OU Women's Soccer host K-State on Thursday @ 7 PM needing a win!

[OUBeliever56A]

Before last Thursday's match with Kansas, the Oklahoma Sooner Women's Soccer team had a 4-3 record and had some momentum going into the week that included playing Kansas at home and Neb-Omaha on the road on Sunday. The prospects for the Sooners looked good for the week. they played well the first half against Kansas and took a 2-0 lead into the 2nd half. Unfortunately, two Kansas goals in the second half left the Sooners with a disappointing tie against Kansas. The Sooners played another less than stellar half against Omaha in the first half and trailed 2-0 going into the second half. The Sooners rallied and got one goal but could not get the second score to tie the match and lost 1-2 to Omaha. After a week that could have reasonably finished 2-0 or 1-0-1 the Sooners were 0-1-1 and now hold a 4-4-1 season record.

The Sooners have an opportunity to get back on the winning track on Thursday night against Kansas State at John Crain Field. Kansas State is 0-4-2 in their last 6 matches. The Wildcats did salvage a 1-1 tie against Cincinnati in their lone Big 12 match last Thursday. They did not play this weekend. In their 9 matches in 2023, they have scored 8 golas and allowed 10 goals. They seem to play a slow down strategy and a defensive strategy. They start a lineup of 4 defensive players, 3 mids and 3 forwards. Six of their players usually play close to 90 minutes a match (with the 4 defensive players in that group). K-State has been shutout 5 times this year and only scored more than 2 goals in one game. But they have also logged 3 shutouts on defense and have only allowed more than 3 goals one time. K-State has 3 players who have scored 2 goals with two being defensive players (set-pieces perhaps). Their leading assist player comes off the bench, Singh, with 3 assists.

I expect the match to be slow paced with K-State trying to control possession time. It may be hard for the Sooners to get enough players forward against a 4-player back row also. The outside halves (Washington and Murrell) will have to press forward anytime the Sooners have possession in the midfield area to at least have 4 against 4 in the offensive zone. The play of Pak, Weber and Kroflin in the midfield may be critical on Thursday night. I think the midfielders along with the outside halves will also need to react back on defense when needed. The play of the outside halves is critical as well.

It is fairly important for Oklahoma to pick up a win on Thursday IMO. The Sooners travel to Houston on Sunday where they probably will be an underdog. they then travel to Lubbock to play next Thursday, as an underdog again, before hosting UCF on next Sunday with UCF being a good team also. A win on Thursday makes the next three look less intimidating for the Sooners.

Good luck to the Sooners on Thursday night, it could be a soggy field where a mistake is more prone to to occur on a slick, wet field.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Big 12 Standings after conference play last thursday night.

T-1st - Texas Tech - 1-0-0 in Big 12 and 7-0-2 overall - Ranked 25th in the D1 United Soccer Coaches poll.
T-1st - Texas - 1-0-0 in Big 12 and 7-1-1 overall - Ranked 14th in the D1 United Soccer Coaches poll.
T-1st - Oklahoma State - 1-0-0 in Big 12 and 8-2-0
T-1st - Central Florida (UCF) - 1-0-0 in Big 12 and 5-2 overall - Ranked RV-28th in the D1 United Soccer Coaches poll.
T-5th - BYU - 0-0-1 in Big 12 and 7-1-1 overall - Ranked 6th in the D1 United Soccer Coaches poll.
T-5th - Kansas - 0-0-1 in Big 12 and 3-1-5 overall
T-5th - TCU - 0-0-1 in Big 12 and 4-3-2 overall
T-5th - Oklahoma - 0-0-1 in Big 12 and 4-4-1 overall
T-5th - Kansas State - 0-0-1 in Big 12 and 2-4-3 overall
T-5th - Cincinnati - 1-4-3 in Big 12 and 1-4-3 overall
T-11th - Houston - 0-1-0 in Big 12 and 6-2-1 overall
T-11th - Baylor - 0-1-0 in Big 12 and 5-3-1 overall
T-11th - Iowa State - 0-1-0 in Big 12 and 3-5-1 overall
T-11th - West Virginia - 0-1-0 in Big 12 and 2-5-2 overall

The schedule for the Big 12 Soccer teams is as follows;

6 PM - Iowa State at West Virginia - I-State favored
6 PM - TCU at Cincinnati - TCU favored
7 PM - Kansas State at Oklahoma - Slight edge to OU
7 PM - Kansas at Oklahoma State - Slight edge to OSU
7 PM - BYU at Baylor - Slight edge to BYU
7 PM - Texas Tech at Texas - Slight edge to Texas
7 PM - Central Florida at Houston - Even

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooner Soccer Match against Kansas State on Thursday night @ 7 PM at John Crain Field.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/20 ... -in-norman

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Soccer Team earned their first Big 12 Soccer win of 2023 with a win over Kansas State on Thursday night (BTW, it was a beautiful night at John Crain Field as the rain stayed away). The Sooners won behind 2 goals, one in the 2nd minute of play and one on an "own-goal" by K-State in the 2nd half as K-State was held scoreless by the Sooners to win 2-0.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Big 12 win over Kansas State.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/21 ... -state-2-0

I thought OU played very well on Thursday night, especially in the midfield area of play. In particular I thought Michelle Pak and Muriel Kroflin played well both defensively in the midfield and offensively with good passes and control and great anticipation to intercept passes and to stop K-State from advancing the ball forward. Other players that played well were Alexis Washington, Cailey England, Hadley Murrell and Cassie Clifton. Sophia Giorgio also played well in goal for OU and provides big kicks into the center of the pitch on goal kicks repeatedly.

