Whither Stanford?

Where does the Stanford womens' soccer team go from here?


Well, I'd say they are in pretty good shape. They challenged for the Cup this past season. They have achieved the status of an elite program, and are poised stay in the hunt.

If I am reading their roster correctly, they apparently lose two starting senior defenders in Falk and Abegg. Instead of throwing freshmen in there, maybe they can have a couple experienced D-Mids slide to the backline.

They might also try, as I said previously, to put KO in as central attacking midfielder charged with serving balls to the forwards as well as getting some goals herself. She has good vision and anticipation, she can hold the ball in traffic, and she makes nice, accurate, crisp passes to runners in or entering high-value space.

The problem is, I doubt the Stanford coach will do it. There seems to be a pervading mentality in college soccer that attacking midfield needs to be done by committee. College coaches seem to be loath to have one Carlos Valderrama. That is why, in college soccer, the #10 shirt doesn't really mean anything. It's just another number. College coaches seem more comfortable with multiple Steve Ralstons than one Carlos Valderrama. That is not a slight against a fine player like Steve Ralston. If you have multiple Ralstons, of course you play them. But if you have one Carlos Valderrama you play him, and you play him in position. If you have some Ralstons also, al the better, but they would play in support of your Valderrama.

One big way to improve as a team is to play at their high level but play even faster. The very best teams in the country from the UNC's to the UND's to the UCLAs reaaallly struggled when Stanford would start to swoop and swarm and play very fast with accurate passes with pace on them. The build-up to KO's tying goal against UNC during the regular season is an example of what I am talking about. Movement, movement, movement, both on the ball and off. This is one of Stanford's strengths they can build on by doing it faster.

Defensively, Stanford can pressure the ball better. Of course, its easy to make a "genius" statement like that. It is like saying a company ought "to improve its cash flow". The question is, "How?". Well, in this regard, Stanford can learn from the final four match against UND. UND pressured the ball extremely well, and they did it an a very coordinated fashion. A a result, Stanford felt the heat the entire game, and this was a big barrier to Stanford finding the back of the net. For example, Stanford wide midfielders repeatedly found themselves surrounded by a pressuring midfielder, a high pressuring defender, with strikers often checking back to help out. UND was well organized positionally. Everyone knew what their defensive assignments were, and they carried them out very efficiently.