Pilots vs St Marys

Those were some really nice goals - all assisted, I think. Lorielle's header/assist on the corner was outstanding, and I think I remember she created another good chance on another corner.

In basketball, a scorer in a shooting slump often just needs to see a shot go through the net (free throw, layup) to break out of it. Let's hope this scoring binge gets the team out of a scoring slump that's really been going on since Michelle got hurt two seasons ago (REALLY, REALLY BAD memory there).

It was a great win. And so much fun watching all those goals.

This was the first game in a long time where we looked faster than the opponent. At every position.

I thought StM's D looked a little weak and their goalie very weak. The highlight reel seems to confirm.

Brooke played great D Friday on the back line, but on Sunday our back line seemed very thin to me. Little McCluskie is great, improving quickly.

Strong win for a fast improving team who will hopefully be healthy soon.

Dan No Yell wrote:

I thought StM's D looked a little weak and their goalie very weak. The highlight reel seems to confirm.

Watch the highlight reels from the 2002 or 2005 seasons. everyone we played looked weak, even in the championship 2005 game when UP took four shots on All American Val Henderson and made her look like she couldn't stop anything low and to her left.

Thats what good teams playing together do.

Their goalie had one unquestionable weakness that had nothing to do with how we played - she had no pop in her leg. Her goal kicks were awful and led to some of our goals. It reminded me of coaching very young kids when the other teams goal kicks were our best offense.

fan from afar wrote:Their goalie had one unquestionable weakness that had nothing to do with how we played - she had no pop in her leg. Her goal kicks were awful and led to some of our goals. It reminded me of coaching very young kids when the other teams goal kicks were our best offense.

She had a better leg than USD's keeper.

I didn't see that game, but I find that hard to believe. This keeper had some goal kicks that I don't think made it halfway to midfield. And, a few of her goal kicks were brought down by our attackers maybe 30 yards out. At least it seemed that way on the computer. I will defer to your judgement since I didn't see the USD game, but really? Was she that bad? Was she a one-legged keeper? Maybe kicking with a wooden leg?

fan from afar wrote:I didn't see that game, but I find that hard to believe. This keeper had some goal kicks that I don't think made it halfway to midfield. And, a few of her goal kicks were brought down by our attackers maybe 30 yards out. At least it seemed that way on the computer. I will defer to your judgement since I didn't see the USD game, but really? Was she that bad? Was she a one-legged keeper? Maybe kicking with a wooden leg?

You are exaggerating. she never had a 30 yard kick or punt. Merlo is 120 yards long, whenever the video comes back up, i'll challenge you to show me one case where she didn't make the midfield circle. that's 44 yards.

Not only did she have a better leg than the USD keeper, she had a better leg than the BYU keeper. If you didn't burn your copy of that game, watch it again with that in mind. it didn't help us in either game. what won possessions in the midfield is that we anticipated much better than we have all year. the players anticipated, they didn't sit back and react.

this is women's soccer. the ability to put the ball over midfield is actually not as common as you would think. We had a keeper in the mid 90's who was an All American and I'll bet never did it. the joke was that we would bet whether she would get it out of the 18 yard box on a fly. It actually wasn't that bad, but she never put it past the mid line. Hailie has a better leg than most, and she doesn't do it every time.

teams cope with it and play through it. if the ball is short, you win the header and get it upfield. i really can't think of a time where it was the deciding factor in a game. if our attackers gained possession, it was because they challenged better and the defenders didn't play to their keeper, just as is the case 10 yards further up field. We also won because for once we had multiple players in the box for the crosses.

i'm not buying that we won because their keeper's leg sucked. they were 9-4-2 this year coming into Merlo, including a win over UC Irvine, a team we couldn't beat the same week, and took our next opponent to overtime. they have 5 shutouts and held 5 teams to 1 goal this year.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the game - I don't know how to do that. At best, I am moderately computer literate - at best. I would love to go back and look again, because I would swear that the keeper had at least a couple of kicks well short of the circle and right to one of our players, in the middle of the field. I agree completely that her goal kicks were not the deciding factor, but I thought they contributed to at least a few of the goals.

Your joke about getting a goal kick over the 18 on the fly really does remind me of my days coaching little kids. I dreaded our goal kicks - much better to give up a corner. Even at the high school level, I had a (substitute) goalie (girls) who didn't do much better then clearing the 18, so I had to have a defender take goal kicks, which can leave you in trouble offsides-wise.

[quote="Geezaldinho"]

fan from afar wrote: what won possessions in the midfield is that we anticipated much better than we have all year. the players anticipated, they didn't sit back and react.

This is so true.

On the other hand I thought the StM's keeper was off her game. I thought she had a lot of terrible kicks. Maybe I am spoiled from watching DeYoung, LaFontaine-Kussmann and Solo.

Speaking of keepers, I was really impressed by Stanford's. She never hurried or panicked when the ball came to her with an attacker charging. She always had a teammate on the other side she passed to quickly and cleanly.