game against the Beakers.

I am sure the team will be fired up.

Go Tigers!

MIZZOU:

GK: Tasha Dittamore
DF: Mallory Stipetich
DF: Crystal Wagner
DF: Kellie Gavigan
MF: Bree Thornton
MF: Meghan Pfeiffer
MF:Krista Kruse
MF: Jessie Crabtree
FW: AAlysha Bonnick
FW: Michelle Collins
FW: Kristin Andrighetto

Alot of midfield play. When Missouri gets in deep, they’re able to create chances but are unable to keep pressure on. Kansas has gotten a couple of long shots in, but nothing to really challenge Dittamore.

Tigers were putting together a nice sustained attack on the KU defense when time ran out.

Your chart incorrectly has Colorado moving on.

Kristin Andrighetto equalize the game, 2-2

Overtime is next!

from about 25 yards out, she finally gets one past the Kansas keeper! Mizzou wins and moves on to play Oklahoma State on Friday!

11/30? Are you serious? While not every shot is going to obviously be on goal…that seems like an awful low percentage, but by looking at the individual stats, you can see who’s taking the poor shots. While Michelle and Kristin are very threatening offensively, you have to question their decision making.

Missouri had plenty of chances in the Kansas half all game long (they don’t keep possession stats apparently, like they do in the pros), but alot of those chances withered out. I commented in an earlier post that it appeared that they were creating chances but not able to sustain long periods of pressure. That didn’t necessarily continue after halftime, as they stayed in the Kansas half, but they certainly weren’t getting 2 or 3 players inside the 18 yard box, either. When you combine these numbers with my analysis above, you can see how Kansas was trying to create breakaway chances.

I just updated the team stats and added Oklahoma State’s stats

GK: Tasha Dittamore
DF: Mallory Stipetich
DF: Crystal Wagner
DF: Kellie Gavigan
MF: Bree Thornton
MF: Meghan Pfeiffer
MF:Krista Kruse
MF: Jessie Crabtree
FW: AAlysha Bonnick
FW: Michelle Collins
FW: Kristin Andrighetto

we’re underway…

They get their first goal off of a direct free kick while I was changing a diaper…

Oklahoma State’s defense looks pretty solid…going to be interesting to see what adjustments HCBB makes at the half.

I’ll be breaking that play down later….

but aTm is up 1-0 at the half

to close the book on the Big 12 Tournament for the Lady Tigers.

Soccer flows unlike football that is broken up in to plays that last 5 or 6 seconds. It flows like a river as the players wind their way around the pitch, seeking the moment to play the ball into the box perfectly or score a goal. To observe only the highlights is a cheap way to enjoy the beauty of the river.

It is quite true that soccer can be a beautiful game…when Ronaldinho shows his tricks or Cristiano Ronaldo stepping over the ball several times as he blows past a defender. Watching collegiate women’s soccer on a better-than-nothing internet stream is not quite so beautiful.

Tearing a goal apart to see the action second-by-second or frame-by-frame can mean watching the previous 5 or 10 minutes several times just to gain context as to how the goal was scored.

Oklahoma had scored an early goal, but Mizzou had come back with goals in the 71st and 76th minutes. Oklahoma State answered right back in the 77th minute to equalize…and kill the momentum the Tigers were generating. After the equalizer, Oklahoma State went right back on the attack, getting a ball into the box for Tasha Dittamore to collect. Her clearance led to a quick strike, which a Mizzou defender headed away. That leads us to this image (I hope it shows up well)

In this image, the white dots and lines represent the Mizzou players (wearing white shirts) and where they went. The black dots and lines are Oklahoma State players. The red line is the ball. The Mizzou player with the green circle headed the ball out to the State player who starts this.

Pass 1 has the State player under some pressure, so she dumps it off to her teammate who has her back to the goal. She forwards the pass (pass 2) on to her teammate who outruns the Mizzou defender to the ball. As she looks up she sees the person who passed her the ball breaking towards the 6 yard box and fires a somewhat slow ball across the box. The Mizzou player who is running towards where I wrote 3A wasn’t far enough to touch the ball and the Mizzou defender who has the green circle had overrun the path of the ball and couldn’t get back to it. Meanwhile, Dittamore comes out of her goal, but has to be concerned with what’s coming in from her back post as well. At 3B, Dittamore no longer has an angle on the ball and turns to her right where Annika Neimeier is loitering. When the ball reaches her, she easily slides it past the left post, as Dittamore couldn’t reach it.

In my other analysis I looked to blame someone for the goal, which is understandable. There’s nobody to blame for this goal. I’m not real thrilled that I counted 5 Cowgirls in the offensive half of the field compared to 8 Tigers and the ladies give up a goal, but the cross was low and off-speed…that could be easy to mistime. The only real problem I see here other than that is the lack of defense on the right side. Someone should have been clued to Neimeier as she was allowed to sneak in on the far post.

Oklahoma State came into the game riding a 6 game winning streak…dating back to their last loss, which was against the Tigers in Columbia. They came in with a VERY strong defensive effort that the Tigers couldn’t ever break. While the Cowgirls record isn’t the most impressive, should they be selected for the NCAA tournament, they could do a little bit of damage.

Missouri will probably get in, as they won the conference. Scoring the 2nd most goals in the Big 12 and spreading their scoring out amongst several players makes the Tigers a deep offensive threat. I question their defense though, and while they could win a few games, they’re never going to make it past a powerhouse like North Carolina or Notre Dame.

I do wish the ladies the best of luck and I’ll be tuned into ESPNEWS tomorrow evening for the NCAA Selection Show.