Rich Croome of the Bryan Eagle newspaper this morning described Jimena's goal as a "poacher's goal". I've never seen that term. What is it, or should I just go watch the replay to explain the term?

Probably just that the hard work was done by Smith. Jimena finished it clinically, but had it relatively easy.

It's just a tap-in or rebound goal. So someone else does all the work then another player crashes the box and gets the final touch without having to do much. See: every goal of Chris Wondoloski's career.

At least against BYU I think we needed a 4 back. It seemed like the backs and defensive mids had to play conservatively for fear of getting beat and not having help. We were letting them bring the ball up with ease and were always late to pressure. Another team with better finishers would have won last night.

If our defensive mid plays defensively enough a 3 back and a 4 back can be the same. It is not the formation, or at least not mostly the formation. Early on our back 3 were letting BYU get goalside and beating us with quick runs, and midfield did not get back fast enough. But even more problematic was our midfielders turning the ball over in our back third. BYU could have easily been up 3 in the first half, and could have added a couple more in the second. If BYU could finish better we would have lost that game. I hope our defense is more coordinated on Sunday and our midfielders shows up and demonstrates they can better control the ball.

The turnovers deep in our end by the midfield were bad.

1st half was not good, clearly outplayed overall. Midfield were not good, defense was slow and on their heels.
2nd half was better but it looked like BYU tired and our subs were much better than theirs.

Outside of a couple great individual plays by Watt and Smith our offense was not good. Passing was poor and not many runs were threatening. Midfield passing was awful. EBates has to make her presence felt in the midfield, she is a star player and needs to make things happen.
The freshman were ok. They didn't appear too lost, but didn't do a whole lot either. The potential for quick improvement is there, so we should have a relatively deep squad this year.

Good Bull!

Photos from the match:

https://www.facebook.com/AggieSoccer/photos/a.2133159840089118/2133161820088920/?type=3&theater

aggietony2010 said:

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Probably just that the hard work was done by Smith. Jimena finished it clinically, but had it relatively easy.

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She had a defender right on her - nothing easy about it !

Agree with the comments. Two terrific goals (and there have been several this year) but badly outplayed for most of the game. It seems like every year there are games when the difference in skill level and organization seems shocking to me, this was one of those. It's as if we lose some 1 V 1's and get gashed on some runs, then play a very tentative game trying not to lose. We absolutely had no answer for 4 until Lopez came in the game with her aggressive style. We conceded the midfield and gave them large open areas to maneuver, which is frankly not unusual for us, but the lack of marking until later in the game was hard to watch. BYU looked like the fitter side as well. I figured G would give them a good talk at half but they came out the same way. Substitution pattern was a head scratcher. There appears to be enough pieces for a good team if G can get them on the field at the same time, and we can settle into an organizational setup that suits us. Glad to steal a W.

Ryno01 said:

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My first time to watch this year

Kind of scary that BYU is a 3rd or 4th rank WCC team....they were impressive

Id love to see passing stats...sure seemed pretty poor
surprised there were 3 corners...I only remember one and kind of shocked how disorganized it was
Cosette, Ally W, and Briana were amazing\elite
I thought Asdis showed flashes..shes gonna be really good

Hey, its a win!

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Here is a link to game stats.

Check out @chris_awk's Tweet:

Thanks! Awesome stats!

#1 Stanford beat BYU 2-0 last night.