Sooner Women's Soccer at home to Host UCF on Sunday in Pink Game

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Soccer team will be back at home after two road matches on Sunday at 1 PM in their annual "Pink Game". The Sooners will host the University of Central Florida (UCF). The Sooners hold a 2-1-1 record in the Big 12 for 7 points, while UCF is 3-1-0 in conference with 9 points. UCF was ranked as the 19th best team in the country when this week started before their loss to Oklahoma State on Thursday by the score of 2-1.

After falling to 0-2 to Texas Tech in Lubbock on Thursday, the Sooners need to pick up a point on Sunday with at least a tie or a win at home. The Sooners are 5-0-1 playing at John Crain Field in 2023. UCF is 2-3 away from Orlando in 2023. Both of those trends need to continue on Sunday.

UCF is a veteran team as they start seven (7) seniors of some fashion. They also start three (3) juniors of some fashion and one redshirt sophomore. The Sooners starts three (3) seniors and juniors and five (5) sophomores.

It looks like UCF plays a 3 defender, 3 mids and 4 forward alignment vs the 3 defenders, 5 mids and 2 forward alignment for Oklahoma. Oklahoma has four players with 9 or more points (Hawkins 19, Weber 14, D Wolfe 11 and Murrell with 9). UCF has three players with 9 or more points (Moreno and Martin with 10 and Ntzel with 9).

Oklahoma plays about 16 players reguary game to game. UCF plays 13 or 14 players regularly.

Oklahoma has scored 30 goals and allowed 27 goals with 91 corner kicks and 205 shots. UCF has scored 15 goals and allowed 9 with 36 corner kicks and 109 shots.

I expect to see the game play out with OU pressing forward against the Golden Knights of UCF. OU should find their way to several corner kicks and more shots in the match than UCF. If the Sooners can dominate possession of the ball they should generate more goals than UCF. But UCF looks like they are a very good defensive team despite the 3-3-4 alignment. It will be very important for OU to be able to react to quick possession changes as UCF has four (4) forwards ready to attack the 3 Sooner defenders.

Oklahoma has not defeated a ranked team this season. A win by the Sooners would be a large feather in their caps and could propel OU upward in the standings of the Big 12. I believe with good ball possession, and by taking advantage of scoring opportunities that the Sooners can win the match on Sunday. But the defense will have to be strong and not give up a quick goal along the way.

By the way, Sunday is the annual Pink Game. If you have pink OU gear, wear it. I will be wearing crimson and cream.

Good luck to the Sooner women on Sunday.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

When the Oklahoma Sooners started their play this week with Texas Tech abd UCF on their agenda, they knew the week would be challenging and that they would have to play well to add points to the Big 12 total. In Lubbock on Thursday, less than a minute of play in the 2nd half was ll it took for Tech to end on top of a 2-0 win for the Red Raiders. At home at John Crain Field on Sunday, a couple of split second plays by the Golden Knights carried UCF over the Oklahoma Sooners by the score of 2-1. It was a double disappointment at the end of the week for the Sooners as they nearly picked up points in both matches.

Yesterday the Sooners once again pushed the ball forward with strong play for 90 minutes against UCF. In both halves the Sooners controlled the play and played with the ball in the UCF defensive zone much of the two halves. In the first half, the Sooners tallied 12 shots and 6 corner kicks. but could not find the back of the net. In the second half the Sooners added 8 more shots and 9 corner kicks on the offensive end. The UCF Knights GK was credited with 6 Saves but it seemed like the GK spent a great deal of the time jumping up above the Sooners to catch and secure the ball in front of her net on corners or on centering kicks by the Sooners. The UCF defensive end is very good.

In the 11th minute of the match, the Knights gained control of the ball in midfield and quickly countered to attack the Sooners. A nice pass from Martin reached Bradley on the right side of the pitch with Bradley out in front with the ball. As the Sooners tried to react back to the defend the rush on their defense, Bradley made a nice pass to a running Asenjo in the middle of the box for a nice one touch goal past the Sooner GK, Giorgio. It was hard to tell whether Asenjo just outran the Sooner defensive middle or if Arsenjo started out in front and could not be caught as she was running by herself at Giorgio.

