Forgedias

UCLA will be playing Pepperdine today at 7pm Pacific time. Jessie Fleming did not play for Canada against Brazil in their friendly with her injury. Not sure how serious it is or if they were just keeping her out for safety reasons. In either case we'll find out where Fleming is if she plays or doesn't today. Same link as before. http://oklivetv.com/pac-12-los-angeles-live/ Over the last weekend UCLA played without Jessie Fleming and Hailie Mace and even without Mace they should of at least been ok since they had most of their team. The issue is that last weekend they got destroyed by Florida State 4-1 who are a good team but not one of the strongest teams in my opinion. Losing to Florida and getting a draw with the Florida Gators previously is exposing UCLA to some issues that I have talked about. 1) UCLA's defense is slow, but Karina Rodriguez and Kaiya McCullough do not have good foot speed and teams can expose them for this on counters since they play a high line. 2) Jessie Fleming plays the linking midfield. She SHOULD be playing more as an attacking midfielder or even a 9 as a false 9 for UCLA to lead the attack but UCLA's forwards are very direct. They don't activate Fleming on the attack and when they get the ball, they prefer to go direct immediately instead of combining with the midfield. So when UCLA is without Fleming, the offense breaks down. I actually was expecting this, didn't expect UCLA to get smashed 4-1 but I did expect them to struggle to score and its showing now. Coach Amanda Cromwell has to get her team to buy into giving the ball to Fleming and allowing her to lead the offense. Right now its try to be individualistic and score points so players like Hailie Mace, Annika Rodriguez can get noticed by their national teams and get call ups which is unproductive for the team as a whole. But hopefully these results for some changes.

Here is a podcast with Allwhitekit looking at the 2020 draft class which has Jessie Fleming headlining it. Fleming is their choice for number one in the draft board and they talk about her right at the end as they go from bottom to the top of the rankings. http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=16692

Stanford will probably continue to be the favorite to win the NCAA championship this year and for the foreseeable future. They keep recruiting the best classes year in and out and when a school does that, its very hard to stop that kind of steam roll. One thing that I admire about the Cardinals is that they teach their players possession football. Keep the ball at your feet, avoid too many long balls and use your forwards to create space to attack into the box. By this I mean having their forwards play back to goal so they can 1-2 with their midfielder sitting behind them so they can launch runs into the box. Stanford like UCLA have to constantly deal with teams trying to bunker against them. Like the Long Beach game earlier on for UCLA, it took until a last second goal to finally break that bunker and only because the ball was in the UCLA end and UCLA launched a long ball forward and caught the Long beach defense flat footed. Did UCLA finally score. What Stanford does is impressive. They don't care if you bunker, they deconstruct your defense down and break it open by scoring an early goal by attacking the box. There by forcing the other team to open up to try to even the score and this leads to more goals. The games that Stanford played were 5-0 and 5-1. They score a ton of goals. Something UCLA has a hard time doing because the forwards on UCLA won't activate the midfield and prefer to go direct and try to score on their own. Its annoying to watch since UCLA did not play this way when Fleming first played her freshman season. They had forwards that could play back to goal. Darian Jenkins and Amber Munderlyn. Both graduated and last year Coach Cromwell brought in Ashley Sanchez and moved Hailie Mace from center back to forward. Sanchez has a ton of talent but loves to try to dribble at defenders even against 2 defenders and would frequently lose the ball. And Mace, all she does is turn for goal and try to score. Even if she doesn't have a shot, she still takes it instead of trying to send the ball back to midfield and setting up another run of play. Its painful watching Fleming get shut out of what she does best. Play make. Then you also have issues of Annika Rodriguez fighting Fleming for control of the midfield since Fleming took over the 10 role for UCLA away from Rodriguez who had it in the beginning of the year when Fleming first joined the team. Rodriguez would constantly try to hog the ball and make attacks and get to the end line and try to send crosses in or cut Fleming out of the picture by sending passes to the forwards instead of linking with Fleming. And for Fleming? She isn't selfish, she plays for the team. She wants the team to win and doesn't care about points since she already is firmly with the national team. Mace and Rodriguez want to be noticed and now they are getting call ups to the USWNT for Mace and the U23 for Rodriguez. So their selfish play is getting them noticed. Stanford on the other hand. They play the right way and in hindsight, their system would be a godsend for a player of Fleming's caliber.

