This weekend will see the final four of the NCAA Women’s College Cup take place.
Florida State takes on Clemson, while BYU takes on Stanford.
The final will follow three days later as Cary, North Carolina, plays host to one of the most exciting events on the US sports calendar.
In this tactical analysis piece and scout report, we take a look at four potential key players to observe this weekend.
We will provide an analysis of each player’s key moments and respective roles within their teams’ tactics throughout the season.
Taylor Huff – Florida State
Taylor Huff is a fourth-year senior who has been a mainstay in the Florida State side throughout the season, having been deployed as a winger, midfielder and attacking midfielder.
Taylor has been the primary creator for the side throughout the season, averaging 0.3 assists per game this season along with 0.33 goals scored per game, meaning she is averaging 0.63 goal contributions per 90, which is an impressive number for a player playing in the strongest conference in Women’s College soccer this season with two of the final four coming from the ACC.
A further reason for Taylor’s strong impact on the Seminoles this season is her ability to create from set pieces, particularly with her right foot, which has been a particular asset throughout the season.
Not only is she able to create so ably, but she can create just as proficiently with her left as her right, making a real ambidextrous threat for opponents to have to deal with.
In this above example, Taylor is going to play a lofted right-footed ball all the way to the back post.
This ball is perfectly placed so that it takes out all of the NC State defenders and leaves Lauren Flynn free on the back post to header goalwards.
Above is an example of how Taylor can participate in her team’s ball progression from midfield; having picked up the ball from a teammate coming out of a defence-attack transition, her first thought is to play forwards, and she plays an excellently weighted left-footed through ball for forward Onyi Echegini to run onto.
She finishes it off excellently for a goal.
In this example, Taylor picks up the ball in a dangerous position in and around the opposition penalty area.
From there, she had the confidence to play the ball through the Pittsburgh defence and to put Jody Brown through one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
The most impressive part about this ball is not just the vision to see a ball like this but the execution as she has to thread the needle between four Pittsburgh players by hitting the ball with pace while also making sure that Jody can receive the ball in stride and get a shot away, a truly outstanding piece of play by Taylor Huff.
A further strength of Taylor’s is her ability to drive forward on the ball and use her strength and size to shield the ball from opponents.
This has led to her averaging 2.71 dribbles per game at a success rate of 69%.
Above is a really nice example of the sort of thing that Taylor has the ability to do when in possession.
She picks the ball up in the midfield and is just going to drive into the hole at speed.
Then, when she’s there, she uses strength and good ball control to shrug off one defender and be in a position to create a goalscoring chance.
This ability to carry the ball 15-20 metres is a further asset for the Seminoles as they look to progress the ball forward.
These two aspects make Taylor Huff a difficult proposition to any of the teams left, as they give her many different tools to beat an opponent.
Megan Bornkamp – Clemson
Megan Bornkamp is a twenty-two-year-old player in her fourth season with the Clemson Tigers.
Throughout her career, she has demonstrated versatility as a central defender, midfielder, and striker.
However, despite playing the majority of last season as a central defender, she has played the majority of her minutes this season as the central striker in a 1-4-1-4-1 or 1-4-2-3-1 shape.
She is well suited to this role as she has the strength and power to be a genuine target for Clemson, with the ability to link up nicely with teammates with her back to goal.
She also has the ability to win headers, particularly in the box, to get on the end of crosses.
She has averaged 0.2 goals per game throughout this season to date and picked up some key goals in tight games in this tournament run against Georgia in the third round and Columbia in the second round.
In this above example, you can see how Megan is a useful asset to play off of and link with teammates with her back-to-goal in this situation, helping Clemson break the lines and get creative players in dangerous positions facing the goal.
In this above example, you can see an example of how Megan can be used as a target player to push the ball up the field quickly and potentially isolate smaller and weaker opposition central defenders with a long ball forward towards Megan to be able to compete for.
She is able to leap above her opponent and flick the ball on for a teammate to run onto and progress the ball up the field quickly.
In this above example, Clemson has played a long ball over the top of the Georgia defence.
Megan is able to run onto the ball and beat the opposition defenders and goalkeeper to the ball.
What’s most impressive about this example is the composure she has despite the situation she is in.
This is with two minutes to go 1-0 and about to go out of the tournament in the third round.
When she’s left one-on-one with the goalkeeper, she calmly just knocks the ball over the goalkeeper’s head, follows it up and taps it home to send the game to extra time and keep Clemson in the tournament.
In this example, it’s a conference semi-final with the scores tied at 0-0.
The ball gets played out wide, and Megan times her run to perfection to be at the apex of her jump just as the ball arrives.
Her run is between the two defenders, just where they can’t prevent her from scoring.
