Previewing No. 2 Stanford at No. 7 Boston College

We know a lot about both No. 2 Stanford and No. 7 Boston College, teams that return most of the starting lineups that took the field when the teams met in the quarterfinals of last year’s NCAA tournament.

Friday at the Newton Soccer Complex, one of the underrated places nationwide to watch a game, we start to learn what we don’t know.

Both the Cardinal and Eagles lost significant offensive presences to graduation and WPS — Stanford to the greater degree with Hermann Trophy winner Kelley O’Hara, but Boston College with Gina DiMartino. But as blasphemous as it seems to suggest replacing a Hermann winner isn’t automatically the most pressing issue confronting a team, offense seems unlikely to prove a millstone around either team’s neck.

If you have Christen Press, Lindsay Taylor, Teresa Noyola and others — or Kristie Mewis, Vicki DiMartino, Julia Bouchelle and others — goals are going to come at a rate that ought to keep two teams ranked in the top 20 nationally in scoring last season on similar ground.

On the other hand, Kelly Henderson, Alicia Jenkins and Ali Riley didn’t get quite the same amount of attention as their goal-scoring counterparts (although Riley certainly managed to carve out a niche in the soccer-watching consciousness in showing off the skills at outside back that are making her an immediate WPS standout). But replacing those three, Henderson for Boston College and Jenkins and Riley for Stanford, offers perhaps the greatest peril for both teams Friday.

Enter Hannah Cerrone, Courtney Verloo and Camille Levin.

Continue reading “Previewing No. 2 Stanford at No. 7 Boston College” →

Leslie Osborne and the WNT

All White Kit recently tackled the topic (the only appropriate alliteration for the player in question) of Leslie Osborne’s present absence from and uncertain future with the U.S. national team under Pia Sundhage. After not covering the WNT for a couple of years, I didn’t feel qualified to offer much of an opinion when given the opportunity to put together a feature on Osborne recently (nor would that have been the best venue for one). But even to someone who only recently discovered All White Kit, it’s obvious Jenna has a good feel for Sundhage’s roster machinations.

To me, Osborne is the perfect kind of player for the national team, almost without restriction relative to system (almost, but not completely). To delve into the dangerous language of intangibles, she’s a world-class grinder. As in, she plays like someone who has to rely solely on effort for her soccer survival, but she does with enough natural skill and athleticism to survive on the field against world-class players. As someone put it well recently, she’s going to win the challenge and play a square ball. And then do it again. It’s not fancy; it’s just effective.

Regardless of the sport, you don’t win titles with rosters comprised entirely of those sort of players. You also don’t win titles without a few of them. Lest we forget, this is a player who scored 44 goals in four seasons at Santa Clara and had 17 assists in one season. But as she expressed during the interview process for the feature, she has completely embraced the role of holding midfielder and made it her own.

“I love it,” Osborne said. “Tony [DiCicco], I think, brought me here to play that position. He thought last year that’s what they needed. I love it — but with the national team, [Sundhage] doesn’t play with one holding midfielder. So for the national team, that’s something that doesn’t really fit in with her. But I love playing holding mid. I hope what people would say is I’m a pretty good holding midfielder in this country.”

It’s also worth noting that Osborne said she still has a good relationship with Sundhage, despite her absence from the WNT roster.

All of which is why one paragraph, in particular, in Jenna’s post really caught my eye. Continue reading “Leslie Osborne and the WNT” →

Preseason All-SEC

The SEC released its preseason all-conference team today, listed below. Ashlee Elliott, Katy Frierson and Kayla Grimsley were on the preseason team a year ago. Elliott was also on the 2008 team, as was Kelli Corless.

Of some note for a conference still trying to build its own base, five of the 15 are from out-of-conference states. I’m not sure off the top of my head if that’s high or low, but I’ll be interested to see how that stacks up against other leagues (in terms of the SEC itself, three of 11 members of the 2009 preseason team and six of 12 members of the 2008 preseason team were from outside the league’s geography).

