The Wazzu women’s soccer team took to the field for the first time in 2017. Spring is an interesting time for these girls. New positions being tried out for, young ladies pushing to make the starting rotation and find playing time. The seniors are gone and spring is the time for last year’s watchers to show what they can do before the new freshmen appear on the scene. It is a time for new leaders to step forward. A college team is always in flux from year to year, players graduating and moving on, others stepping forward to take the departed places. It is up to the coach and his staff to find those replacements that can fill the shoes of those that have left. Hopefully these replacements can step forward and be the same or better than those that have left. In the last three years Wazzu has graduated most of its scoring. This last year they lost the rock of the defense for the last three years also. What does Wazzu have left in the cupboard? This is a huge question after going through three coaches in a short period of time. Each playing different styles and different speeds. The present style is fast and technical, with lots of running and passing. So what is left, only four of the young ladies who are field players played more than 1000 minutes last year, and the three are defenders, the forth is a forward. In the goal you have a force that can sometimes become even more. Her back up could start for most teams. The defense in front of the keepers should be steady with the normal grinders on the back line, adding in the return of one of the year before standouts. The only real questions in the back is where will they play. Backups you have three freshmen from last year’s recruiting class, none with much playing time and whoever is coming in this coming fall. The back line is not a place you want to try out a freshman. Any mistakes get magnified by ten back there. The holding mid who played more minutes than anyone else for the last three years is gone, she was the quarterback of the team and now they must find who is going to step up and play that position. It may have to be done by committee unless they can find another superhuman who can run for an entire game like the young lady who left. The midfield will be a place that the coaches could find veteran leadership in two seniors but will have players pushing for the chance to get minutes. The mids cannot allow the defense to get beat down like last year and must take some of that pressure off of the back line and keeper by keeping the ball in the offensive end of the field. None of the players left played massive minutes but a couple did get meaningful stretches and could help the team. The incoming freshmen could make a huge impact at these positions. Look to see a mixture of both new and old players here and if the coaches play like they have for two years with players coming in and out. I would not be surprised to see one of last year’s forwards move into the attacking mid position. The forwards left on this team are good, very good. Three of the four main scorers up front last year were freshmen, the young lady who finished her career last year will be hard to replace but with the incoming freshmen, this group could be dynamic even without her. This group will be very fast and have shown the ability to put the ball in the net. The bad news was that last year they got in shooting contests with teams. They won in the number of shots taken, but lost the game in balls in the net, often outshooting their opponents by 2 or 3 times then losing the game 1-0. Teams did their best to take away Wazzu’ s PAC 12 all conference freshman, she became a force upfront, her running mate showed the ability to score but is still learning to play the game. The other forward though not getting many minutes showed the ability to be at the right place at the right time. With fourteen freshmen in this year’s recruiting class most should get the chance to play a little. They have brought in two keepers, the rest we will find out where they will play next year. Each year teams start out excited by what the new players are bring in. But it is a crap shoot, because the pressures of being a Division 1 athlete is nothing like anything they have experienced. Some will wilt and find it is not for them others will excel, loving every minute. This is the first class brought in by this coach, and should have been tailored to fit his style of play. It should be very good but remains to be seen. As a team Wazzu needs to get back to what they had a couple years ago. It was a team and they looked out after each other. There was support for the team from the team. It wasn’t the forwards, mids and defenders, it was always team. Last year there were cracks that grew huge, players let outside influences affect them and the team suffered. The ability for this team to rebound will fall on the captains and upper classmen. If they can pull this team together and no one gets a big head they will once again compete for the tourney and play in it.
