Forgedias

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

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

I'll dig deeper into this question. Most programs would put their best player forward. So if its a forward, then that forward would be featured and used prominently. Because you can't afford not to since the coach needs to beat teams to show improvement and hopefully make it to selection in the NCAA tournament. So in essence not to play your best players in their best position would be shooting their own foot. 

About 7-8 years a go. There was one program that sucked all the top recruits into their program. And that women's program was the North Carolina Tarheels. In the past 40 or so years, they have won 22 national championships. In some years back to back and back. They were the dominant women's soccer program in the United States. So naturally the best players gravitated to that program wanting to win and be noticed by the national team for call ups. So North Carolina was the mecca for soccer in women's soccer for a long time. 

In the past few years, this has changed. Colleges like Stanford started recruiting the top talent in the United States. They could offer superior weather, life style and education. A Stanford degree went a long way for any students thinking past their college soccer days. And then there is how much support does the school provide to the student athlete. Rich schools could offer more. All of this matter. And then you could also boil it down to where is the strongest growth of women's soccer in the United States. And that answer is fairly easy. Its California. Its a major hot bed for women's soccer and some of the strongest teams in the nation for highschool soccer is played there. 

So over time, the demographics of women's soccer changed. More and more soccer players were coming from the west coast and for many of them, they want to stay in the west and you have good programs coming out from there. Stanford, Portland, USC and UCLA. All of these programs have won NCAA championships. Some with multiple ones like Portland and USC. 

The big programs right now in the west is Stanford, UCLA and USC. They attract the bulk of the top recruits. Last year UCLA had the top recruiting class, the class Jessie Fleming was in. This year it was Stanford and UCLA was closely behind them and UCLA bagged the number one recruit in the nation in Ashley Sanchez. Its not like North Carolina can't compete, but they are not picking up the top recruit every year like they used to. And so when you see a Stanford or a UCLA picking up top classes year and after year, then its only means that these programs will be more stronger and this year Stanford and UCLA are still in the NCAA tournament which is ongoing right now. North Carolina got knocked out last round. 

But lets focus on your question since you now understand a little how programs recruit. Because these programs are recruiting top recruits every year. They have to find minutes for them and positions they should play. If they were a small program, then Jessie Fleming would be playing like a forward. She would be constantly on the front foot trying to score for her team and carry them forward like she did last year when injuries slowed UCLA down. They lost their top forward in Darian Jenkins and Fleming in turn had to carry more of the load, so she attacked more. A lot more then this year. 

This year for UCLA, its completely different. They recruited a very strong class and add to their strong class from Fleming's year. They had a young but talent loaded team. For Coach Cromwell finding starting spots for players and rotations for subs had to be the big question. Fleming is a 90 minute player. She almost always plays the full 90 for UCLA which tells you how valuable she is to Coach Cromwell. But Cromwell also had loads of attacking talent and so Fleming is given a lot of leeway to decide what she wants to do. Does she play the box to box midfielder that she plays for Canada? Can UCLA afford to allow Fleming to do this? The answer is yes they can because they can ask their other players to step up on the attack and allow Fleming to dictate her roll on the field by either attacking if she is needed or play more defensive and act as a linking player which she does amazingly. 

Do I agree with every move by Cromwell? No I thought moving up Hailie Mace up to forward is a huge mistake. She is fast, a great direct player but she doesn't have any technique or dribbling skills. She has a horrible time trying to dribble through a defender or playing with her back to goal. So teams have been bunkering in on UCLA and clogging the middle. So you need a forward to play with her back to goal and one touch and combine with another player to break those bunkers. But Mace is just bad at it. And that flaw limits how UCLA can attack and turns it into a one dimensional attack. 

Its why I want to see Fleming move forward so she doesn't play the box to box midfielder anymore and stays in the attack. Some of the attacking formations I have suggested is a 4-3-3 where Fleming plays the 9 for her team and Mace and Sanchez play on the wings. Or a 4-2-3-1 formation with Fleming up top and Annika Rodriguez as a holding midfielder since whenever Rodriguez attacks, she likes to be aggressive and attack like a forward. Well this forces Fleming to sit deep and protect her back line for counters so you rarely ever see Fleming attack because of this. Rodrigues as a holding mid would prevent her from moving forward like this and allow Fleming to stay up top. 

But with the wealth of talent that UCLA has, they don't need to change how they play, they haven't been forced to change how they attack and sometimes I want to go back to last year and have that Fleming over this years Fleming. Fleming is still the key piece for UCLA and without her UCLA will not win a championship, but her role is so much more different then it was last year. This year, Fleming is more about the team and what the team needs her to be. The other players can be more selfish, but not Fleming who is your best player. Who can do dynamic plays on the field and that is frustrating to watch. 

