Offensive Uncertainty

I also am guessing Cruz. She seems to me to be the most advanced at this point among the frosh for our passing style of play. Another possibility would be Kassie at outside defense and Elli up to outside mid, but I doubt it.

Here's hoping Kendall is OK.

Is Emma healthy? Molly?

My vote is for Taylor to play left wing until Kendall recovers. If you remember earlier last year, Taylor subbed in for Kendal and did a good job. Michelle Cruz had started and has subbed in for Talor at right wing and it would make sense for her to start in that position. That's my guess!

I don't see Ellie moving at all from left back.

Michelle C played some on the left on Sunday. Hard to imagine Elli moving forward. Emma and Molly have not been suited up to play yet.

OK fellas, here is my FIRST prediction for this weekend.....

T. Brooke at left mid, M.Cruz at right mid. Everyone else as is. (Also, according to my embedded sources.... Emma is still nursing an injury but Molly is good to go.)

And my SECOND prediction for this weekend.....

The goals will happen! Trust me. Sophie and Keelin are getting the team tuned up for their break out weekend. The team's destiny rests in their strong & capable hands.

So hang on to your hats up there in Seattle. If you don't, the wind (from all those goals) just might blow them out into the Straight of Juan De Fuca.

Have fun (I will be with you in spirit).

Gonna hold you to that, UJ

Bridges will also get significant time at mid, especially at left mid. Good first couple games and a little shaky (frosh jitters?) against Okie St. But I hear she has a strong left foot and obviously has good size.

Ellen Parker might appear also!

OK, so my vision was slightly off.

I envisioned a WORLD WIND created by a vast number of UP goals. Maybe what I really saw was simply a nice, steady, pleasant BREEZE. But come on, 5 goals scored for vs 1 goal scored against, with 2 more wins, that's not bad!

Plus,from what I've read, there were other positive results. Sophie, Keelin, Elli, and Jess are playing steady as rocks. Taylor and Micaela are coming on like gang-busters. Erin and the rest of her freshmen sisters (Sarah, Ellen, Amanda) are getting more experience and playing with more confidence.

The only unsettling thing is the team appears to still be a second half team. (But that can be fixed by inspiring and motivating coaching.)

The good news is that next weekend's competition does not seem to be too, too formidable (at least on paper that is), so some more lessons can be taught and more knowledge gained.

But the following 2 weekends against Texas A&M,then on to Cal and Stanford; the team will most likely need to play the full 90 minutes.

One does not want to get behind those teams if one can help it.

Comparing six games this year to the entire season last year, the offensive statistics look like this: 2009 GPG 3.61, 2010 GPG 1.83; 2009 shots/game 16.6, 2010 shots/game 18.3; 2009 shots on goal .497, 2010 shots on goal .436; 2009 goals/shot .217, 2010 goals/shot .100

Very interesting - We are getting the shots, just not finishing.

jc wrote:Comparing six games this year to the entire season last year, the offensive statistics look like this: 2009 GPG 3.61, 2010 GPG 1.83; 2009 shots/game 16.6, 2010 shots/game 18.3; 2009 shots on goal .497, 2010 shots on goal .436; 2009 goals/shot .217, 2010 goals/shot .100

jc, any desire to do something similar with the defensive stats?

fan from afar wrote:Very interesting - We are getting the shots, just not finishing.

That´s the glass half empty approach. The glass half full approach is that the other teams are getting extremely lucky, and we will have more 3 to 7 goal outbursts later in the season. I think we won the shots on goal statistic in almost every game last season too...until we lost to UCLA in the playoffs. I thought that the goal against Wisconsin in the first few minutes of the second half of that game was extremely clutch, and our women played extremely well as a unit. I´d be concerned if we were actually playing down to the level of the competition. The team hasn´t done that at all; they´ve been amazing. We´re just spoiled by the success of the program.

It´s like Brazil soccer now. It´s not enough to win; we have to win pretty...with bunches of goals. Haha.

