in the existing thread, it wouldn't be noticed.
First, I think the move was a good idea even though the air quality in Salinas, which had been under 100 in the early afternoon, was around 158 at kickoff. It was around 185 in Redwood City and although it got worse in Salinas as the night wore on, I suspect that was true up here too. OTOH, it was 2 hours snd 40 minutes at rush hour to get there (65 minutes to get back). The facility was fine. It has about 5000 seats, about 3500 on one side and 1500 on the other (closed off). No concessions and clearly used mainly for football - the yard markings and numbers were still on the field. Artificial turf which seemed to give us a few problems but not many. Not the frequent skids and funny bounces you get on some turf fields. No concessions or walkable foo that I saw but open bathrooms.
I go into this detail because, at this point, 20 hours before the next kickoff, we could be back there. Nothing posted yet. (As of 4:00 pm AQI in Redwood City was 167, in Salinas 148.
To the match. We started a fairly familiar line-up but with Catarina Macario and Jaye Boissiere starting but no Tegan McGrady or Madison Haley - starting or at all. It was Alison Jahansouz; JoJo Harber, Naomi Girma, Alana Cook, and Kiki Pickett across the back; Jordan DiBiasi, Sam Hiatt, and Jaye Boissiere in mid; and Civana Kuhlmann, Cat, and Michelle Xiao at forward. Someone posted below that Girma started at defensive mid. I don't THINK she played there last night, though she had spent some minutes there in the first match. Hiatt was the defensive mid all game.
We opened strong, controlling the match, and had at least one good opportunity with a corner kick headed just over the bar early. We scored at 12:46. Cat got the goal but Meech deserves big points. She made a good run, a nice turn, a fine shot, got the rebound, took another fine shot, and Cat got, and buried, that rebound. We kept threatening even after Paul took Jaye and Cat out at around 28:00. Until about the 38th we kept pushing. We dominated the play and had some good opportunities (including a bar or two and maybe a post) but didn't net one. It's an old story - a combination I think of scoring being hard and being a bit less hungry with a lead, especially while dominating the match. But we didn't dominate the last 7 or 8 minutes of the half. They did.
Mississippi was a worthy opponent. They had several players with good ball skills, an excellent keeper (she had 8 saves overall, some very nice), and a lot of height. They dominated us in the air with tall players who were good at heading. (Kiki one a few while giving away 8 or more inches but not all of them!)
From about the 39th minute on, they controlled the possession and kept it largely in the last third. We helped - with bad first touches, bad passes, bad clears, bad distribution by AJ. We looked bad. We had Beattie, Belle, and maybe someone else in. I'm not blaming them but the whole team just look bad - even Kiki had some bad passes. At about 43:00 I said "I just hope we get to halftime with this lead because we don't deser...." and then they scored. Nice cross after extended time in front of our goal. I think something was funky about the ball's direction - deflection maybe? - but it went past the far post to an Ole Miss player about 5 yards from the end line who nailed it. AJ had no chance.
SO - we went into half 1-1 with all the energy and excitement on the Ole Miss side. They had a small but vocal fan base (30 or so?). We had maybe 200 to 300 with a total attendance of around/under 500. We were loud as cheerleader Cliff was there but somewhat deflated.
But we came out strong and looked good. Jaye and Cat started the second half and went right to work. We dominated, had a good shot tipped over the bar, and on the ensuing Cat corner kick, Naomi poked it in from the scrum a few yards out at 48:56. For about 15 minutes we dominated without scoring until at 64:38 Naomi put a Cat free kick, nudged by Jordan I think, in from close range for her brace. I was surprised that Naomi hadn't scored before for us - I thought she got one earlier in the year - but her first two for Stanford came at a good time.
By then Ole Miss was pretty much done. They had one laser like shot late that AJ made a great big cat pounce on and grabbed out of the air - like the tricks of grabbing a bullet by superheroes. But they were tired, they weren't going to win, and it was cold and smoggy. Civana added our fourth at 78:54, hammering a beautiful half volley into the far back corner. Prettiest goal of the match as Jaye had made a beautiful pass down the middle to Jordan, who laid it off nicely to Civana to her right.
Final stats: We had 23 shots, 12 on goal (and a couple bars and maybe a post or two). They had 6, three on goal and few threatening. We had 7 corners, they had 0. We had 10 fouls to their 9 but ours almost all came in the last half hour or so when the ref seemed to be calling lots of soft stuff against us. Maybe guarding against chippiness but it was a shift from his very restrained (and good) whistling in the first 60 minutes.