Game number two this spring and it was as ugly as could be. The foe Gonzaga faced off with the Cougs for three thirty minute periods. It was a battle of backlines, both of which held up well not allowing either team any real chances. That said it also means that neither offence had any semblance of a division one offense. Then again it is only Spring and more than a few of these young ladies will see little or any time come Fall and league. The Cougs back line has been all stirred up. Your left outside back for the last two years has been moved to center back, though small for the position. The other center back played there as a freshman, but last year got hurt, so is in her natural position. Both of these young ladies appear to be very tough and good defenders but lack the size of most centerbacks height wise. One on one both shut down Gonzaga. The Outside backs did okay, the left back held her own but did not get up into the attack enough. The right back made a couple bad mistakes that were cleaned up by the right centerback that in the fall could cost the Cougs, but as a whole the line played together well, covering for each other and talking trying to help the ladies forward of them. Holding Mids also played well. This position was filled by one of last year’s centerbacks and a freshman. Both did well helping the defense. Both of these young ladies have the height that is missing in the back and they were able to head a few balls the other way and did well in the box. The attacking mids seem to be pressed back into the defense a lot. This caused a lot of trouble for the back line, also the gap between the defense and the offense was owned most of the time by Gonzaga. Gonzaga roamed this area picking off cleared balls and sending them right back into the attack. When the attacking mids were there they were able to push the ball forward, but that was not very often. When in the attack they seem to be a half step slow and telegraphed when they were going to shot with big windups this enabled Gonzaga defenders to close and block most shots. There seemed to be no flow between the forwards and the mids, making many of the attacks one on one affairs. The forwards are both dangerous players but did not seem to communicate well together. Rarely playing off each other and often in the wrong location to help the other. Gonzaga did not have the speed to keep up but countered speed with holding and bunkering in. The forwards did not play well together though. This was a spring game. Gonzaga came in with a new system, a new coach and staff that at times worked well. This is a time for players to make an impact on the coaches, to show that for the last year they have learned something. The seniors are gone and most of the new freshman have not arrived, so those that have sat for the last year have a chance to show what they can do against another team. The Cougs have some work to do, this was a very ugly game played at Gonzaga’s rhythm and pace.
We might get a glimpse this mid-week ... air quality permitting (from fires in C.WA). Wed 08/09 11:00 PDT Washington State - Colorado State (exhibition) If you're asking on behalf of Colorado State to scout us, then ... I don't know either
Six agencies (two state, three tribal, one regional) have jointly issued an Air Quality Alert today, for all of E.Washington, for the rest of this week, due to smoke from wildfires. They're not kidding, either. Drive home from work with the windows down, and the whole city smells like ... campfire. http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=otx&wwa=air quality alert WAC001-003-007-017-019-023-025-043-047-051-063-065-075-082000- 1057 AM PDT Mon Aug 7 2017 Washington Counties within the Air Quality Alert Include: ... Whitman (+12 more) Some Communities included are: ... Spokane, Pullman, ... and Clarkston (+11 more) ...AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON PDT SATURDAY AUGUST 12TH... Smoke from wildfires in Eastern Washington, British Columbia, and Montana is expected to affect central and Eastern Washington as north or northeast winds push smoke around Washington state this week. Air quality will vary between good and unhealthy depending on wind direction and time of day. Children, the elderly, and individuals with respiratory illnesses are most at risk of serious health effects. If you experience respiratory distress, you should speak with your physician. For additional information on wildland fire smoke impacting Washington visit the http://wasmoke.blogspot.com]Washington smoke blog.[/I]