Allysha Chapman, D, LSU, Jr.
Kelli Corless, D, Georgia, Sr.
Taylor Cunningham, M, Ole Miss, Sr.
Ashlee Elliott, M, Florida, Sr.
Katie Fraine, GK, Florida, Sr.
Katy Frierson, M, Auburn, Jr.
Kayla Grimsley, F, South Carolina, Jr.
Chelsea Hatcher, M, Tennessee, Jr.
Molly Kinsella, M, Vanderbilt, Sr.
Brittiny Rhoades, D, South Carolina, Sr.
Meredith Snow, D, Ole Miss, Jr.
Lindsay Thompson, F, Florida, Jr.
Sammy Towne, D, Auburn, Sr.
Erika Tymrak, M, Florida, So.
Kathryn Williamson, D, Florida

Hermann Trophy, Part 2: Revenge of the Hermann

If we only had eight fingers, would all our lists be in multiples of four? Just asking. Anyway, since five isn’t nearly enough to cover all the worthy candidates (although neither is 10, for that matter), a few more contenders for the throne as college soccer’s top player.

Vicki DiMartino, Sophomore, Boston College
Last season: 14 goals, 6 assists in 24 games
If you believe Boston College is for real as a serious player in the national championship picture — and like the ACC coaches, I do — it stands to reason that the Eagles will likely get someone near the top of the Hermann list. If we’re talking pure potential, I’ll take Kristie Mewis as the most talented player on the roster and one of the 10 or 15 most talented players in college soccer at the moment. But Vicki DiMartino isn’t hurting for talent of her own, and she may occupy a higher-profile role for a team many outside New England are still getting to know. Like her older sisters before her, she’s creative and good on the ball. But perhaps even more than either Christina at UCLA or Gina at B.C., she has a nose for goal and is very comfortable playing at the top of the attack.

Danielle Foxhoven, Junior, Portland
Last season: 25 goals, 12 assists in 22 games
Then again, when they cast the movie, they made Tom Cruise the fighter pilot, not the guy steering the carrier. Foxhoven is a fantastic player who deserves credit for her ability to do more than finish — not that anyone is complaining about how often she does that, too. For all the reasons stated in mulling over Sophie Schmidt’s chances, and for all the reasons Portland itself named Foxhoven its female student-athlete of the year for 2009-10, the junior is clearly a strong contender in her own right. Ruth and Gehrig, Magic and Kareem, Gibbard and Walla … take your pick.

Ali Hawkins, Senior North Carolina
Last season: 5 goals, 5 assists in 20 games
It’s a rule that North Carolina has to have someone at least in the conversation for the Hermann Trophy, right? Hawkins has already been a valuable piece of three national championships during her stay in Chapel Hill, so she seems a reasonable place to start thinking about the future beyond last year’s senior class (that she would have been part of, if not for the injury that wiped out most of her 2007 season). In terms of sheer force of will or soccer personality, Hawkins strikes me as being cut from the same cloth as Heather O’Reilly was on an otherwise young Tar Heels team in 2006. Hawkins isn’t the offensive star that O’Reilly was at the college level, of course, but from Anson Dorrance’s preseason podcast, it sounds like she’ll be playing more of an attacking role than the holding role she has at times filled admirably. To that end, I’m not sure you can win a Hermann on leadership alone, but if the Tar Heels stay at the top of the rankings, she may not need eye-popping stats to garner attention.

Morgan Marlborough, Sophomore, Nebraska
Last season: 21 goals, 7 assists in 19 games
Don’t judge Marlborough by her numbers — no matter which direction they lead you. The 21 goals she scored as a freshman last season are a bit misleading given Nebraska’s schedule — she scored 10 of them in a four-game stretch against Lamar, North Dakota, Akron and South Dakota. But it’s equally misleading to look at the numbers and write her off as simply the product of schedule-induced stat inflation. At 6 feet, she’s obviously capable of playing in a target role, but watching her in person last season — even coming as it did during one of Nebraska’s low moments in a 3-1 loss against Lehigh, it was readily apparent there is something special there. She’s agile, quick and perfectly comfortable with the ball at her feet. And as Texas A&M learned when she scored twice against the Aggies, she can score against any competition.

Christine Nairn, Sophomore, Penn State
Last season: 7 goals, 10 assists in 21 games
Like Sydney Leroux, with whom she won a U-20 title in 2008 and shared captain’s duties on the team this time around, she enters the fall on what must be a disappointing note after the early exit in Germany. Also like Leroux, it would be surprising to see any hangover from that experience reach even Labor Day. The only college player who has earned caps with the full national team [CORRECTION: Apologies to Cal’s Alex Morgan, who I somehow forgot already has two caps with the national team in 2010] she’s a playmaking midfielder who looks to have all sorts of new toys to play with in State College. Maya Hayes showed an ability to play wide and play on the ball in the attacking third that the Nittany Lions have lacked in recent seasons, and she’s just one part of a highly-touted freshman class that joins returnee and 13-goal scorer Danielle Toney.