The Sooners opened the match strongly with a push forward towards the K-State goal. They picked up two Corner Kicks in the first two minutes of play. On the 2nd Corner, Leonie Weber 'served up the ball' into the box where Andie Wolfe managed to get to the ball as it bounced off her back across the goal. Cailey England was there to head the ball towards the goal as the ball struck the underside of the crossbar and glanced back into the goal and struck the ground behind the goal line before bouncing up with spin back into the field of play and caught by the K-State goalkeeper. At first it looked like the ball was in play, but the side referee on the far side signalled for a goal and the Sooners were on the board and led 1-0 at the 1:14 mark in the 1st half.

The Sooners scored in the second half on another corner kick. Once again Weber lifted the ball into the box right in front of the GK. A K-State defender tried to play the ball with her goal-side leg and when she made contact about hip high, the ball caromed straight into the goal for an 'own goal" against Kansas State. The Sooners led 2-0 at the 52:41 mark of the 2nd half.

That lead held up through the remainder of the 2nd half despite 6 shots by Kansas State in the half. Giorgio had 4 saves in the half.

The Sooners were once again able to pick up double-digit Corner Kicks as they force the ball up on the outside and deep in the offensive end to cause the defense to play the ball out of play over the end line. The Corners seem to add up very quickly for OU. That push forward is led by Washington and Murrell with help from Pak, Weber, Kroflin, England and Clifton.

The midfielders pushed forward, especially Pak to help the forwards match up with the 4 player back row for K-State. With Pak, Hawkins and Dani Wolfe in the center of the pitch and Washington and Murrel on the outside, the Sooners successfully pushed the ball forward. The Sooners carried he ball on their feet for about 60% of the match with the ball in the K-State defensive end 65-70% of the the time they had the ball.

Morganne Eikelbarner played 25 minutes in the match relieving Dani Wolfe as a forward in both halves and added some energy on offense. Esalenna Galekhutle also added energy and she subbed in for Kroflin and Weber in both halves in the midfield area. Zoe Parkhurst also played well off the bench in the midfield. Eight of the ten players for the Sooners starters played 70 minutes or more.

One down note occurred in the match late in the second half when Michelle Pak went down in a heap to the ground in the middle of a couple players about 8 minutes from the end of the match. It looked like a ankle injury as she got up without putting any pressure on her foot as she was helped off the field. Pak will be hard to replace as she is having a strong season and extending her minutes of play.

The Sooners have to recover quickly and travel to Houston to play on Sunday at 1 PM against the Cougars. Houston is 0-2 in Big 12 Play.

In other Big 12 Play on Thursday night;

6 PM - Iowa State at West Virginia - I-State favored - West Virginia defeated I-State 1-0.
6 PM - TCU at Cincinnati - TCU favored - TCU won 1-0 on the road.
7 PM - Kansas State at Oklahoma - Slight edge to OU - Oklahoma won 2-0.
7 PM - Kansas at Oklahoma State - Slight edge to OSU - Oklahoma State won 1-0.
7 PM - BYU at Baylor - Slight edge to BYU - BYU won big over Baylor 4-0.
7 PM - Texas Tech at Texas - Slight edge to Texas - Texas Tech upset Texas in Austin, 2-1! Texas Tech scored at the 89:59 mark of the match to win the match over Texas!
7 PM - Central Florida at Houston - Even - Central Florida won 1-0 on the road in Houston.

Big 12 Standings:

1st place - 2-0-0 with 6 points - Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, UCF
4th Place - 1-0-1 with 4 points - TCU, Oklahoma
6th Place - 1-1-0 with 3 points - West Virginia, Texas
8th Place - 0-1-1 with 1 point - Kansas, Kansas State and Cincinnati
11th Place - 0-2-0 with 0 points - Iowa State, Houston, Baylor

[AustinTXSooner]

I haven't seen all of the second half yet, because I watched the USA friendly with South Africa. But I wanted to reiterate some of your points.

I thought Pak had an outstanding game. I'll have to finish watching the game because I didn't get far enough to see her injury. I'm hoping it doesn't keep her out. We need her. Murrell has been getting better every game. She was making a big impact last night. She's providing a viable alternative to Washington on the other side. Weber is Weber...highly skilled with a big leg. If she had more speed, she'd be a shoe-in for All Conference.

I was never a big fan of England in the midfield, but I'm really liking her on defense. And Clifton has been playing really well also. Andi Wolfe has been playing really well, but I didn't really notice her yesterday.

The K-State defense always had Hawkins covered, sometimes with 2 players. I didn't really notice Dani Wolfe last night except on the corner kicks. I'm sure she was covered also. It was good to see Eikelbarner getting more minutes. I'm hoping her ankle is no longer holding her back.