I was able to watch last night the Utes against WV from Saturday, and left with the notion, that: (1) the team can score once in a while; and (2) at least they are getting the points for ties.
As always, it is Blum who is driving play. This game Watkins played better and created a few chances. Maybe moving Bullock to wing and having Watkins in at the 9 helped.
One thing is for sure, except for a couple of exceptions, this team doesn’t allow other teams to score very frequently. Their defense has been up to snuff so far.
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At the start of the Houston game yesterday, they showed this graphic…
Leading the BigXII in attempted shots with so little to show for it. Houston gets almost half their shots on goal and as such have scored almost twice as many goals.
The Houston announcers said that Nakada told them that the only team they have played this year that outplayed the Utes was TCU, and otherwise they outplayed all others. To an extent I agree in that they are usually a fair amount above 50% and the number of shots is a good stat that shows that possession work. But as said so many times in this thread, they just can’t finish.
Now to this game… To start, they moved Bullock from forward to outside back, and put Davidson at the striker to try and get some finish. After about 15 minutes, Bella Woods caught the Houston goaltender getting too much off her line, and rifled the ball from just shy of mid-field over her head and in. Finally, an aggressive attempt to score that succeeded. An even first half in possession but Houston had the best chances (without scoring).
With about 3 minutes left Houston had a lone scorer in front and Gibb made a great save, PHEW. With about 1 minute left a very generous call for Utah in the Houston box otherwise a PK for Houston, PHEW.
In the end, another shutout for Utah, but instead a 1-0 instead of a 0-0 tie. Not much better, but at least the defense is still good, backed by Gibb.
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It has been a while since I was able to watch a soccer game. The two games at home this week, ASU and Kansas did not go as well as planned for the team. ASU scored an 84th minute goal on a corner kick where Callie Blaylock faded away from a header challenge and thereby lost so the Utes lost 1-0 even though they dominated chances in the game.
The next was Kansas. This was the graphic before the game started.
Not very good!! It is the same thing we have been saying on this thread all season, no finish, plays die on the forwards foot. Bella seems to have a great leg, but is a bit scattershot, and Bullock takes too long to get loaded up and by then the defense and goalie have corrected. Watkins and Blum have been consistently doubled as they are the only offensive players with a bit of finish.
In the last two games, Coach has been using Callie up front in the middle instead of as a fullback. She is big (and looks a bit like Taliana Kaufusi when playing) but is raw.
This team lost the ASU game even though the winner would have gotten the 8th and last spot in this year’s conference tournament. ASU now holds that spot with BYU also losing to Kansas.
Not much to hope for with only two games left to make the tournament. So, enjoy those Utes playing hard for what is left.
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The Utes soccer team season ended last night with a 2-0 loss to BYU. Need I go into the reasons why they lost the game despite having multiple good chances to score? Not likely.
An underwhelming season for the Utes, but, in the end, I didn’t see a lot of give-up or hanging heads. They played hard, but just didn’t see the results.
Nakeda needs to go out and find the best scorer in the portal, because I don’t think one exists on the team at this point.
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They needs to find a good striker to open up the wings on the attack to get their shots to open up.
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