Jessie Fleming

[rkomar]

LOL!  It looks like the cameraman is taking a break.

[Forgedias]

1 minute ago, rkomar said:

LOL!  It looks like the cameraman is taking a break.

I don't know what the hell the camera man is doing. Part of the issues these local casts is the quality of the product especially since they are runned by the media departments for each university. Which is understandable, its how they train to make it to the real world. But.... this is pretty sad. If your not putting any effort into production, why bother?

[rkomar]

At least they pointed the camera at Arizona's half of the pitch.  I guess they knew that's where most of the action would be.

[rkomar]

The back line is not playing well today.  Lots of blunders and give-aways.  Even Fleming is coughing it up more than normal.

[Forgedias]

Going to repost most of what I wrote on the Bigsoccer forums.

UCLA draws with Arizona University 2-2

Goals by Hailie Mace her 12th and Annika Rodriguez her 4th from the PK.

This game would be streamed on the Ariziona local network so no commentators and the camera work was horrible. Not really surprising since its probably from the university's media department doing the work. Probably most of the first half, the camera was stuck in one position with no one panning the camera around following the action. So really hard to tell the flow of the game. 

UCLA started with Mace, Sanchez up top. Fleming, A Rodriguez, Cerda and Villacorta in the midfield and McCullogh, K Rodriguez, Matulich and Goralski in the back. 

UCLA would go up 2-0 in the first half with a goal from Mace which I couldn't see because of the camera angle and a PK goal by Annika Rodriguez from I think might of been a hand ball. Again couldn't see the damn field because of the camera being stuck in one angle. 

For their part the Wildcats put up a much better resistance then most of the teams playing against the Bruins. They were constantly countering when they forced a turn over. Sending the ball up quickly to get 1v1's against defenders. And this is where the defense broke down for UCLA. Karina Rodriguez was defending 1v1 against the forward up top and the forward was beating her and getting the pass into the box which gave some great scoring chances for Arizona. And this also exposed Teagan Micah's poor footwork. Micah isn't a mobile keeper. Push her off her spot and move her and she doesn't do well and Arizona capitalized twice on 2 goals because of this. 

UCLA actually had the chance to take the lead in the 2nd half on a second hand ball called against UCLA. Fleming passed to Sanchez and Sanchez cleverly chipped the ball right at the defender since she was at the end line. The ball caught the defender's arm and a penalty was called.

This is where I actually think Coach Cromwell needs to designate a PK taker because so far out of the 6 chances they got this year. They have only converted on 3 of them and this miss was a HUGE miss for UCLA. They needed that goal. Hailie Mace immediately took the ball and put it on the spot. Fine you want the ball take it but you have to convert on it and Mace took a run up that made me face palm. She actually had her body angled to where she wanted to shoot the ball and the keeper saw this and dived to the far side to block it. 

Give the damn Penalty kicks to Jessie Fleming from now on. That cost UCLA 2 points and most likely their number one ranking. Fleming doesn't reveal where she is shooting. She sits one foot away from the ball and then can go either angle with a single flick. She doesn't give time for the keeper to guess so they have to choose a side and hope. Both Annika Rodriguez and Hailie Mace give away tells, why are they taking the PK's? Give it to Fleming. 

Credit to Arizona, they didn't roll over and allowed UCLA to steam roll them with possession. They got turn overs and immediately attacked and they found a weak point in Karina Rodriguez. The fact that she couldn't defend 1v1 the forward up top who got the ball and then allowed the pass into the box also then exposed Teagan Micah because she couldn't make the side to side save. 

And for UCLA I don't know if you can correct these problems if Karina is going to have these many problems defending 1v1.

I thought Fleming and Sanchez were great out there. I still think Fleming needs to play more up top for situations like this but she also does a lot of work. In the past Fleming would fight for corner kicks and she actually scored a lot of goals off them. 5 of them last year. What I have noticed is that instead she is marking the forward that is sitting up top. Villacorta who is the actually holding midfielder was in the box fighting for balls which shows you that Fleming is watching the entire field. I don't know if this game will force any changes on UCLA, but the defense got exposed badly. When your up 2-0 and your defenders can't defend 1v1, that is a big problem. The PK is another head ache as well since it shouldn't be about who wants the PK and to add more to their point totals. Its who is the best that takes them because those are critical. UCLA had 2 of them this game. You can't miss on any of them. 

[Forgedias]

So for this week, there will be only one game on Thursday. This Oct 12. They will be playing at home against Utah. It will be streamed live on the Pac12 network. The match will be pretty late. 8pm pacific time. 