UCLA will be playing San Diego State university this Friday. Nov 10 for their first round opponent in the NCAA tournament. 
UCLA shouldn't have much problems dealing with them and by next week Jessie Fleming will return to play the next rounds with UCLA. 

The UCLA synopsis link is here. 

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/11/9/womens-soccer-ucla-begins-postseason-play-friday-vs-sdsu.aspx?path=wsoc

Streaming link will be at the Pac12 site. http://pac-12.com/live/ucla-3

Here is the bracket for the NCAA tournament. http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/soccer-women/d1

UCLA would come in as a top 2 seed which is important. Anything lower and they could of gotten a team like Stanford or North Carolina in their quadrant. With UCLA being in their own quadrant they do have some tough teams. Virginia is a strong team and UCLA already beat them 2-1 earlier this year. Pepperdine is another team that drew 1-1 against UCLA and if that were to happen, penalty kick shoot outs are always a crap shoot. So should be another interesting year especially since UCLA could make a good run through the tournament this year. 

UCLA wins 1-0 vs California on a goal by Ashley Sanchez her 5th of the season. 

UCLA starting lineup. Hailie Mace and Ashley Sanchez up top. Jessie Fleming, Olivia Athens, Mackenzie Cerda in the midfield and Viviana Villacorta played the holding midfielder. Kaiya McCullough, Karina Rodriguez, Zoey Goralski and Gabrielle Matulich on defense. 

To start off with Annika Rodriguez wasn't available for this game because of a concussion she suffered against Stanford. In that game she took a head to head hit fighting for an air ball. 

The game would start with UCLA on the front foot for most of the first half. One very good thing to see is how often Fleming was on the attack and this created a lot of pressure up the middle against the Golden Bears defense. Emily Boyd the Cal Bears keeper had to be very alert with Athens hitting the cross bar and her own defender knocking a ball and hitting the cross bar as well. Boyd would also make a spectacular save off a Fleming spot kick from 30 yards out. As soon as I saw the foul from that spot, I was hoping Fleming would take the shot and Fleming did, almost scoring another golazo. The ball bent to the left away from Boyd and Boyd had to make a diving save to knock the ball out. Boyd would end up making some 8 saves during the match some of them high quality saves. 

In the second half, California were able to steady the middle and stop most of the attacks up the middle and it wasn't until Ashley Sanchez picked up a long ball sent to her to her favorite left side that she would create some magic. She would knock the long ball down with her foot and then dribble around one defender and then take the ball into the middle of the box. Sanchez would then dribble through another defender to get her shot off from her favorite right foot. I actually thought it deflected off a defender into goal but I think it hit Boyd and then deflected into goal since Sanchez was awarded the goal and not an own goal. But in any case Boyd looked like she was caught off guard by the shot and it went in. 

The Golden Bears did have one chance that they probably should of scored on. They had a counter and moved the ball up. I think Abigail Kim who was one of their few dangerous players for Cal, was able to get a pass to Kelly Fitzgerald who had a wide open net to score on and she one timed a shot and barely missed for the easy goal. Other then that UCLA were able to keep most of the chances down from California. 

About Hailie Mace during this game. She did have some dangerous long range shots that could of scored. She was very direct as she normally is but she does look like she is trying to expand her game more. She is actually trying to play with her back to goal which surprised me. She isn't good at it. It isn't very natural for her to play like that. You could see when she tries to one time passes from that position that she either pops the ball up forcing her team mate to take more touches to control it, or the passes get intercepted. But its noticeable that a direct player like Mace is trying to play with her back to goal because that is exactly what you need to do to break defenses down if they are defending the middle. 

I still would rather have Fleming have the ball and have her break the defenses down like she was doing today. She at one point had a sequence where she dribbled through 2 or 3 players broke into the box and then tried to create a passing lane for another team mate. I don't mind if Fleming doesn't score like today, just so long as she attacks more because the entire UCLA offense flows when Fleming is on the attack. California isn't a team that allows themselves to be dictated and UCLA dictated the attack on them constantly. And a large part of this was Fleming being more on the attack. This is what I want to see.

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.

Here is the match highlights.
 
 

So this weeks games will be both road games in Arizona. Arizona State on Thursday and Arizona University on Sunday. Both of them will be televised. 

Here is the synopsis of the events from the UCLA website. 
http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/10/4/womens-soccer-top-ranked-bruins-travel-to-arizona.aspx?path=wsoc
Here are the links:
Arizona State 7pm pacific time on Thursday. 
http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12ariz 

Use this link for both games since its the Arizona region that will broadcast it. 

