CARY, NORTH CAROLINA — The 2022 DI women’s national championship will be decided Monday when the UCLA Bruins and North Carolina Tar Heels battle at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.
Monday’s championship game between the Tar Heels and Bruins is at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU and streams on ESPN+ (subscription required).
Before sitting down for the match though, let’s get an idea of how each team will attack the other. If all of these intricacies in each team’s game plan seem a bit nuanced and marginal, it’s because that’s almost certainly what this match will come down to. A national champion will be crowned, and here are some of the defining patterns and moments you should look for on the pitch.
North Carolina
After a dominant 5-0 win over Old Dominion in the first round of the tournament, North Carolina introduced a new wrinkle to its offense in the second round: the 3-5-2 formation. North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance said the change was intentional and meant to get more bodies involved in the attack than the previous 4-3-3 look. In the four games since the change, the Tar Heels have averaged nearly three goals per game against increasingly difficult opposition.
In case the numbers don’t convince you of the formation’s attacking prowess, perhaps the…
