Goal by Goal: Women's Soccer tops Bonaventure 3-1

Last year during soccer season I did a post series called "Film Study." It was fun, but a lot of work to grab still images and draw all over them to break down plays. This year, I'm better at making gifs. Pros: less work, more easily transferable to other sports - like Wrestling especially. Cons: No arrows and shapes. Sorry.

I should be able to do this for all home games. Road games will depend on video availability. We'll start with Women's Soccer's 3-1 win over Bonaventure, while Men's Soccer's 9-0 win over Daemen will come later today. Don't forget there's two volleyball matches today and we're less than a week from Football.

Goal 1: Julia Benati Earns Penalty

Not a whole lot to break down here, other than a few things you'll see a lot of from Benati. She's a big fan of working down the sideline and waiting to send in a cross at the last possible second. In this play, her possession starts after a throw in and she's only prevented from the cross by an over aggressive tackle.

Notice how after returning the ball to Benati off the throw-in, Carrero drops back into space a bit. Had Benati not started to work upfield, there would have been space in the middle of the field with Lytle and Zoccali moving toward net.

Bona's Best Chance

One thing that was abundantly clear last weekend in Pennsylvania was the need for UB's defense to be more vocal. Here you see a little bit of trouble defending a counterattack, which we saw last year at times, but also a situation that could be better. Simmon does a good job making it back from no-man's land to force Bona to make a play, but VanCuyck could have neutralized the play by getting back more quickly. It's tough to tell here if Hart knew there was so much space between her and VanCuyck or if she was cheating to the center to avoid an even more dangerous run.

Goal 2: Cutrona from Benati

The most impressive part of this play to me is how Carrero and Benati work together to use the space between Bonaventure''s midfield and backline. They move in tandem, with Carrero clearing out the space upfield of Benati and Benati getting to a spot where Carrero can deliver the throw in.

The pass to Cutrona and Cutrona's shot are the types of things where there's no other options. They just went right, good plays from good players.

Goal 3: Cutrona Creates Her Own Luck

High pressure pays off, in this case helped by some really nice timing from Cutrona to poke the ball away. The finish takes a whole lot of skill, beyond my knowledge to critique, but it's nice.

Cutrona Nearly Makes It Three

This is a great example of a strong counterattack, as (I think it's) Benati pounces on a long pass with open space in front of her and doesn't try to do too much other than get the ball up quickly. Pay attention to the shape of Cutrona's run, veering inside before heading out, crossing up the Bona defender while also providing a big target for the pass.

Keeping Pressure on the Offensive Third

Nothing Xs and Os to highlight here. Just watch Gurjeena Jandu win possession at the 43 yard line early in the gif and then AJ VanCuyck, #2 in the headband, work up and down twice to help UB keep the ball in the attacking third. Bonaventure dispossessed UB twice in this gif and still ended with a throw in deep in their own territory because the back half of the Bulls' formation kept the pressure on.

Bonaventure's Goal

Watch this a few times to keep your eye on Bona's goal scorer, then just watch the area around her. Both she and the ball are allowed to move freely until they meet each other as (I think) Kayla Hospodka drifts away from her mark and mistimes her jump a bit early. On a ball delivered this far off Betancourt's line, the goalie can't do much if no one disrupts either the ball or the body.