Sooner Soccer visits Missouri: Is it a "Must Win" Match for OU ?

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Soccer team has perhaps three matches left in 2024. The Sooners are trying to continue their season to qualify for the SEC Soccer Tourney. To do so, the Sooners need to finish in 12th Place or higher. Currenlty, the Sooners are in 15th spot, 3 points behind the 12th place team, Missouri. Coincedently, the Sooners travel to Columbia, MO for a Friday Match against Missouri in a 7 PM Match. After that, the Sooners play Ole Miss and Florida in their remaining two games next week. Ole Miss is in 16th place and Florida is in 14th place. The remaining schedule for Oklahoma could not be more favorable for a three-match run to qualify for the SEC Tourney.

The Sooners have lost 4 of their last 5 matches with 1 tie as the other result. The schedule was difficult during that stretch though as they played 4 of the top 6 SEC teams. But with the schedule now more in their favor, the Sooners need to flourish. That has to start on Friday in Columbia, MO vs the Missouri Tigers.

Missouri has scored 5 goals in SEC and allowed 3 goals if you ignore thier 0-8 defeat to Arkansas and their 5-0 win over Ole Miss. On the other hand, OU has scored 5 goals and allowed 12 goals in SEC play. Oklahoma must find a way to score in their last three matches. The Sooners have been shutout their last three matches by Georgia, Texas and Arkansas. The Sooner defense has not allowed more than 2 goals only once this year.

Missouri is led by three scorers; #9 Fischer with 6 goals and 1 assist for 13 points, #22 Simmons with 3 goals and 4 assists for 10 points, #12 Seim with 2 goals and 4 assists for 8 points. Eleven players have scored a goal for the Tigers. Missouri has played two GKers, with both allowing 15 goals during the season and are averaging over 2 goals allowed per game. #99 Hollenbach has played in 8 matches, #1 Phillips has olayed in 9 matches. Phillips has started the last 3 matches and played the full match.

Oklahoma needs to do something different in my mind. The most productive attack has been two things for the Sooners. 1- Alexis Washington working the ball on the outside right of the pitch into position to score or to provide an assist into the box for a Sooner score. 2- Leonie Weber scoring off of set pieces or picking up an assist. But the SEC teams have done a good job of preventing both as of late. The next best options are Ella Pappas and Hadley Murrell scoring from the left side or the middle of the pitch.

I would consider something different though at midfield. I think Nevaeh Johnson has started most of the matches in midfield. She is a defensive minded mid. I have not seen her play 'lights out' defense lately in the midfield. I would like to see Michelle Pak or Juliette Rayo play more at midfield instead of Johnson. Both seem to pick up steals and are able to advance the ball down the middle for strong advances. I also do not htink that the Sooners are getting much out of their forwards. I might push Pappas or Murrell or both forward and bring Weber back into the midfield. Pappas and Murrell seem to look to fill the seams in the defense much better than other Sooner forwards. I might also let Kylie Briscoe play on the back line and move Meredith King forward into the midfield on the left side. Her would be a lineup.

GK - Duffy
BackLine Defenders - Briscoe, England, Wolfe, Clifton
Mids - Washington, Weber, Pak/Rayo, King
Forwards - Pappas, Murrell
You may be able to push Weber forward and play with three mids in Washington, Pak/Rayo, King.

Abigail McNulty, Sophia Green can substitute for Pappas and Murrell as needed and fill back to let King fill back to the BackLine defenders as needed as well.

I do not think that is too radical to consider. More offensive minded players being forward is a need right now for OU. England and King were puched forward last Sunday vs Arkansas as an example.

Nine (9) points from 3 wins probably gets the Sooners into the SEC Tourney. Seven (7) points might do the trick as well. For some reason, the Sooner RPI ranking is still #31 which is good enough to perhaps gain a berth into the NCAA Tourney, but the Sooners alomost have to be in the SEC Tourney before the RPI matters.

It will be a busy Friday night as the Sooner Soccer match at Missouri is at 7 PM and the Sooner Volleyball match at Georgia is at 6 PM. So, I will have my focus split between the two events. Both are matches that OU needs to break through with successful play.

Good luck to the Sooners in Columbia.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners traveled to Columbia, MO to play the Tigers and hopefully help themselves to a berth in the SEC Tourney, or at least I think they did that. But after only 37 seconds of play, the Sooners were down 1-0 to the Tigers and once again, in a hole in their match. The Tigers took the opening touch and controlled the ball and ended up with a lone wide open for Leah Selm from the right side of the goal in the box to the left side of the goal inside the post for the first goal of the match to pu Mizzou up 1-0. Considering that the Sooners had not scored since the first half against Kentucky, 4 games ago, it had been 336 minutes since OU scored. That made the 1-0 lead seem larger than a single kick for the Sooners to tie the match.