She has played well so far. She also played well last year until that last match which was the Championship game. It sucked that she had those 2 bad goals happen during that match. So disappointment aside, I will try and hope things are better for the squad this year.

The Long Beach game got posted to Youtube. 1st Half 2nd Half

This is a repost of what I wrote at the soccerforums for the UCLA team. To talk more about Jessie Fleming. She was magical on the pitch as usual. She would deke players that would try to tackle her and out of all the players on the pitch. she would consistently keep the ball dribbling while anyone else turn overs would happen. So when UCLA pushed forward, they were combining and moving the ball forward. It was a joy to watch. I don't know how serious Fleming's injury is. She came off limping but she looked like she wanted to return in the second half since she was standing and bandaging her leg that got hurt. But Amanda Cromwell the coach for UCLA kept her out for the second half which I thought was a good plan. Next week when Canada has their friendly against Brazil we will find out if she plays. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ UCLA wins 2-1 over Penn State. Goals by UCLA. Ashley Sanchez (1st), Delanie Sheehan (1st)Still trying to figure out the formation that UCLA used today. It looked like a 4-4-2 but could of easily been a 4-3-3. Starters: Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Sunny Dunphy as right back and Jacey Pederson as left back, Jessie Fleming, Annika Rodriguez, Marley Canales in the midfield. They used Hernadez, Villacorta and Sheehan up top I think. The way UCLA presses, the forwards move up and press the ball carrier so it was hard to figure out what formation UCLA was using since Sanchez and Mace didn't start. UCLA right of the bat would have much of the possession in the first half. They did a lot of combining, creating over lapping runs and setting up triangles which made me happy to see. This was a totally different UCLA squad then I was used to seeing from last season. Then the casters clued me in why this was the case. Hailie Mace was off with the USWNT training. You can tell how a single player overshadow the way a team plays when you see them play with the player and without. When Mace was in the Long Beach game, I only saw 30 minutes of it, but when Mace got the ball, she would turn and go direct and not combine with her team mates. That in turn made the game very one dimensional and frustrating to watch UCLA try to break the Long Beach bunker.Despite Mace's heroics in scoring that last second goal. That style of game won't win championships. Not against Stanford that has forwards that will combine with their midfield. About 20 minutes into the game. UCLA would sub in Ashley Sanchez who was returning from the U20's and she would poach and steal a bad pass from a Penn State center back and have a free shot on goal 1v1 against the Penn State keeper and score. Beautiful individual effort on her part. Penn State would turn that around and tie it up on a foul in the box. I can't remember who dragged the Penn State player down in the UCLA box and was awarded the penalty kick and scored to tie it up.Near the end of the half. Jessie Fleming who was having another good game got tangled up and went down with another player and she came up limping. When I saw her last, she was bandaging her leg herself trying to get back into the second half but I think Amanda Cromwell was going to play safe and keep her out of the match since Fleming had a friendly against Brazil next week that she will be playing. Which was a good move on Cromwell's part. Hopefully for UCLA's sake the injury is only minor since Fleming was actually bandaging herself and looked like she wanted to come and play the second half.In the second half and even in the first half. Penn State were trying to punish the UCLA back line of McCullough and Rodriguez since they play a high line to compact the playing area. So Penn State were sending long balls over them and trying to send runners to beat the defense. They did have their moments since McCullough and Rodriguez are not quick, so the counters were actually dangerous and forced Micah to make some stops. Micah played well, but I still can't forgive those 2 bad goals she gave up in the NCAA Championship to really give her a fair shake. She will need to keep proving that she belongs in that spot by playing consistent for me. The game winning goal came off a play that if your a Penn State supporter will dispute since it was a judgement call. Sheehan sent a long ball into the air, at this point Sheehan was playing right back who replaced Sunny Dunphy who I thought had a bad game. The long ball was about 30 yards out and the Penn State keeper had to track it and the ball came just under the cross bar. Amanda Denis the Penn State keeper caught the ball just outside the goal line but her momentum pushed her inside the goal and this is where the controversy starts. She kept the ball stretched out of her hands to keep it out of the goal line but the side line referee called it a goal saying the ball was dragged into goal. They had the ability to see the replay and through out the ESPN broadcast, they showed 3 different angles and I couldn't see it being over turned. It looked like the ball was dragged into goal. So the call stood after replay. Though if your a Penn State supporter, you would dispute this call. And I sympathize with you.Good game over all. Penn State had a clear plan to try to expose the back line of Penn State's and UCLA wanted to keep possession and try to score on it. Both worked to a degree though not to how each team planned it out. I think UCLA would of liked more combining near the box instead of the many long shots they took on goal. Penn State just needed more possession to pressure the back line of UCLA which is their weakness since they play so high up and are a pretty slow duo. Thought Kennedy Faulknor had a good game. She actually stood out in the second half since Fleming was out with injury. She played left back in the first half and left wing midfield in the second half and was dangerous on numerous attacking runs she attempted. Sunny Dunphy had a bad game. I didn't like her decision making. Her poor tackling and her attempts to send long balls which went no where. Her positioning on the right side was constantly getting exposed by Penn State as they were attacking that side when she was there. But I don't blame her too much since right back is something she isn't used to playing.UCLA also needs to figure out who are the right and left back pairings since both players from last season graduated. Jacey Pederson seems to have locked up the left side. She played well today. Cromwell will still need to figure out the right side.

