It is official, yesterday I was able to watch the first game of the Utes as members of the Big12. A Women’s Soccer game on ESPN+ against Gonzaga which was played last Thursday and which Utah won 2-1. The play by play was done by Brian Priest and color was done by Brooke Hale, a player on last year’s team.
This was Brooke’s first game ever doing TV and, as you would expect, she was raw. Priest was a mixed bag, I didn’t like his goal call as it was to much like the spanish guy (GOOOOOOOAL). He needs to find his own call.
The quality of the broadcast was pretty good in that camera work and direction followed the play, and we got good close-ups, replays, and a graphics package so that worked. Comparing this university produced game compared to other university produced games that I have seen on ESPN+, it was very good. Certainly not to the level the PACTV gave us with professional announcers and production, but it was fun watching the game and overall I was satisfied with how it turned out.
As for the game Tali Kaufusi got the first goal and Bella Woods got a free kick and curved the ball with about 30 seconds left for the win. A fun game overall.
I was able to watch the game from last Thursday against Grand Canyon on repeat on ESPN+ (hallelujah for national access to games and replays). The team started off well with Talia Kaufusi again scoring off a header early in the game, but despite having the ball most of the rest of the game and outshooting GCU by a 14-3 margin, (including hitting the post), they gave up a very late goal and tied 1-1.
Some good news, Bella Woods won BIGXII freshman of the week last week for her late goal against Gonzaga. So, that’s nice.
I did some digging on the team and found out they got some help from the portal, bringing in six new players including Grace Watkins from Duke (who Nakada had recruited when he was at Stanford) and Rachel Bastone from Santa Clara who has played in the national title game.
As far as the schedule goes, the team plays two different teams that are currently in the top 25 (BYU ranked #4 and TCU ranked #13) and their next game is against Utah State who is undefeated and listed among the “others receiving votes” category.
I really want Coach Nakada to succeed on the hill. He was a standout recruiter for Stanford and has now been the coach at the U for a few years. Maybe it will be like Coach Roberts and just take a couple of more recruiting cycles. It is a bummer to see BYU ranked so high and USU and even Utah Valley be teams that received votes in the top 25. Sheesh, if Utah Valley can do it, why can’t the Utes.
I was finally able to watch the Soccer game against Weber St. The gap in talent was very clear as the Utes won big. Both Kaufusi and O’Kane getting hat tricks.
It was nice to see them bounce back after losing to USU. USU is ranked and has a good team. They just beat BYU who was also ranked and been the best team in the State for years.
First at LSU which ended in an 1-1 draw. The game was miserably soggy, raining the whole time. But the Utes scored first, again within the first 10 minutes by Taliana Kaufusi. LSU scored in the 2nd half, but Utah controlled a lot of the play and I think probably deserved to win.
Back home for a game last night against UVU. UVU had beaten Michigan on the road earlier this year but had a three game losing streak going and a seven game losing streak to Utah. Well, not anymore. Two incredible errors gifted UVU goals and the Utes lost 2-0. First was a pass from the Ute GK directly a UVU player, and the second was an attempt to head the ball away from the goal that instead looped over the head of the Ute GK for an own goal. Just a brutal game.
Now the Utes start their BigXII season with a game against Arizona at Ute Field on Thursday. They stand 2-2-2, but could be 4-1-1 with just a bit better play. The team is right there but needs to avoid the errors where the ball ends up in the back of their own net.
I was able to watch the home game against Arizona this morning. First thing to note is that Bill Riley was on the pbp microphone, and there was a significant upgrade in the graphics package. Color analyst was Jay Nolly, who I have never heard of. His wiki says that he was a goalkeeper for Indiana and played a few years in MLS. It does seem that conference games will be produced much differently than the games to date. Much better all around. The only thing I would change is to raise the center main camera a few feet so that the view of the field isn’t as “flat”.
Also, before I talk about the game, I learned recently that there is a former Ute in the NWSL playing for the Washington Spirit, Courtney Brown. Very cool.
As for the game itself… The Utes had the better of possession the entire match but had trouble converting that to chances at the goal. The winning goal came off an Arizona goalkick where Kaufusi had dropped back to and used her size to win the ball and headed it forward right onto the foot of O’Kane, who did a great job fighting off the defender and chipping it over the fast approaching goalie.
As the time bled down, Arizona pushed and pushed, had several “favorable” calls and kept getting corners and free kicks. On one of the last kicks, Kaufusi used her size again to head the ball away from danger but seemed to injure her left leg/calf while landing. She is a big difference to this team with her size and strength as a striker. Hopefully, it is not serious. Tough to lose your senior striker and leading goal scorer going into conference play. That said, great to start conference play with a win and a shutout.
Loved the play of Paugh and Bastone in the middle of the back defensive line and Wardle made great decisions as the GK on snuffing shots and gets the shutout for her efforts.
A final tune-up game against Idaho State, then conference play begins in earnest with a game at BYU and at Texas Tech, both rated to finish in the top three in the conference. It is not getting easier.
