That was beautiful

THIS is the best half we've seen from this team all year by FAR. Looks like a completely different team.

That was beautiful

Piper with 2 goals and 1 assist in 20 minutes.

Did Lopez pick up an injury in the first half?

Update: she's back.

Watt now on 5 goals in 5 matches.

That's kind of odd. No actual head to head contact. Might have taken the ball directly to the temple or something.

That would've been targeting last night.

Great assist and goal!

Rambotx said:

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Great assist and goal!

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That entire sequence was beautiful

Well the first 10 minutes or so were pretty disappointing as A&M came out flat. OU had some possession in the midfield and were out-hustling us. But then the tide started to turn and A&M finally started connecting some passes and had some nice runs at goal but missed a few connections for the finishing touch. OU scored against the run of play on a rocketed shot that Morche couldn't handle just under the crossbar.

However, the 2nd half was all A&M. We really put the foot on the accelerator as far as pressure and took it to the Sooners, scoring 3 goals in about a 10-minute stretch. There were several possessions where we connected 8-10 passes through the midfield and then finally to the outside where crosses into the box created scoring chances. The final goal by Watt was the best goal of the year, with about 10 passes before the perfect cross and header for a goal. Piper scored twice on set pieces off rebounds in the box so we are becoming more dangerous on those corners for a change. However, she needs to stop turning the ball over in the middle of the field.

Emily Bates really stepped up in the 2nd half and was hustling everywhere, creating turnovers and finally connecting on many passes through the midfield. We actually ran several give-and-goes and it broke down OU's defense. Addie McCain finally got the start and played well. I would like to see her take a few more shots from 20 yards because she is fairly accurate. Tara Zeimer played her best game as well tonight. Asdis continues to get better each match and she is really finding a rhythm with her teammates. She really has a high soccer IQ out there for a freshman.

The backline was pretty good defensively but they have got to stop turning the ball over with silly passes up the field. But to be fair Morche will not kick the ball up field, rather sending out weak arm passes and putting her defenders in a tough spot for no reason. Remember, that's how last season ended to ND so they need to value the ball more. I thought Ritchie just had an off night with her touches but I'm not worried about her. Alston had another couple of kicks out of the back that just went straight up in the air and backwards.

OU isn't a good team but they played hard for a half and took the lead. A&M is about to find out exactly how we match up against an elite opponent on Sunday against Santa Clara. They are really good and we will be the underdog in that match for sure. I'm very concerned about how we will possess the ball in the midfield to create enough scoring chances, unless we just kick the ball long every time and hope Watt gets behind the defense. Tonight was certainly more encouraging because the all-out effort in the last 45 minutes was there for really the first time this season. If we play like that we have a chance to stay in the game and maybe steal it late.

G took advantage of the 3-1 lead to rest the starting forwards and midfielders. We came out of the locker room at half time with 6 minutes left in the break which is really early, but then not much needed to be said about that first half. I think we need to focus more on getting the ball to Emily in the middle. I agree with the earlier comment about Asdis; she is really playing well. I thought Cienna was really active when she replaced Grace. And I thought OU had a legitimate gripe about us being offside on the first goal although the kick by Ritchie was deflected to Grace by an OU player. Ritchie hit 2 corners into the side of the goal.
Averaging 3 goals a game is pretty good.

The OU coach had this comment after the game as shown on the soonersports website:

"(The first half was) certainly the best half of soccer we have played thus far on both sides of the ball," Potter said. "Unfortunately, when you play against the quality of a distinguished program as A&M, the discipline and need for execution is for 90 minutes and letting them back into the game early is something we will reflect on and look to learn from moving forward."

what a tale of 2 halves.
OU played pretty well and really brought it to us in the first half, especially at the start of the half. The second half, they tired and were overwhelmed by our play.
A&M could not have played worse to start the game. Passing was terrible, decisions were terrible, absolutely noting went right.
2nd half was the best half we have played this year. Where was that quality of passing in the first half? Player movement was much much better. We had so many shots go just wide left, we could have had several more goals.
We will need 90 minutes of good effort tomorrow, lets hope they come out to play like they did in the 2nd half against OU.