Again, in the 5th minute of the second half, Missouri got somewhat of a fluke goal as Keegan Good lofted a floater towards the goal that managed to be over Caroline Duffy's extended hand and under the cross bar to score a second goal for the Tigers. At 2-0, the lead seemed secure for the Tigers as OU had not mounted many offensive chances in the game. When Selm added a third Missoui goal and her second goal of the match with an assist, the 3-0 lead was all but secure for the Tigers. A somewhat "friendly" call of a penalty kick provided Oklahoma with a a PK in the 66th minute of the match to at least get on the board. Leonie Weber added that goal on a shot right at where the Missouri GK was before she dived to her left to make it a 3-1 match. OU had a bit of hope, but the match ended with that 3-1 score.

OU has now lost five of six matches with a tie in the streak. The Sooners have dropped from a 8-2-0 record to a 8-7-1 record. Missouri on the other hand is 3-2-1 in their last six matches to up their record from 2-6-1 to 5-8-2. Missouri also probably ensured that they will be in the SEC end-of-season tourney as they now have 10 points in SEC play. OU remained at 4 points and are in 15th place in the 16 team conference.

It looks like sevral things have to go just right for the Sooners to have a hope of making the SEC Tourney. But that is not possible if they Sooners do not secure their defensive play and find some way to attack with a purpose and as a team to score goals with some consistentcy. I will detail that path for Oklahiom to the SEC Tourney next week with two matches left to play. It involves Tennessee and Alabama with 8 points, LSU with 7 points, Florida with 5 points and OU with 4 points. (It could also include Texas A&M with 10 points.)

Here is the post-match article by the OU Athletics Communications group.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/10/1 ... t-missouri

Weber's PK goal gives her 18 career goals and 53 career points which places her in a tie for 6th on both charts. Weber ties Lauren MacIver (2002-05) with the 18 goals and she ties Savannah Scott [22-9] (2003-06) with the 53 points. Congrats to Weber on her marks.

The Sooners did change things a bit in the match trying to generate some offense. It looked in the first half that the Sooners moved Meredith King from the right back position to a spot on the left side somewhere between the back row and the midfield as OU matched up with the two Missouri forwards on defense. King and Ella Pappas on the left side did generate some ball movement forward but the thinner back line opened lanes which led to the first goal and even the 2nd goal. Hadley Murrell also seemed to be more forward from her midfield position. But it did not generate quality shots despite have more shots 15-10 compared to Missouri. A hand-ball against Missouri call kept Missouri from scoring a 4th goal anout midway through the first half with a wide open lane to the goal on a shot from about 15 feet.

While trying to always be positive about Sooner sports and the players, the Sooner soccer squad has become a hard team to watch. They very infrequently put together three passes to advance the ball forward. They continue to one-touch the ball with a kick downfield towards the OU goal with very little success of controlling the ball at the destination of the kick. I understand that Duffy can kick the ball a mile, but a few times last night, the Sooners played the ball back to Duffy from almost midfield so Duffy could kick the ball 20 yards further downfield instead of controlling that ball an making a pass or two and accomplish the same thing, but the long kick did not result with OU controlling the ball. I watch three striaght throw-ins that were thrown right down the sidelines (touch line I heard it called last night) where OU simply thrw the ball out-of-play. I would guess that OU possess the ball on a throw-in maybe 15% of the time. Most often the throw never gets to the OU player. The kick-it towards the goal objective seems to be hoping for a misplay by the opponent that reults in a runaway forward with the ball and a one-on-one attempt at a goal. There is a different way to play the game. Mississipi State, Arkansas and Georgia has shown OU how to play the game effectively. It is much like OSU and Texas Tech and TCU. the names are just different on the jerseys.

I do not know if it is talent that is the cause or if it is desperation that drives the kick-it thought. At the half "kick-aways", the Soones simply pass the ball once and kicks it downfield on the right side hoping to run into the ball and gain possesion. It does not work. At least, rarely does it work. I see all of the Sooners soccer players working very hard to be succusseful with few positive results. The SEC teams have literally blocked off the right side of the pitch shutting down the 'reliable' offense geerated by Alexis Washington on the right side. Washington simply can not carry the ball forward as she is double-teamed quickly. The Sooner coaches, including Coach Mott, look a bit frustrated for cause. The Sooners need a shock and a spark from someone in their final two games.

I had watched the first two sets of the Sooner Volleyball match as OU dropped the first two sets to Georgia last night. So, I switched over to the Soccer match to watch while keeping my eye on the Live Stats for the VB team on my phone. As I watched the soccer, I checked the VB match more. OU won set 3 in VB, then set 4 in VB. But now I was afraid of bad luck for VB if I switched, so I conintued to watch the soccer hoping for a goal or two. When the soccer was over, I switched back OU led in Volleyball 8-4 over Georgia and they won the 5th set 15-11.

The Sooners have two matches left. On Thursday they host Ole Miss (Coach Mott's old team). Ole Miss is in 16th Place and is 0-7-1 in SEC play and 5-10-1. Oklahoma must win the match if any hope exists for the SEC Tourney. I will be there watching at 8 PM. Then the Sooners play at Florida (14th Place in the SEC in what may be a showdown for the 12 the spot in the standings and that SEC Tourney Berth. But in a make-up match, Florida hosts Tennessee the following Wednesday. That match will be very important to OU's berth in the SEC Tourney. But it is important only if OU defeats Ole Miss first.

Boomer Sooner!