09-10-2011, 12:01 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-10-2011, 12:43 AM by Viking_Guy.)
Some games are a tale of two halves. This one was a tale of the opening 43 minutes and change, and the rest of the match.
In a rematch of last year's championship game, Stanford rebounded from a dispiriting 1-0 deficit to score two in the last 10 minutes and knock off #8 the University of South Bend 2-1 in regulation. It was a strange evening: the game was delayed for about half an hour by lightning, which was a first in my memory for Stanford soccer.
Before the delay, Stanford and the Irish played a fairly evening opening half. Stanford held the ball a bit better, and had a couple of solid chances go wanting. Lindsay Taylor was the most active, but the most danger was provided by overlapping runs from Camille Levin from her right back position. UND was playing high pressure and would rotate heavily to the ball side of the field, leaving a lot of space if they could switch the ball. Cami was the one who provided that outlet player. It led to good crosses, winning corners and a lot of pressure on the UND defense. Stanford had several good chances, from Taylor, Marjani Hing-Glover and Sydney Payne, all of whom sent balls just wide.
The Irish, meanwhile, looked good in limited possession, putting the most dangerous shot-on-frame of the half on a left-footed blast from M Mandy Laddish (I think) midway through the first half that keeper Emily Oliver parried over the bar.
Then came the lightning, that cleared out a sell-out crowd as it built in from the East Bay hills and came close enough to Cagan that the refs felt compelled to stop the match. When it resumed 30 minutes or so later, the crowd was much smaller; maybe 1/3 of the fans came back. Not really blaming them: the game started more than 30 minutes late because the opener was a 1-1 draw through 2 OTs between #11 UC Irvine and #7 Santa Clara. I think a lot of families gave it up around 8:30 when the delay hit. The last minute plus played out without much of a threat, after some heavy-duty stretching.
Back on the field, the opening of the second half produced some quick chances, another long shot by Laddish among them. Then came a play that looked like it could be crucial. Stanford mid Teresa Noyola received the ball on the left side of the box out of a buildup to the right to which the Irish had overcommitted. She beat her defender trying to recover and got into the center of the box, just left of the penalty spot, 1v1 against the keeper.
And couldn't finish. She tried to go low near-post, and Irish keeper Sarah Voigt got a right hand on it to push it just wide. The ensuing corner led to no great chance; Stanford has Mariah Noguiera, who can win almost any ball in the box, but they kept trying to run her way wide of the far post, and she never got into a really dangerous spot. Well, almost never. But more on that in a bit.
The miss by Noyola was followed by a ball pulled out of the back of the net by an offsides call against Taylor off a nicely weighted but just late through ball from Teresa in about the 60th minute. And both seemed like they were going to haunt the Cardinal, because about 5 minutes later, Rachel Quon lost a battle for the ball on Stanford's endline, and the resultant corner by Laddish found a very poorly marked Henderson, who popped a lofted header just inside the right post from about 8 yards.
To add injury to insult, Oliver either strained something or hit the goalpost as she dove after the shot, and Stanford was not only down a goal but their starting keeper as well.
The next few minutes were a frustrating blur that brought up too many bad memories of last year's final; Stanford chasing the ball as the University of South Bend possessed, and occasionally launching a foray forward that ended in too many attempts to go 1v1 or 1v2 or 3 off the dribble. Backup keeper Aly Gleason collected a few shots, but nothing really dangerous, except for a few times when back passes to her put her under more pressure than I think she's used to. But it didn't feel like much could turn the momentum.
Until Lindsay Taylor decided to let another one fly. She's never been shy to shoot, launching several 25-30 yard bullets in this game, only one of which really threatened the goal. But with about ten minutes left, she got free down the right sideline on a ball from Hing-Glover, and started to angle in toward goal at about the top of the box. And then pulled the trigger on a cannon of a ball from 25 yards out off the right post that took a hard right swerve and completely flummoxed Voigt, whose late dive to try to cover the near post only succeeded in deflecting the ball into her own net. It was a bit of a soft goal, but the shot was hit so darned hard with such movement that it definitely wasn't a goalkeeper flub; she may have been poorly positioned, trying to take away too much of the cross and giving up too much of the near post, but it was an absolute blast.