That ESPNU link that is above this post works still. https://www.vipboxtv.se/stream-espnu-stream-live-17387 The Penn State game starts at 1 pm Pacific today. Should be a good game since Penn State is a top team, maybe the best team in the BIG 10.

Sorry about this late post. I actually forgot there was a season game today. It was Long Beach State and I thought that might of been a pre-season game but it was UCLA's first game of the season. I actually caught the last 30 minutes of the game. They should replay the game a few hours later if you want to try to catch it again. This is the link to the live stream. http://oklivetv.com/pac-12-los-angeles-live/ UCLA wins on a last second goal by Hailie Mace. Probably should of never happened since Long Beach were bunkering the 30 minutes I saw of the game. But they were trying to force it to overtime and it was in the UCLA side of the pitch and UCLA launched a long ball to Mace who out ran her defender to get a shot off on the Long Beach Keeper and scored with 2 seconds left. From what I saw, Jessie Fleming was amazing as usual. Gliding around the pitch, turning her defender around and sending passes to players. The issue is Long Beach kept 10 players in the box so you would have UCLA players running to the end line and trying to send crosses in which were usually defended well. I really thought Long Beach were going to steal a point and knowing how RPI works in College, that draw could of gotten them an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. Or if Long Beach flamed out in their season that would of cost UCLA dearly in ranking. Despite all that, UCLA got a lucky win in my book and I still don't see the forward I want to see play back to goal to activate Fleming on the offense. That would of easily solved a team bunkering in on UCLA by breaking up the marking that Long Beach were doing. Alas I think we are in for the same offense from last year which is kinda disappointing to me. Still I watch UCLA for Jessie Fleming so that is the good thing. UCLA will be traveling to Penn State for their next game. Its being televised on ESPNU so it won't be streamed on the Pac12 network. I'll see if I can find a youtube link if someone posts it up.

Here is the game on Youtube. If anyone wants to watch.

That post above was from the big soccer forum I posted there. On about Jessie Fleming. She was very frustrated about the lack of combining from her team. She was calling for the ball constantly and not getting the ball. UCLA seemed to have forgotten what worked in the Duke game and Fleming was ignored quite a lot of the time. A lot of the blame is this feed the ball to Hailie Mace which I pointed out already why I don't see that working and Villacorta not combining with Fleming much. Later in the game Claire Winter would sub in for Villacorta but by then the UCLA team were very tired from running after Stanford all game long. I really do hope Amanda Cromwell learns from this match and sees what she needs to teach in her forwards. Too many of them are looking to direct and dribble at their defender. It didn't work, good defenders will stop those attacks and force turn overs and UCLA struggled to build up in this game.

