At this early stage in the women’s soccer team, head coach Heather Dyche acknowledges that there are some things her team needs to work on.
Among them, Dyche said, the Lobos need to clean up their play inside the 18-yard box. Issues inside both UNM’s box defensively and Colorado’s box offensively plagued the Lobos in Sunday’s 4-0 loss at Colorado, she said.
“I think they were the better team,” Dyche said at the first coaches’ luncheon of the year on Tuesday at University Stadium. “I’m not trying to say we deserved to win that game, but I think a 4-0 result would suggest it was a 4-0 game, and it wasn’t. We created enough. We had some brilliant opportunities and we didn’t put them away."
Playing that close to the net tends to cause nervous feelings, Dyche said, even though UNM (1-3) created opportunities at the net. The Lobos attempted 12 shots at Colorado’s net, including four on goal.
“If you look at the game statistically, our rate of possession and our completed passes were greater than Colorado,” Dyche said. “So our possession, some of our buildup, was really good but inside our 18 (yard-line) and their 18, they were clinical and we were poor.”
New Mexico had a similar problem against then-No. 15 Texas Tech, creating solid scoring chances in the second half but failing to convert.
Those two losses sandwiched a 1-0 win at New Mexico State last week.
The scheduling has been a bit of a learning curve for the first-year head coach. The challenge for Dyche there, she said, is trying to figure out a routine in which to give her players’ legs a rest while still working on soccer skills. The quick turnaround between games contributes to that, Dyche said.
The Lobos have yet another game this week, a 2 p.m. Thursday outing against Idaho State at the UNM Soccer Complex. Not an ideal time for a soccer game, Dyche said.
“We’d rather play on Friday night, but we had to play the season a little bit late. We had to take games we could get.”
Idaho State also holds a 1-3 record this season, the lone win coming against Westminster College out of Salt Lake City. Forward Maria Sanchez scored four of the Bengals’ six goals through its first four game.
The Bengals, who Dyche said, work hard and grind it out, play a formation with four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards.
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“It won’t be easy for us,” she said.
J.R. Oppenheim is the managing editor for the Daily Lobo. Contact him at managingeditor@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @JROppenheim.
