Written by Walter Khalil Hines
On Thursday night, the Oregon Ducks women’s soccer team opened up home conference play against conference rival Arizona with a 1-0 victory over the Wildcats. The Ducks were happy to return home to Papè Field after three straight away games that saw them go 1-1-1. The Wildcats leave Eugene 3-8 on the season after now dropping their first four conference games.
The Ducks started the game heavy on the ball, and found the back of the net early with a 3rd minute strike from the left foot of Chardonnay Curran. “…I felt that a lot of positions had a lot of space, we did not need to move anywhere, just a matter of being patient and just sitting in the spaces,” Curran stated after the game, talking about the opportunities forwards had early in the match.
Oregon continued to dominate possession in the first half, but the Wildcats were able to hold them off from adding to their total, and the first half ended 1-0. Going into the break, the Ducks held a 5-2 advantage on corners, and a 5-3 advantage on S.O.G. “To score that early, we have done a good job this season of scoring early this season, especially at Papè Field… great goal, a really good team goal, and great finish,” said coach Graeme Abel, after the game.
It was an odd game for both offenses. At times, each squad was able to get the ball deep into the others attacking third, but both failed to get really any quality attempts at the net. Only a total of five saves were registered, and a total of just 15 shot attempts.
“I didn’t think we were as sharp technically as we would have like tonight, I feel as though extra touches on the ball when we didn’t need more, a poor first touch that got away from us. I think they were closing the spaces, so if we would have played quicker, the spaces were [open]. [We] spoke about it at half time, and to be quite honest with you, we needed to play quicker in that second half.”
As far as the Wildcats go, they looked sluggish throughout the game, and when they did muster some momentum and forward progress, they were tortured by bad passes or meaningless shot attempts.
For the Ducks it was another opportunity to improve in different aspects of the game, but after Coach Abel did state that he would have liked better consistency throughout the contest.
Coach Abel said after the game,“I think our biggest issue was in transition, and giving up the ball in areas we were wide open, and they end up on the counter attack.”
The Ducks will continue there next two matchups in the Pac-12 at home. First, they meet the Sun Devils of Arizona State on Sunday, and next Thursday, they will meet with the USC Trojans. For the Arizona Wildcats, they will continue their season in Corvallis on Sunday. Stay tuned to 88.1FM KWVA for more updates and the latest on Oregon Duck sports.