Stanford wins the final 3-2 over UCLA. Goals by Jessie Fleming from the PK and Delanie Sheehan off a corner kick. Stanford would have Kyra Carusa, Andi Sullivan and Jaye Boissiere Whether UCLA were still feeling from the effects of Friday's game, UCLA looked slower on the pitch. Doesn't make any excuses for the mistakes that were made on the pitch and Stanford also played on Friday. But they looked much fresher then the Bruins. Stanford would probably have over 60 percent of the possession. UCLA had to do a lot of running after Stanford for balls. And so shots of course would be very telling with Stanford have the lion's share of the shots. 15-5 and 10 on frame to UCLA's 4. And by the first half, it looked like Stanford were going to steam roll UCLA. They just looked fresher and their combination play were much superior. They were constantly building between midfield to forwards with all the Stanford forwards being able to play with their back to goal. Something that UCLA doesn't do really because of Hailie Mace. This allowed Stanford a lot of time in the box of UCLA and the Cardinals showed clinical precision on how to break down defense by creating 1-2 combination plays to create open looks on goal. Something I hope UCLA takes note of in the future. The goals scored by Stanford in the first half, were either by a goal keeping mistake by Tegan Micah when she tried to come off her line to take a ball on the hop and missed timed the bouncing ball and the ball would go over her hands and allowed an open look on goal by Carusa. The second goal was another mistake by Kaiya McCullough who didn't mark Andi Sullivan's run and Sullivan was on a 1v1 against Micah and here again Micah could of stopped the ball since Sullivan only had the near post to shoot at and the shot went under Micah into goal which was stoppable sadly. The second half, it would be better for UCLA. UCLA created more attacks and Julia Hernadez would play a fair number of minutes in place of Ashley Sanchez who was relatively quiet this match. Zoey Goralski would create an opportunity when she would get a through ball and her run into the box, she would get taken down by the Stanford Keeper Alison Jahansouz and Jessie Fleming would take the spot kick and score for the goal. 2 minutes later, UCLA would get a corner kick and off the corner, Delanie Sheehan would head the ball in to tie it up. Sadly it wouldn't last as Stanford would create more pressure into the UCLA box and off a scramble, the ball would come out of the box onto Jaye Boissiere feet and she would fire a laser past Teagan Micah who had no chance on the save. Stanford would then play keep away and knock the ball around forcing UCLA to chase and they did look very tired out there running after the ball all game long. If we break down the issues for UCLA in this match. 1) Kaiya McCullough had a horrible game. Her slow speed got exposed badly in this game. The second goal was a direct result of her missed mark on Andi Sullivan. But the build up to that goal was sublime on the Cardinals part because they do what the UCLA can't do. Play with their back to goal. The forward had Rodriguez on their back and she knocked the ball back to a Macario and Macario then sent a through ball past McCullough that sprung Sullivan for the 1v1 on Tegan Micah. Its how you break defenses down, without needing to go direct all the time. Combination plays and Stanford showed this again again this match. McCullough also struggled against Madison Haley She would get burnt by Haley several times in one instance, Haley with McCullough on her back, would turn on McCullough and then speed into the box and get a clean shot off on goal. McCullough was completely left behind and couldn't recover. McCullough likes to sit on the forward's back and mark them that way which is fine. But if they have speed, you have to give them some respect and even play off them if they can turn on you and McCullough just