2017/08/09 Wed WSU 2-0 Colorado State 10'44" 1-0 #3 Makamae Gomera-Stevens to #6 Morgan Weaver at ~10m mid-right, right foot shot across mouth into left side netting 89'49" 2-0 Weaver dribbles cautiously to arc top 6-left, looking for a runner ... finally takes a might-as-well shot just inside left post low, GK #00 Peifer dives and lands short Hazy horizons, zinfandel moon at midnight, weak orange sun all morning -- from 2.5µ soot byproducts in the air. Everybody just played through it. By end of game, my deep inhalations felt labored, as if my diaphragm was tired. I sat on the W hilltop amidst a few traveling Colorado State family members -- it was illuminating to hear what they thought about the match-up. (Briefly: they remarked all game that we had speed advantage) 0 Paige Brandt 5 Taylor Hodgson, 18 Beth Plentl, 21 Halley Havlicek 6 Lexi Swenson, 10 Maddi Rodriguez, 13 Caeley Lordemann, 20 Janelle Stone 4 Taylor Steinke, 2 Alex Lanning, 23 Emma Shinsky 3 Makamae Gomera-Stevens, 6 Morgan Weaver 8 Jordan Branch, 24 Maegan O'Neill, 9 Sydney Pulver, 13 Elyse Bennett 19 Maddy Haro, 21 Hanna Goff, 16 Grace Hancock, 4 Kelsee Crenshaw 00 Ella Dederick (many, many subs not listed) Both teams seemed to play at about 70% pace. This was pretty clearly the 1st not-against-themselves "real" match for many players, hence ideas were simple and reflexes were uniformly hesitant and not-sharp. Traps had large rebound, hence midfield got bogged down into many scrambles and 2-v-2 or 1-v-1 wrestling duels. WSU's team speed edge eventually resulted in collecting more of these, and then making simple passes. WSU kept the plan and formation simple: turn and look up centerline, look at the wings, default is to creep upfield and switch laterally to the other fullback sneaking up. "Simple" means that players tended to stay static in their zones, with very little shifting around: hence they didn't drop or rotate into seams to create triangles for quick outlet passes. After a ball-win in midfield, the ball-carrier was usually left with few obvious options: look inside, look wide upfield, dribble herself, or ... the switch to fullback. In attack, WSU likes the flat diagonal cutting run just behind the high backline, inside-out (either way) to meet a vertical through-ball -- we tried that several times at 70% speed Decision-making is still firmly in preseason mode: dozens of times our cross or pass try was 1-3 beats late with no subterfuge, and drilled directly into the lone 1-v-1 defender's legs, or we shin-blocked a cross down in their box and hesitated until the first defender arrived and blocked a shot, or we saw and tried a killer through-ball and hit the static lone defender in the chest. We were generous to a fault in trying one pass too many, and had happy-feet/the yips on 1st-time shot chances that we turned into not-a-shot. And so on. I hope one exhibition match is enough to work that out. (Actually, I do ascribe some of that to the air quality, which acted like a gigantic field-wide brake that prevented everybody from playing fast.) CSU tried another common pattern, the medium-long chip from ~midfield to a long diagonal run from circle top to arc top either box side. But that's way too far to run in the unusual atmospheric conditions. WSU's backline was faster anyways, and won most of those races. In 1H, Steinke met a pass at ~12m 6-right, cut centerward past Dederick coming out, turned the corner to an empty net -- and Hancock(?) slide-poked ball off her foot and away. In 2H, CSU created one good inside-out chip down box right for a long cross to ~5m left post that was headed point-blank directly into Dederick's chest, for her one clear save. Eventually, WSU's speed meant we took more balls in midfield, and then we could mostly keep it and advance. We led 16-1 corners and 14-4 shots, and rang the crossbar once on a perfect 1-2 combo into box. Some fan on the hill (not me ) violated rule #1 of sitting behind a goal: Keep Eye on Ball While Chatting. WSU's Lower Soccer Field is finishing up some serious construction. They tore out all of the shrubbery on the N hillside and have built metal support rails, ~3/4 covered with metal bleacher seating. Last year's temp-scaffold press tower is now a ~3-floor permanent concrete(?)-and-wood building -- just about the size of Hollywood Squares. At the NW corner, where the dorm parking lot and street meet the usual student entrance staircase, they've apparently scooped out and leveled the entire hillside, and have built a concrete terminal arm there -- hopefully public restrooms! No other changes (for 2017). Everything shall be done in 1 week or less , before our home opener on Fri 08/18. Commander Jerjerrod: "Minnesota is coming here?"
