The two matches of the opening weekend were as different as night and day for Arizona soccer. The Wildcats dealt with all forms of disruptions but dominated UNLV on Thursday in a 5-0 win. Three days later, the match against UC Irvine went smoothly but was a nailbiter.
“Irvine had a great win, as well,” said Arizona head coach Becca Moros. So, you’re looking at, between the two teams, nine goals in our first game. So we knew it was going to be a tough match and that they were going to be very competitive.
Good soccer-playing team. They defended us better. They took away the advantage we had against UNLV on the flanks, and they covered those players immediately. So, from that standpoint, we had to find a new way to be successful, and it was hard for us.“
Arizona broke through with little time to spare. The Wildcats took the 1-0 victory on a header off a corner kick by sophomore Kennedy Fletcher in the 87th minute.
“I saw Lily (Boydstun) place that perfect ball in the back post, and I knew it was our one chance to attack it with three minutes left,” Fletcher said. “I saw the girl kind of turn her back, the one that was defending back post, and I just knew if I raised up, kind put my arm out and just push through it right back onto the goal, it was going to go in. So it was definitely nice to get a header goal. Set pieces, I know as a team, we’ve been working that a ton, and it just showed our grit throughout the game. I think it was coming for a long time, and it’s good to finally get one.”
Moros has harped on the need to improve set pieces for the last several years. She reiterated it in preseason interviews this year. She gave a lot of the credit for the improvement to assistant coaches Sebastian Pineda Gordillo and Nat Gonzalez.
“Man, we hustled on set pieces, to get better at set pieces, and to have more targets to score off a set piece in the second game here, I mean, it’s so good for us,” Moros said. “There’s more targets, more people who can score, so I expect we’ll continue scoring and at least being a threat. So I’m really proud of that work, and that spearheaded a lot of our set-piece stuff. We call it the Sebastian School of Heading. So, a lot of work’s been put in to be successful there, and that won us the game.”
It was a much more competitive match from the start. Arizona had a 2-0 lead within the first 15 minutes against the Rebels in the season opener. The Wildcats dominated possession in the first half of that match. UCI was not only able to react to Arizona’s offensive tactics on Sunday, but they also put some pressure on the Wildcats’ defense.
It didn’t result in a lot of chances for the visiting team, though. Arizona outshot UC Irvine 10-3. Six of the Wildcats’ shots were on goal compared to one for the Anteaters.
UCI made the necessary defensive adjustments to keep the match close, but the heat and humidity seemed to affect them later in the game. The visitors appeared to have a couple of players cramp in the second half when the Wildcats had eight of their 10 shots. Arizona also made adjustments as things wore on.
“They were in their low block, so we kind of just had to walk the ball up the field, keep passing it back and forth, and then eventually find those pockets of space where we could get behind them and find the forwards in behind their line, and then get that cross off,” senior midfielder Sami Baytosh said. “But yeah, they were in that low block, so it was kind of hard…We kind of found it more, I think, in the second half. We made a few adjustments, but they were good at that.”
Arizona’s players didn’t appear to have as many issues with the heat. Being accustomed to playing in it doesn’t hurt. Moving off the ball is a big part of that.
“We’ve always said, the more we’re on the ball, the less we have to run,” said senior defender Maia Brown. “So that’s key for us, is limiting turnovers, so making sure we’re just moving off the ball. And then also for us is our resting defense phase. So if we can win the ball closer up to our goal, we’re not having to make those 10-20 yard runs back, which saves our energy when we’re attacking.”
Baytosh had a big impact for the second straight game. She opened the season with two assists against UNLV. While she didn’t account for points against UCI, she had nice plays that helped her teammates get free for opportunities. She was also critical on the defensive end.
“Sami is super consistent for us,” Moros said. “She was that way as a freshman. I mean, she’s a very good soccer player, very clever, works really hard, great teammate, defends together. Shows up to help her teammates out, defensively, covering and double-teaming and things like that, really beautifully. She’s also a tremendous header, which you might not even realize. She’s so understated when she plays, but she’s also worked really hard to kind of manage winning more physical battles, and I think she’s done a great job of that over the last year. We’ve worked on you know, where do you initiate contact? How do you initiate contact and get the upper hand in that? Because crafty, smaller players, they’re going to get hit more. So being able to manage that. I think she’s added some really cool stuff to her game.”
In the end, it was the dominance in set pieces that salvaged the match for the home team. The Wildcats had eight corner kicks in the match while the Anteaters didn’t earn any due to the response of Brown and the rest of the Arizona back line.
The Wildcats could have had nine, but the officials missed the UCI goalkeeper carrying the ball over the end line just minutes before the corner kick that made the difference. Rose Calkins argued with the officials, but all she got was a warning that she should drop it or she was going to get a yellow card. She did, and her team responded in their next opportunity.
The Wildcats will try to keep a perfect record when they travel to New Mexico State on Thursday, Aug. 21. It is their only match next week.
