United States of College Basketball 2021-22: Where every team ranks in each state, from top to bottom
USC Clinches Conference Championship In Victory Over UCLA Women's Soccer
This post was updated Oct. 27 at 11 p.M.
Two rivals met with two different paths of approach.
The occasion was the crosstown showdown between No. 8 UCLA women's soccer (13-3-3, 8-1-2 Big Ten) and No. 6 USC (14-1-2, 10-0-1). In a 1-0 victory, the Trojans claimed their first-ever outright conference championship.
"I'm glad that the loss comes now," coach Margueritte Aozasa said. "If you have to choose a time for us to lose, I think it's worth noting we lost to USC before, and things ended up just fine for us at the end of the year."
The Bruins and Trojans showed up to compete for the Big Ten regular season title, making their way to the Dignity Health Sports Park, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy. In 2022, UCLA lost to USC in its final regular season game – but ultimately claimed the national title.
Despite the seemingly neutral location, USC emphasized that the game was its home game, having switched from its campus stadium only a week ago.
Before the game began, tension seemed high in Carson – chants from both the Bruin and Trojan faithful broke out as USC's marching band echoed behind.
UCLA launched its efforts Sunday afternoon with six defenders on the field, bringing graduate student defender Maya Evans and senior defender Quincy McMahon to the frontline.
USC, meanwhile, opted for an offense-first approach, ushering just two defenders to the field to start – Alyssa Gonzales and Brooklyn Courtnall.
The teams' tactics echoed their respective strengths prior to Sunday's start, with the Bruins allowing the least in the Big Ten and the Trojans tying atop conference standings for goals scored.
USC ultimately logged five shots on goal to UCLA's one – which did not occur until the 43rd minute – and registered three corner kicks in the first 10 minutes alone.
"The biggest thing was just limiting the unforced errors. I think we have a specific game plan, and we weren't really playing to it as Marg (Aozasa) alluded to in the first 30 minutes," McMahon said. "So just playing more of our style and a little bit more together, just short little five- and 10-yard passes that we knew we could connect."
Junior midfielder Sofia Cook – who has four goals this season – sophomore forward Taylor Cheathem and freshman forward Kara Croone's substitutions in the 29th minute flipped the team's approach, which Aozasa said was to prime its offensive power.
"Just more potency in the attack, and I thought they (Cheatham, Croone and Cook) did that," Aozasa said. "I thought as soon as we conceded, the game changed a little bit. We had some good chances at the end of the first half."
From there, the Bruins began to play more aggressively, occupying Trojan territory more and earning their first corner.
However, USC was able to capitalize offensively first – as forward Malie Hayes slipped the ball past graduate student goalkeeper Ryan Campbell.
The score remained 1-0 throughout the second half – and through the match, at that – despite UCLA making numerous substitutions.
"We just wanted a high energy – so high energy, high tempo," Aozasa said. "Our players knew, and I thought they did a good job of playing in 10, 15 minute shifts. And they know that when you're on the field, even if it's for a short amount of time, your job is to give as much energy as you can."
It took the Bruins 67 minutes to manage their first shot on goal. Evans nearly found the back of the net before USC goalkeeper Laurence Gladu batted the ball out of bounds.
Though the game was relatively clean in the first half, the Bruins tallied three different yellow cards for unsportsmanlike conduct through the second frame.
Although Hayes was given a yellow card with less than two minutes remaining, the Bruins failed to capitalize on their last free kick.
"There's two ways that you can come out after losing a game, and either this can fire us up, or we can just keep putting our heads down going into a Big Ten tournament," senior defender Jayden Perry said. "So I'm really excited to see what our team does going into the Big Ten tournament."
UCLA Men's Soccer Loses To Indiana By 1 Goal Despite Barrage Of Shots
The Bruins fell to the Hoosiers, despite leading by 10 in the shot category.
No. 15 UCLA men's soccer (6-4-5, 3-3-3 Big Ten) was defeated by No. 25 Indiana (8-3-5, 6-1-2) on Friday night in a 2-1 loss at Wallis Annenberg Stadium. Coach Ryan Jorden said the Bruins' performance was terrific, barring one mistake that cost them the second goal.
In the 25th minute the Hoosiers broke through with a goal from forward Justin Weiss. A long ball sent deep into the 18-yard box fell beyond graduate student defender Nicholas Cavallo and to his mark, who crossed it to Weiss for the score.
