The Card have a pre-season game at SJSU Friday night. If anyone is going, pls post impressions. Roster lists 29 players, 9 of them frosh. Some of these frosh have quite the resume. Murdock was with the Canadian U20s. Jota participated in the Women’s World Cup in NZ. Klinger is a year younger than her peers, but has been in the US Youth program, and was ranked the top recruit for next year. Boamah, Thomas, Kohler. Smith, and Emri were all U20 mainstays. Let’s show a little love for some of the newbs: Charlotte Kohler Sammy Smith is a member of the US XC Ski team. Pic shows her V1 technique, or Skate 1 in biathlon. Smith Awarded US Nordic Olympic Women Gold Rush Award And here’s the kicker. I’ve subbed Kirsten Dirksen for years, but clearly not long enough. Imagine my surprise to find this gem: I believe that a handful of the frosh will play extensively and address deficiencies from the previous season. Back to roster discussion. 3 GKs are listed. Hayley’s the only one who has played in college, so it’s probably her job to lose. If all GKs are healthy, GK3 might be redshirted, as has been the practice. GK2 may be Savig, who already redshirted last year. How they line up on defense will be interesting. Evans has been called up to the U20s, so she may be gone for an extended period. I envisioned her partnering with a frosh, probably Emri. Brandt/Bhuta will probably play until Evans gets back. Outside back was unsettled the previous season, seeing Bhuta and Kitahata deputized in the back. I think this season will see Sammy and Boamah eventually earning the spots. Boamah ___ Emri ___ Evans ___ Sammy Stanford have an embarrassment of riches in midfield. The choices include Shae, Bhuta, Jung, Kohler, and Klinger. IF everyone is healthy, Shae gets a spot. Aikey attacking from midfield sees the player and the team play better, so if it were my choice, that’s where she plays. Aikey tends to play better from a withdrawn position anyway when she is up front; the back-to-goal does not suit her style and strengths. When Wolf came in to play 9, Aikey thrived in a withdrawn role most likely because she's facing goal. Even if Aikey were to play up top this season, there are still two spots to fill with choices amongst Bhuta, Jung, Kohler, and Klinger. Seems like a 1st-world problem. Shae ___ Aikey ___ Bhuta/Jung/Kohler/Klinger If healthy, the wingers will be Montoya and Kitahata. Let’s welcome back Logan and Williams to the wings; their availability this season should see a relentless attack from out wide, opening up Zone 5. I would start Jaden Thomas at 9. If that doesn’t work out, Aikey can always be brought back up top. Kitahata ___ Thomas ___ Montoya Having played for the championship, this edition might feel that they have what it takes to win it all.
Card win exhibition vs SJSU 4-0. See recap at gostanford.com. All 26 players who dressed for game played at least 30 minutes (I am pretty sure). No freshmen started but they all played and none of them disappointed. Most impressive to me were Boamah and Klinger. Besides the frosh, the biggest pleasant surprise was redshirt sophomore Freya Spiekerkoetter at defensive midfield. Aikey alternated with Evans at one of the central defender spots. So perhaps Aikey will be at central defense while Evans is away with U20’s. SJSU generated very little offense, so it’s hard to evaluate the GKs and the new defenders. This Card team may not have the great players that some of the past teams had, but there appear to be a lot of good and very good players. We will see. The competition for playing time will be a coaching challenge. To me the midfield looks stronger than the front line, so I suspect Aikey may wind up at center forward.
Wolf did ok. She and Thomas alternated at center forward. Other than Kitahata, our forwards didn’t create many problems for the SJSU bunkered defense, although Williams had a nice cross to assist on midfielder Kohler’s goal.