So, 80 minutes in, 1-1 and momentum had definitely swung. Stanford peppered away at the Irish goal, and although ND had a shot against the run of play, Gleason covered it nicely.
Then my player of the match had another great moment. Cami, converted forward now at right back, launched another run up the right side, got to the end line and worked around her defender, who tried to seal her off the ball, to push a cross into the box that was cleared over the end line by the Irish back line. Taylor lined up yet another corner kick.
Only this time, Nogueira cut inside, taking the central channel past the penalty spot. Taylor's corner dropped low, and I think Mariah either got a thigh or a knee on it about 6 yards out and punched it into the back of the net just to the left of a frozen Voigt. Don't know how Noguiera got that open and how that ball was allowed to drop at that spot, but 88 minutes in Stanford had the lead 2-1.
And hung on for dear life. Another backpass to Gleason put her under pressure, and her clearance fell right to an ND midfielder rushing forward at the half line. She quickly turned the ball and fed Laddish, who split the out of position defenders and again unleashed a cracker of a shot from about 22 yards dead center of the field heading for the lower corner. But the backup keeper came up big, getting down to the ball with a full stretch to her right to push it over the endline. The corner she conceded was safely cleared, and Stanford kept punching the ball away out of bounds for the last minute so that the University of South Bend never got another good look.
As I said, my woman of the match was Levin; not only for her work going forward that set up the game winning goal, but for her tireless recovery, tracking back after those runs to cover her defensive responsibility and take the ball away from Irish attackers time and again. Strong consideration also to Taylor.
However, the match does point out that some of the same weaknesses still exist. Stanford still has problems with physical midfielders with speed; Noyola often gets bodied off the ball when she tracks (and she often tries to dribble players who simply turn into her and knock her off the ball), and Noguiera doesn't have great recovery speed if she gets matched up 1v1. But hey, scoring a lot can make up for a lot. Until you run into the kind of defenses you see in the College Cup. And then it becomes a much dicier proposition. As the last two finals can attest.
In any case, a good (if late) result and end to a nice night.
VG
In a rematch of last year's championship game, Stanford rebounded from a dispiriting 1-0 deficit to score two in the last 10 minutes and knock off #8 the University of South Bend 2-1 in regulation. It was a strange evening: the game was delayed for about half an hour by lightning, which was a first in my memory for Stanford soccer.
Before the delay, Stanford and the Irish played a fairly evening opening half. Stanford held the ball a bit better, and had a couple of solid chances go wanting. Lindsay Taylor was the most active, but the most danger was provided by overlapping runs from Camille Levin from her right back position. UND was playing high pressure and would rotate heavily to the ball side of the field, leaving a lot of space if they could switch the ball. Cami was the one who provided that outlet player. It led to good crosses, winning corners and a lot of pressure on the UND defense. Stanford had several good chances, from Taylor, Marjani Hing-Glover and Sydney Payne, all of whom sent balls just wide.
The Irish, meanwhile, looked good in limited possession, putting the most dangerous shot-on-frame of the half on a left-footed blast from M Mandy Laddish (I think) midway through the first half that keeper Emily Oliver parried over the bar.
Then came the lightning, that cleared out a sell-out crowd as it built in from the East Bay hills and came close enough to Cagan that the refs felt compelled to stop the match. When it resumed 30 minutes or so later, the crowd was much smaller; maybe 1/3 of the fans came back. Not really blaming them: the game started more than 30 minutes late because the opener was a 1-1 draw through 2 OTs between #11 UC Irvine and #7 Santa Clara. I think a lot of families gave it up around 8:30 when the delay hit. The last minute plus played out without much of a threat, after some heavy-duty stretching.
Back on the field, the opening of the second half produced some quick chances, another long shot by Laddish among them. Then came a play that looked like it could be crucial. Stanford mid Teresa Noyola received the ball on the left side of the box out of a buildup to the right to which the Irish had overcommitted. She beat her defender trying to recover and got into the center of the box, just left of the penalty spot, 1v1 against the keeper.
