Another week, another game for Idaho soccer to learn and grow.
The Vandals played Western Washington University Saturday, the first game played at home this spring season.
“This was the tale of two halves,” Idaho Head Coach Jeremy Clevenger said. “We let (Western Washington) get their foot on the pedal and we didn’t really understand how we could break them down – but in the second half I thought we came out and responded.”
Here are the takeaways from the Vikings’ 2-0 win.
Injuries
Idaho had been hit with the injury bug during the spring season, with some of the veteran leadership like sophomore midfielder Taylor Brust standing on the sidelines.
Senior midfield Morgan Crosby defends the ball as a Western Washington player dribbles towards her on Saturday at the Kibbie Dome.
Despite the injuries, there is a silver lining.
The younger players saw increased minutes, the most playing time since coming to Idaho.
With the point of the spring season to be a time to let players learn and grow in high pressure environments, sometimes tossing them into the heat of a game is the best way to get them acclimated to the speed and physicality that will be present during the fall.
“The younger players are doing well,” Clevenger said. “We do have a lot of injures and it is forcing these younger players to be put into key moments – they are going to make mistakes. For us, it is just about how they respond to those mistakes.”
Consistency
After losing the winningest in program history, there were bound to be some growing pains as the new era of the program is looked upon to step up, mainly in the defense and midfield.
This game was about a 50-50 split on how the team performed. Sometimes it looked as if they hadn’t missed a beat, but other times, fans could see the youth and room for improvement.
This is the perfect time to be in this position, where the team can go back and see what they are doing right and build off that. Show the players what they are doing right and replicate those results.
Coaching
Now that Clevenger has over a full season under his belt, it appears he is starting to take hold of the team and showcase his ability to think through the game.
Going into halftime down two goals, things weren’t looking good.
Offense was having a tough time getting going, midfield was holding onto the ball just a little too long and the defense was allowing too many offense opportunities.
But after coming out of the locker room, Idaho seemed like a new team – switching the field when going on the attack, loud communication becoming nonstop and passes being pushed up to the forwards quickly.
With still two games left to play and plenty of tape to be studied, fans should be excited on just how far this team can go if Clevenger and his coaching staff continue to develop the strategy and players
Non-transition offense
Idaho did a solid job of working the ball upfield with long through balls or over the head passes, but there are just a couple wrinkles to work out before this offense can go to the next level.
“I was really happy with the chances that we were able to create,” Clevenger said. “There were some very nice balls that we played, and we created opportunities, but that final piece, the execution, was just a little bit off.”
There isn’t a problem with going on the attack – once the Vandals gets into the middle of the opposing defense, they need to execute the open shots, work the ball around and win the one on one matchups.
With two home games left on the spring schedule, the chances for game speed-learning is becoming more valuable.
Idaho will play Central Washington 12 p.m. April 20 in Moscow.
Zack Kellogg can be reached at [email protected] and on twitter @kellogg_zack.