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Film Study: Buffalo Women's Soccer tops Northern Illinois 4-1

By Matt Gritzmacher
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): Brianna Shingary is awesome, and she's about to win this loose ball. Notice that all ten of NIU's field players are in the shot, but they're not in great shape. Celina Carrero, Carissima Cutrona, and Moira Petrie are all enjoying lots of space.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): Big collision results in identical reactions from Burke and Derkacz (lol). NIU is still leaving all sorts of space everywhere, including area for Julia Benati to pick up the ball and advance.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): Benati has plenty of space and passing options. The play across the field to Cutrona may be safer, but only marginally so, as Carrero somehow still has plenty of space. Kidd an Cutrona are picking their lanes.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): The ball goes to Carrero. I don't love Kassidy's line here, but I can't complain much. Notice that the bottom NIU defender is moving towards the ball, and is basically giving Cutrona half the field unchecked.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): Now we see why Kidd's line works: it pulls everyone upfield past Carrero faster. She has a narrow (nearly undrawable) passing lane to Kidd, but that's also into the heart of what little defense NIU is presenting. Cutrona is still largely unnoticed.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): The ball gets to Cutrona, Kidd changes her run to stay onside, and while there's a chancy passing area to send it too her, Carissima has plenty of room to advance safely.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): All three Buffalo attackers have dropped behind the NIU defense, and there's no pass available. Rather than divert further outside, Cutrona is beginning a move to get some space.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): It works, and while a narrow passing lane has opened the more important note is that NIU is once again collapsing away from the center of the field.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): I worked embarrassingly hard to get this precise moment. As soon as a second NIU defender focuses on Cutrona, Kidd breaks to the near post, positioning herself in front of both remaining central defenders. Carrero is wide open.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): One of Kidd's two defenders drops off to Carrero, and the other didn't react quickly enough, so Kassidy has plenty of time to shoot.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): I only have this one because it's a pretty nice save from the goalie. You could ask for Kidd to not go near post, but the way her season's gone, get it on net and hope for good things.
  • Buffalo 1-0 (Kidd): Rebound --> success.
  • NIU 1-1: I'm only devoting one picture to NIU's goal, which came on a free kick after this foul from Kristin Markiewicz. Notice how well UB has the center of the field controlled. Even if NIU controls this pass, they're not really going anywhere.
  • Buffalo 2-1 (Bramble PK): This starts with literally nine seconds left in the half. It's hard to see in still images, but I think the wind had let up a bit as Bri Shingary's looking to just pound the ball into the box and hope for something. Nicole Gerritz is in pretty good position on her defender.
  • Buffalo 2-1 (Bramble PK): With the ball in the air, notice that the deepest-lying Huskie get a terrible jump on this play.
  • Buffalo 2-1 (Bramble PK): Shingary places her delivery well, and Gerritz does a great job timing her run to the ball, and it lands on her foot. She wasn't able to beat her mark, though, so she's fighting for a clean shot.
  • Buffalo 2-1 (Bramble PK): Gerritz does get separation on the defender, but only as she's pretty clearly pulled down by the shoulder. Bramble converted the penalty for an all-freshman game winner.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): Meghan Simmons on the throw in sends it to Carrero in the corner. This play won't be dangerous for a few seconds.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): Carrero doesn't corral the ball well, but moves to apply pressure.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): She gets it back before it goes out for a goal kick, and is looking to send it to Simmons, who will have more options to move the ball into space. Taking the time to turn towards Kidd (unlabeled) probably wouldn't have been successful.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): Celina doesn't get it to Simmons, but the first circled NIU player has flubbed her touch. Even so, the ball is bouncing towards a second Huskie.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): The second player is just trying to send it downfield, and this looks like a pretty benign play.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): She ALSO flubs it, and Andrea Niper, clearly loving the move back to midfield, has a few options, none of them particularly great.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): If Niper was trying to send it over the top to Benati, Julia did a good job of adjusting and collecting the loose ball after NIU couldn't clear it. Now things look very different, as NIU was pulled too far to the top of the field over the last few seconds.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): Benati needs an extra tick to corral the ball, and instead of turning upfield, moves laterally as she dodges one defender. A pass to her forwards is out, as both are offside, but she has plenty of space to run into, and Shingary is making an overlapping run to the corner. At this moment, though, I was really hoping for a shot from the sophomore. This area is her wheelhouse, and her curling shot plus the wind might have given the goalie trouble.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): This is why I started this breakdown early. Benati goes a *long* way, drawing three defenders and opening passing lanes in both directions.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): In a nice bit of technical play I can't do justice in this format, JB gets it to Shingary after all just as NIU's right back starts to move towards the ball.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): To not belabor this further, Shingary earns a corner.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): And the wind turns it into nothing. I decided to show this play immediately before the actual scoring sequence, though, for two reasons: (1) Benati and Carrero were enjoying themselves, and (2) NIU's defense was overreacting in every direction. Keep that in mind now.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): It's tough to convey here how much the wind was a factor, but this goal kick only traveled 32 yards. Niper is once again aggressive despite her nominal holding midfield position.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): The next few pictures are really just Celina Carrero Beast Mode, but Cutrona and Benati are both all sorts of free.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): Notice that Benati is gone. Nobody's gone to follow her. Also notice the NIU defender just at the top of the circled area. Wherever JB is, she's giving her a few more yards of onside room.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): You can sort of already see the gap Celina will break through, but it's also kind of ridiculous at this point.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): I forgot to draw it, but look at that passing lane and wide-open Benati now. That aside, the NIU defense actually looks not-terrible at the moment.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): The ball got poked away a bit a split second after the last shot, and Benati is turning the ball into space. NIU no longer looks well-organized. This is also where the fun begins.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): Benati's carried a bit away from goal, and her best bet is probably a pass to Shingary. Notice Carrero working off ball.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): NIU defenders overpursue, and then *both* flail to interrupt the potential pass to Moira Petrie, giving Benati space to turn into.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): This was much more impressive in real time, but Benati has basically run in a five-yard circle here and put four defenders behind the play in doing so.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): Benati's got a defender, Kidd has a defender, and Cutrona has a defender, but that's all NIU has left after Julia's run-around, and Celina Carrero is not only enjoying space, but enjoying it in the middle of the pitch.
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): None of the players left behind the play worked hard to get back into it...
  • Buffalo 3-1 (Carrero): ... and NIU almost survives because JB's pass wasn't particularly well-hit. But from this Carrero pops it in off the crossbar.
  • Buffalo 4-1 (Kidd): This again starts off the goalie's foot, again only making it to the 30. Niper again has moved up to win the 50-50 ball.
  • Buffalo 4-1 (Kidd): It doesn't immediately fall to Buffalo, but a high clearance gets caught in the wind, travels seven yards backwards, and gives UB a quick two-on-two attack.
  • Buffalo 4-1 (Kidd): Carrero draws two, which is fine, but Kidd is once again allowed to get good position on her mark.
  • Buffalo 4-1 (Kidd): From there, it's pretty simple. This goal was certainly unlucky and wind-aided, but so was NIU's free-kick score in the first half.
  • Buffalo 4-1 (Kidd): Also note that NIU's goalie put basically a half-effort into this one. Kidd's fallen down, and Carrero's not a threat. She didn't need to stop this cleanly, but it trickles over her foot. This is why you see goalies sprawl out on the ground even for shots that don't look terribly tricky. Just a foot or a hand isn't always likely to kill all the ball's momentum.