Here is the synopsis of the match from the UCLA website. 

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/10/11/womens-soccer-returns-home-to-host-utah.aspx?path=wsoc

Here is the link to the live stream.

http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12losa

Edited October 12, 2017 by Forgedias

[Forgedias]

UCLA wins 2-1 over Utah University. 

Goals by Delanie Sheehan (4th) Jessie Fleming (3rd)

Fleming would also assist on Sheehan's goal. 

UCLA started the match with Hailie Mace and Ashley Sanchez up top. Jessie Fleming, Annika Rodriguez, Viviana Villacorta and Claire Winter as the holding mid. The back line has Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Gabrielle Matulich and Mackenzie Cerda. 

Utah even though they lost 4 straight games coming into this match, really played a strong game against the Bruins. The Utes pressed when they thought they had the chance but otherwise allowed the back to bring the ball forward and then would press the players holding the ball. Fleming and Sanchez were constantly under pressure when they had the ball which forced UCLA to spread the ball wide and try to make runs through the touch lines. Pushing the ball up the middle was difficult in large part because Hailie Mace just isn't able to hold the ball up and play with her back to goal. If there were 2 defenders in front of her, instead of holding the ball up and waiting for runners to make runs, she would try to beat them and then lose the ball instead. 

So any attempt to push the ball into the middle was stuffed. Utah was quite fine in allowing UCLA move the ball using the width of the field and trying to cross in by UCLA were defended well by the Utes. Because of that the first half would end in a scoreless draw. 

UCLA in the second half would start Sunny Dunpy replacing Sanchez, Delanie Sheehan replaced Villacorta and Zoey Goralski replaced Cerda as the 2nd half starters. 

UCLA started having a better run of possession mostly because Jessie Fleming started to get more involved into the attack. Normally she plays the full box to box midfielder and quite frequently she is in more of the defensive side of the field trying to win possession so when UCLA countered she wouldn't be part of the attack. Things changed in the second half and Fleming started demanding the ball more and pushed up with the ball and this is where the offense started to come alive for UCLA.

The goal by Delanie Sheehan would come with Fleming creating a 1-2 combination with Sheehan. They both were passing to each other and working their way to the box and Sheehan sent a back pass to Fleming and then moved to the box, Fleming then returned the pass to Sheehan and she turned on her defender, created space to shoot and sent a shot that beat the Utah keeper. Great combination and some dangerous pressure up the middle that until now UCLA struggled to create. 

Utah would equalize soon after on a corner kick that Hayl Cacciacarne would volley from the box. The issue with this goal. Great goal but Teigan Micah was there and it went over her head. In my opinion she had a chance to parry the ball over the cross bar. A pro level keeper would be able to do this but Micah just watched as the ball got blasted by her. 

For another 10 minutes the play would move back and forth between both teams and during this time, Fleming had several great runs where she was taking the ball and rushing up the field to create through balls for team mates and attacking up the middle. Around the 80 minute mark, Fleming on another run, the defender in front of her sat back and gave Fleming space to dribble at her and Fleming took it and from over 20 yards out, fired a galazo that would beat the keeper who tried to tip it over the bar, but could only get a part of the ball and deflect it in. 

Great goal by Fleming and in some instances this is when Fleming decided she wanted to take control of the game and win it because her team were going to get forced to a draw by another come from behind goal. It was really good to see Fleming trying to hard and constantly trying to attack to the middle of the pitch. 

This is why I really want to see Fleming play more top and not play the box to box midfielder that she has been playing. UCLA came alive with her on the attack and creating for her team. Coach Cromwell should move to a 4-4-3 formation with Fleming as the 9 and allow her to attack. I think this needs to happen.

Fleming had an outstanding game. At one point Fleming wanted to take over the match and try to win it. Most of the time you would see Fleming deeper into the midfield, marking players, watch for runs and defending the middle of the field. But of the offense for UCLA just wasn't clicking and they couldn't move though the middle so they were reduced to moved it to the side of the field and Utah were quite fine to give that up to UCLA. And in the second half, Fleming came alive and wanted it more. She was demanding the ball, taking the ball up the field and attacking with it. After this game, I really hope Coach Cromwell changes her formation up to allow Fleming more opportunities on the attack. UCLA needs a player that can hold the ball up and Mace just isn't able to. She can't play with her back to goal and she doesn't have the technical touch to hold and distribute well. When Fleming decided to go on the attack, the middle opened up for UCLA to attack and this alone should be enough to force a tactical change in formation for UCLA. We'll see how it goes for the future, but this game was a highlight for Fleming. 
 

