OU Women's Soccer - Final Exhibition Match tonight @ Nebraska

[OUBeliever56A]

The 2023 Sooner Soccer Team plays their final exhibition match tonight in Lincoln, NE at 7 PM. Last year in an early season match, Nebraska defeated OU 2-1 behind two 2nd half goals after OU lead 1-0 after the first half. Senior, Bri Amos scored off of an assist from Alexis Washington for Oklahoma.

Nebraska is coming off of a 8-7-5 season and a 5-3-2 Big 10 conference record in 2022. Nebraska went 1-1 in the Big 10 Tourney to end their season.

Oklahoma is coming off of a 3-2 loss to Baylor in their first exhibition match last Friday at John Crain Field in their first action under new coach, Matt Mott.

In the first exhibition match, OU started 6 returning players and 5 new transfer players from the offseason. The returning starters were Ramey, GK, Kroflin, DEF, England, DEF, Weber, FOR, Hawkins, FOR, Washington, FOR. The five new transfers were, A.W Wolfe, DEF, Stevens, MID, Commandant, DEF, Parkhurst, MID and D. Wolfe, FOR.

It will be interesting to see if a couple of things for the Sooners improve tonight. 1) Will the overall speed for the Sooners improve over the first game. Hopefully it was weary legs from training camp that slowed the Sooners down last Friday. 2) If the defensive positioning on quick transitions of the ball is improved on the outside and out in front of the box.

The OU Soccer Schedule has links to the Nebraska Soccer website that provides access to the Big10 Network (probably a monthly fee) and a stat broadcast (think Live stats) is also available.

Good luck to the Sooner Women tonight against Nebraska.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Soccer team dropped their second and final exhibition match on Friday night to Nebraska in Lincoln 2-0. Nebraska scored single goals in each half. I thought that Nebraska looked like a good team with speed and the ability to get the ball into the box with a chance to score and they did not allow Oklahoma to possess the ball much at all. The Huskers could build upon their winning record in 2022.

OU tweaked their starting lineup with Giorgio getting the start in goal and Pak moving into the starting lineup replacing Commandant who did not play probably due to the leg injury she had on Sunday night in the first exhibition match. Here was the lineup:

GK - Giorgio #1 Red-SO == DEF - Stevens #4 FR, A Wolfe #19 JR, Kroflin #22 Red-SO == MIDs - Parkhurst #6 FR, England #8 SR, Pak #7 SO == FWDs - Weber #31 JR, Washington #12 SO, D Wolfe #16 Red-SR, Hawkins #2 Red-SR

When the game started England was on the back row with Kroflin moving to the MIDs. It seems to be difficult for Oklahoma to work the ball around the outside on the offensive end to center the ball into the box. The speed to get by the defense just does not seem to be there right now. On the forward end there is not much cutting and trying to hit passes down the seams to the forwards. But I will say that Pak almost completed a couple nice passes down a seam. The most successful way that the Sooners got the ball into the box was over the top from Kroflin and Weber. They came close to connecting a couple times. Hawkins may be the only forward who can possess the ball into the box and work for a shot individually right now. Perhaps that is due to the defense played by Baylor (Sunday) and Nebraska (Friday).

The Sooners have some difficulty moving the ball through the midfield area to the forwards by passes. Either passes are off, short, or the receiving player does not move to the ball or the anticipated move by the receiving player does not develop as the passer thought. It is obvious they have not played together very long. England is missed in the midfield area. But she did play their some last night.

On defense, the Sooners are struggling to keep the ball and the player with the ball in front or outside of them. Several times, Nebraska was able to move past the OU defender on the outside and make effective centering passes into the box. Nebraska was also effective and moving the ball through the middle of the pitch into the box. IMO, Nebraska could have scored maybe 3 more goals with just a bit better play on the final kick as they tried to score. They were open and in a good place to score. The Sooners also had trouble tracking players on corner kicks and free kicks into the box.

Subs that played were: GK - Ramey #0 SO == DEF - Clifton #23 SO == Matise #9 JR, Brown #14 Red-SO == FWDs = Murrell #5 SO, Wagner #20 SO, Eikelbarner #24 SO

I would say that ever one of those subs played at least some time in the midfield and even on the back row even if they were a FWD normally except for Eikelbarner.

I did not see and the box score did not say that Adams #17 FR, Vaughan #11 FR and Pappas #15 SO play. I thought all three showed signs of good play last Sunday.

The Sooners have some work to do the early part of the week before they open the season on Thursday.

The Sooners open the regular season on Thursday night at John Crain Field at 7 PM vs Tulsa. OU won over the Hurricane 1-0 last season. OU follows that with a match on Sunday against Oral Roberts at 7 PM at John Crain Field. OU defeated ORU 5-2 last season.

Good luck to the Sooners in their first two games of the year next week.

Boomer Sooner!