We do parts of the game very, very well, but we haven’t been able to thread together complete games, and that’s what’s costing us. – Utah head coach Rich Manning
The No. 20 California Golden Bears looked every part a ranked team, defeating the Utah Utes women’s soccer team 2-0 in the final match of homecoming week at the University of Utah.
“I thought we played a really good second half. It took us a while to get going, and unfortunately, that cost us the game. I think the disappointment is the story of our season so far, and that’s been that we do parts of the game very, very well, but we haven’t been able to thread together complete games, and that’s what’s costing us,” Utah head coach Rich Manning said.
It was the Utes' fourth straight loss of the season and fifth straight match without scoring a goal. The last time the Utes scored was on Sept. 15 against Kansas.
“I think we’ve been playing some really good teams. If you look at their seasons, they’re not giving up a lot of goals, so they’re stingy. There’s some things we can do to do better,” Manning said.
It was a tale of two halves for the Utes. In the first half, Cal pushed forward and scored twice in the first 23 minutes of the match.
Cal drew first blood 18 minutes into the match, after Haley Lukas curled a ball into the box, to the right of the goal, which was gathered by Luca Deza and drilled into the net, past Utah goalkeeper Carly Nelson.
The Golden Bears continued to build their attack throughout the first half, and it resulted in another goal, this one 23 minutes in. Deza, who scored just five minutes earlier, slotted the ball through to Abigail Kim, who put it past Nelson to put Cal up 2-0.
Utah’s best chance of the first half came in the 32nd minute, when Hailey Skolmoski drove to the right and hit a powerful ball, but it went high. Another good Ute chance came in the 42nd minute, when Max Flom, who was subbed on in the 35th minute, ran down the left sideline and took a shot from distance, but it was saved by Golden Bears goalkeeper Emily Boyd.
The Utes came out with new life in the second half, defending better and attacking with more aggression, but couldn’t find the back of the net.
“Really, just be more aggressive, do the things that we said we needed to do at the beginning of the game. There was no tactical change, we just got to do better,” Manning said of his halftime adjustments.
Utah had a good chance in the 53rd minute, on a close shot by Tatum Thornton, but it was saved by Boyd. In the next minute, a corner kick by Paola Van der Veen was punched out by Boyd.
In the 61st minute, Cal looked to make it 3-0 on a free kick, but Guro Bergsvand’s direct free kick was punched up and out by Nelson. Another Golden Bears chance came close a few minutes later, but Emma Westin’s header sailed wide.
Up next, the Utes hit the road to play No. 1 UCLA on Thursday, Oct. 12, at 9 p.m.