got destroyed out there. Plus McCullough also had a very obvious hand ball that wasn't called by the referee but it was balanced out by the no call on Julia Hernadez's take down in the Stanford box. 2) Tegan Micah. I would blame her for the first two goals. She made a horrible gaffe on the first goal, misjudged the bounce and it bounced over her head and the net was wide open for the easy goal. The second goal. Sullivan only had the near post to shoot at since McCullough was slightly behind Sullivan and covering the center box. Micah had to go down and stop that shot but the shot got under Micah and past her for the goal. It should of been saved. Micah also does A LOT of shouting behind her back line. But sometimes when you shout that much. Your back line stops listening to you. If the ball is in the area, Micah was shouting "Get it out" over and over. Your back line knows this, you don't need to tell them that, what you do need to tell them is to mark players and tell them if there is a forward on their blind side. Stuff that Micah isn't doing. 3) The lack of balls to Jessie Fleming. Fleming had very little of the ball. And I blame a lot of this on two issues. One is the team's need to get the ball to Hailie Mace and let her run direct on the ball. Over and over the ball was getting sent to Mace either from up top or through balls. So Fleming was getting by passed by the midfield or the back line were launching long balls. Sometimes I think Fleming needs to be very assertive and say, give me the damn ball, instead of this hopeful balls up top to Mace. And Viviana Villacorta didn't help this situation either. Since as a holding mid, its fine that she will sometimes go on the attack. But she was doing this too often and ignore the build up. Ignoring Fleming and not getting the ball to Fleming. Its like they forgot what won them the game against Duke with all the possession and decided to take matters into their own hands. The midfield was a mess for UCLA and too many individual efforts by the players. Trying to dribble at players to beat them and not looking to pass or wait for support when they did have the ball. Too often you would see Annika Rodriguez trying to dribble at a defender alone without waiting for over lapping players and then would lose the ball. 4) Haile Mace. The Mace effect for UCLA. She has dramatically changed how UCLA played from last year. There when you had Darian Jenkins, you had the team trying to combine and use 1-2 combination plays. Its rare to see that this year because of how Mace plays. She can't play with her back to goal and she can't dribble at defenders because she has poor footwork. So for Mace to really succeed, she has to use her blistering speed to beat defenders and she can do this often. But against good defensive clubs, she gets shut down and then for UCLA, its like there is no answer to figure out another solution since UCLA can't play with their back to goal. Rodriguez, Sanchez all prefer to dribble at the defender and try to beat them direct. Today, what did you see Stanford do? They rarely tried to do that but instead combined and worked to break down the defense as a team and that is what separated Stanford and UCLA today. Quality of chances and looks on goal were far superior from Stanford. This is how you break defenses down by combining and playing with your back to goal. Its why I think UCLA should actually look at playing Fleming up top in a 4-2-3-1 formation because she will hold up, and use her soccer brain to develop the play in front of her. You need a player like that as your center striker. And UCLA doesn't have that player. They just don't. Credit to Stanford, they looked like the superior side today. UCLA did make it close and maybe if those mistakes by Micah and McCullough didn't happen, this could of been a different game for UCLA. But Stanford looked the better possession team and the better attacking team. They deserved this win.