No idea. I did scan our bench with my pocket binocs, but I don't know if I even saw her. (Not that I would recognize her without the jersey number)
2017/08/19 Fri 19:00 PDT Washington State 0-0 (2OT) #19 Minnesota Briefly: Minnesota had some speed advantage almost everywhere, and a significant speed-of-play advantage. They camped in our passing lanes, we got into theirs. We held our own, and stopped them just as much as they stopped us. Neither team connected on a clear cross or through-ball. Weaver hit the left post hard from arc top mid-left, and created a wide-open shot from box top left post at 109'10", but pulled it wide left low. Overall, a very heartening performance. We won't see speed like that again until we play the Pac-12 contenders. Our youthful midfield never broke down, and we got behind them for 1-v-1 speed-while-tired duels for several late chances. I don't expect a freshman (or sophomore) dribbling solo to beat 3-4 older defenders, so lack of scoring is excusable for now. It's probably impossible to replicate those game situations, because we don't have that kind of speed pinching the central passing lanes shut (i.e. many of our passes were too slow), and you can't simulate the gasping burn of outwrestling faster players for 20 second intervals and then making a through-ball-under-pressure rep. Then they've already calibrated for 1+ years at that speed, so they anticipate your underhit pass, and a chest is already in the way. Recalibrate quickly, and get to that level.
2017/08/25 Fri 11:00 PDT Washington State 1-0 St. Mary's 27' 0-0 WSU scramble and cross from wide left, cleared away -- but #9 Pulver fouled by a lunge-step that trips her down to one knee. (I was on the far-side hilltop, so I had no view) 28' 1-0 LB #19 Maddy Haro pk, left instep pass to 1/5 left back low (GK #0 Sawatsky dove wrong) And it held up through 90' of missed forward passes, a-touch-too-far dribbling, bad crosses, and other mayhem. St. Mary's outworked us for long stretches in midfield, then cleared many balls right to our chests and feet for other stretches. We're young up front, and still not connecting. The new kids are patient to a fault in waiting for a cut (and then run themselves aground on defenders); the timing of those cuts is still in progress. Nice day to be outside! Sunny and cool. Oh yah, around 35' an F/A-18 Super Hornet(??) buzzed Pullman at about 50m -- two tail pipes, so not an F-16, and I don't think Fairchild AFB in Spokane still flies the F-15 Eagle.
An F-18 did it yesterday afternoon, too Maybe it's the same plane, with a different crew 2017/08/24 Thu Fighter jet flies over Pullman at low altitude The pilot identified himself as a WSU ROTC graduate during the permission request. The jet flew by at approximately a thousand feet above campus. The jet was based out of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in China Lake, California. Wow -- all the way up from CA for a routine training flight. China Lake is NE of LA, SE of San Francisco, SW from Las Vegas. Today's flight was at a couple hundred feet Seriously, maybe he did a touch-and-go at Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, and was on a standard takeoff flight path.
2017/08/27 Sun 13:00 PDT (+2-2) Santa Clara 2-1 WSU (+1=1-1) 11(6)-(3)9 shots(sog), 7-1 corners, 2-1 offside, 12-17 fouls 41' 0-1 Maddie Haro fk to Grace Hancock's head 48' 1-1 Maria Sanchez cross from 11m wide left to 6-top center, near-post decoy run (Baksh?) draws off RCB Hancock, Kellie Peay runs up centerline unmarked and header-dunks into back left edge 1/4 high 75' 2-1 Kelsey Turnbow cross from arc top box right to 6m right post, Myah Baksh twist-heads to right post low, Dederick dives and misses -- ball bounces up off right post, across mouth just over line HIGHLIGHTS | Peay, Baksh Push @SCUWomensSoccer Past Washington State #StampedeTogether #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/68KMQlMAHc— Santa Clara Broncos (@SCUBroncos) August 27, 2017 SCU doesn't show highlights of opponents' goals. (To be fair, neither do we ) From the snippets I watched on TheW.tv, Santa Clara just looked more coordinated than we did in attack, regularly constructing off-ball movement into our box, with wide crosses finding targets. That's a more sophisticated idea, with better execution, than our embryonic offense this early in the year. Santa Clara has packed their non-conference schedule with a Pac-12 flavor: Cal 2-1, UCLA 4-2, they beat us, 1-1 Michigan, Notre Dame 4-1, USC 2-1, and Stanford on 09/17 That's a pretty crazy stretch of five road matches, only +1=1-4.