[Forgedias]

Jessie's golazo

 

Jessie's assist on UCLA's first goal. 
 

 

[rkomar]

You're right about Mace in this game.  I thought the UCLA attack got better when Hernandez came on and helped to possess the ball deep while reinforcements came up.  My biggest beef with the UCLA offense, though, was their poor timing when trying to pass in behind the back line.  Most players would take one second to study the situation before making the pass, and thus putting their teammates offside when passing too late.  The team lost all fluidity in the final third.

[Forgedias]

Here is the match highlights.
 

 

[Forgedias]

Here is an interview from the match with Jessie Fleming. What is interesting is she says she wants to shoot more and I am glad she is doing so. 
 

 

[Vic]

Took a knee in the anthem on the weekend.

[Jamaicanadian]

All the "international girls" at UCLA take a knee.... I thought that was interesting.   

[Forgedias]

Jessie Fleming picked up several awards this week. 

Muscle Milk student athlete of the week.

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/10/16/womens-soccer-jessie-fleming-named-ucla-muscle-milk-student-athlete-of-week.aspx?path=wsoc

Pac12 offense player of the week. Considering that the Pac12 only played one game that week, this isn't too much of a surprise. 

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/10/17/womens-soccer-fleming-named-pac-12-offensive-player-of-week.aspx?path=wsoc

[Forgedias]

ULCA played 2 games this week and play both Washington schools. Washington State on Thursday and Washington on Sunday. Both will be away games but both will be on the Pac12 network. 

Washington State Cougars. 7pm pacific time. This is the regional feed for Washington. 


http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12wash

Washington Huskies. 2pm pacific time. 

http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12wash

Here is the synopsis of the 2 matches. 

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/10/18/womens-soccer-travels-to-washington-schools.aspx?path=wsoc

[Forgedias]

UCLA would lose to Washington State 0-1 on a goal by Maegan O'Neill off a corner kick. 

There is a lot to delve into this game but what I can say is that the same tactic that Utah used against UCLA was used against the Bruins this game. They bottled up the middle, packed the middle with defenders to not allow any pressure up the middle and forced UCLA to use the touch lines to move the ball. And when the Cougars got any turn overs which happened frequently this game, they countered hard on UCLA.

By now, UCLA pretty much has a starting line up set now. Usual suspects. Hailie Mace, Ashley Sanchez up front. Jessie Fleming, Annika Rodriguez, Claire Winters and Delanie Sheehan would start this game. Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Gabrielle Matulich and Zoey Goralski on the back line. 

The Washington State Cougars came out attacking right off the get go. They didn't sit back, they moved the ball up quickly and used their speed to beat the wings and back line. Elyse Bennett was extremely dangerous for the Cougars. Her speed was too much and McCullough and K. Rodriguez would have problems with it all day long. 

The Cougars scored very early, like the 4 minute of the game on a corner kick that the ball actually dropped into the middle of the box and Maegan O'Neill got her foot on it first and beat Teagan Micah for the early goal. In the first half, Washington played aggressive and forced several good saves off Micah. And the Bruins didn't look like their normal selves. But then again this doesn't surprise me because I saw some evidence of the offense problems in the past few games. Teams are figuring out UCLA and right now its to block off the middle and force UCLA to try to beat it. Which they are not doing. 

The issue with UCLA right now is that they have a lot of problems creating chances in the box, when they move the ball up there. Defenders try to swarm the ball carrier and they have to take half chances or they can't distribute. And without the ability to play with your back to goal, which I have noted numerous times in this thread. UCLA becomes pretty one dimensional on the attack, because they can't set up runners if they move the ball up and the forward can't set through balls for their runners. Or play with their back to goal and force the defenders to move up to defend the forward and then create space for other players. This isn't happening. So what UCLA is doing right now is being very direct on goal when they get close to the box, they shoot. Even if its a half chance, they shoot. And that plays into the hands of the defense. 

UCLA has tried to break this down by using the side lines and getting to the end line to send crosses, but teams don't mind this. Their fine with crosses, its the middle they want to block off and that prevents UCLA from building on the attack. Which is why I have been advocating that Fleming play more forward like she did last year. She can't be the box to box midfielder with the offense problems that UCLA have right now. She needs to be the one to hold the ball and then help break defenses down. 