So the NCAA championship game will happen this Sunday on December 3 at 9 am pacific time. So its early.. Use the link that TC-in_BC gave in the link above this thread. Here is the synopsis of the game via the UCLA women's site. http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/12/2/womens-soccer-ucla-faces-stanford-for-ncaa-championship.aspx?path=wsoc

I have links for both the Princeton game where UCLA won 3-1 and Duke.

So let me come straight out and be honest. I had Duke winning this match even though I am a HUGE fan of Jessie Fleming. I thought the experience and the upperclassmen would take the match from the young UCLA team. I was wrong. Happy to say that, but now its onto Stanford. UCLA started their now regular roster. Hailie Mace and Ashley Sanchez up top. Jessie Fleming, Annika Rodriguez, Olivia Athens and Viviana Villacorta in the midfield. Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Mackenzie Cerda and Zoey Goralski in the back. Through out much of the game, especially in the first half, UCLA controlled the ball and possessed it for long periods at the time. Linking 10 to 15 passes in a row as they built into the Duke side of the field. Duke in return were playing with 5 players in the back. Julie Foudy was getting more and more agitated seeing Taylor Racioppi play in the 5 back set because Racioppi would have to run 100 yards to join up in any counter. By the second half Racioppi was completely spent and couldn't do much to help Duke in the build up. Duke were keeping Kayla McCoy as the long high forward pinning the 2 defenders of UCLA back. But the rest of the team were playing very compact and were clogging up the middle against UCLA. The Bruins would try and try to penetrate the middle but as I pointed out in the past, they have problems with teams that clog the middle like Duke did today. They simply could break that down because Hailie Mace who would receive a lot of balls up top, could only go direct and not play with her back to goal. You need to create combination plays like 1-2 combos where the player with the ball would feed the forward up high and then the forward playing with her back to goal would force the defender to commit to mark her and then play a one touch pass to the player that sent the ball to her in the first place on the run. You create space and open up room to take shots or actually move into the box. These actions never materialized for UCLA and so they were stuck trying to go direct up the middle or try to beat the defenders on the wings and get crosses in. And Duke in return playing so many people back, waited for turn overs and tried to counter off them by launching long balls to McCoy with the help of Imani Dorsey, were able to get some looks on goal because UCLA would have only 2 defenders defending in the back. In fact Dorsey nearly had a break away but Kaiya McCullough barely was able to knock the ball out in the box. The second half Duke would create more chances as players became more tired, more turn overs from both sides would happen but in the end the game would go into overtime and Duke sat back for the most part. Whether its due to their team having to chase after UCLA all game long, they looked tired out. With no score in overtime, it went to penalty kicks and I think Duke were confident that they had the better keeper and I would say they did. EJ Proctor is a good keeper and her save on Cerda when Cerda fired her shot up the middle, nearly catching Proctor off guard. Proctor was able to lean back and get a hand and stop the shot. Teagan Micah for her part was able to make a very easy save on a poorly taken shot by Kat McDonald that would clinch it when Marley Canales would slot her PK goal in to win the penalty kick shoot out. Over all, UCLA looked dominant on possession but trying to break a team that wants to bunker is going to be questionable since Mace has problems playing with her back to goal. But against Stanford, UCLA won't need to worry about that, Stanford love to play with the ball and won't bunker in. It should be a very back and forth match for the National Championship.Players of the match. Kaiya McCullough. Even though I question her speed because she isn't a fast player. She for the most part kept McCoy in check and stopped the most dangerous chance by Dorsey on her near break away. Zoey Goralski had a great game as well, able to attack and rush back to defend. Jessie Fleming. Was marked by Rebecca Quinn all game long and Fleming won that battle. if UCLA had a forward that could hold up and play with their back to goal, I'm sure Fleming could of combined and set up a goal for UCLA. Fleming was constantly sitting outside the box moving the ball around. She had the ball quite a lot which is good to see. For me Fleming is a very special player. Her comfort on the ball really shows and the fact that she was still able to direct the attack against Duke effectively with Quinn constantly marking shows her technical ability and her drive to win. If I find the game on Youtube I will post it here asap.