2017/09/01 Fri 17:00 PDT (+4-1) Montana 2-1 Georgia Southern (+2=1-2) 2017/09/01 Fri 19:30 PDT (+2=1-1) WSU 1-0 #14 Nebraska (5-1) 15(2)-(4)7 shots(sog), 4-3 corners, 12-8 fouls Attendance 1,957 -- we draw ~2k for big evening matches with no classes 69' 1-0 WSU left ck (not shown), over 6-box to box right, bounces? #13 Elyse Bennett chases it to right touch, backpass to RB #4 Kelsie Crenshaw. (highlight begins) Crenshaw backstops, her cross from 24m box right blocked upward by #14 Michaela Loebel toward arc top mid-right. #17 Caroline Buelt back-heads, but only to arc tangent right. #6 Morgan Weaver steps away to ball, waist-high right roundhouse hook pulls ball toward 6-top right. Weaver out-reverses everybody, chases to 9m 3-right, shoots one-touch right foot pull past GK #25 Aubrei Corder's right toe-poke, into back left low. Morgan Weaver sneaks it past Nebraska keeper in the 69th minute to put the Cougars up 1-0! #GoCougs https://t.co/6xyXL2rfxs— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 2, 2017 After scoring, Weaver runs away from everybody to the WSU bench for a flying group hug. So that's where she's going at the end of the clip. This was a severe test for WSU's youth, and ... we gave as good as we got. WSU's years of experience are mostly across the backline, and they tend to play 90'. Everywhere else, it seems we're platooning, with 12-15 players sharing minutes for the 6 midfield/forward spots. At any given moment, we can have 3-4 freshmen in those spots. Everything is a work in progress. Nebraska had some speed advantage up front (in bursts), esp. #26 Elyse Huber opening 2-4m gaps up wide right on 1-v-1 drives from wide midfield. In midfield, they showed precise passing and quicker foot-tricks to settle, tap, and reverse the ball, and could dodge our press and smoothly advance into our 1/2. We mostly absorbed their pressure ... by inviting them down wide sides for harmless crosses. Nebraska did ring crossbar right 90 once -- that's one of their shots not on goal. WSU presses in midfield, so we spent a great deal of energy chasing, tugging , and ankle-wrestling to disrupt Nebraska's buildups -- hence our higher fouls. It worked pretty well: we won many balls, never let Nebraska seriously siege our box top, and tired out everybody. We sub at least On offense, WSU tries several tactical patterns, all at high speed -- so the common problem in this particular game is that we run out of space (and time) to make a decision. Ideas include: a) northward run in mid-left or mid-right lanes, forward makes a diagonal cut from center through the backline, vertical tap pass into box -- not clicking yet b) medium chip into space, long diagonal run -- not clicking yet c) parallel vertical runs, diagonal pass splitting backline -- not clicking yet d) shoot from ~arc top e) solo freshman drive past 2-5 (older) defenders, solo shot. Has not worked yet Other than (e), we're oddly a bit too unselfish, slowing down to half-trot speed while looking around for a passing lane -- and then we've waited too long. In realtime, I thought Weaver's goal benefitted from a lucky/bad bounce at arc top, but the replay shows that she constructed all of it herself with two touches. Late in 2H, we did a bit of (b) for Bennett, who's 5'10" and fast -- and she regularly curled her chase-run and raced past two gassed defenders. No end product yet, but I was impressed that we did this to Nebraska for a good 30' and they could not do it to us.
