Through the first two weekends of the season, UCLA women’s soccer’s attacking strength was on full display. The team scored 17 goals – the best four-game mark in coach Amanda Cromwell’s tenure.
In a 1-0 win against unranked BYU (0-3-2) Friday and a 2-0 victory against Weber State (1-4-0) Sunday, however, No. 1 UCLA’s (6-0-0) free-flowing offense hit a bump in the road.
Both Utah-based teams made the pragmatic decision, like many seeking an upset, to bunker in and put eight, nine and sometimes 10 players behind the ball to clog up space around their box.
UCLA struggled to create the clear-cut openings they had in previous games.
“Both of the teams we played knew we had been scoring a lot of goals, so they kind of sat back and didn’t let us get in behind them,” said junior forward Hailie Mace, the team’s joint leading scorer. “We’re not really used to that. I think it was a struggle for us to adapt to a low line.”
Despite the challenges posed by a team parking the bus, some of the attacking shortcomings were self-inflicted. The Bruins controlled possession and carved out space through overlapping runs on the wings or quick passing in the middle, but lacked a final ball on many occasions.
The attackers also settled for shots from outside the box, which have a low rate of success. Both game-winners – Mace’s rocket against BYU and senior wingback Gabrielle Matulich’s curler against Weber State – resulted from such shots, but many others hit defenders or were well off target.
“They were able to recover well, block shots. They blocked crosses and corner kicks,” Cromwell said. “But we had some poorly executed final passes that ran out of bounds or went to the goalkeeper. We got to be better at the final pass.”
Altitude also played its part in disrupting the Bruins’ high-tempo style of play. Both games were played at more than 4,000 feet above sea level.
“The altitude definitely hit us pretty hard,” Mace said.
On the opposite end of the pitch, another trend was inverted.
UCLA’s defense collected its first two clean sheets of the season. Sophomore center back Kaiya McCullough provided solid cover with her positioning and efficient tackling, and sophomore goalkeeper Teagan Micah nabbed some big saves to preserve the shutout against BYU.
Micah made a highlight reel stop in a one-on-one situation, diving to keep out a certain goal, and took one off the face when rushing out to prevent another Cougar opportunity.
“We flipped the switch on our mindset and focused more on defense,” Micah said. “It’s good to get goals and goals and goals, but if we’re conceding cheap ones, that’s not how we’re going to win a national championship.”
That said, Micah and the Bruins were bailed out when the goalkeeper was beaten by a shot that ultimately skimmed the top of the bar on its way into the stands.
The back line remains a work in progress.
“We have to be better on the counter. We need to make sure we’re not taking breaks on throw-ins and set plays – being a lot more alert,” Cromwell said. “But tonight, I did see individual players make a concerted effort to be better with their defending, which is good.”
It was a mixed weekend for the top-ranked Bruins. They traveled to Utah unbeaten and left in the same condition, grabbing two shutouts in the process, but none of the field players covered themselves in glory.
“There were no superstars this weekend,” Cromwell said.