Big game tonight for the Soccer Utes with a game at BYU. BYU was ranked very high to start the year but are currently 3-4-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play. The lost to both UVU and USU (just like the Utes), but only have a 3-3 record at home.
A win tonight by the Utes will mean quite a bit.
The Utes lost last week to Texas Tech 2-0 in a game that saw the team get outplayed in the first half (but escape 0-0 at half), then play much better in the second half, but got unlucky on their side of the field. TTU ended up walking away with the win.
The announcers said that the Utes only had 15 players available last night. I assume at least 1 was a back-up. That only leaves them with 3 subs. Tough duty and they were chasing BYU around in their own 3rd all night.
Catching up a bit on my Ute soccer watching. Iowa State came to town and left with no goals, unfortunately, the Utes didn’t get any goals either and the game ended 0-0. Both teams played very tight defense with a lot of conservative play.
Then the Utes hosted OkieSt and also left with a tie. OkieSt came into the game not having yielded much in the way of scoring all year, but the Utes also played tough D and the game ended in a 0-0 tie. So, two games and no scoring.
The Utes played on Friday night in Tempe and smoked the Sun Devils 4-1. Memorable play from O’Kane all night as it seemed all she was doing was making runs. The Utes controlled the play most of the night and got a big win.
The Utes are now 2-2-2 in conference play and 5-4-4 overall. Five games left in the regular season before the BigXII tourney in Kansas City. Two games in Kansas this week, at home for Houston and Baylor, then on the road to finish in Boulder. All these games are against teams below Utah in the current BigXII standings,except Colorado. The Utes are tied for 7th in the league with OkieSt.
You can say that again. No sound for 3/4 of the game, then when they had sound, it was not turned up at all. Two cameras and a monkey running the switch controls.
I finally caught up on the Soccer team’s games. The trip to Kansas was a split. First, at KSU, Bella Woods, for the second time this year, scored a goal practically as the clock was running out and the Utes win. The Jayhawks beat them fairly easily as Utah just couldn’t maintain possession.
Then, a home game against Houston this past Thursday in cold and rainy conditions. Houston is not good, and the Utes had all sorts of opportunities but only cashed in one one and took the W. Kelly Bullock with the laser to the top right corner for the win.
Finally, a game against Baylor who was coming off a 3-3 tie with BYU. The weather was significantly better and Utah comes away with a 2-0 win. Ava Hetzel finally played a full game after coming back from injury and has made the left side attack much better. Kudos to Dudley, for a defensive mid, she made a great play on the Utes first goal, and to Blum for a impressive run and finish to put the game away.
The Utes are now 4-1-2 since their loss in Provo and are playing their best coming to the end of the season.
Overall, Lily Blum is playing great, using her speed to create a lot of opportunities, including the great run and finish against Baylor. O’Kane, Kaufusi, and Bullock all have played well. Bastone, as always, has been rock in back and Wardle as the GK is also playing well.
The Utes are now sitting in 5th place in the conference standings, ahead of both BYU and Colorado and are going to make the Big XII tourney (top 12 go) even if they lose at Colorado, their last regular season game.
Friday night, the soccer Utes went to Boulder to play their last regular season game of the season. They emerge at a 0-0 tie after a hard fought game. Colorado pressed high most of the game, which, as seen before, can disrupt Utah’s possession game in building up the field. Instead, they had to kick long and reset, and it worked at times where they did have a few chances. The main one being a shot from Blum after another of her patented long runs. The GK just got her hand on it barely pushing it over the top bar of the net.
Colorado also had chances, but, once again, Wardle was up to the task.
So, the Utes end at 8-5-5 overall and 5-3-3 in conference finishing 8th in the conference.
The XII championship is next and if I understand it correctly, the Utes play Colorado again (9th) at 2:00 PM on October 30 on ESPN+. I am not sure that is correct, but I think so. The winner plays the regular season conference champion TCU on November 2nd at 2:00PM, also on ESPN+.
The Utes lost to CU 2-1 in the first round of the BIGXII tournament. The game was pretty evenly contested throughout. Utah scored late in the first half and seemed to have the better run of play in the second. They were unlucky several times. A Kaufusi header that would have scored bounced off the face of a CU defender, a few minutes later, she fired a shot the hit the crossbar. Her final great effort went off the keeper, hit the crossbar and bounced off the post. Very unlucky in my opinion. CU scored on two lucky/ weird goals; the first at the 17 minute mark and the second with 4 minutes remaining.
The team improved significantly from the start of the year to the end. Unfortunately, many of the leading players are seniors. They do have some very nice younger players, but they will need to hit the portal to bolster their roster.
Thanks UTEopia. I also watched the game and it seemed the like the Utes were on the verge of scoring most of the game. They did a much better job with the high press of Colorado this game. They were certainly done in by posts and unluckiness.
There were a fair number of seniors on the team, but two players to look forward to are Bella Woods and Katie Callaway who are freshman and Liliah Blum a sophomore this year. In addition, other freshman that saw time are Mia Paugh, Londyn Lovell and Callie Blaylock.
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