Player assessments. Wow, it's nice to have Cat and Jaye in there. Jaye looked the best I've seen her all year, 125%. She was fighting and winning lots of one on ones and then several times took off like a fast little something (antelope? wolf?) pushing the ball forward FAST. Cat was, simply, Cat, the best player in women's college soccer. The scoring is one thing but the passing makes me give her that accolade. Her vision, her accuracy, and skillful and creative ways she moves the ball are amazing. i remember one little back heel pass of a ball coming in to her about a foot off the ground that she softly and perfectly sent right and forward to another player. It didn't directly lead to a goal but it was just gorgeous.
I thought Meech looked the best I have seen her this year, especially in the first half. Naomi, of course, had two goals but more importantly was great on D. Alana was Alana - the rock. An excellent, steady, non-flashy game. Of course. Kiki was - I don't know - a Cooper's hawk? Darting around between trees and bushes chasing her prey? An excellent game for her, including one GREAT defensive job in the first half where a narrowly missed shot by us turned into a fast 2 (or 3 sort of) on one counter. Kiki caught up and dogged the woman the ball, keeping her from shooting or getting off a pass long enough for the reinforcements to appear. AJ had a very nice save and some good aggressive coming out for balls, but her distribution wasn't great - several kicks badly out of bounds. Jordan was unnoticeably everywhere; a very good quiet game with two assists, on our last two goals. (Other assists were Meech on #1, Alana on #2 (off Cat's corner kick), Cat and Jordan on #3, Jaye and Jordan on #4). Subs included Beattie Goad, Belle Briede (who had some nice minutes in the second half, Carly Malatsky, and Cece Gee.
Overall, an excellent second half and a pretty good first half though without the killer drive to get the second goal, especially once Cat and Jaye went out. The last bit of the first half was puzzling. We can't let that happen again.
We got there for the end of the Wisconsin/Hofstra match. Hofstra, a 13 seed, had upset #4 BC, 4-1. Not last night. Wisconsin, a #5 seed, beat them like a drum, 6-0. Wisconsin had about a hundred fans present. They were happy and excited. All I noticed about their team in the waning minutes was that they, too, are tall.
I just learned there's a size limit on posts here - 8,000 characters. So here are the last 400+ of the above.
Certainly, even injury depleted as we are - remember, no Tierna Davidson, Sophia Smith, Madison Haley, Tegan McGrady, or Abby Greubel (no idea what's wrong with her) - we can beat Wisconsin, but we'll have to play 90 minutes of good soccer, not 82.
Go Card - wherever you play tomorrow! (We'll be there but I hope it will also be televised.)
PS WSU and UA went down in tough games. Santa Clara lost in PKs.
First, I think the move was a good idea even though the air quality in Salinas, which had been under 100 in the early afternoon, was around 158 at kickoff. It was around 185 in Redwood City and although it got worse in Salinas as the night wore on, I suspect that was true up here too. OTOH, it was 2 hours snd 40 minutes at rush hour to get there (65 minutes to get back). The facility was fine. It has about 5000 seats, about 3500 on one side and 1500 on the other (closed off). No concessions and clearly used mainly for football - the yard markings and numbers were still on the field. Artificial turf which seemed to give us a few problems but not many. Not the frequent skids and funny bounces you get on some turf fields. No concessions or walkable foo that I saw but open bathrooms.
I go into this detail because, at this point, 20 hours before the next kickoff, we could be back there. Nothing posted yet. (As of 4:00 pm AQI in Redwood City was 167, in Salinas 148.
To the match. We started a fairly familiar line-up but with Catarina Macario and Jaye Boissiere starting but no Tegan McGrady or Madison Haley - starting or at all. It was Alison Jahansouz; JoJo Harber, Naomi Girma, Alana Cook, and Kiki Pickett across the back; Jordan DiBiasi, Sam Hiatt, and Jaye Boissiere in mid; and Civana Kuhlmann, Cat, and Michelle Xiao at forward. Someone posted below that Girma started at defensive mid. I don't THINK she played there last night, though she had spent some minutes there in the first match. Hiatt was the defensive mid all game.
We opened strong, controlling the match, and had at least one good opportunity with a corner kick headed just over the bar early. We scored at 12:46. Cat got the goal but Meech deserves big points. She made a good run, a nice turn, a fine shot, got the rebound, took another fine shot, and Cat got, and buried, that rebound. We kept threatening even after Paul took Jaye and Cat out at around 28:00. Until about the 38th we kept pushing. We dominated the play and had some good opportunities (including a bar or two and maybe a post) but didn't net one. It's an old story - a combination I think of scoring being hard and being a bit less hungry with a lead, especially while dominating the match. But we didn't dominate the last 7 or 8 minutes of the half. They did.
Mississippi was a worthy opponent. They had several players with good ball skills, an excellent keeper (she had 8 saves overall, some very nice), and a lot of height. They dominated us in the air with tall players who were good at heading. (Kiki one a few while giving away 8 or more inches but not all of them!)
