Stanford Nike Tournament:

California 5, Harvard 0

The first half of this game had many similarities to Friday's contest versus Stanford: early Harvard jitters, pressure by the opponent that leads to an early goal, a 3-0 deficit by the 27th minute.  The differences were an early uncalled Cal hand ball inside the 18 (who knows what effect that would have had) and loss of any available Crimson steam by after the first goal.  As someone who has been around soccer a lot said to me after: the first team to score in the third place match of a tournament is almost always the winner, as the trailing team's will to fight rapidly evaporates.

While Cal is nowhere near as good as Stanford, Harvard had fewer threats today.  Cal also elected to stick with their starters, even though Coach Steve Locker substituted freely midway through the first half.  Everybody who made the trip got to play, and some of them looked good.  Scott Turco made his first appearance in goal, and made a couple of very nice saves.  Some of the other freshmen (Edwards, Kurzyniec, DePaola, Powell) got to see some action and moved the ball well.

The rest of the Harvard lineup, though, is still being shifted around, with Locker looking for the best combination.