Two minutes later, Oklahoma got the ball to Emma Hawkins on the left side of the goal. Hawkins made a move toward the center of the box, found and opening and the kicked the ball towards the goal through traffic in front of her. After at least one deflection of the shot, the ball was in front of the goal, the GK for UCF and Alexis Washington and a defender for UCF. As the ball bounced in the middle of that trio of players, the ball took an unusual bounce from the spin and bounced past all three players past the goal line as another UCF defender ended up in the goal with the ball in her feet to tie the score on a Hawkins goal. It was not a classic goal for a highlight reel, but if the ball is kicked towards the goal, sometimes goo dthings happen. Not long after that Washington made another advance at the UCF goal from the right side along the end line. Her shot was elevated up about shoulder high on the UCF GK. the GK got her hands on the ball on the goal side of her body and the ball deflected up into the crossbar and then bounced back out into the box down to the ground and was controlled by UCF defenders to end the threat of a goal. At half the score was 1-1 with both teams playing many Sooners playing around 40 minutes in the half.

In the second half the UCF tried to re-asert themselves by controlling the ball in the midfield area with possession of the ball. They did that well for the first third of the half. On a goal kick in the 59th minute of the match, Thelen received the goal kick on the far side of the pitch from Bradley who served up the ball well. Thelen played the ball well and headed the ball into the goal past Giorgio who had little time to react much like the send goal against Tech on Thursday. A Sooner player just in front of Thelen mistimed her jump and was too about 3 feet in front of Thelen as the ball cleared her by a foot or so.

Each time had one more good scoring threat as the Sooner GK, Giorgio made a wonderful save on an initial shot as another UCF forward was running free towards the goal after receiving a pass. On the rebound of the shot, a second UCF player made a play on the ball as a Sooner defender did a good job of making the attempted shot harder as the ball was kicked forcefully up and over the goal. Oklahoma had a good chance from inside the box as a Sooner player sent a shot across the goal and struck the left goal post and bounced out away fro m the goal.

After the match, Coach Mott had this comment. "Really disappointing result for us. I certainly felt like the team played well enough to get a point. They worked hard and created a ton of chances, but credit to UCF who played really well and defended at a high level. We had 15 corners compared to their one, and they scored on their corner and we didn't score on any of ours – that's kind of the story of the game."

The Sooners did not really get too much out of those 15 corners as I do not remember the ball getting to a Sooner in the box once cleanly. The Sooners did use several different alignments on the multiple corner kicks.

OU played 16 players in the match while UCF played 18 players. All ten of the Sooner starters on the field, played 70 minutes or more with 7 playing 80 minutes or more.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article bout the Pink Game for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/10/1 ... -in-norman

The Sooners will spend this week on the road as they play at West Virginia on Thursday and then at Cincinnati on Sunday. I would think that the Sooners might spend th elast half of the week on the road in WV and Ohio. The two schools are about 5 hours from each other by bus.

West Virginia is 1-3-1 in Big 12 play and 3-7-3 overall. They will be in T-9th place in the Big 12 with 4 points when play starts on Thursday. Cincinnati is 1-2-2 in the Big 12 and a 2-6-4 record overall. Cincinnati will be in 8th when play begins on Thursday. Cincinnati hosts OSU on Thursday night before playing OU. OSU plays the two eastern teams also this weekend, but in reverse fashion. After the Sooners broe through to win in Houston last Sunday, the Sooners would help themselves a great deal by picking up at least one win and hopefully at least a tie this weekend. The Sooners are currently in a Tie for Tie for 6th place with their 2-2-1 record and 7 points.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here are the standings for Big 12 Soccer teams through Sunday's play.

1st Place - Texas Tech - 5-0-0 for 15 points and an 11-0-2 overall record.
2nd Place - TCU - 4-0-1 for 13 points and an 8-3-2 overall record.
Tie for 3rd Place - Oklahoma State and UCF - 4-1-0 for 12 points and an 11-3-0 and an 8-3-0 overall record.
5th Place - BYU - 2-0-2 for 8 points and a 9-1-2 overall record. BYU has a match tonight versus Iowa State in Ames for the final match of the week.
Tie for 6th Place - Oklahoma and Texas - 2-2-1 for 7 points and a 6-6-1 and a 9-3-2 overall record.
8th Place - Cincinnati - 1-2-2 for 5 points and a 2-6-4 overall record.
Tie for 9th Place - Baylor and West Virginia - 1-3-1 for 4 points and a 6-5-2 and a 3-7-3 overall record.
Tie for 11th Place - Iowa State and Houston - 1-3-0 and 1-4-0 for 3 points and a 4-7-1 and a 7-5-1 overall record. Iowa State hosts BYU tonight in the final match of the week.
13th Place - Kansas - 0-3-2 for 2 points and a 3-4-6 overall record.
14th Place - Kansas State - 0-4-1 for 1 point and a 2-8-3 overall record.

