2018 Colorado Buffaloes

RPI Something is amiss here ...

1. Stanford
6. Southern California
19. UCLA (they are SO much better than that)
22. Arizona (1-1 at Arizona)
30. Washington State (3-1 Buffs)
36. Oregon

WAIT A MINUTE !! Oregon has lost five in a row. We beat them 4-1. They are tied for last in the Pac-12. What are they doing still ahead of us?

39. Colorado ... well, the Buffs have lost ... oops, I forgot, the Buffs haven't lost. Probably will in the next two weeks, we haven't played the heavyweights yet. Just defeated a team with a higher RPI (30 last week) and dropped three places. Yeah, I know, weak non-conference schedule. I could see us being downgraded if we lost one or two of those, but we didn't. Something is still amiss here.

58. Arizona State (1-1 at ASU)
87. Washington (2-1 Buffs)
102. Utah (won four in a row, all shutouts, also has the heavyweights coming up. Was 78 last week and won last weekend.)
112. California
177. Oregon State (6-0 Buffs)

I won't list the other teams we have played, we all know, weak schedule, the only RPI above 100 is Missouri (6-0 Buffs) at 91.

cpthomas has done a great job explaining the RPI to us and I think I understand most of it, but something is still amiss here. I think our ranking at #15 is about right, we're not a top-10 team (unless we pull off a couple of stunning upsets in the next two weeks). But RPI 39, still behind Oregon? No way.

End of rant.

Denver has nine wins ...

 

CSU draw really hurt along with the aforementioned weak overall non con. They will go up as they face tougher comp

 

I don't have the Pac-12 network, so I'm watching WSU-ASU on the ASU stream and following Buffs-Cal on some kind of live stats, which tells us that Taylor's goal was her 77th of the season. No wonder we're unbeaten.

 

Buffs 3, Cal 0

Taylor, Taylor and Jorian, assists from Jorian, Tatum and Taylor.

And so it will (very likely) be two unbeatens on Sunday. Seriously, did anybody expect us to get this far without a loss? I know, we haven't played the heavyweights yet, but it's more than I expected.

Shots 15-9 and on goal 6-5 Buffs, corner kicks 5-2 Cal.

Was anybody there? Did anybody watch? Observations, please.

 

Thoughts and Prayers ...

Normally I am VERY tired of the phrase "Thoughts and Prayers" every time a school or workplace or anywhere else gets shot up in this gun-flooded country. HOWEVER ...

If you are so inclined, I am asking for thoughts and prayers to be directed at a young lady named Maddy Haro, a defender for the Washington State Women's Soccer Team. Running at full speed, she was tripped and went down way too hard, kind of head first. About 35 minutes later the ambulance took her off the field. She moved a bit at first, then she didn't although apparently she could, and nobody seemed to be in a big hurry or panic, so perhaps it was more precautionary than serious. One can hope.

 

One year ago, the Buffs were 1-4-1 in conference play and had been shut out five out of six games. The only faintly silver lining was that the losses were to the four ranked teams in the Pac-12. Someone observed here that to make the playoffs, the Buffs could not lose another game and had to win at least four of them. Which is exactly what happened, four wins and a tie, and nobody scored on us.

In the last year and five days, the Buffs have one loss, 1-0 at then #2 North Carolina in the second round of the playoffs. Not a bad run. Of course, here come the heavyweights.

Speaking of ... USC 5, Oregon State 0. Shots 24-2, on goal 16-2, corner kicks 12-0.

Utah's two shots came in the 83rd and 85th minutes. Stanford 2, Utah 0, shots 22-2, on goal 8-0, corner kicks 2-0 (2?). Stanford's Sophia Smith, a freshman from Windsor, Colorado and their #2 scorer, broke her leg this evening. We are not the only team with injuries, it is not a gentle game.

 

I think you have to think about where the Buffs should be ranked, as an undefeated team, this way: Looking at teams' RPI rankings, what are the Buffs best results? As of right now, their best result is a tie with RPI #21. So that would say they're in the #20 vicinity, good enough to get an at large selection for sure but probably not good enough to get a seed. (If they get a win against one of the top teams they'll face in their remaining games, then their seeding potential will improve.)

I don't think their Colorado State tie is a big demerit. It gets blended in with everything else, and poor results haven't been a major consideration for the Women's Soccer Committee so far as I've ever been able to tell.

 

Good news, she's OK

Bad news, Buffs down 2-0 after eight minutes.

 

Stanford 7, Buffs 0

It was over quickly, and it went downhill from there.