2017/09/03 Sun 10:00 PDT (+4-2) Montana 0-1 #14 Nebraska (5-1) 2017/09/03 Sun 13:00 PDT (was scheduled for 12:30) (+3=1-1) WSU 5-0 Georgia Southern (+2=1-3) 15(8)-(0)5 shots(sog), 5-2 corners, 3-0 offside, 13-3 fouls Bad air day, 95ºF with smoky haze from C.Washington or W.Montana wildfires. Attendance 665 (but I left at halftime). 06' 0-0 #3 fr. Makamae Gomera-Stevens chases into box mid-left to ~7m, GK #30 Lauren Karinshak charges out, dives, trips her. Foul, pk. 07' 1-0 #17 sr. Sofia Anker-Kofoed pk, right instep hard into 1/3 right low (Karinshak wrong-footed) 14' 2-0 #10 fr. Brianna Alger square pass left to #9 fr. Sydney Pulver unmarked at 27m centerline. Pulver steps up to 24m, snipes right instep just over Karinshak's fingertips, under crossbar 1/3 right. 14' | Freshman, Sydney Pulver scores her first collegiate goal off a feed from Brianna Alger. Cougs up 2-0. #GoCougs https://t.co/nRdJQMmabF— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 3, 2017 54' 3-0 #19 Maddy Haro left throw-in at circle top, bounces at 26m mid-left as #6 Morgan Weaver backpedals facing ball -- #29 Madeline Jones steps up to Weaver's back. Ball bounces over both of them (on the heat-hardened dry soil ), Weaver turn-and-shields Jones off, #9 Junique Rodriguez misses a clearance poke at 18m mid-left -- and ball continues untouched to 11m left post. Weaver one-touch right instep chip across mouth and over Karinshak's left hand low, bounces into back right low. 54' | Maddy Haro throws it to Morgan Weaver, who drills it past the keeper. | 3-0 WSU #GoCougs https://t.co/ieeg3YAQO0— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 3, 2017 78' 4-0 WSU left ck, #7 Chelsea Harkins backpass to Haro at box top wide left. Haro chips a cross to 2m 1/5 left, Karinshak slaps ball across mouth but not away. It drops to #5 fr. Jamie Rita at 2m right post, one-touch left instep volley sneaks across goalline before it rebounds off the near post defender's shins. 78' | Jamie Rita scores her first career goal on a cross from Maddy Haro. | 4-0 WSU #GoCougs https://t.co/hquhjymLUL— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 3, 2017 89' 5-0 #11 fr. Shanya Dhindsa collects across circle top -- #18 fr. Sarah Davidson begins her diagonal cut inward, already behind 2-3 defenders and lurking just onside. Dhindsa chips into arc left, Davidson bends her run north to 12m left post, outraces Karinshak coming out late -- one-touch left instep shot across mouth, rolls into 1/6 right back low. 89' | Sarah Davidson scores her first career goal on a pass from Shanya Dhindsa. | 5-0 WSU #GoCougs https://t.co/0RfExmAS6m— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 3, 2017 We had considerable height and speed advantage throughout. Our midfield press basically stopped Georgia Southern cold -- we could catch up to anybody, then consistently take the ball away. When they passed to targets, we intercepted most of them; when they hoofed long into space, we won all of the races. On offense, we could pass (and dribble) away from them through midfield, so we generated many possessions at their box top. Some of the tactical patterns finally worked.
