12-05-2010, 01:51 PM
WiM--
You\'re right about the lack of width; I thought Stanford\'s best work was when Taylor stayed out wide. Â Noyola supposedly playing a wing forward constantly drifted inside, which meant there was no wide player to her side. Â Part of that is McCann and Nogueira rarely venturing wide - counting on the wide backs to fill that space. Â So Stanford was playing in essentially 2/3rds of the width the whole game - which meant that Press had no room to operate, with one marking, one in support, and generally the holding midfielder tracking back to triple team. Â And often no option to square the ball off outside, but Levin and Noyola both inside and easily picked up by the players concentrating on Press.
Another issue was that Quon was caught in-between a lot - not forward enough to generate a lot of pressure, but often leaving space behind her that Verloo or Garciamendez had to rotate over to cover. Â And you\'re right, the center back distribution was not great - Garciamendez was reluctant to bring the ball forward because of her lack of recovery speed, and Verloo was covering for Quon. Â So Notre Dame generated a hell of a lot of high pressure with only two players forward by sending one person at the ball and hanging out in the passing lanes wide. Â Far too much of the game rested on Annie Case as a person moving forward, and she\'s just not used to that role.
VG
You\'re right about the lack of width; I thought Stanford\'s best work was when Taylor stayed out wide. Â Noyola supposedly playing a wing forward constantly drifted inside, which meant there was no wide player to her side. Â Part of that is McCann and Nogueira rarely venturing wide - counting on the wide backs to fill that space. Â So Stanford was playing in essentially 2/3rds of the width the whole game - which meant that Press had no room to operate, with one marking, one in support, and generally the holding midfielder tracking back to triple team. Â And often no option to square the ball off outside, but Levin and Noyola both inside and easily picked up by the players concentrating on Press.
Another issue was that Quon was caught in-between a lot - not forward enough to generate a lot of pressure, but often leaving space behind her that Verloo or Garciamendez had to rotate over to cover. Â And you\'re right, the center back distribution was not great - Garciamendez was reluctant to bring the ball forward because of her lack of recovery speed, and Verloo was covering for Quon. Â So Notre Dame generated a hell of a lot of high pressure with only two players forward by sending one person at the ball and hanging out in the passing lanes wide. Â Far too much of the game rested on Annie Case as a person moving forward, and she\'s just not used to that role.
VG