There were other issues with UCLA. For one the casters pointed one of them out on the telecast. They fingered Annika Rodriguez for her passes into the box. She had several attempts where she would get the ball and then just make a through ball into the box but there were no runners moving into the box. The ball went no where. She did that several times this game and the casters pointed that out that Rodriguez needed to be more patient and wait for runners and the communication wasn't there. And it wasn't. Rodriguez doesn't pick her head up to see where her players are moving. So when she sends a through ball to no where she gives a frustrated look like she was blaming her team mates. You can't expect to get passes through if your not watching your team mates and their body posture. She needs to pick her head up and look at her team mates. 

Another issue is Tegan Micah. Yes Kaiya McCullough and Karina Rodriguez could of played better to deal with Bennett who was destroying them with her speed. Bennett was actually burning both the defenders and creating space for herself. In fact she should of gotten a goal because she beat McCullough clearly for the ball and had a clear break away and her shot hit the cross bar. Micah was completely out of that. 

But onto Teagan Micah. I've noted some of her problems. She is slow, her poor footwork means she isn't good moving side to side and she isn't good in the air. So whenever Bennett was getting a long ball from a Cougar counter, Micah HAD to come off her line to get to the ball. But she had problems doing this. She just is too slow. And that also forces her to hesitate to come off her line. She knows she has problems and its a catch 22 because she could lose the race to the ball. You saw it all play out this game. 

Ella Dederick on the other hand played a very good game. She was constantly playing deep into the field so anytime UCLA tried to send a through ball, Dederick was snuffing them out. Her quickness off her line is what I noticed about her. Although she did have some mistakes like the ball that she caught that popped out of her hands and landed near a UCLA player and the Cougar defender sent the ball to safety. And she completely missed a punch out on a long cross from the midfield. But over all she did a lot of work to stuff the attacks into the box by UCLA. 

Well its up to Coach Cromwell to decide how she changes her tactics now because they have to change. This loss proved that the other teams have figured UCLA out. For me, Fleming has to move up forward. I don't see any other way.

[Forgedias]

When you got to the streaming site to watch the video. You may need to register as a free user for a one year membership. Its free. I couldn't open the links up as a guest so I registered to see if that would do it. And it did, so you may need to register. 

[Forgedias]

UCLA wins 3-0 vs Washington

Goals by Jessie Fleming (4th), Hailie Mace (13th), Ashley Sanchez (4th)

Starting Line up.

Hailie Mace, Ashley Sanchez and Julia Hernadez as for the forwards, Jessie Fleming, Olivia Athens and Claire Winter as the midfielders. Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Mackenzie Cerda and Zoey Goralski as the defenders.

UCLA looked like they came out in a 4-3-3 with Hernadez starting with Mace and Sanchez. So Cromwell made some switches to help jump start the offense. I don't think this really helped in my opinion. But lets talk about the game first.

UCLA would score early on a Jessie Fleming golazo from a good 25 yards out. She picked the ball from outside the box and then ran around her marker and got a clean look on goal and took a long range shot which caught the Washington keeper off her line and scored. 15 minutes later in the 23rd minute, Mace would get a through ball from Sanchez and would convert on her chance. Previously, Fleming sent Mace in on 2 through balls and Mace finally converted on her 3rd attempt from Sanchez.

UCLA would get several more chances with Fleming getting a point blank shot on goal that Sarah Shimer stopped and Olivia Athens would also get an open net shot that Shimer would barely knock off the line to prevent another goal.

The first half was a much better improvement then last game where they barely had any dangerous chances against Washington State. Part of that was Annika Rodriguez didn't start and that allowed Fleming to move more forward and play higher. She was constantly on the attack in the first half. The second was another story. And UCLA then ran into problems trying to push the ball up the middle and was forced to use the touch lines to move the ball. Ashley Sanchez would score a late goal but for the most part UCLA struggled to break the middle down which is concerning.

After watching this entire season, its becoming more and more obvious what is the problem for UCLA when a team decides to bottle the middle up with defenders and UCLA has a hard time breaking it down. They need a target forward or a player playing high that can play with their back to goal and help break those kind of defenses down.

Look at Stanford today. Watching that goal fest against Oregon St. and you can understand how they score. They have players with their back to goal and this is how it works. The player with their back to goal is outside the box with a defender or 2 behind them. They receive the ball and wait for a runner to make a run. They one touch a pass to the runner whether its to the same player that gave them the pass to create a 1-2 passing combination or send a pass to a different player. The player then penetrates the box and from there can elect to shoot at goal or then create another play for another player. In that game Stanford again and again showed how you break those kind of defenses down by attacking the middle.