2017/09/08 Fri 19:30 PDT (+4=1-1) WSU 3-0 Cal State Northridge (+2=4-1) 16(10)-(1)1 shots(sog), 5-1 corners, 4-0 offside, 8-10 fouls -- we finally lost in fouls Attendance 1,105 -- lovely 06' 1-0 WSU left ck, #19 Haro sails it over 6-box to 4m wide right. #24 Maegan O'Neill heads ball back into 0.5m left post. #3 Makamae Gomera-Stevens flicks right crescent kick volley, GK #0 Jovani McCaskill blocks, then slaps ball out to 5m 3-right. #6 Morgan Weaver steps up to it, one-touch left instep through traffic just misses many legs, into center back low. OK, a crazy bounce on a ck scramble can always happen -- ergo, hie thee hence and be the side taking those corners. Weaver finishes off the deflection for her 3rd goal of the year! pic.twitter.com/ybPFiwzsn1— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 9, 2017 08' 2-0 CSUN defender (I shan't identify) settles at own 11m mid-left, turns centerward away from pressure -- rushed lateral pass to the far-side fullback sneaking upfield. Ball hits Gomera-Stevens in the chest at 16m center, bounces forward to 13m. Gomera-Stevens steps to it, one-touch right foot into back right edge, for her 1st college goal. Welp, that's like an overpass in volleyball. Gomera-Stevens takes the poor cross to net first career goal! pic.twitter.com/InxBuQwUJu— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 9, 2017 16' 2-0 CSUN subs in GK #00 Jenna Koziol for GK #0 Jovani McCaskill. 50' 3-0 Anker-Kofoed passes centerward from circle top box right to #10 fr. Brianna Alger at 35m arc right, continues her own run. Alger lays off to Anker-Kofoed through 24m mid-right, continues her own run into box. Anker-Kofoed jukes one defender down at arc top, gets just inside box to 16m mid-right, crosses to 6-top center, looking for Weaver. GK Koziol sprawls and blocks ball off her own defender, off herself, ball spins to a stop at 5m center. That defender sidesteps to ball and flicks right outstep to clear -- but directly to Alger lurking at 7m 1/3 left. Alger one-touches right instep into back left low, for her 1st college goal. Alger puts back the rebounded pass for her 1st career goal! pic.twitter.com/axRhYkx4dT— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) September 9, 2017 Northridge's red numerals upon black-and-white stripes are hard to read, even with pocket binoculars. It's not a resolution problem, it's a contrast problem. We played a high press in midfield vs. CSUN, and platooned 2-3 players at each M/F spot to stay fresh. CSUN is skilled, but again we had some speed advantage, and so we could reliably disrupt them in midfield, while running away from their attempts to chase us. In possession, we play short passes up center, or the wings, or lateral passes to the far side fullback creeping up into space. Our attack is still a bit scattershot, but we're getting better at the combo ideas -- the runs, and the timing of passes, is starting to work, and now we're at the stage of -- not quite controlling the final touch So we can see the progress. While all three goals were the results of poaching from scrambles, we dominated throughout and created all of the scrambles. At the very least, it means we're winning some races to get ourselves into those positions.
2017/09/14 Thu Utah Valley - Washington State (WAC stream) (live stats) Very nice stream! Nice evening weather, by mountains ringed! The camera looks remote-mounted on top of a 20m mast at midfield
Elevation change: 2,352' Pullman, WA 4,774' Orem, UT -- twice as high 05' 0-0 WSU hold ball in UVU's 1/2. UVU have not crossed midfield. WSU haven't connected on anything, though -- many passes into space (and subspaces filled with the other team's shirts). 30' 0-0 Full-field action. UVU has the better build-ups and more dangerous probing into WSU's box. WSU 4-0 corner kicks -- none on frame. WSU's transition passing is just-off -- that's the altitude kicking in? 33' 0-0 Last WSU tweet, ~8' late for the every-5'-or-so cycle. 35' 0-0 Stats hang? 37' 0-0 Stream dies? Wow ... did something ... happen on the field? HT 0-0. Seems to have been just an Internet outage. Stats still haven't caught up.
67' 0-0 UVU are faster in straight runs than we are -- maybe that's the acclimation. They swarm on defense, and we're outnumbered 2:5 or 3:6. From standing starts, delicate passes to somebody facing away in traffic doesn't quite work -- we never can turn cleanly. Fast crosses have no target, since we're not winning any of the footraces. And we're showing hints of being a bit too unselfish, with players not looking to just run on and shoot first-time. UVU are getting sporadic dribbles into box mid-sides, but they haven't found a cross, either. 71' 0-0 Stats have caught up to HT, but nothing from 2H yet.
72'00" 1-0 UVU left ck dives to 7m 1/3 left, Hancock heads it -- directly off the back of Branch's head It pops up over everybody and drops to 2m right post -- directly to the foot of #13 Amber Tripp, who sweeps it through Dederick's hands and just over the line. Pause for AR to confirm it fully crossed. Corner kick scramble drops directly at her foot It's been a WSU meme for ... 3+ years. Cannot find UVU woso on Twitter, so I dunno if they post goal clips anywhere.