In Sunday's play in the Big 12 here were the other results.

Houston defeated WV 2-1 in Houston.
Texas defeated Kansas 2-1 in Lawrence.
Baylor defeated Kansas State 2-0 in Manhattan.
Texas Tech defeated Cincinnati 3-0 in Lubbock.
TCU defeated Oklahoma State 1-0 in Ft. Worth.
Tonight, Oct 2nd, BYU plays Iowa State in Ames.

[AustinTXSooner]

One thing that stood out to me in the UCF game is that there were a few times when we had the advantage, but our player was just playing to get a corner kick, not trying to score.

[OUBeliever56A]

One thing that stood out to me in the UCF game is that there were a few times when we had the advantage, but our player was just playing to get a corner kick, not trying to score.

I have noticed that as well. But I will add, that many times Washington and others possess the ball but there are no Sooners running into the box for a pass or are working into the box to find an open lane for a pass. At that point, I guess a corner kick has better odds than pulling the ball out to regroup and attack again.

I also wish the Sooners were better up in the air on headers on the corner kicks.

[OUBeliever56A]

On Monday Night the final Soccer Match in the Big 12 'week' was played between BYU playing at Iowa State in Ames. BYU won 7-0 over Iowa State on the road.

The standings in the Big 12 are now as follows.

1st Place - Texas Tech - 5-0-0 for 15 points and an 11-0-2 overall record.
2nd Place - TCU - 4-0-1 for 13 points and an 8-3-2 overall record.
Tie for 3rd Place - Oklahoma State and UCF - 4-1-0 for 12 points and an 11-3-0 and an 8-3-0 overall record.
5th Place - BYU - 3-0-2 for 11 points and a 10-1-2 overall record.
Tie for 6th Place - Oklahoma and Texas - 2-2-1 for 7 points and a 6-6-1 and a 9-3-2 overall record.
8th Place - Cincinnati - 1-2-2 for 5 points and a 2-6-4 overall record.
Tie for 9th Place - Baylor and West Virginia - 1-3-1 for 4 points and a 6-5-2 and a 3-7-3 overall record.
Tie for 11th Place - Iowa State and Houston - 1-4-0 for 3 points and a 4-8-1 and a 7-5-1 overall record.
13th Place - Kansas - 0-3-2 for 2 points and a 3-4-6 overall record.
14th Place - Kansas State - 0-4-1 for 1 point and a 2-8-3 overall record.

This "week's" schedule is:

Thursday, Oct 5th

Texas at UCF - This should be close, but Texas should be favored, even on the road.
Oklahoma State at Cincinnati - OSU should rebound and win on the road at Cincy.
Oklahoma at West Virginia - I think OU should win on the road, and they need to.
Iowa State at Baylor - Baylor probably has the edge due to the playing at home.
Houston at Kansas State - Both teams need a win, I think Houston may win on the road.
Kansas at TCU - TCU has regained their form, TCU wins.
Texas Tech at BYU - This is the game of the week on Thursday. I will take BYU simply because they are the home team.

Sunday, Oct 8th

Oklahoma State at WV - OSU should win their second match on the road in the week.
Baylor at UCF - I believe UCF should be favored and win.
Oklahoma at Cincinnati - If OU wins at WV, the Sooners should win two on the road this week. If they Sooners drop the match at WV, they must win at Cincy.
Houston at Kansas - Spending the week playing in Kansas, Houston might drop the match to Kansas. But they could sweep matches on the road this week.
Iowa State at Texas - Another team on the road in another state this week. Texas will win over I-State.
TCU at Texas Tech - This is another very good match in the Big 12 this week. I think Tech will need the win to ge tback on track, But this match is a toss-up.

Monday, Oct 9th

Kansas State at BYU - BYU easily is the favorite.