I'm trying to get this post up before it gets too late, so I'm not going much into detail beyond the captions in the slideshow on this one.

In general, UB found similar themes throughout this energizing home win:

Kassidy Kidd at forward. By now you know that the senior moved up to the top of the formation this weekend and immediately more than doubled her career output. She might not offer the touch or finesse that Carissima Cutrona did up top, but it's apparent that Kidd has a knack for making smart and well-timed runs. I'd bet that her chemistry with Cutrona is a big part of the offense suddenly converting chances.

For what it's worth, Cutrona looks comfortable in the wider spaces and greater share of the ball she gets on the wing, too.

NIU's defense losing shape. Time and time again, Northern Illinois overreacted to the ball and didn't hold their strategy, leaving Bulls open in all sorts of space. There's not a ton of breakdown in this week's post, in part because UB just took what was given to them.

Celina Carrero and Julia Benati playing like NHL94 Jeremy Roenick. If you want the link and time tags for these highlights to watch video in real time, ask in the comments. Neither could be stopped, frequently taking on two and three defenders.

Wind. I brought this up plenty in the recap, and this post can't really do it justice, but it affected the whole game and a big part of UB's win was their handling the first half into the wind much better than Northern Illinois handled the disadvantage in the second half.

UB's free kicks. I wanted to break one of these down, because I was unhappy with how vulnerable Buffalo looked against NIU counterattacks in the second half, but on the rewatch I think Meghan Simmons attacking the loose ball or not wouldn't have made a difference given how much of a numbers advantage NIU had, and Buffalo actually got back OK. I'm still a little confused why UB's deliveries didn't send the ball over the front line of Huskie defenders, but I can believe that the wind would have taken the ball out of play if it were tried.

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