The issue for UCLA, it was a bad idea to convert Hailie Mace to a forward from defender. Since she played 2 years as a defender for UCLA, she doesn't have the technical skill to play with her back to goal. The players you want playing up forward for UCLA is most likely Ashley Sanchez and Delanie Sheehan. I wouldn't mind seeing Fleming play at top either.

Now both UCLA and Stanford are two entirely different teams. Stanford is a veteran team with a large pool of upper classmen. While UCLA have 2/3's of their roster as underclassmen. Two different situations where youth and experience make a difference. But the fact that UCLA converted Mace to a forward does make it harder to play with their back to goal to break bunkers down and I think Mace is a problem for UCLA. She scores a lot of goals for UCLA, but against a weaker defense that will allow her to make her runs, she will score. But against an organized defense, you need play makers to break those kind of defenses down and Mace isn't that kind of player.

And I think its better if Annika Rodriguez comes in as a sub. It allows Fleming to play higher and be on the attack more. When Rodriguez is in the game, Fleming is deeper for UCLA since she has to cover for Rodriguez who is usually trying to always attack with the ball. Rodriguez made another one of her no look through balls to no where in this game. I just don't understand why you even try those passes if your not watching your team mates making runs.

Jessie Fleming had a very good game, was constantly dangerous in the first half. Could of scored 2 goals if that point blank shot wasn't saved by the Washington keeper. The second half was a little different and you know where I stand on this issue. I do think UCLA has some issues that will be exposed down the road if they can't break organized defenses down. 

[Forgedias]

Here is the golazo by Jessie Fleming against Washington. 
 

 

Edited October 22, 2017 by Forgedias

[Forgedias]

Here is a short highlight of the game.
 

 

[Vic]

I love the announcer.... "I think the keeper could have done better."   Do ya think?   You can see why she chose soccer over volleyball. The hand/eye of drunken sailor and a lovely five inch vertical.

[Forgedias]

This is a little late but UCLA will take on 2 top tanked teams this weekend. Today, Thursday UCLA will host Stanford, the number 2 ranked team in America. And on Sunday will host California, the number 20 ranked team in College. 

Stanford has been destroying most of the teams they have faced so far and with one blemish, the game they lost to Florida who many of you will know has the phenom rookie in Deanna Rose, a Canadian that has been very impressive for Florida. Stanford recruit some of the best classes every year and this year has been no exception. They had the number 1 recruiting class of 2017 and UCLA had the number 2. The west coast climate is a big part of the allure of dragging top recruits to these programs and the winning programs also helps. Both have won NCAA championships. 2011 for Stanford and 2013 for UCLA. I expect both of these games and the USC game right after these two to be the toughest test for UCLA. If the Bruins can come through and especially give the Stanford Cardinals a tough competitive game, then this bodes will for UCLA in the NCAA tournament that will come right after these 3 games. 

For UCLA, this is important since a higher seed means that like Basketball, their seeding will mean that they will cover each end of each bracket thereby avoiding the strongest teams until later. Since the Pac12 does not have playoffs to determine the conference winner, Stanford by the dint that they have not lost yet to conference play and UCLA has and has had draws, means that even if UCLA does win against Stanford, they would still need a lot of help to win the Conference. For UCLA its all about controlling what you can and playing as well as you need to to ensure they get a top seed for the NCAA tournament. Stanford will be that test for this young team. 

Here is the synopsis from the UCLA website.

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/10/25/womens-soccer-hosts-pair-of-top-20-matches.aspx?path=wsoc

UCLA plays Stanford on Thursday, Oct 26 at 7:30pm pacific time. Here is the link to the stream. 
 

http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12losa

UCLA plays California on Sunday, Oct 29 at 1:30pm pacific time. Both will be streamed. UCLA is also trying to break their 10, 000 attendance record for their game against Stanford. We'll see how they do. 

 

[Forgedias]

Stanford win 1-0 over UCLA on a goal by Jordan Dibiasi off a corner kick that UCLA defended very poorly.

UCLA started Hailie Mace and Ashley Sanchez up top. Jessie Fleming, Olivia Athens, Mackenzie Cerda in the midfield with Claire Winter playing as the holding mid. Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Gabrille Matulich and Zoey Goralski were in the back line.

