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Post by bearsandbulls on Aug 22, 2021 16:58:30 GMT -5
So, ironically, first Hoyas corner kick against LMU, Kelly Ann is again beyond the far post...but is rushing toward the six as the ball is kicked. She meets the ball head on and pushes it back across frame for a goal. That's a better set-up than being static, imho, although it does create the possibility that the ball will sail over your head as you rush in. Leas was in the general vicinity of back post as well, but more around the corner of the six. Edit to add: you better believe there was someone close marking both of them on subsequent corners. As always, nice pick up. Not only was Livingstone there for the first effort but she camped there all day on corners. As you can imagine I loved seeing that. Not only does it provide a straight on kick or header with a player squared up, it reduces the timing when being out front with a glancing header or kick. So the accuracy has to be a lot greater when directly facing the corner kicker (# of netted balls), but the big advantage is that there are so many through balls. When I try to keep track (which reduces focus on other things) it seems like around 25%. In my years of watching the Hoyas women play this is the first dose I have seen of this, and frankly am loving it. Early season, the offense tends to be behind the defense and we are not netting balls we should. That will come. Have seen that every year, and always worry early, but it does evolve.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Aug 22, 2021 19:18:14 GMT -5
That easily could have been a 6-0 game given all the grade A chances the Hoyas had. Hope Royson is OK, she took a cleat hit directly on her inner ankle (that came between her legs). Hard to see how that was neither a foul nor a yellow.
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RusskyHoya
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Post by RusskyHoya on Aug 23, 2021 13:57:06 GMT -5
That easily could have been a 6-0 game given all the grade A chances the Hoyas had. Hope Royson is OK, she took a cleat hit directly on her inner ankle (that came between her legs). Hard to see how that was neither a foul now a yellow. It was a yellow. The ref played advantage and then after the stoppage, Dave was yelling at him: "You can still bring it back to here" (i.e., after the advantage played out, he could still being it back for a free kick). He added, "I'll be expecting at least a yellow here." Ref walked over to the linesman, conferred briefly, and then went over to where all the LMU players were in a circle for the injury timeout and showed the LMU player the yellow. He then talked to them for awhile, which was slightly weird? A lot of them were smiling, they were kind of a smiley team anyway. *Shrug* SoCal
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Aug 23, 2021 16:10:43 GMT -5
Got it. The BEDN didn't bring that to our attention (they were too busy giving a trainers' PBP).
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Aug 23, 2021 16:10:48 GMT -5
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Post by bearsandbulls on Aug 23, 2021 19:38:49 GMT -5
That easily could have been a 6-0 game given all the grade A chances the Hoyas had. Hope Royson is OK, she took a cleat hit directly on her inner ankle (that came between her legs). Hard to see how that was neither a foul now a yellow. It was a yellow. The ref played advantage and then after the stoppage, Dave was yelling at him: "You can still bring it back to here" (i.e., after the advantage played out, he could still being it back for a free kick). He added, "I'll be expecting at least a yellow here." Ref walked over to the linesman, conferred briefly, and then went over to where all the LMU players were in a circle for the injury timeout and showed the LMU player the yellow. He then talked to them for awhile, which was slightly weird? A lot of them were smiling, they were kind of a smiley team anyway. *Shrug* SoCal Easy now on SoCal....It is a happy place...Santa Clara, USC, Stanfurd, Cal and UCLA will not be so smiley. BTW SCU and Cal played to a 1-1 draw yesterday. Makes our ACC tie look a bit better.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Aug 24, 2021 17:40:54 GMT -5
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whatmaroon
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Post by whatmaroon on Aug 29, 2021 19:59:00 GMT -5
Tonight's game is on Longhorn Network, so I'm partaking for the first time this season. We've looked a little disjointed at times, I've thought, and Texas had a couple quality chances, but Augur has been up to the challenge with a couple fine saves. Going forward, Texas has had numbers and we've had a hard time really breaking them down. They're closing down space out wide when we've tried that (Royson in particular did adjust I thought and started playing quicker). But we found a through ball to Vicari, who was able to dribble past the GK and knock it in the open net, so we're up 1-0 at the half.
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whatmaroon
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Post by whatmaroon on Aug 29, 2021 20:24:18 GMT -5
Fernandez-Powell with a cracker from outside the box makes it 2-0 with 34 minutes to play. The commentator notes the Hoyas changed formations from 4-2-2-2 to more of a 3-5-2, trying to get more numbers back, and Texas hasn't been creating the same opportunities lately. Time to defend in numbers and counter, likely.
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RusskyHoya
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Post by RusskyHoya on Aug 29, 2021 21:00:31 GMT -5
2-0 final. Dear Lord what a match. *I* need time to recover, can't imagine being a player or coach in this one.
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whatmaroon
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Post by whatmaroon on Aug 29, 2021 21:01:28 GMT -5
2-O FT. Fortunate to come away with the clean sheet, but it was nice to see us adjust and show the difference between a very good team and a team with some very talented players.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Aug 29, 2021 21:09:00 GMT -5
Solid win on the road, Leas was everywhere and Augur combined great instincts with excellent use of the posts. Interesting that Texas outshot the Hoyas 15 - 9 but only 6 = 5 in shots on goal. texassports.com/sidearmstats/wsoc/summaryThe Texas announcers were actually very good, the former Villanova player is definitely a fan of Dave Nolan.