SDSU 1 – 3 Stanford from The Daily Aztec Aztecs Fall to No. 2-Ranked Stanford 3-1 Stanford scored 3 quick goals at the start of the halves at San Diego State Wondering if anyone was at the game? Nacional TJ, any insights? There is not a clip of how the 1st goal was scored? Wish they could have been more ruthless and did more damage with their scoring opportunities at H1, before SDSU were awarded with a pen. A scoreline of 1-5 would have been more representative of the opportunities. I’ve only seen 2 matches, but there is much to like of the noobs. Kohler such a breath of fresh air at the a-mid spot. Very active player; shifty yet consistent movement opens her up to receive passes. Possesses a feathery touch when receiving balls. Easily carries the ball and the team when she takes off on long dribbles. Good close technique allows her to keep the ball in tight spaces. Not afraid to shoot anytime anywhere. Small sample size, but unless she massively regresses throughout the season, she’s a starter. Boamah has good control, and can take off with the ball at her feet to initiate and support attacks. Has made a legit case to be a starter. Sammy also making a good case as a starter at the other end. The incumbent lives life dangerously when it’s a bouncing ball; worse, failure rate I imagine is close to 100% with defending balls in the air. If Emri is being groomed to take over when Evans is away, shouldn’t she be playing more often, if not actually starting? The Card, much more than other teams, rely on their center backs as passing options. They already see the field. Small sample size I know, but from what I’ve seen so far, I feel more comfortable with Emri as a passer then I do with Evans or Aikey. Evans has a proclivity to make ill-advised passes up the spine to mids in double coverage. Aikey may be called upon to defend, but does that make her a defender? She does not seem to have a defender’s instincts; she’s still learning on the job. Aikey at defense is not a good use of her attacking talent. Attacking talent does not necessarily grow on trees, so is that the most judicious use of a scant resource? It’s a long season, Stanford at this point are far far far from the finished product. I feel that more of the frosh have made a strong case for more PT, if not starting. The time to blood them is now; there will be a learning curve, but these frosh talents are what the previous edition lacked, and what this current edition needs. We need to see what their ceilings are, before the team plays new conference opponents. Sunday will see Stanford visit Fullerton.
Was at the game. Shae Harvey scored the first goal off an Aikey corner with a nice glancing header from the near post. It was just over a minute in. Too early for working video apparently.
The way Stanford was racking up yellow cards in the first 45 minutes I thought for sure they’d be down a player eventually. But their second half adjustment brought a stunning turnaround. Stanford 1, UNC 0
Tournament invites go out tomorrow, Monday. Stanford will surely get an invite and will likely host a 1st-round game against Sac. St. Is Stanford's record good enough to get a 2-seed? Objectively, perhaps. But my eye test says otherwise. I'll take a stab in predicting how the Committee will seed: 1_Duke_________ 2_Stanford _______ 3_So. Carolina ___ 4_Penn St. 1_Florida St._____ 2_Notre Dame___ 3_ Iowa__________ 4_Mich. St. 1_No. Carolina___ 2_USC___________ 3_UCLA__________ 4_Ohio St. 1_Wake Forest___ 2_Miss. St._______ 3_Arkansas______ 4_Texas Stanford looked strong at the start of the season. as the season rolled on, this edition found itself unable to score, even on sitters. Season-ending injuries have taken its toll on the starting lineup. Do they have the competitive spirit to play to whatever seed they draw in the Tournament?
I've followed Stanford since the Macario years. I don't see playing hard being an issue. Scoring? That's a problem. It was a problem this year before they started their ACC schedule. It only got worse. In 10 ACC games, they scored 11 goals. Looking at the ACC summary stats, they finished 12th in scoring 2 goals behind BC and 1 goal ahead of Miami. Looking a bit deeper, they were 5th in SOG - so, obviously not converting SOG to goals as well as the top teams in the conference. I'd be interested in seeing the xG versus actual goals scored.
Some nice competitive spirit in the 2nd round. Looks like they played with 3 backs at the end. Like everything else this season, it's a grind.
This didn't age well. They had a 3 seed to start - in the range of 9-12. Getting to the round of 16 is "playing to their seed". They exceeded that by two rounds already. Just think what they could do if they played hard .