"I definitely got a little caught out there, but we just weren't set, and it was another moment where we kind of switched off," Cavallo said. "But it didn't happen again the rest of the match, which was good to see, but definitely can't have that just turned off with one moment, because it hurts us."
Graduate student defender Nicholas Cavallo dribbles. (Darlene Sanzon/Assistant Photo editor) The Bruins took 11 shots in the first half, including a close-range chance for senior defender Pablo Greenlee, who broke past the defense and banked the ball off the far post and into goalkeeper JT Harms' arms.
The Bruins found the back of the net in the 51st minute, but the goal was called for being offside. Jorden argued with the referee over the choice to review the call.
"My job is to try to fight for the team. And I'll have to go back and read the rules. I thought it was pretty clear the way they described being able to review that, but I'll go back and check it," Jorden said. "I was really pleased with the guys. They restarted the game and our guys, there was no dip, the intensity was good, the fight was good."
Cavallo said before it was overturned, the goal gave him the same energy as recent Bruin goals scored when trailing.
"I felt like it was Maryland and Ohio State again, where we got it back to 1-1, and I thought, 'momentum is with us, we've got everything going for us.' So definitely takes the wind out of the sails a little bit," Cavallo said. "Definitely wish we had that back, just because I felt like all the momentum was with us at that point, and I felt like anything's possible as soon as that went in."
Following a UCLA corner where defenders freshman Allan Legaspi and graduate student Youri Senden went for the same ball, Harms drop-kicked the ball, putting forward Samuel Sarver on the break in the 60th minute. Sarver dribbled up the field past junior midfielder Tarun Karumanchi and buried his shot past sophomore goalkeeper Wyatt Nelson.
Graduate student defender Youri Senden looks upfield as he controls the ball. (Darlene Sanzon/Assistant Photo editor) The Bruins got one back in the 65th minute.
The play was jumpstarted by a drive up the field by Greenlee, who left the ball for freshman defender Shakir Nixon at the corner of the box. Nixon's cross found freshman midfielder Tamir Ratoviz, who laid the ball off for graduate student midfielder Edrey Caceres to launch the ball into the top right of the net.
"It's the way we like to play. We get back out wide, and then … Shakir beat the guy, one vs. One on a cutback. Great goal from Edrey again," Senden said. "It's something we've seen over the last few weeks. It's a great goal."
Jorden added that Greenlee made an impact all game long.
"Pablo, that's his best performance since he's been at UCLA. I thought he had a challenge in front of him to deal with a very good attacking player," Jorden said. "I thought he was incredible defensively, thought his use of the ball and getting out of trouble and creating attacking actions from the back was fabulous. That's just a really, really top performance."
Despite multiple opportunities, including those from fresh substitutions, the Bruins were unable to even the game.
"It's been a tough week with three games in seven days. But everyone just tried to do everything," Senden said. "I think the last 10 minutes, we weren't as sharp as we were before, and we didn't create the bigger chances that we were creating earlier in the half."
The Bruins will wrap up regular season action Nov. 3 at home against Washington.
UEFA Champions League League Phase Table: Aston Villa Have Flying Start While PSG Lead The Notable Strugglers
The UEFA Champions League is three games into the new League Phase after Tuesday and Wednesday's action and Aston Villa are the surprise leaders along with Liverpool with three wins from three for a 100% points total of nine. Considering that 10 points has been estimated to be enough to absolutely secure a Top 24 berth and a place in the UCL knockouts, Unai Emery and Arne Slot's men logically should have just one more point to collect from five remaining games which includes Juventus, RB Leipzig and AS Monaco for the Villans. They are not the only team catching the eye but they are arguably the most unexpected name from a host of unexpected teams to be turning up trees so far at Europe's top table along with a few more familiar faces.
We take a closer look.
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Villa are certainly the pick of the clubs that you would not necessarily have put money on leading the pack after three rounds of games. However, the Birmingham-based Premier League side are enjoying a fast start to their continental adventure which has already included a famous win over Bayern Munchen at Villa Park. Slightly behind Villa in terms of sides faring surprisingly are unbeaten French pair Stade Brestois 29 and AS Monaco with both on seven points from a possible nine which is huge for Ligue 1 given Paris Saint-Germain's unexpectedly sluggish start. German champions Bayer Leverkusen have also made an unbeaten start along with Sporting CP with Manchester City and Arsenal less surprising despite the Gunners dropping two points against Atalanta BC on the opening day and the Citizens being held by Inter.
