UCLA had a nice win 1-0 over texas a&m last night in college station, scoring a nifty goal with 7 minutes to play and then doing a masterful job of keeping the ball deep in a&m's end to close out the game. There were said to be 5,800 people at the game. A&M is a tough place to play--there are spectator seats all around the stadium and the (fervent) a&m fans are close to the field. I was impressed by UCLA's technical skills and composure--they've got a nice collection of players. They were better in run of play but a&m is well coached and had 10 corner kicks.
The crowd was the third-largest in A&M school history. Seeing the packed stands and the drummers reminded me of the crowds and Villa Drum Squad I used to enjoy at Merlo Field, back in the old days when Portland used to be an elite program.
Well, it was only Portland State, but UP put on a whooping last night. 6-0. It was 2-0 within the first six minutes. Again, it was only Portland State and PS is not athletic in the least, but against teams like that, you should put up 6-0 scores.
Uh, please, let's not Shanghai this Pac-12 thread and call needless attention to Portland's soft schedule.
Merlo Field was brought up, so I thought I would mention it. And was UW soft? If so, it might not bode well for the Pac 12 overall.
It was pointed out on another thread that UW is without their two top players. And, to stay on point, Sunday will also see Portland at Cal, one of the only top teams in the UP schedule.
Fair enough, but I know the UP roster reasonably well and they have 19 field players, 7 of which are frosh. And of the two others you mentioned, I have much a higher regard for Leslie than Neil. Much higher.
And Beijing Normal finishes at Utah on 08/30 Tue. They're mining us, too! 2016/08/28 Sun: Washington - Santa Clara #13 18' 0-1 SC chip to 14m 6-right, backpass to box top left post. Jesolva flicks square right, teammate lunge-pokes and shanks a pop-up to 8m 6-left -- it perfectly lobs two Husky defenders, all lose track of Jesolva back-cutting to ball. One-touch left instep block-volley across mouth, catches UW GK too-calm and not diving -- rolls gently into back right low. Need some urgency to disrupt some part of that pattern! N.B. the canonical Z-ping goal pattern is: quick ground pass from 22m center-ish to box top center facing away, one-touch chip to 15m 6-right (or left) for a 3rd runner, one-touch roundhouse volley across mouth. IIRC Ireland did this in Euro quals 1-2 yrs ago, and the very next weekend Rosie White of UCLA did it. Put those two goals side-by-side on a loop, and that's the meme training tape.
47' 0-1 Washington left ck, somehow SC's GK vacates box. UW unmarked chip from box top mid-left to empty net -- off right post , bounces across mouth to 2m 2-left and GK collects. 50' 1-1 UW #7 Amanda Johnston chases down mid-right to 2m, stops ball. Hard cross to 7m 6-left, #9 Becca Schoales leans into it and drills a header to 1/4 left high -- off/over GK's fingertips, pops up softly and drops to goalline center. #19 bicycle clearance fails, shanks into back left low. It was going in anyways, so not her fault.
Jesse Fleming....just filthy good. One of the sweetest deke's around a Florida Midfielder that made the crowd drop their collective jaws. Then 10 minutes later gets a head on a beautiful cross to open her goal scoring account. Edit to note just after posting she buries a PK
#15 UCLA - Florida #6 03' 0-1 #7 Savannah Jordan 05' 1-1 #2 Annie Alvarado, dive-header from 6-top left post into left back low 17' 1-2 #15 Sarah Troccoli fk? 52' 1-2 UCLA pk, GK Kaylan Marckese saves 65' 2-2 Zoey Goralski cross from 13m wide right to 6m right post, Jessie Fleming heads past Marckese coming out 69' 3-2 Jessie Fleming pk, right instep to 1/3 left (Markese stepped wrong) 74' 3-3 Chip from 27m arc left to 8m 1/3 right, #7 Savannah Jordan back-cuts and lunge-heads into back left low AER 3-3. OT ...
Washington - Santa Clara #13 88' 2-1 #20 Keever crosses from 5m wide right, blocked away to arc top mid-right. #6 Bond-Flasza collects, drives down wide right to 6m. Hard ground cross to 6-top center, past Keever + defender at 1/3 right -- #13 Pascale Dumesnil front-cuts her defender at 1/3 left, slide-pokes under GK Lowder into 1/3 left back low. FT 2-1!
#15 UCLA - Florida #6 096' 3-4 Savannah Jordan collects-and-spins at midfield right touch, outraces #16 pulling up at 22m wide right -- through 15m box right to 7m mid-right, rides off #15's shoulder-challenge and shoves her aside with left forearm. Jordan sees #_ at 6-top left post, fires a hard ground cross through 5m. 1st defender intercepts at 5m center, but right outstep flick/deflection into 2nd defender #25's shins coming back to 6-top right post, bounces just inside right post past GK #20's dive. A paper-clip-bank own goal FT 3-4. Savannah Jordan reminding us all to fawn over players named Savannah Jordan
Gonzaga - WSU 19' 1-0 Madeline Gotta high cross from 14m wide right to 5m left post. 2-v-2 jumping pile, #8 Callie Best heads down just over Dederick's left fingers, into 1/5 left. Goalline defender's clearance attempt goes straight up into roof, already over. FT 1-0. WSU looked ... slow. Gonzaga was faster throughout midfield, and just ran away from our attempts to harass them. Then we couldn't pass, couldn't read bounces off the turf, and lost most of the 40-60 scrums. Any ball leaking through or bouncing off a scrum magically came to their foot first (and then they ran away from us). Both sides hit the crossbar once. At 88' O'Neal shot from 27m arc left bending toward back right low, GK dove and blocked to 1m 1-right, and Crenshaw hop-volleyed wide right. Well, it was a tough angle, she didn't read the spin on the bounce , and I was past expecting anything from this game. A subtle danger of being slower is that you don't even have time to choose a pass, because two defenders are overtaking you from behind. We constructed almost no combos through the box top defense (except long shots), but I'm relatively OK with that: it's the hardest skill to learn, and our freshpersons have other skills to work on first. Oddness: when we backpass and switch across the large arc (through circle top), our backline seemed ... intimidated by Gonzaga's midfield shell expanding to close us down. Normally, the team with the ball is happy, and the team defending is worried/scared. I hope this was an aberration; faster teams than Gonzaga exist on this page
Just saw the gif with Jessie Fleming's deke... I haven't seen a deke like that in a long time. Very impressive. Hope to see more of them in the future. UCLA looks to have a bright future with her on their squad.