Northern Arizona and San Diego State Games

Thought I'd preview this weekend's Northern Arizona (Friday) and San Diego State (Sunday) games.

Northern Arizona: Their record so far this year is 1-3-1. They have lost to Arizona State (record: 2-2-1, so far appearing not as strong as one might expect); TCU (4-0-1); and UC Irvine (1-4-0, although likely better than that record). They tied New Mexico (2-1-2). They beat Southern Utah (0-3-0). Overall, they look like a fairly weak team. Visualize Kennesaw State?

San Diego State: Different picture. Their record is 2-2-1, all wins and losses with a 1-goal differential. They have lost to Cal State Northridge (4-0-0) and Villanova (5-0-0). They tied Loyola, Maryland (0-3-1). They beat Cal Poly (2-4-0, but probably better than that record with a win over Indiana which in turn beat Tennessee) and Arizona State (2-2-1). Visualize Oregon?

I'm guessing a high-scoring affair vs Northern Arizona and a closer game against San Diego State.

PS - Has anyone heard which games the U-20s will be missing for the U-20 team camps?

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:

PS - Has anyone heard which games the U-20s will be missing for the U-20 team camps?

Near as I can figure out, they will miss the Rutgers game and the St. Mary's game. I'm not sure how much travel will affect them or how far they will have to travel, so you have to wonder about Penn St. and San Francisco as well.

Actually, I am starting to believe that these camps will be a blessing in disguise getting the team used to playing without the U-20 players. Being sucessful without those guys will be a confidence booster for later in the year where things start to get hairy.

Garrett in a previous podcast said that they would not have to miss games against ranked teams ( I believe) So that would rule out the Penn State game.

Auto - I also believe these missed games by the U20's will be a good dry run for the playoffs.

Garrett can really experiment with the people he believes have the best chance to be successful at a high level later on, when, as you say, "things start to get hairy."

NAU Coach pays a few compliments to Merlo in this article http://nau.newtier.com/index.php?module=pnNews&tid=23&sid=2416

Kudos to coach Luciano for putting the best possible spin on this game. I had the gut feeling this wouldn't be much of a test for the pilots, so I went to our friend Albyn Jones to see what his match predictor said.

UP win - 99.19%
Tie - .2043%
N.A. win - .4056%

That's 122.8:1 odds in favor of a Pilot win.


It will probably get all you fans who didn't get to Seattle another chance to see how the rest of the UP team is doing, and you might actually get to see who Garrett thinks has a shot at starting in the tournament, though it might be a bit early for that.


San Diego State is a bit worse for UP

UP win - 95.62%
tie - 2.139%
SD State win - 2.236%

So the odds of a UP win drop to 21.9:1

Which again may give Garrett a chance to do a lot of experimenting.

Fans may get to see the wonders of Sara Jackman or Kristen Kelly as a striker. I'll be willing to bet we will see them both in the midfield together at some point in the weekend. I think Garrettt is looking for a way to Keep Sophie forward. We may once more see Charney in the Middle, where I think she may end up as an Upperclassman.

That doesn't mean we don't have to show up. The odds aren't 0 of a loss for no reason, and Garrett no doubt wants to see shutouts and high UP scores. I'll bet a goal is that Kelsey doesn't take her hands out of her pockets.

Very cool comments from the NAU coach. It's cool when coaches have that type of perspective - that it's just a great opportunity for his players to experience what it's like to play in front of 4,000 fans with loud and crazy students in a beautiful soccer-only facility. I mean... I know nothing about NAU's field or the other fields in the Big Sky, but Portland State plays it's games at a high school and I'm sure some of the other teams play at similarly poor fields or even football fields. And that doesn't even factor in crowds.

Just another reminder of how lucky we are to have what we have. I'll definitely be there!

Certainly looks like a HS Stadium

Its nice how they put the light standards in front of the bleachers...

NAU is obviously not known for their engineering department

Maybe they wanted to give it that old timey feel, like Fenway or Boston Garden with seats behind posts and whatnot... Or maybe their fans are so rabid they need the standards to support fences and razor wire to keep them from storming the field... Speaking of... maybe Merlo should have a moat around the field. Then geezer and co. can drop a line in and fish during blowouts....