Here is a stat comparison from a defensive perspective: opponents goals/game .48 2009, .33 2010; opponents shots/game 8.2 2009, 4.2 2010; opponents shots on goal .466 2009, .440 2010; opponents goals/shot .058 2009, .080 2010; UP saves/game 3.35 2009, 1.50 2010. Interestingly, opponents had only 7 assists all of last year, and none so far this year. These figures all come from the UP athletics web site, with only a little calculation needed.

one touch - The figure that concerns me is the percentage of goals scored vs the number of shots. I have absolutely no concern about this team other than the finishing. The possession has been great, the defense like a rock - everything except the finaL act - getting the ball into the netting. You can't really say the other teams have been lucky. We are just missing too many good opportunities. I hope you're right because we won't get so many opportunities against the Stanfords of the world.

jc wrote:Here is a stat comparison from a defensive perspective: opponents goals/game .48 2009, .33 2010; opponents shots/game 8.2 2009, 4.2 2010; opponents shots on goal .466 2009, .440 2010; opponents goals/shot .058 2009, .080 2010; UP saves/game 3.35 2009, 1.50 2010. Interestingly, opponents had only 7 assists all of last year, and none so far this year. These figures all come from the UP athletics web site, with only a little calculation needed.

jc, thanks for your putting the time in. It's hard to do a good comparison, because how the defense has done depends on the level of the teams we've played. Still, my sense has been that there is much more of an emphasis on "defense first" this year, perhaps with a frosh in the goal (notwithstanding that TopDrawer Soccer, for the very little its worth, rates Erin as one of the top 10 frosh so far this year). I think the emphasis on defense (if I'm right) shows.

I remember the old days before Christine, when the Pilots did not score as many goals as in recent years. The teams still were great teams!

Hello FFA,

I did some calcs comparing Goalsvs Shots for the first six games of this year (2010) and the first 8 games of last year (2009). I got 11% vs 18% respectively. Our efficiency is down right now.

I think that is because the outside mids and the forwards are still on a steep learning curve relative to the inside mids and back line.

But you're right, they need to learn fast! Texas A&M, Stanford, and Cal are coming up soon and my guess is they will show no mercy. It's going to be survival of the fittest time then.

(This is a good learning experience for these girls. It's good for them)

-UJ-

Uncle John wrote:Hello FFA,

I think that is because the outside mids and the forwards are still on a steep learning curve relative to the inside mids and back line.



-UJ-

Good morning, UJ - Not sure I agree, at least not completely. If you are correct and that were the case, we wouldn't be getting as many shots, but the research above says we are actually getting more shots than last year. To favor your argument, you could say the shots have not been as good as last year's (longer shots, more difficult angles, etc), and I actually think that is probably true. But, I also think we are missing too many GOOD opportunities. We could easily have scored 2 goals by half both games last weekend - SHOULD have scored 2 goals. My concern is that these good opportunities will be much harder to come by against better teams. We may only get one or two good chances a game, and we need to finish the fewer good opportunities we will get. That could easily start happening. It could be that the soccer gods have been testing us and will decide we have passed the test.

I agree FFA, and everyone else in the discussion.

I think we have been solid as a rock defensively.

Offensively dominating.

But we must finish with higher efficiency if we are going to score goals against the superior teams ahead on the schedule.

Another point - I think Danielle is easily the best finisher on the team, and she has not been getting her shots. Somebody, earlier, made the point that many of her goals last year were set up by Michelle's runs. That's not happening this year, of course, and it may not happen - Michelle was one of a kind. It would help a lot if we could figure out a way to get Danielle the ball in scoring position more.

FANatic wrote:I agree FFA, and everyone else in the discussion.

I have long felt that you are a truly wise man, Fanatic

Hello FFAF and FAN:

OK, you have me convinced. I will start directing some of my prayers to the soccer gods tonight!

UF

UJ - Please have them respond this weekend.

FFAF,

I am composing my prayer as we speak. It will go something like....

Dear Lord,

Please let Taylor and Micaela each have a break out weekend and at least 2 goals each on both Friday and Sunday.

Please provide wisdom and vision to the team so they find a way to get the ball to Danie so she can perform the magic we all know she is capable of (score lots of goals).

And finally, please hurry up Kendalls healing process so she will ready to play when the pagan Aggies from Texas A&M come to town next weekend.

Thank you Lord

Amen