Starting the season with a list seems so passe …

Believe it or not, the college regular season gets underway in a little less than two weeks. And with Kelley O’Hara playing alongside Marta and Christine Sinclair for FC Gold Pride, someone in the college ranks has to step up and claim the Hermann Trophy. Here are my top five preseason picks, in alphabetical order.

Lauren Fowlkes, Senior, Notre Dame
Last season: 10 goals, 4 assists in 26 games
Notre Dame’s media guides are comprehensive beasts — drop one on your foot for confirmation. But last season’s capsule for Fowlkes looks a little understated in hindsight, adding as almost an afterthought to hr bio: “also has some offensive capabilities.” You think? Thrown up top midway through last season for a team that needed continuity next to Melissa Henderson, Fowlkes finished with 10 goals, including five goals in 11 Big East regular-season games and three more in the Big East tournament. And based on her prior work as part of the back line and in the midfield, it’s still not even remotely clear that forward is her best position. Henderson will get the goals and build her own Hermann resume, but you’ve got to be the best at something (or at least in the running) to win the hardware. And no player is a more complete package anywhere on the field than Fowlkes.

Sydney Leroux, Junior, UCLA
Last season: 23 goals, 2 assists in 24 games
It’s her show now in Westwood. With Lauren Cheney, Kara Lang, McCall Zerboni, Kristina Larsen, Christina DiMartino and just about everyone else responsible for the bulk of UCLA’s non-Leroux points over the last two seasons moved on, Leroux is the elder stateswoman of the Bruins attack, even if she’s only a junior. Assuming she doesn’t dwell on the disappointment of her missed penalty in a quarterfinal shootout loss against Nigeria in the Under-20 Women’s World Cup, she should be up to the challenge. It doesn’t hurt that the U-20 process gave her plenty of extra time to work with Zakiya Bywaters and highly-touted incoming freshman Jenna Richmond, all under the careful watch of United States and UCLA coach Jill Ellis. Leroux is probably the most recognizable name in the college game, and that and another 20-plus goals should eventually have her on the short list for the Hermann.

Tiffany McCarty, Junior, Florida State
Last season: 17 goals, 7 assists in 25 games
McCarty might end up being the best player in the nation, or she might end up being the third-best player on her own team. Frankly, with talent like Jessica Price, Amanda DaCosta, Casey Short and Toni Pressley around in Tallahassee, it could be a fine line that separates those two possibilities. So why McCarty? All she’s done since arriving is live up to the hype, earning ACC Freshman of the Year honors in 2008 and then scoring a team-high 17 goals as a sophomore. And this may be a season when the cream rises for the Seminoles. Rather than opening against Jacksonville and South Alabama, as they did last season, or loading up on stat-stuffing games against the likes of Francis Marion, Troy and North Florida, the Seminoles start off the season against Washington State and Gonzaga — in the Palouse, no less — and face three SEC teams and Central Florida before even getting to the ACC.

Christen Press, Senior, Stanford
Last season: 21 goals, 16 assists in 26 games
How many times has a school other than North Carolina had back-to-back Hermann winners who weren’t the same person? The same number of times Stanford won a national championship in women’s soccer. Christen Press may be the key to giving the Cardinal another shot at doing the latter, if she can put together a season worthy of changing the former. Overshadowed by Kelley O’Hara, to the extent a player who totals 21 goals and 16 assists and shared player-of-the-year honors from Top Drawer Soccer can be overshadowed, Press gets her shot at the spotlight. She won’t be alone, with Lindsay Taylor, Teresa Noyola, Courtney Verloo and Mariah Nogueira among the attacking players still around in Palo Alto, meaning another 50-point season is within reach for one of college soccer’s fastest strikers.

 Sophie Schmidt, Senior, Portland
Last season: 12 goals, 12 assists in 22 games
Who gets the nod as Portland’s strongest Hermann candidate? Let’s see, all Danielle Foxhoven did last season was score 25 goals for the Pilots, production that ranked her second nationally in goals per game and first nationally in points per game, courtesy of 12 assists. Yet Foxhoven took a backseat as a sophomore to teammate Michelle Enyeart in the Hermann race, and as good as Foxhoven was, that is still hard to argue — Enyeart was that kind of good in imposing her will on all comers. Will history repeat itself? Foxhoven has to rank as one of the best pure finishers in the college game right now (she also led the Pilots with 16 goal as a freshman), but tactically speaking, she’s the ace fighter pilot. Occupying central midfield for a team with so many attacking options all over the pitch, Schmidt is the aircraft carrier.