Samantha Williams gave them fits when she was on the field. Really good change of pace player, was one of the few bright spots during that disastrous Covid season, and I hope she can put together a great season. 30 are listed on the roster for this edition. That's one of, if not, the longest rosters I've seen so far at Stanford. IF everyone is healthy, won't be surprised to see 3-5 take a redshirt season. The frosh who played, played well enough. Evans, Montoya, & Aikey started and they all played well. Aki had smooth touches under duress; all that currywurst during her gap year did her good lol. Lumi had some good looks and eventually scored. My goodness she towers over everyone; should eventually supplant Amy at target as the season progresses. The best thing so far that Lumi has done this season was ditch the #8 jersey lol. Great move ditching the #8 jersey, you're going to have a great career kid. When they get their number called, players have to play their best to earn PT. With a long roster this season, and what's in the pipeline the next 2 seasons, you better play well when called upon. The next 2 classes have a total of at least 10 players with experience in the various -20 & -17 youth teams. With that mother lode coming in, and with this outstanding frosh class, my prediction for fielding a College Cup -worthy edition in 2024 might hopefully come a little earlier.
Congrats on defeating the Chinese women's national team 1-0 care of Maya Dom's lone goal. This might be the only loss that the FIFA 16th ranked CNWT has sustained in their current US tour versus different universities and clubs so far.
They played a WPSL team (Davis Storm), the University of San Francisco, Cal, and Stanford. Have they or will they play any other teams?
I have read they have been trying to arrange friendlies with as many teams as they can in their US tour mostly based in California. https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Chinese-women-soccer-team-17390809.php "At first, Zhou contacted NWSL teams, but they were all in the midst of their regular seasons. With the NCAA season set to start, Zhou saw the perfect opportunity to use her connections with local coaches. “That’s a top team that we’ll see in our lifetimes,” Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe said. “I think it’s really exciting for us to have that kind of opportunity. We can learn a lot about ourselves in a difficult match.” "China faced the WPSL champion California Storm, USF, Cal and eventually Stanford during its tour. The matches were sellouts, with a large contingent of Chinese women’s national-team fans in the stands." Frankly I think they should have just arranged friendlies during the next FIFA window with national teams like New Zealand, the Philippines and Mexico are doing facing each other in California stadiums next week.
USF 0 - 3 Stanford 24’ | GOALLLLLLL 🌲The heel flick from Lumi Kostmayer and the finish from @Samanth52372985 🤌That's three goals on the year from Williams.💻 » https://t.co/wJ3zyLcHWT#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/Rpm6JBitIV— Stanford Women's Soccer (@StanfordWSoccer) August 26, 2022 50’ | GOALLLLLLL 🌲Lumi Kostmayer from DOWNTOWN! 😮It's 2-0 Cardinal.💻 » https://t.co/wJ3zyLcHWT#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/60qPU0hx6n— Stanford Women's Soccer (@StanfordWSoccer) August 26, 2022 Big night for Lumi with 2 outstanding goals and a deft assist. She causes matchup problems in zone 14 whether facing up or with back to goal. Add to that the audacity to lob it from zone 10; their fullbacks or wings have to defend against that. Obviously part of her vast arsenal as she did the same audacious thing against China, but hit the crossbar instead. Had she scored against China, she would have brought the house down. And she wears old-school black cleats, the ones old geezers like me wear. I can't picture myself wearing Dayglo yellow-and-pink ensemble Samantha Williams' goal, and I estimate that half of all her goals at STanford were of the 3rd man variety. Slipping that ball into space for Williams to run to is a match for her skillset. There was once this great defender and ball hander at the Farm named Naomi Girma. Have you heard of her? She was last year's #1 overall pick in the NWSL, and a leading contender for both Rookie of the Year and Defender of the Year awards . One might be forgiven to forget about Girma, as Elise Evans showed that she's cut from the same cloth. Elegant defender, classy ballhandler, kept USF at bay with their tenacious early attack in the early stages of H1. Evans is the latest of a long line of outstanding Stanford defenders. The USF game is archived on-demand here. Sunday's game at home against UCSB. If GK2 were to get a run out, this would be it, or against Poly.
Nice win last night with Campbell coming up with a couple of big saves in the 2nd half to keep PSU at bay. The team is displaying quality depth in general, and in each of the four regular-season games, four different players had a brace.
Stanford 5 - 0 San Diego Lumi scores a hat trick. Nice to finally see someone this season who can clean up balls loitering in the box. Lumi's 1st goal was vintage O'Hara. KO, instead of just firing the ball from danger close, had the audacity to drag the ball away from the GK & depositing it from a step or two away. Good instincts from Lumi, and likely saved the GK from a possible concussion, &/or a missing tooth or three. Not to be outdone was Logan Smith & her outstanding breakaway goal. The perfect ball from @amysayer10 and the perfect finish from Logan Smith.Smith's first collegiate goal pushes the Cardinal lead to 🖐️📺 » @Pac12Network💻 » https://t.co/4kb7L1w8HC#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/sRZ3d6HAMK— Stanford Women's Soccer (@StanfordWSoccer) September 15, 2022 Haven't had a legitimate breakaway threat since Sophia Smith. The past season I noticed that teams would play a high line and compress the field on Stanford due to the lack of a breakaway threat. Logan had to slow down her run because the ball was released late lol. Looks like someone who's done double poling training, as she outsprinted the last of the defenders. This season is different - (1) we can outrun them & score, & (2) we can pick up the garbage & score from up close. Next game will be Sunday night at Santa Clara. Probably frosh convocation at the gym beforehand, so expect a big & boisterous crowd.
