After Cal women’s soccer defeated Denver 4-2 last Sunday, coach Neil McGuire said he would have to look in fixing the Bears’ recent concerns about conceding goals in the first ten minutes of the match.
This week, McGuire seemed to have found the solution to the defense, from a quite unlikely place.
“Just keep the ball,” McGuire said curtly. “We try not to coach on negative aspects of the game, telling the team ‘don’t do this, don’t do that.’ We focus on positives, and the positives are that we do a good job keeping the ball.”
From the start of the season, McGuire hammered in the point that ball possession mutually creates goal opportunities and eliminates attacking threats from the opposition. And with ball possession being this week’s focal point for the Bears, their lessons in practice be put to the test in today’s away match against Long Beach State.
In the past two years, the 49ers have made a dramatic turnaround in their program. In 2009, Long Beach State had a dismal 5-11-3 record, missing out in the Big West conference tournament. The very next year, the 49ers recorded a 14-5-2 record, shocking then-No. 11 UC Irvine in the Big West conference finals to win the conference title for the first time in program history. They were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year.
Riding the momentum from last year, Long Beach State recruited 13 freshman into the squad to build around eighth-year coach Mauricio Ingrassia’s disciplined approach. Long Beach State already got off to a great start this season with a 4-2 record. They are currently perfect in their home at George Allen Field.
Like Cal with senior Katie Benz, the 49ers have recently struck gold in their search for a star striker. Junior Nadia Link, who scored eight goals last year, already chalked in six goals in six matches and currently is Big West’s leading scorer.
“They have some new acquisitions this year that I and my friends in southern California have heard about that would make great additions to their teams,”forward Lauren Battung said.
Cal has always had an upper edge against Long Beach State, winning all three matchups between the two. Last year, the Bears thrashed the 49ers 6-0 at Edwards Stadium, thanks to two goals from star striker Alex Morgan.
But for McGuire, those records could not matter less in their trip down to southern California this week.
“Anytime you are at home, you always have the advantage, and we were fortunate to score some early goals in that match,” McGuire said. “Last year’s match is irrelevant to Friday’s match: the teams are largely different, and we are playing away, so this is a completely different match.”
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