Shots 20-8, on goal 14-3, corners 3-1. The first corner kick led to the first goal at 1:40.

We'll see how they recover in four days, USC will be a similar handful.

 

RPI

1. Stanford (um ... yeah)
7. Southern California
18. UCLA
20. Arizona
33. Colorado (held Stanford to a touchdown, moved up from 39)
37. Arizona State
42. Washington State (lost 5 in a row but gave USC a good battle)
47. Oregon (lost 7 in a row, last one 5-0 to USC, shots on goal 13-1)
94. Utah
115. Washington (an otherwise good team that doesn't score)
126. California
190. Oregon State

Before the season started, I had this fantasy that we would do well enough to host a second-round game instead of traveling to the Carolinas and losing 1-0 to the #2 or #3 team in the country, which happened three of the last four years. Unlikely now. North Carolina is #2, undoubtedly where we are going again, assuming.

Denver is 10-5-2 and tied with South Dakota State at 6-1 atop the Summit League. SDSU has the tie-breaker. If DU can with the tournament again, maybe a repeat of last year's first round game?

Rankings:

1. Stanford (um ... yeah)
2. Southern California
8. UCLA
20. Colorado (I guess voters saw the score)
29. Colorado College (Hi, neighbor !!)
31. Washington State

 

As former Stanford pointy-ball coach once said ...

 

That's for sure. We had given up one first-half goal in sixteen games. 5-0 at halftime. On the one hand, I don't think we're that bad. On the other hand, 7-0.
It doesn't get much easier this week.

 

The game report will be a bit late, I have an event to attend right after the game so I'll do it when I get home.

It will be interesting to see how the Buffs respond after last Sunday. Today is out of the fire into the frying pan and the pan is hot. USC still receives two votes for #1 in the ranking, even though they lost at Stanford (1-0 in overtime).

I thought we could score on Stanford, and hold them to a reasonable number of goals. I expected something like 3-1. Utah held them to two goals three days before, in part because their goalkeeper was beyond phenomenal. At the other end, all both of Utah's shots came in the final seven minutes. We at least got the occasional shot off, although eight was a season low.

Sunday was a rough day for the freshmen defenders, but looking at the entire season, I think they've stepped up and done a great job. Sure, we'd be a bit better with Hannah and Kelsey playing defense, but by now everybody is missing players. Stanford lost a very good one a week ago, and she wasn't their first injury.

The team had good practices Tuesday and yesterday, and other than perhaps a lesson or two learned, I believe that last Sunday is in the past. I know it's a Thursday afternoon, but I hope we get at least a halfway decent crowd today.

 

USC 1, Buffs 0

There's one good reason why they are #2 and we are #20 ... we are a good team, they are an excellent one. That said, the Buffs did not go down easily. Playing the top two teams in the country four days apart is a tall order, but round two went a whole lot better than round one did.

I apologize, but I am going to fill in the details tomorrow afternoon. I know it will be old news by then, but I did not sleep well last night, have not felt well today, just got home (it's 9:30), and I'm getting up in the morning to volunteer at a food pantry. I'll write a good game report that I hope will be worth waiting for. And my internet connection is balky. Comcast can kiss my fat ... see y'all tomorrow.

As for the last few seconds of the match, the three objects closest in front of the goalkeeper were one soccer ball and two Buffaloes, at or very close to the six-yard line. The shot hit the goalpost.

Shots were 20-13, on goal 12-5, off sides 7-0 all USC, corner kicks 4-4.

 

Welp, we have to face you guys sooner or later, this season happened to be later. Much luck on Sunday, I don't have Pac-12 channel so I can't watch this away match so if you are able to make it, can you provide an overall report?

 

I will be happy to !!

 

USC 1, Buffs 0 continued

JJ Tompkins in the net, Erin Greening, Jesse Loren, Kayleigh Webb and Sofia Weiner defending, Sarah Kinzner at defensive midfield, Megan Massey, Taylor Kornieck and Emily Groark midfielding, and Tatum Barton and Jorian Baucom forwarding.

Erin made a very long run to the end line in the second minute. Two minutes later, Megan took the first shot, hard and the goalkeeper bobbled it but recovered. Eight minutes in, a USC backpass went a bit awry, perhaps the GK was closer to the defender than expected, the ball rolled past her heading for the net. Good news for USC, she did keep it from rolling in. Bad news for USC, she pounced on it a couple of blades of grass before the end line, tweet, indirect free kick, the GK cannot handle the ball when it has been passed back to her. So the entire USC team lined up on the goal line, and the kick and rebound shot were both blocked. The highlight video begins with this.

