Stanford v Cal

I watched the match on DVR yesterday. It wasn't Stanford's best effort, but it was still more than good enough to achieve a 4-1 scoreline against crosstown women's soccer rival Cal.

Much has been said on bigsoccer about the somewhat shakey performance of the Stanford defensive midfield early in the first half. One problem was that once the d-mids won possession, their square, diagonal, and up-passes often were too lazy and slow, many being picked off again by Cal in the middle third. But after 25 minutes or so the defensive midfield began to better emulate the example of the attacking midfield, who were placing nicely paced and weighted passes all game long.

These kinds of lapses ar not entirely surprising, given the youth of Stanford's d-mids and central defense. The thing though is they need to stay crisp back there in the tournament. I think they will.

One more persistent problem against Cal was Stanford's habit of giving Cal's a-mids too much space in the midfield. This led directly to some worrisome Cal counter attacks with through-balls played to feet. It seems Stanford felt they could lay off a bit and give some space, and use their speed to close runners down. This, however, led to a habit of overrunning and thus missed tackles, allowing Cal to repeatedly get behind the d-mids. Fortunately for Stanford, the SU defenders kept their shape very nicely and closed down the threats. It also helped that Cal's frontrunners were not terribly fast.

This, too, is entirely correctable. The SU d-mids need to play tighter on their marks, period.

The only other thing I would say to Stanford defensively is they need to more pateintly build possession through the middle third. There were too many hopeful long balls that bypassed the attacking midfield which only resulted on lost possession. Be smarter with the ball in the back, and don't get so rattled by a little pressure. Again, as the game wore on, things improved in this regard. They need to stay improved.

On the offensive side of the ball, it was the diagonal runs, what few there were, that won the game for Stanford, and almost made it more of a blowout than it was. Though Kelley O'Hara's first goal came not from a diagonal run but from KO being in the right place at the right time and heading a high clearance back toward the goal along an almost equally high arc. The ball flashed just under the crossbar and in, Stanford rejoicing and perhaps Cal bemoaning the almost complete lack of vertical leap ability of their goalkeeper.

The diagonal run was money for KO on the second goal. She tore into the box to run onto a nice cross I think by Quon, and KO's lightning-bolt run was rewarded as she, with authority, smashed a gravity defying, Michael Jordan-esque flying header, expertly targeted for the far corner. You could see the "uh-oh's" in the eyes of the Cal players, but to their credit they had plenty of fight left.

On KO's third goal, the diagonal run again was the dagger. KO slashed into the box to one-time a long ball from the midfield. The Cal keeper once again had to dig the ball out of her net, Cal now realizing it is now all over except the shouting.

Cal did pull one back on a mystery PK call by an otherwise pretty good ref, but a short time later LT hit a bomb from downtown, exploiting the Cal keeper's dual inability to either leap or judge a ball in flight to make it a 4-1 scoreline.

Side notes: Christen Press, in her role running the right flank, was up against a quality left back. Even so, CP turned her inside out a number of times, and could have subsequently made runs deep into the box to earn the choice to either shoot or pass from close range. Most of those times she elected to make the early pass into the box, which proved time and again to be too early.

Verloo is a very good player, but a little raw, as top freshmen tend to be. She was the beneficiary of KO's magnanimity in the second half, with KO forgoing an open net on the right to instead feed Verloo in the middle, who unfortunately sky-ed the sitter. She missed a couple sitters on the day, but hey, it happens.

LT did a very nice job of holding the ball in traffic up high, and laying off to runners to wreak havoc. Several other Stanford players, especially d-mids, would do well to emulate LT's ballholding exploits, which they are entirely capable of doing. They needn't get so rattled under pressure to only boot the ball aimlessly upfield.

The announcers said SU was playing a 4-3-3. Ok, whatever. I hardly saw more than three in the back. Frequently there were just two. And Stanford's forwards and a-mids change roles frequently. The announcers rightly stated that KO is not just a forward but a playmaker who "makes the whole team go". Interesting. It is PRECISELY this kind of player that the US WNT is sorely in need of.

Cal is not UCLA or UNC, but Cal is a quality side with some dangerous, tenacious players. For Stanford, this was a win over a quality side, and an arch-rival to boot.