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Post by bearsandbulls on Aug 30, 2021 8:44:37 GMT -5
2-0 final. Dear Lord what a match. *I* need time to recover, can't imagine being a player or coach in this one. Any further insights to the game Russky?? I was watching on "Stats" and it looked on the play by play to be much like described by others. Texas came out strong and had all the chances early. That seemed to be evened out after about 20 minutes but no eyes on the game. And yes, it looked like all the damage was being done by 2-3 Texas players. Would be very interested in your comments. I am getting a sense that so far (hope I am wrong) that the women are not as relatively dominant as the men are and for the last 5-6 years they have been.
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Post by DanMcQ on Sept 1, 2021 0:29:28 GMT -5
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Post by bearsandbulls on Sept 1, 2021 10:07:35 GMT -5
Weather absolutely horrible in DC today. Will Shaw Field bounce back quickly enough for the game tomorrow? Any guesses?
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RusskyHoya
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 1, 2021 20:15:53 GMT -5
2-0 final. Dear Lord what a match. *I* need time to recover, can't imagine being a player or coach in this one. Any further insights to the game Russky?? I was watching on "Stats" and it looked on the play by play to be much like described by others. Texas came out strong and had all the chances early. That seemed to be evened out after about 20 minutes but no eyes on the game. And yes, it looked like all the damage was being done by 2-3 Texas players. Would be very interested in your comments. I am getting a sense that so far (hope I am wrong) that the women are not as relatively dominant as the men are and for the last 5-6 years they have been. Yeah, I have some thoughts - just took me a while to collect the ones I'm ready to share at this point. Before diving into that, though, I will say the following regarding your last sentence: My perception ever since I started watching NCAA soccer has been that there are some similarities between 'the beautiful game' and basketball when it comes to relative parity/the power curve when you compare the men's and women's games. It always seemed like there were only a handful of programs in the women's games that were truly contenders to win it all. UNC in soccer was the equivalent of UConn in basketball, and while there were a handful of other top programs, it was a pretty small group of elites. That's not to say that you couldn't have someone crash the party, the way Portland did in 2002 and 2005. But it felt pretty unlikely. Now, Santa Clara is not exactly coming totally out of the blue - after all, they were the other participant in that aforementioned 2002 national final. And, more recently, they knocked off national #1 seed and dominant-all-year Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. But still, for them to win the title last year shocked me, more so than Marshall winning the men's crown. Yes, it was the weird Covid spring season, and Santa Clara finished 10-1-1 on the year (the draw being their PK win in the final), so they played less than half the games a team normally does. But still. It is worth noting that soccer falls at the opposite end of the "amount of scoring" spectrum from basketball, so talent/performance disparities may not be reflected on the scoreboard in as stark a way, and upsets are more common. So I admit some of the disparity I'm talking about here is as much about an unscientific personal 'eye test' as it is about bottom-line results. With that caveat, it has always seemed to me that almost all of our women's players were mostly one level down from the elite, destined for the USWNT 5-stars that adorn the rosters of UNC, Stanford, FSU, etc. There were definitely exceptions, but that is what made them exceptional: when asked about pivotal moments in the program's history, Dave always talks about getting Ingrid Wells and Daphne Corboz. Some programs get players like that every single year - and not just one or two. And so, as Steven Goff wrote on the eve of the women's second College Cup appearance, they remain outsiders when it comes to the blue bloods. Now, I do think that gap is shrinking...in large part due to the success that recent teams have had in compensating for individual talent disparity through greater team chemistry and effectiveness. The ladies did not look physically overmatched when they were taking down UVA or Duke they way they did when getting pasted by Stanford a few years ago, even as it was clear that if you were making EA sports player ratings for the two squads, the ACC teams would have higher average athleticism numbers. But to me there is still that 'outsider' status that no longer exists on the men's side, where we're now churning out multiple MLS draft picks per year and just had a player sign with a Premier League club. So that's my two cents on "dominance."
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RusskyHoya
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 1, 2021 21:38:02 GMT -5
Weather absolutely horrible in DC today. Will Shaw Field bounce back quickly enough for the game tomorrow? Any guesses? Wasn't anywhere near as bad in DC as it was further north of here. I expect the game to go off as scheduled. Dartmouth flew in yesterday, so no travel issues there.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Sept 1, 2021 23:31:13 GMT -5
That's not to say that you couldn't have someone crash the party, the way Portland did in 2002 and 2005. But it felt pretty unlikely. Funny that you brought that up as I was wearing my 2005 National Championship t-shirt today. My 2002 one is pretty torn up.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Sept 2, 2021 2:02:20 GMT -5
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Post by TrueHoyaBlue on Sept 2, 2021 16:17:17 GMT -5
Just watched the first half of the Dartmouth game at Shaw field. The Hoyas largely controlled possession and kept the game on the offensive half of the field.
But this team doesn’t have the same playmaking ability of a Paula Germino-Watnick, or the finishing ability (or ability to create separation) at the forward spot that recent Hoya teams have had, with players like Farrell, Menta, or Carolan.
Maya Fernandez-Powell is very good in the midfield in controlling and directing traffic, but she plays more of a Grace Nguyen-style in controlling the middle of the field, and nobody seems to slot into that playmaker role on offense.
I think there’s definitely time to build on the strengths of this team, but hoping they can find or manufacture the speed and finishing ability up front as the season goes on. While they generally controlled pace and possession, Dartmouth seemed to be a step ahead on 50-50 balls, at least in the first half.
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