UCLA wins 3-1 vs Princeton on goals by Hailie Mace who had 2 of them and Olivia Athens.UCLA would start Hailie Mace and Ashley Sanchez up top. Jessie Fleming, Annika Rodriguez, Olivia Athens and Viviana Villacorta as the holding mid in the midfield with Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Zoey Goralski and McKenzie Cerda in the back line.On the starting line up, I am glad to see Olivia Athens starting to get more starts as she has now been starting regularly in the midfield. Villacorta seems to have solidified herself as the holding midfielder. Is Claire Winter injured? I don't know but the senior midfielder tends to be the starter so Villacorta has started the past few games.So UCLA would host their final home game for the NCAA tournament. If UNC wasn't upset by Princeton one week ago, UCLA would of had to make a travel to North Carolina but with a home crowd and Princeton having to fly 3000 miles or so. This worked into UCLA's advantage in a big way.I would of thought Princeton would of bunkered in against UCLA. Playing 10 players in front of the ball to prevent any attacks up the middle. That didn't happen. Princeton were willing to open it up and try to attack. Which surprised me since most teams who struggle to keep possession against UCLA prefer to allow UCLA to try to break their defense and that tends to be low scoring games that UCLA tend to struggle to score in.Because of that, UCLA were on the front foot all game long and were constantly attacking the box. UCLA would score 2 goals fairly early on. With Hailie Mace scoring off a header and 2 minutes later Olivia Athens would score off a scramble in the box that Rodriguez would send a pass into. Mace would add another goal in the second period off a long ball that should would beat her defender to and go 1v1 against the Princeton keeper and beat her cleanly.UCLA would also have a spot kick right at the 18 yard line and Sanchez, Rodriguez and Fleming were at the spot kick. I really thought Fleming would the one to take the shot since she is very good at those long range shots but Sanchez took it and missed high. On the topic of Hailie Mace. She was very good, very dangerous off directed balls that she could run onto. She actually should of probably scored 2 more goals if we want to be honest. She had 2 other 1v1's the first one was in the first half where she forced the Princeton keeper Natalie Grossie to come off her line and all she had to do was chip her and instead she took a shot and missed wide. Those are actually painful to watch since she is a converted defender so learning how to make touch shots or putting spin on the ball isn't going to be Mace's strength. Her other opportunity was in the second half and another 1v1 where Grossi made a great save on her shot.Annika Rodriguez was very active all game long. She also had 4 1v1 looks on goal. 3 of them she took feeds from Jessie Fleming who either sent lofted passes, through balls or clever passes that could of gotten several assists for Fleming in this game. Grossi made several great saves off Rodriguez to prevent her from scoring.Grossi also made a parry save off Ashley Sanchez, Natalie Grossi despite allowing 3 goals this game. did play very good. She had 10 saves this game even with those goals with several great saves mixed in.I thought Jessie Fleming was spectacular which she normally is at this level but she at certain points would launch attacks into the box, dribble through 2 or 3 Princeton players and then create chances in the box. One time she got into the box and fed Mace the ball and Mace had just Grossi to beat and Grossi managed to scramble and stop the attempt. And through out the game Fleming was making dekes and turn arounds on players trying to mark her. And you could see 2 sometimes 3 Princeton players surrounding her trying to force her to play the ball away. Fleming did have some good chances to score. She hit the post from a 20 yard shot and then nearly had a golazo when she deked a defender and had a clear shot on goal and missed wide. But as I point out previously, Fleming doesn't attack the box like she did this game as much as I would want to see. In fact if you watch Fleming all game. She isn't fighting for corner kicks since we would see McCullough and Karina Rodriguez in the box looking for headers, the center backs for UCLA and where is Fleming? Outside the box defending the counter. She has scored 5 header goals last year, none this year. Its a weapon that UCLA are denying themselves but this is how Fleming plays. She isn't selfish and it irks me a lot.Still UCLA played beautiful football today. There is a worry on my end its Teagan Micah and if Grossi was making these 1v1 saves against Mace or Rodriguez and getting to the ground to stop the balls. That goal scored against Micah was in that same vein. Micah didn't make the stop and to me that is a stoppable ball. Probably the only thing you could question in this game since nearly everything played to how UCLA wanted it to play out. Maybe finish some of those 1v1's that Mace and Rodriguez had. But otherwise its a complete game by the team. UCLA now travel to Orlando to play in the college cup. They will face off against Duke which has Rebecca Quinn leading them. On the topic of Quinn. When Quinn was called into friendly duty, Duke was playing in the final against North Carolina in their conference championships. Duke absolutely struggled without Quinn and lost the game 1-0. They would also play their first round NCAA tournament game without Quinn and again struggled to score without Quinn barely squeaking out a 1-0 win against a much weaker team. But when Quinn returned, Duke would proceed to smash every team they met. Scoring 7-0 against Oklahoma State, 3-0 against Texas and 4-0 against Baylor. Quinn drives the midfield for Duke if it wasn't already apparent. The rest of the games should be televised by ESPN so there won't be any streams available for those games.