Then, she guides the ball into the top corner for Clemson to take the lead in the game.
Megan Bornamp gives Clemson a different dimension, which could prove valuable, particularly given her ability to come up big in the big moments so far this season.
Olivia Katoa – BYU
Now Olivia Katoa was a key part in perhaps the highlight of last weekend’s quarter-final stage, with her scoring the winner in the thrilling 4-3 game against North Carolina, where BYU came back from 3-0 down to win the game.
However, this epic moment was not just a flash in the pan because Olivia has been an important piece on the BYU side throughout the season.
She often played as a creative midfielder in their 1-4-1-3-2 shape, with Olivia often playing as a number ten.
She is particularly adept at this role because of the positions she can get around the box.
From there, she is just as adept at using her right foot as her left foot in order to create goalscoring chances, particularly for herself around the box, with her averaging 0.48 goals per game, exceeding her xG of 0.29 per game.
In this above example, BYU plays a cutback ball towards the edge of the box.
Olivia is there to pick up the ball with her back to goal.
Now, look how the defender is orientated to her in the second image: she is right on her back with little to no room for Olivia to move.
However, what happens is Olivia uses some quick footwork to create the yard of separation to be able to turn and get a shot away, which she rifles into the bottom right corner.
Here is the matchwinner from the North Carolina quarter-final.
What you’ll notice is the position Olivia takes up.
She has a real preference to be around four yards in front of the defensive line, which means she is in space to receive the ball to feet, which is where she is at her most dangerous.
The ball comes to her with a North Carolina defender right in her face; however, this doesn’t phase, and she has the composure to switch the ball onto her weaker left foot before striking the ball low and into the bottom right corner to win the game and complete an incredible comeback.
A further importance of Olivia’s role within the BYU side is her ability to progress the ball and break the opposition defensive lines.
In this example, you can see Olivia playing that number ten role between the defensive-midfield lines.
In this position, she is able to receive the ball off her striker facing the goal, which allows her to see more creative options.
It also engages the defender which she waits for before playing a left-footed through ball for her teammate to run onto.
In this example, you can see how Olivia is able to play aggressive balls to progress attacks, with her receiving the ball with her back to the goal.
She is able to turn and play a disguised pass through a tight gap to a teammate.
Olivia Katoa has been a key player throughout the season for BYU, and they will need her to be strong again this weekend as they look to win the NCAA tournament.
Maya Doms – Stanford
Maya Doms is an outstanding young midfielder for the Stanford Cardinals.
She is particularly important to the side because of her remarkable ability to progress the ball for the Cardinals through a number of excellently weighted, creative and positive balls to put teammates into space, with her averaging 0.2 assists per game — particularly impressive considering how she has often played a deeper role for the side.
Another important part of Maya Dom’s play was her ability to play with both feet and use her strength to drive forward on the ball.
These attributes helped her achieve 2.5 dribbles per game at 51% success.
In this example, Maya is playing on the left side of the attack.
She cuts inside onto her right foot, then plays an excellently weighted clipped pass over the top of the Nebraska defence, putting the ball on a plate for the on-rushing teammate, who unfortunately takes one too many touches, and the chance falls away.
The ability to calculate how to hit her teammate in stride just shows the outstanding feel for chance creation that Maya possesses.
In this situation, Maya picks up the ball on the halfway line and then drives forwards 20 metres in possession before seeing this excellent weighted ball between the centre backs where it curls back into the path of the forward Lumi Kostmayer to run and be put through one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
This situation illustrates the sort of threat that Maya can pose in broken field play as Stanford go on the counterattack.
With her able to play an accurate and efficient left-footed pass to teammate Andrea Kitahata to run onto and score.
A further important asset is her ability to score exceptional quality goals from around the box, putting the ball where no goalkeeper in the world can save it.
Maya averaged 0.43 goals per game with an xG of 0.46 per game, slightly underperforming in terms of xG.
Above is an example of the threat Maya possesses in and around the box.
Having just picked up the ball on the edge of the box, she takes two touches and then hits an outstanding curling right-footed shot just about as into the top right corner as you can get.
In this example, what happens is Maya receives the ball with her back to goal and an opponent on her back.
However, she has the quality to use her body to roll the defender, turn and take a shot with her ‘weaker’ left foot, which is hit with considerable enough power to beat the goalkeeper for pace.
Maya Doms has a unique ability to unlock an opposition defence, which could prove to be the difference for Stanford in this weekend’s final four.
Conclusion
Above, we have detailed just four of the many high-quality players on show during this weekend’s NCAA final four.
It will be exciting if the rest of the tournament is anything to go off of — with the four best teams facing off in what should be two interesting matches, followed three days later by the final.
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