Arizona will be on 12pm pacific time on Sunday. 

So this weeks games will be both road games in Arizona. Arizona State on Thursday and Arizona University on Sunday. Both of them will be televised. 

Here is the synopsis of the events from the UCLA website. 
http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/10/4/womens-soccer-top-ranked-bruins-travel-to-arizona.aspx?path=wsoc
Here are the links:
Arizona State 7pm pacific time on Thursday. 
http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12ariz 

Use this link for both games since its the Arizona region that will broadcast it. 

Arizona will be on 12pm pacific time on Sunday. 

UCLA wins 4-1 vs Oregon State University
Goals by Hailie Mace (8th, 9th)  Ashley Sanchez (3rd) and Gabrille Matulich (2nd)

UCLA came out in their traditional 4-4-2 formation although they used Delanie Sheehan as the holding mid which is interesting since Claire Winter usually plays that role. The commentators were talking that Coach Cromwell wanted to see more improvement in that position so she is trying out players. 

UCLA would dominate possession right from the get go. Getting 2 quick goals from Mace. One off a free kick which Gabrielle Matulich would get to at the side of the box and then send a pass to Mace who would finish and then Ashley Sanchez with her back to goal would turn on her defender and make a run into the box pulling defenders to block her and then square the ball to Mace who would finish it. 

Mace would then get into the box and get a 1v1 against the OSU keeper but instead of shooting, she would square the ball to Sanchez who would finish into the open side of the net. Going up 3-0. 

The second half, UCLA would sub nearly their entire line up out and give minutes to their bench. Which meant without Fleming or Sanchez who are UCLA's best technical players. Attacks into the box almost stopped. Most of the attacks were sent to the flanks with crosses being sent in. UCLA still had more possession then OSU, but OSU were able to string one attack together and score on it around the 70th minute mark. At this point Fleming was subbed back in to stabilize the midfield. I think from previous comments by Coach Cromwell, where she said that Fleming is the spine of the team, the linking player. we won't see Fleming always on the attack as she was last year. Which is too bad, but UCLA is loaded with attackers so I guess its not necessary but I do love seeing Fleming on the ball attacking. She is very dynamic. 

And its kind of funny that most of the goals that UCLA have conceded have come when Fleming isn't on the pitch and UCLA has subs on the field. It shows how important Fleming is to UCLA and that she got subbed back in when OSU scored.

Kennedy Faulknor also played today. She started the second half in her traditional role as a center back. Not the left back we have been seeing lately. She paired up with Choe Hemmingways who normally doesn't get many minutes herself. Kaiya McCullough and Karina Rodriguez did not play the second half. Faulknor played play, had quite a few touches from the back line since UCLA prefer to build from the back. And actually did push up to move the ball forward and connect with her midfield. Didn't have any turn overs. 

Over all a strong game by UCLA and with the early goals, allowed Cromwell to use her bench more. Just really wish to see Fleming more on the attack is my complaint. I miss her dynamic playmaking. 

Next games will be on Thursday and Sunday. For the last few weeks, UCLA has been only playing one game a week, now for the next 5 weeks or so, there will be 2 games a week. 

Here is the preview link through the UCLA website. 

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/9/27/womens-soccer-no-1-ucla-returns-home-for-pac-12-matches.aspx?path=wsoc

For this week, they will be both Oregon University and Oregon State university. Both will be home games but the Oregon game will not be televised sadly. The Sunday match will be on the Pac12 network. Oregon game will be on 5PM pt and the Sunday game will be 1PM pt. 

Normal Los Angeles Pac12 Link: http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12losa

For those that want to listen to the Thursday game, it is available through the internet. 

This is the link: http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/2016/8/16/live-audio.aspx

Next games will be on Thursday and Sunday. For the last few weeks, UCLA has been only playing one game a week, now for the next 5 weeks or so, there will be 2 games a week. 

Here is the preview link through the UCLA website. 

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/9/27/womens-soccer-no-1-ucla-returns-home-for-pac-12-matches.aspx?path=wsoc

For this week, they will be both Oregon University and Oregon State university. Both will be home games but the Oregon game will not be televised sadly. The Sunday match will be on the Pac12 network. Oregon game will be on 5PM pt and the Sunday game will be 1PM pt. 

Normal Los Angeles Pac12 Link: http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12losa

For those that want to listen to the Thursday game, it is available through the internet. 

