Oklahoma Soccer Host #6 Arkansas on Sunday @ John Crain Field

[OUBeliever56A]

Oklahoma Soccer will face the #6 ranked team in the country, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon at John Crain Field. While Oklahoma was dropping their match at Austin, 1-0 to Texas, Arkansas was in Fayetteville, defeated Tennessee 5-0. Arkansas scores in bunches and should be a very good all-around team. Arkansas is 5-1-0 in the SEC and 10-1-1. Arkansas has only lost to Mississippi State on the road 1-0.

Oklahoma's midfield and backline will have to be on their "A+" game on Sunday as they face Arkansas. Arkansas has scored 53 goals in their 12 games for an average of just under 4.5 goals an game. They have scored at least 2 goals in 10 of their 12 matches. On the other hand, OU has not scored more than 2 goals since their match at home against UL-Monroe on September 12th, a month ago or 8 games ago.

Arkansas has 19 players that have scored a goal. They have three players that have totaled 19 points or more. #21 Ava Tankersley (8 goals/7 assists & 23 points), #11 Kate Doyle (8 goals/4 assists & 20 points) and #10 Anaiyah Robinson (9 goals/1 assist & 19 points) lead the Razorbacks.

The Sooners will have at least one reason to celebrate on Sunday. Cailey England will likely become the all-time minutes played leader for Oklahoma during the match on Sunday. She is currently 35 minutes short of that record as she will likely pass Madeline Brem's OU-record 7,450 minutes played just before the end of the first half. There are two things about England which should be noted. The first is that she is a very good soccer player and the second is that she always is hustling and doing everything she can to help the Sooners win their match. She is an example of the best team player every time she step on the pitch.

As to the match strategy, the Sooners will have to try to possess the ball more than normal, I think. If the match is a wide-open end-to-end offense, Arkansas will win that contest easily. If OU can not possess the ball every minute of every the match, Arkansas will take advantage of free balls and open field play and attack, over and over.

Here is the pre-match article by the OU Athletics Communications group:

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/10/1 ... sas-sunday

Good luck to the Sooners today, it will be a tough win for the Sooners today, if they can pull that off.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

As I took my seat at John Crain Field on Sunday, the first thing I noticed was the length of the Arkansas players. When I looked at the roster when I got back home, there are 15+ players on the Arkansas team that are 5-9" or taller and 6 players that are 5'11'" or taller. They are also wide shouldered and can run well. They are truly a team of a different size than most soccer teams. As I watched the warmup, I will admit that I was concerned, especially about corner kicks with the size of Arkansas. I did not see how OU would counter their height on set plays and corners.

As the game started, the problem playing Arkansas was doubled as I watched a team that could pass forward very effectively and could go from the midfiled area to the goal box very quickly and in a couple direct passes with ease. While I was very impressed with Mississippi State when thay played the Sooners at John Crain Field earlier this year, I am now reallly surprised that MSU defeated Arkansas 1-0 two weeks ago. Arkansas is very good. They used their length well on ball in the air and control loose balls quickly. Within 10 feet of the ball, the Rzorbacks are agressive and very effective gaining control of the ball or taking the ball with quick feet and heading towards their goal. They filled the lanes well as they advanced towards the goal and it seemed that locations were filled routinely for passing lanes to make advances very effective. Arkansas is very talented.

Arkansas controlled the ball for probably 80% of the time. They just gobbled up the ball when it was loose. It seemed that OU was anxious to just get the ball away from their goal often, instead of controlling the ball. The speed for OU was countered on the outside of the pitch as OU managed just 2 corners to 7 corner kicks for Arkansas and they did not even really work for the corners, they just happened as OU tried to stymie the advances by Arkansas. OU's defensive line probably played their best match of the season considering the pressure put on them with 4 or 5 Arkansas players in the box at times. GK Caroline Duffy stopped 10 shots in the match with several more just missing on the edges of the goal by a foot or so. The lone goal scored by Arkansas was on a series of three very quick spot-on passes from about 15 feet away from the goal that left the ball crossing the goal line several feet away from Duffy.

The Sooners were credited for 5 shots in the match to 17 for Arkansas. It seemed much more lopsided than that. Arkansas did not face a tough shot from the Sooners in the match.

I will compliment the Sooners for thir effort and their hustle in the match and to play well enough to drop their match by the 1-0 score which in no way indicates the ease of the win for Arkansas as they controlled the match throughout. In the second half with OU moving to the east against the wind, the ball was in the Arkansas end of the pitch maybe for 10 mintues of the half, but probably closer to only 5 minutes.

Here is the OU Athletics Communications groups post-match report about the 1-0 loss to Arkansas.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/10/1 ... 6-arkansas

Cailey England moved past Madeline Brem in career mintues played as a Sooner in the match and finished the day with 7,505 career minutes of action. The moment for the new record was at the 35 minute mark of the 1st half. The moment was recoginized with a brief announcement by the PA announcer. Congrats to Ms. England and her family on the career mark for OU Soccer.

Oklahoma drew a crowd of 1,186 on Sunday, breaking its single-season attendance record as the fall's total attendance grew to 10,313. I do think Coach Mott has installed an excitement factor around the Sooner Soccer program the last two years.

The Sooners are now 1-5-1 in SEC play, and 8-6-1 overall. With 12 SEC team qualifying for the SEC Tourney, the Sooners are really desperate to turn things around as the finish the season. The Sooners are now in 15th of the 16 teams in the SEC Standings. They need to climb into 12th place to make the SEC Tourney. The Sooners probably need at least 10 points to make the SEC Tourney, they have 4 points now. They finish with three teams that are beatable for the Sooners. Next week the Sooners will face Missouri in Columbia (7 points and 2-4-1 in SEC play) and Ole Miss in Norman (0-6-1 and 1 point in SEC play) and then at Florida the following week (5 points and 1-3-2 in SEC play woth one extra game to play). LSU is the other team in the hunt fo the 12th spot. They have 6 points and are 2-5-0 in SEC play. the loss to at LSU two weeks ago really hurt OU's chances to make the SEC tourney. Oklahoma has to someway finish ahead of all four teams to make the SEC Tourney.

The match at Missouri next Friday is almost a must win event for Oklahoma Soccer.

Boomer Sooner!