And couldn't finish. She tried to go low near-post, and Irish keeper Sarah Voigt got a right hand on it to push it just wide. The ensuing corner led to no great chance; Stanford has Mariah Noguiera, who can win almost any ball in the box, but they kept trying to run her way wide of the far post, and she never got into a really dangerous spot. Well, almost never. But more on that in a bit.
The miss by Noyola was followed by a ball pulled out of the back of the net by an offsides call against Taylor off a nicely weighted but just late through ball from Teresa in about the 60th minute. And both seemed like they were going to haunt the Cardinal, because about 5 minutes later, Rachel Quon lost a battle for the ball on Stanford's endline, and the resultant corner by Laddish found a very poorly marked Henderson, who popped a lofted header just inside the right post from about 8 yards.
To add injury to insult, Oliver either strained something or hit the goalpost as she dove after the shot, and Stanford was not only down a goal but their starting keeper as well.
The next few minutes were a frustrating blur that brought up too many bad memories of last year's final; Stanford chasing the ball as the University of South Bend possessed, and occasionally launching a foray forward that ended in too many attempts to go 1v1 or 1v2 or 3 off the dribble. Backup keeper Aly Gleason collected a few shots, but nothing really dangerous, except for a few times when back passes to her put her under more pressure than I think she's used to. But it didn't feel like much could turn the momentum.
Until Lindsay Taylor decided to let another one fly. She's never been shy to shoot, launching several 25-30 yard bullets in this game, only one of which really threatened the goal. But with about ten minutes left, she got free down the right sideline on a ball from Hing-Glover, and started to angle in toward goal at about the top of the box. And then pulled the trigger on a cannon of a ball from 25 yards out off the right post that took a hard right swerve and completely flummoxed Voigt, whose late dive to try to cover the near post only succeeded in deflecting the ball into her own net. It was a bit of a soft goal, but the shot was hit so darned hard with such movement that it definitely wasn't a goalkeeper flub; she may have been poorly positioned, trying to take away too much of the cross and giving up too much of the near post, but it was an absolute blast.
So, 80 minutes in, 1-1 and momentum had definitely swung. Stanford peppered away at the Irish goal, and although ND had a shot against the run of play, Gleason covered it nicely.
Then my player of the match had another great moment. Cami, converted forward now at right back, launched another run up the right side, got to the end line and worked around her defender, who tried to seal her off the ball, to push a cross into the box that was cleared over the end line by the Irish back line. Taylor lined up yet another corner kick.
Only this time, Nogueira cut inside, taking the central channel past the penalty spot. Taylor's corner dropped low, and I think Mariah either got a thigh or a knee on it about 6 yards out and punched it into the back of the net just to the left of a frozen Voigt. Don't know how Noguiera got that open and how that ball was allowed to drop at that spot, but 88 minutes in Stanford had the lead 2-1.
And hung on for dear life. Another backpass to Gleason put her under pressure, and her clearance fell right to an ND midfielder rushing forward at the half line. She quickly turned the ball and fed Laddish, who split the out of position defenders and again unleashed a cracker of a shot from about 22 yards dead center of the field heading for the lower corner. But the backup keeper came up big, getting down to the ball with a full stretch to her right to push it over the endline. The corner she conceded was safely cleared, and Stanford kept punching the ball away out of bounds for the last minute so that the University of South Bend never got another good look.
As I said, my woman of the match was Levin; not only for her work going forward that set up the game winning goal, but for her tireless recovery, tracking back after those runs to cover her defensive responsibility and take the ball away from Irish attackers time and again. Strong consideration also to Taylor.
However, the match does point out that some of the same weaknesses still exist. Stanford still has problems with physical midfielders with speed; Noyola often gets bodied off the ball when she tracks (and she often tries to dribble players who simply turn into her and knock her off the ball), and Noguiera doesn't have great recovery speed if she gets matched up 1v1. But hey, scoring a lot can make up for a lot. Until you run into the kind of defenses you see in the College Cup. And then it becomes a much dicier proposition. As the last two finals can attest.
In any case, a good (if late) result and end to a nice night.
VG