This is the link: http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/2016/8/16/live-audio.aspx

Next match will be this Friday but in the future, matches will be played on Thursday and Sunday as a reminder. The Pac12 decided to move to a Thursday/Sunday schedule to give teams more rest in between matches. Note Match time is 2:30pm Pacific time. 

Tomorrow the match will be played at Colorado, their first conference game of the season. It will be on the Pac12 network. Its a different link from the previous one I gave since its for the regional area of Los Angeles and caters to UCLA and USC. This is the Pac12 Mountain area which caters to Colorado and Utah. Here is the link.

http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12moun

Next match will be this Friday but in the future, matches will be played on Thursday and Sunday as a reminder. The Pac12 decided to move to a Thursday/Sunday schedule to give teams more rest in between matches. Note Match time is 2:30pm Pacific time. 

Tomorrow the match will be played at Colorado, their first conference game of the season. It will be on the Pac12 network. Its a different link from the previous one I gave since its for the regional area of Los Angeles and caters to UCLA and USC. This is the Pac12 Mountain area which caters to Colorado and Utah. Here is the link.

http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12moun

Next match will be this Friday but in the future, matches will be played on Thursday and Sunday as a reminder. The Pac12 decided to move to a Thursday/Sunday schedule to give teams more rest in between matches. Note Match time is 2:30pm Pacific time. 

Tomorrow the match will be played at Colorado, their first conference game of the season. It will be on the Pac12 network. Its a different link from the previous one I gave since its for the regional area of Los Angeles and caters to UCLA and USC. This is the Pac12 Mountain area which caters to Colorado and Utah. Here is the link.

http://i4atv.info/ggwpforum/?page=p12moun

UCLA plays Pepperdine University this Friday. 7pm pt

Here is the UCLA link for the match:

http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2017/9/14/womens-soccer-no-1-ucla-hosts-pepperdine-in-final-non-conference-match.aspx?path=wsoc

Here is the regular link for the game link:

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

Other comments that were made about the game from the big soccer forums.

From Otelaliga

I watched it too. 
Sanchez was outstanding. Flemming was somewhat quiet as the announcers said in the first half, but I watched her specifically (by far my favorite collegiate player) in the second half. She was popping up everywhere. Coming back to defend at their 18. picking the ball up deeply, always seemed to be an option for the player on the ball- unbelievable work rate. Also of course, carrying forward and yes with the co-assist on the second goal (Sanchez's flick over the last line was terrific). I can't remember for sure if Fleming ever lost possession and most of the time she put her team in a more advantageous position after she relinquished it. She played a beautiful diagonal to one of the forwards late in the second half that should have put her through, but that's just one example. On the other hand, Anika Rodriguez is struggling in Flemming's shadow. 

Virginia I completely agree put tons of pressure on in the first 10. They lacked the finisher to take control of the game. I don't think any of their forwards are particularly dangerous and their attacking mids are similarly lacking a final bite. It is as if Swanson picked the kids with decent footskills and great vision, but forgot to add the last ingredient of finishing bite. I think one or two of his commits for next year may help in that regard will see if their games translate to the higher level. Both Jarrett and Spaanstra are known for their goal scoring abilities.

McClernon was very good in the back, but let Sanchez slip behind her for the first goal. I put that as much on the first year Ivory for not calling out the danger because Sanchez hovered off McClernon's blind side long enough for someone to have noticed. The second goal was almost undefensable.

I would also add, that I think the UCLA attack is the most sophisticated and effective of any I have seen so far. I have watched a lot of college games. They have an obviously terrific combination in Sanchez and Flemming and adding Mace as the direct target to stretch the field allows the other two work their magic underneath.
From Bigwest

have to admit, watching that game last night, it was perhaps the most entertaining and example of how good the women's game should be. My hope is that other schools have this game on tape to show their players

From L'orange
The first half was entertaining as their were chances on both sides. UCLA controlled the second half--more so than I would have expected after seeing the first. Fleming was a joy to watch--and that second UCLA goal was an illustration of their quality in transition. This is a team that you do not want to give much space to. Mace is a strong, fast kid. They are not very physical and that might be a vulnerability against teams that have some muscle and some ball skills--but they're aren't many teams like that.

Here is a high light of the goal and Fleming pulling 2 defenders to her. She square balled a perfect pass to Hailie Mace for a shot in the upper 90.
 
 

This Friday and Sunday will be road games for UCLA, happily both games will be available to watch via the other team's streaming network. 

Friday UCLA plays Brigham Young University at 6pm pt 
Link: https://www.byutv.org/livetv

Sunday UCLA plays Weber State at 6pm pt
Link: http://www.bigskyconf.com/sports/2015/11/19/WatchBigSky.aspx

Edit: Forgot to put up times.