DaTruRochin wrote:Maybe they wanted to give it that old timey feel, like Fenway or Boston Garden with seats behind posts and whatnot... Or maybe their fans are so rabid they need the standards to support fences and razor wire to keep them from storming the field... Speaking of... maybe Merlo should have a moat around the field. Then geezer and co. can drop a line in and fish during blowouts....

That could be even more fun than throwing Pilot club M&M's at the opposing coach, which is what I do now...



Just kidding

Here's a short clip of the N. Arizona field during UP's 4-0 win a couple years ago--

Geezer, I'll add the moat to your fold down flat panel monitors... Maybe next we will have a luxury box for the pilot club.... of course located with a deck over the protective moat and mounted sling shots and air cannons to hurtle candy covered chocolate at opposing coaches....

While we're on the subject...

Just saw this posted on the Gonzaga board:

http://gozags.cstv.com/view.gal?id=21478

It's a link to photos of their new stadium construction. It looks like it'll be a million times better than their current field (probably one of the worst fields in D1 soccer), but even still... while I'm sure the playing surface will be very nice, it basically looks like a field surrounded by a fence. Will there even be a grandstand? Hard to tell from those photos.

But still... gotta give them credit for finally investing in a field. It was sorely needed.

Gah! Those NAU shirts are hideous!

I think a moat would add a big-time, Latin American feel to Merlo. Especially in front of the student section.

Purplegeezer wrote:

DaTruRochin wrote:Maybe they wanted to give it that old timey feel, like Fenway or Boston Garden with seats behind posts and whatnot... Or maybe their fans are so rabid they need the standards to support fences and razor wire to keep them from storming the field... Speaking of... maybe Merlo should have a moat around the field. Then geezer and co. can drop a line in and fish during blowouts....

That could be even more fun than throwing Pilot club M&M's at the opposing coach, which is what I do now...



Just kidding

My wife likes the fake m and m's better than the real ones. more chocolatey I guess.

Side note.... You know the formula they picked for M&Ms wasn't the best tasting one, or the most choclatey.... It was the most addictive... Not even kidding.

Haha and as for the Zag field.... Anything is better than their previous "Lets just put up goals and chalk the lines in the biggest open grassy area we have" mantra...

Was that Kelsey I saw on the new Zag field...digging out another "razor sharp rock"? ...will the pitch be ready for use by next month when the Pilots play up there? This season?

GO PILOTS!!!

My understanding is that the pitch is being played on and was pronounced a "great pitch". I hope so.. the old one was worse than the village green I played pickup on as a kid - cattle grazed on it, and it was later decreed a wetland.

As to the stands, locker rooms, and other amenities, They are still to come. The Zag athletic site has declared those will be built "as funding becomes available". My interpretation of that is that they are looking for a Warbucks who isn't solely focussed on basketball. Without stands and fans, it can't be from gate receipts.

So.. maybe in my lifetime.

aleppiek wrote:My wife likes the fake m and m's better than the real ones. more chocolatey I guess.

That's too funny, I was just about to post that it bugs me that they dont use real M&M's in the Pilot Club Tent or Room... Nothing beats the real thing!

PilotNut wrote:

aleppiek wrote:My wife likes the fake m and m's better than the real ones. more chocolatey I guess.

That's too funny, I was just about to post that it bugs me that they dont use real M&M's in the Pilot Club Tent or Room... Nothing beats the real thing!

So... you're one of the addicted ones?

The fake ones throw better for distance....

Ha ha... the fake M&Ms! Bill Reed would be so proud of this discussion.

I think the real name of the impostor M&M's is Pokies. That's right, Pokies. I think MattyWizz can back me up on that.

Purplegeezer wrote:My understanding is that the pitch is being played on and was pronounced a "great pitch". I hope so.. the old one was worse than the village green I played pickup on as a kid - cattle grazed on it, and it was later decreed a wetland.

So Geez, you played as a kid? I can remember playing futbol on our junior high school football field. Later played high school and college soccer, including my favorite defeat of soon-to-be national champ Navy in a game in which they outshot us 35-2. Anybody else out there who was playing soccer more than 50 years ago?