From about the 39th minute on, they controlled the possession and kept it largely in the last third. We helped - with bad first touches, bad passes, bad clears, bad distribution by AJ. We looked bad. We had Beattie, Belle, and maybe someone else in. I'm not blaming them but the whole team just look bad - even Kiki had some bad passes. At about 43:00 I said "I just hope we get to halftime with this lead because we don't deser...." and then they scored. Nice cross after extended time in front of our goal. I think something was funky about the ball's direction - deflection maybe? - but it went past the far post to an Ole Miss player about 5 yards from the end line who nailed it. AJ had no chance.
SO - we went into half 1-1 with all the energy and excitement on the Ole Miss side. They had a small but vocal fan base (30 or so?). We had maybe 200 to 300 with a total attendance of around/under 500. We were loud as cheerleader Cliff was there but somewhat deflated.
But we came out strong and looked good. Jaye and Cat started the second half and went right to work. We dominated, had a good shot tipped over the bar, and on the ensuing Cat corner kick, Naomi poked it in from the scrum a few yards out at 48:56. For about 15 minutes we dominated without scoring until at 64:38 Naomi put a Cat free kick, nudged by Jordan I think, in from close range for her brace. I was surprised that Naomi hadn't scored before for us - I thought she got one earlier in the year - but her first two for Stanford came at a good time.
By then Ole Miss was pretty much done. They had one laser like shot late that AJ made a great big cat pounce on and grabbed out of the air - like the tricks of grabbing a bullet by superheroes. But they were tired, they weren't going to win, and it was cold and smoggy. Civana added our fourth at 78:54, hammering a beautiful half volley into the far back corner. Prettiest goal of the match as Jaye had made a beautiful pass down the middle to Jordan, who laid it off nicely to Civana to her right.
Final stats: We had 23 shots, 12 on goal (and a couple bars and maybe a post or two). They had 6, three on goal and few threatening. We had 7 corners, they had 0. We had 10 fouls to their 9 but ours almost all came in the last half hour or so when the ref seemed to be calling lots of soft stuff against us. Maybe guarding against chippiness but it was a shift from his very restrained (and good) whistling in the first 60 minutes.
Player assessments. Wow, it's nice to have Cat and Jaye in there. Jaye looked the best I've seen her all year, 125%. She was fighting and winning lots of one on ones and then several times took off like a fast little something (antelope? wolf?) pushing the ball forward FAST. Cat was, simply, Cat, the best player in women's college soccer. The scoring is one thing but the passing makes me give her that accolade. Her vision, her accuracy, and skillful and creative ways she moves the ball are amazing. i remember one little back heel pass of a ball coming in to her about a foot off the ground that she softly and perfectly sent right and forward to another player. It didn't directly lead to a goal but it was just gorgeous.
I thought Meech looked the best I have seen her this year, especially in the first half. Naomi, of course, had two goals but more importantly was great on D. Alana was Alana - the rock. An excellent, steady, non-flashy game. Of course. Kiki was - I don't know - a Cooper's hawk? Darting around between trees and bushes chasing her prey? An excellent game for her, including one GREAT defensive job in the first half where a narrowly missed shot by us turned into a fast 2 (or 3 sort of) on one counter. Kiki caught up and dogged the woman the ball, keeping her from shooting or getting off a pass long enough for the reinforcements to appear. AJ had a very nice save and some good aggressive coming out for balls, but her distribution wasn't great - several kicks badly out of bounds. Jordan was unnoticeably everywhere; a very good quiet game with two assists, on our last two goals. (Other assists were Meech on #1, Alana on #2 (off Cat's corner kick), Cat and Jordan on #3, Jaye and Jordan on #4). Subs included Beattie Goad, Belle Briede (who had some nice minutes in the second half, Carly Malatsky, and Cece Gee.
Overall, an excellent second half and a pretty good first half though without the killer drive to get the second goal, especially once Cat and Jaye went out. The last bit of the first half was puzzling. We can't let that happen again.
We got there for the end of the Wisconsin/Hofstra match. Hofstra, a 13 seed, had upset #4 BC, 4-1. Not last night. Wisconsin, a #5 seed, beat them like a drum, 6-0. Wisconsin had about a hundred fans present. They were happy and excited. All I noticed about their team in the waning minutes was that they, too, are tall.
I just learned there's a size limit on posts here - 8,000 characters. So here are the last 400+ of the above.
Certainly, even injury depleted as we are - remember, no Tierna Davidson, Sophia Smith, Madison Haley, Tegan McGrady, or Abby Greubel (no idea what's wrong with her) - we can beat Wisconsin, but we'll have to play 90 minutes of good soccer, not 82.
Go Card - wherever you play tomorrow! (We'll be there but I hope it will also be televised.)
PS WSU and UA went down in tough games. Santa Clara lost in PKs.