Arizona 0 - 2 Stanford from Arizona Desert Swarm: Arizona soccer unable to maintain strong first-half play in loss to Stanford and an interview with Stanford's garbage disposal specialist ...
ASU 0 - 2 Stanford 57’ | GOALLLLLLL 🌲Stanford had a potential goal called off in the 55th minute, but @alliemontoyaa scores her third of the year just two minutes later!💻 » https://t.co/0yDDAp9g8x📈 » https://t.co/aNyAT59qvf#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/G2YnJOVwDc— Stanford Women's Soccer (@StanfordWSoccer) October 2, 2022 79’ | GOALLLLLLL 🌲Catherine Paulson doubles the Cardinal lead with her second goal of the season!💻 » https://t.co/0yDDAp9g8x📈 » https://t.co/aNyAT59qvf#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/3cn6q0OIC0— Stanford Women's Soccer (@StanfordWSoccer) October 2, 2022
Stanford 2 - 1 Washington Felt like the Card were unlucky not to score a few more, and lucky not to have conceded at least one. A win's a win, but left much to be desired. Transition is very poor, spine frequently caught out of position, little to no pace to get back, mildly content to tiptoeing back to defend smh. Much like the previous edition, team speed is mediocre, which has been the Achilles heel against USC the past 2 editions. Hopefully this edition plays better against Wazzu. They lost at Cal, so will be very motivated to extract a positive result against Stanford.
It felt like 2 different games. After a frenetic first 5 minutes or so, Stanford settled into some nice possession and dominated the opportunities for the rest of the half. The second half looked different. After the first few minutes, Stanford was content to often play long balls forward without connecting and struggled with balls in the air - especially on set pieces. There were a few occasions of loose passes in the defensive third and a lack of urgency when pressured, but I give Washington some credit. They kept grinding. Still, I would like to have seen Stanford commit to more possession in the 2nd half. Not sure if it was Washington applying more pressure, or it was a conscious decision. I didn’t notice any subs in the Stanford midfield. If so, that’s the first time I saw that.
Stanford 1 - 0 UCLA Stanford"s Elise Evans converts from a CK, the Card park the bus for the last 20 minutes or so, and secure a vital 3 points in the hunt for the Pac title. Really tight and edgy game through 60 minutes. But after Montoya got injured just before HT, H2 was really a mixed bag. The last 20 minutes Ratcliffe took a page from Mourinho. Never have been a fan of negative tactics; I've seen enough of those employed against Stanford. But without the services of his two best wide players, who can not only hold the ball, but drove the bus and carry the whole team forward, I can understand why this was employed. Massive win against the #1 team in the country. Hope the Card roll the rest of the Pac schedule, and with a little help, to secure the Pac title.
Anyone following the U17WWC in India? It's a very entertaining group. Against host India, Stanford won 5-0. It's actually USA 8-0 India, with electric Onyeka selected FIFA POtM. Against Morocco it looks like it was Stanford 4-0, with Kohler selected as FIFA POtM. Next up will be a knock-out match against Nigeria for a place in the semis. It seems Onyeka is of Nigerian name origin. Oct 21, F, 0700 ET, 0400 PT
from the Oregon trip: Oregon 0 - 1 Stanford and Oregon St. 0 - 3 Stanford It was a "what did I miss moment" as I was making sandwiches when Aikey snuck in a brace. Wtf I was gone for just a few minutes Luckily, I caught the 3rd goal live. The 25-yard DFK on top of the arc was of such a Goldilocks distance that I thought Aikey had a 90% chance of scoring. Unfortunately, the Stanford twitter did not capture that moment Aikey was so happy running to the bench. Last homestand of the weekend with familiar faces coming back to the Farm. The Stanford coaching staff, I mean Utah coaching staff led by Hideki come back Th, and Civana the Buff-killer on Sunday. Civana used to score at will against Colorado; it was her fave team to score against. I hope she doesn't hurt us too much
Stanford 5 - 0 Utah Stanford 2 - 0 Colorado Final regular season game at Cal, KO scheduled for Fri 1500. Cal's RPI is near 40, iffy territory for an at-large bid, but if they get a positive result against Stanford, they should get in. Stanford need to win for the outright Pac title. Stanford's RPI atm is in the Top 10. FWIW, if the selections were made today, my subjective view of the top seeds would be: Code: [1] UCLA _____ [2] Virginia [1] UNC ______ [2] Stanford [1] FSU ______ [2] Alabama [1] ND _______ [2] Duke There's still a lot of soccer to be played next week so anything can happen. With the NCAA's proclivity to rig the bracket, they would probably send Stanford to UCLA. Should it come to fruition, and the seeds perform as expected It would make for a shorter trip, and UCLA are hungry for revenge.
Cal 1 - 1 Stanford Congrats to the Pac12 champions. NCAA selections scheduled for Monday afternoon. We'll see if the draw at Berkeley cost us a chance at a 2-seed
I agree that that would be the most likely scenario. Based on the NCAA's history of rigged decisions, Stanford are on a likely collision course with Santa Clara in the 2nd weekend, and against UCLA on the 3rd weekend. We shall see on Monday.
San Jose St. will indeed make the short hop on the 101. [link] The tie at Cal really sank any hopes of the Card being a 2-seed. Stanford's RPI sank 70 basis points from that result. So instead of the possibility of hosting 3 games, Stanford are only guaranteed a home game against SJSU. The week after that, Stanford will likely face BYU, then most likely UNC - in North Carolina. If that task was not tall enough, the following week will have to travel to Notre Dame to punch their ticket to the College Cup. Hope the team are up to the challenge.