It was quickly obvious how fast USC is, and it seemed like they were blocking a lot of what we were trying to do. Near the end of the first quarter, Jorian stole the ball and got into the box with it but she was defended and her shot was just wide. At this point it was obvious why USC is ranked #2, and it was also obvious that we were going to give them a battle.

Just into the second quarter, they removed the ball from a defender at about our own 30 yard line and attacked quickly (they did that a lot and very well) and we were outnumbered. After a few quick passes they shot hard and not far from the goal, JJ did well to block it but the ball scooted to her right and along came an unmarked WOT (Woman of Troy) and I could have scored from there, she didn’t miss. Bummer, we'd been playing well up to that point. And for the rest of the half, USC kind of took over.

KELSEY AAKNES CAME IN !! Woo hoo, and she looked really good, her illness probably kept her from playing 90 minutes but other than that, she’s back. USC honored this development by attacking with seven players, kind of frightening in a game where we did well to occasionally attack with two. After seemingly endless possession, they got an open shot and missed. Jorian got into the box with the ball, her shot was blocked, she fought hard to get it back and shot again, which was blocked. For a while, it seemed like calls and no calls were very much not going our way. More endless possession by USC. Jorian got into the box with the ball again on the far right side and shot, the GK blocked it but the ball just rolled across the goal mouth, nobody was there to tap it in. Lots of applause for the team leaving the field at halftime, they were playing as well as they could against a team that was just better.

We kicked off to the goalkeeper, and it was a very long time before we got the ball past midfield again. A minute in, USC was offsides (they did that a lot) and the linesman called it but I guess the referee wasn’t looking that way, fortunately JJ saved the shot. She immediately followed that up with the save of the day. They got three shots on goal in the first two minutes of the half, then a wide open shot went high. We got the ball near midfield but a WOT stole it and they had a multi-player breakaway going but Kayleigh stopped it. Finally, about six minutes in (really), we did advance the ball past midfield. Eventually Taylor sent a long pass to Jorian in the box and we actually had some players not far from the goal and … was that a hand ball? The Buffs saw it. The fans saw it. Play on.

We had emerged. A long free kick into the box resulted in a header that went just wide. After being buried for several minutes, the Buffs had turned the game around a bit and USC picked up a few fouls in not too many minutes, perhaps they thought they should have gotten a second goal and seemed a bit frustrated. Megan got hammered and went down and left the game, not to return, freshman Cheynee Kingsbury took her place and played very well. We’d already seen a couple of Kayleigh flip throws, one of which reached the far post, and it wasn’t long before Cheynee launched some. A Jorian shot went just wide. We actually attacked with four players!! But USC regained composure and we spent several minutes dodging bullets. They had a breakaway down the left side but JJ came over and stuffed the shot. We had another good attack going but the ball was stolen at midfield and the WOT had nothing but lots of grass between herself and JJ. She’s probably still wondering where Kayleigh came from. A minute later JJ came out to stuff another breakaway (yes, USC is fast). Then we possessed for a while and a long pass from Erin just barely missed connecting with Jorian. We then had a 4 on 4 attack going (did not happen often) but Emily’s shot was saved. JJ made a save on another USC breakaway.

With less than two minutes left, we had a throw-in maybe 25 yards from the end line and with lots of room for Cheynee. She was on the side, JJ was at midfield, and the remaining 20 players were in or very near the penalty box. USC cleared the ball and it and several players from both teams charged up the field but USC had possession. All they had to do was keep it to win, but past midfield they were called offsides again giving JJ a free kick. Back go everybody. The ball arrived at the gathering, USC somehow didn’t clear it and there was the open shot from close range that hit the goalpost. Then USC cleared, game over.

The Buffs gave an excellent team all they could handle. So close at the end. No question about it, USC is another level above us. The top two teams in the country in four days is a tall order. Now we get to take it easi … oops, no we don’t. #8 UCLA comes to town and I think they are a bit better than that ranking. But if we play like we did yesterday, it will be quite a game.

 

Couple of notes on your synopsis from a biased USC Soccer fan but a Buff in every other aspect
1) that “bobbled ball” off Megan’s shot was actually a full extension diving save that was parried out for a CU Corner
2) that hand ball no call robbed CU of a Pk
3) the sequence at end of game was deflected by USC Defender and off post. Without the deflection the shot was right at the USC keeper.
I reiterate it was a very even game. USC players frustrated at their inability to connect passes for much of the game
Go Buffs!