Stanford came out and dominated most of the possession in the first 20 minutes with UCLA having to chase the ball around for much of that time. Then UCLA began to build more using more 1-2 combinations to break out from the back line and string some solid possession. They would get their best chance on a play started by Fleming to allowed Mace to run on a through ball and she would fire a rocket which hit the cross bar and then dipped down to the goal line. At first it didn't look like a goal since the play went on and then Stanford would counter right from that play and get a corner kick out of it. Off the corner kick, Jordan Dibiasi would score on a very poorly defended cross since the ball actually hit the ground. Anytime a ball hits the ground the defenders should out number the offense and clear it which didn't happen. Dibiasi would get a pass on the far side of the post and fire the shot which Matulich who was defending that post should of stopped. But she flinched pretty badly at the close range shot and allowed the ball to pass her by. This all happened about a minute after the chance by Mace so no real replay of the goal happened.

Then the UCLA cast team then replayed the chance by Mace and Aly Wagner who I love hearing cast called out that was a goal since she didn't see any chalk come up. And after about 6 replays, they slow mo'ed the shot with the shot dipping to hit the goal line and you could see green between the ball and the line and Wagner said that was a goal. And I agreed with that assessment.

There was some confusion about video review and from my understanding that it does exist in the Pac12 since they broadcast it and have multiple cameras on the field but they don't have a goal camera so any goal that gets reviewed must show inconclusive proof that it can be overturned. So interesting to know.

To continue on, UCLA would get several half chances and almost all the chances they did have, they would have Fleming dictating the possession. With Fleming on the attack, UCLA actually use 1-2 combination plays to break into the box from the middle instead of having to use the flank plays to move the ball up.

The second half would have Stanford control most of the possession and good scoring chances for UCLA were very limited. For most of the time, UCLA were relegated to pushing the ball through the side lines and so the Bruins didn't create good chances to score from them.

Its pretty obvious from where I am seeing things is that they need to move Fleming up. Whenever UCLA did create dangerous chances, Fleming had the ball and created through balls and provided opportunities for her team mates. Though Sanchez did make some questionable decisions on those chances when Fleming would give her a ball twice on a run and Sanchez decided to dribble to her right towards multiple defenders to try to shoot with her right foot. Both chances getting blocked.

And because Fleming is who she is. She is very responsible and if one of her midfielders is up the field, she drops back to defend. You don't know how frustrated I get watching that from Fleming. She has great off the ball movement and is very heady. But would you rather have Fleming have the ball or Annika Rodriguez who several times this game would attack with the ball. Instead of trying to pass to open players, she was driving the ball to the middle and then losing the ball. Your not going to beat organized defenses this way.

Its a very simple tactical solution to fix some of the issues that UCLA has. Creating offense in the box. And it does require that Fleming needs to be more selfish and be an attacker. She is the best player in college. She needs to be attacking all the time. Not playing the full 200 feet of the field that she normally does.

Another note. Andi Sullivan was shadowing Fleming all game long. It was fun to watch these two square off against each other. Both played the full 90 of course and even though UCLA lost, it was an enjoyable game with the different styles each played. Because both teams have very different styles especially on how they want to build through the back. UCLA were constantly trying to build from the back and Stanford gets their ball to the midfield to move the ball forward. Even when Stanford was pressing deep into the UCLA half, UCLA were stubbornly trying to do one touch passing, 1-2 combination plays from the back. Though this did break down later in the game. Much of that because UCLA had to chase for the equalizer and more long balls were being sent forward.

[rkomar]

I didn't think that Mace's shot was a goal.  It looked to me like part of the ball was still in the plane of the goal line when it hit the ground.  I thought the refs made the right decision based on that.

That's the second time that I've noticed Matulich shrinking away from the shot while on the post.  I'm not sure if she's afraid of getting hit by the ball or the goalkeeper, but either way, they need to use someone else for that.

I think that Fleming is more free to play forward when Winter is playing behind her.  With her experience, Winter is a very dependable defensive midfielder who makes good decisions.  Her young replacements need more seasoning before they can be trusted as much.

When the chips are down, most of the UCLA players lose their composure and effectiveness (Fleming excepted, of course).  I think this is a problem of experience rather than talent.  This is a very young team, and I would say that it's just not their time yet.  In another year or two, I'll be disappointed if they aren't number one in the NCAA.  I hope they go far in the playoffs this year to get that experience, but I don't expect them to win the championship.

That said, I enjoyed the way UCLA played way more than the way Stanford played.  Stanford are bigger, stronger and more experienced, but UCLA's skill and style offset that.  I thought it was a very even game overall.

[Forgedias]

Here is the highlight of the game against Stanford.