Surprise strugglersAs mentioned, PSG's loss to Arsenal put them in a tricky situation and that has been made trickier by Tuesday's 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven at Parc des Princes. The French champions are drifting within the Top 24 but will have expected to be closer to the top eight after two of their three opening games against Girona FC and PSV. More surprising, perhaps, is that both Red Bull sides -- Leizpig and Salzburg -- currently occupy elimination berths while Bayern, Atletico Madrid and Milan are all fairly low down compared with their early expectations. Villa and Monaco got the better of the Germans and Barcelona respectively as part of the early evidence that UEFA's format shakeup is making things interesting but this needs to be a wake up call for the Bavarians and the Italians in particular.
Coefficient storylines so farA fascinating subplot in these early rounds of Champions League games has been the impact of the league phase on the coefficient battle. English sides are faring well in top spot which holds one of two extra UCL places for next season but the country keeping pace so far is Portugal with Sporting and Benfica boasting four combined wins already for just the two clubs despite a home loss to Feyenoord for the latter this midweek. A even bigger surprise has been Czechia's rise to fourth in those rankings with Sparta Praha still in the Top 24 after the first few rounds of games despite a thrashing from City. Just ahead of Czechia is France in third with Monaco, Lille and Brest currently outperforming PSG in this edition. Spain is rising slowly up to seventh but is already off the pace thanks to Real, Barca and Atletico all suffering unexpected losses while last year's strong performers -- Italy and Germany -- are both a bit off the pace for now.
Key 4th round gamesAll 3 p.M. ET
Looking ahead to the next round of UCL games and there are some big ones lined up with Xabi Alonso's Liverpool reunion at Anfield and the evergreen classic that is Real Madrid vs. Milan on the Tuesday. Wednesday has a tasty Inter vs. Arsenal as well as PSG vs. Atletico Madrid combo on tap with Real vs. Milan and PSG vs. Atleti particularly important given those teams' results so far which have not all been as expected.
StandingsKey: Positions 1-8 qualify for Round of 16 while positions 9-24 qualify for Knockout Phase Play-Offs and positions 25-36 are eliminated.
PosPosition Team GP W D L GF GA GD PTS 1 Aston Villa 3 3 0 0 6 0 +6 9 2 Liverpool 3 3 0 0 6 1 +5 9 3 Manchester City 3 2 1 0 9 0 +9 7 4 Monaco 3 2 1 0 9 4 +5 7 5 Brest 3 2 1 0 7 2 +5 7 6 Bayer Leverkusen 3 2 1 0 6 1 +5 7 7 Inter 3 2 1 0 5 0 +5 7 8 Sporting CP 3 2 1 0 5 1 +4 7 9 Arsenal 3 2 1 0 3 0 +3 7 10 Barcelona 3 2 0 1 10 3 +7 6 11 Borussia Dortmund 3 2 0 1 12 6 +6 6 12 Real Madrid 3 2 0 1 8 4 +4 6 13 Benfica 3 2 0 1 7 4 +3 6 14 Juventus 3 2 0 1 6 4 +2 6 15 Lille 3 2 0 1 4 3 +1 6 16 Feyenoord 3 2 0 1 6 7 -1 6 17 Atalanta 3 1 2 0 3 0 +3 5 18 Stuttgart 3 1 1 1 3 4 -1 4 19 PSG 3 1 1 1 2 3 -1 4 20 Celtic 3 1 1 1 6 8 -2 4 21 Sparta Praha 3 1 1 1 4 6 -2 4 22 Dinamo Zagreb 3 1 1 1 6 11 -5 4 23 Bayern Munich 3 1 0 2 10 7 +3 3 24 Girona 3 1 0 2 4 4 0 3 25 AC Milan 3 1 0 2 4 5 -1 3 26 Club Brugge 3 1 0 2 2 6 -4 3 27 Atletico Madrid 3 1 0 2 3 8 -5 3 28 PSV 3 0 2 1 3 5 -2 2 29 Bologna 3 0 1 2 0 4 -4 1 30 Shakhtar Donetsk 3 0 1 2 0 4 -4 1 31 RB Leipzig 3 0 0 3 3 6 -3 0 32 SK Sturm Graz 3 0 0 3 1 5 -4 0 33 Red Star Belgrade 3 0 0 3 2 11 -9 0 34 Young Boys 3 0 0 3 0 9 -9 0 35 RB Salzburg 3 0 0 3 0 9 -9 0 36 Slovan Bratislava 3 0 0 3 1 11 -10 0
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