Today's Oregonian Article

Pretty interesting read... clearly the team is frustrated with the way it's been playing:

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1190260518202630.xml&coll=7

But honestly... what's with the headline? "Coming Together, Not Falling Apart"? Come on... the team is 6-1 now for crying out loud, ranked No. 3 in the country... and it's missing FIVE starters. How is can "Falling Apart" even be part of this conversation.

If you ask me, the writer (Bo Herzog) blew a team meeting way out of proportion and makes it sound like there is some kind of crisis. He's done that before... I remember a ridiculous article from last basketball season where he was trying to make a change in the starting line-up out to be some massive situation.

I mean... I'm sure the players are a bit frustrated because they haven't been playing particularly well and it was smart on Garrett's part to sit them all down behind closed and allow them to vent a bit and get on the same page, but if you read Angie's comments it's obvious the players understand that they are in a tough spot with injuries, players missing, etc.

I just... I wish there wasn't such a seeming negative spin in the story, you know what I mean? I feel like it's concocted drama. Maybe I'm totally off base and just overly touchy, but that article to me makes it sound like the team is feuding and playing really poorly, when really they playing OK and are more antsy than anything else.

And check out this quote from Coach Smith, regarding the return of Megan Rapinoe:

"Why rush it right now?" Smith said. "If we can win without her, doesn't it seem like it'd be prudent to keep her out and allow her to get back to where she needs to be?"

Doesn't that response just sound like he is annoyed with the question/questioner?

Bah. I don't know. I guess I just miss Abbey Haight.

Sorry Stonehouse.

I guess I was writing my Oregonian topic at the same time you were. When I started writing mine, your's hadn't shown up yet. Also, I'm kind of a slow writer, (take my time/perfectionist - whatever).

Our opinions of Herzog seem to be at opposite ends, but that's alright. If we all agreed on everything, this would be just one big rah-rah cheerleader site. I did like Abby Haight, though.

Anyway, I was mainly just excited that the paper had such a huge "Trailblazer-like" feature on the sports front page with large pictures and the whole bit. I liked the exposure it gave the program. And it had a lot of player and coach quotes in it that we can all interpret in our own way.

I appreciate your thoughts, Stonehouse!

I just read the article, and I see what you mean, Stonehouse. I dont think it is *that* negative though. We all have discussed on here at how the team is playing well, but not quite seemingly to their potential.... I dont see the article as being as negative.

BTW: has everyone seen the huge billboard (actually the side of a building painted) on the east side of I-5, just south of the Rose Quarter?! Its a great photo/ad for the women's team, with big text saying something along the lines of "Real Futbol". It's a HUGE ad. Very cool.

Will look for that sign, PilotNut. Sounds GREAT! Perhaps Jerry Glanville is going to have a little competition for Portland's attention in the fall (though our stadium is obviously not in the same "ballpark" as his).

Thanks for the tip.

(I have a feeling tickets to games are going to become just a bit more difficult to be had...).

Fair enough... maybe I'm being touchy!

Of course it's great to have a big feature like this and I definitely appreciate the media's role of reporting and not cheerleading.

Bo just drives me crazy sometimes.

I agree it's a little dramatic and Inside Baseball, but that's not so different from what you'd see in other sports coverage, particularly in Europe.

I think it's good. It shows that what this team does matters. To the team and to the fans and the community. Not only that they win, but that they win in a certain way.

I just bought tickets for the 10/13 game vs. Gonzaga... the best I could get was General Admission, Row O!

That is a lot of tickets already sold!

Adding lights to Merlo Field was huge!

PilotNut wrote:Adding lights to Merlo Field was huge!

Amen! Withouth those lights and the awesome atmosphere of the night games, there's no way the student and general fan support would be what it is right now. Pretty darn incredible.

I mean... what PilotNut just wrote (one post away from triple digits, by the way... it won't be a one-member club anymore!) is amazing. That game is a three and a half weeks away and it's against one of the lower-tier teams in the conference, and the best ticket he could get was GA row O in a 5,000 seat stadium. For a women's soccer game!

Now just imagine some day over the rainbow... a beautiful new baseball stadium down on the newly acquired land on the water. Our version of McCovey Cove is Beauchamp Bay, a little eddy in the Willamette. It's got all the amenities of a modern minor-league stadium, gorgeous views of forrest park and the St. John's bridge, lights on the stadium because there are no neighbors to complain... think people wouldn't come?

I'd think it would be Etzel Eddy.

Ah yes... Etzel Eddy does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

I got the Oregonian this afternoon.

Stoney, I think you might be a little paranoid. Yeah, Boaz tried to make more of the Pilot's situation that is probably warranted, but the overall effect was pretty positive, I think.

Think about it- the UP women got more coverage than the Beavers, Ducks, or Vikings in a State where college football is THE biggest thing- bigger even than the Blazers have been the last few years. I'm willing to bet the publicity guys for those schools are wringing their hands about now. Between the to articles and the Photo spreads, there was more than a whole page of coverage! That's in a paper that generally only has 2 1/2 pages of sports in it.

One thing that you have to realize is that the expectations for the Pilot program are a lot higher than they are for any of those programs. Nobody really expects a National Championship out of any of those schools. At UP, we have come to expect that every generation of players will be able to bring home a championship.

How cool is that?


If a reporter has to semi-manufacture a bit of angst in the program to get that attention, I say more power to him. It's going to fill the seats. And we've been doing the same hand-wringing on this site, too- for a team that's 6-1.

We're a bit spoiled. The 2005 season was something you don't often see in sports. From the very early season, every Pilot fan Knew that team was going all the way, and we (I include reporters here) just sat in the stands and smiled all the way trough the home games. Ranked teams came in and got trashed all year long. The truth is, that probably won't happen again, the struggles are going to be bigger to get there than they were in the past. And, we have more players who are National Team caliber now than we ever had, so the pressure on them to answer the call of National Team commitments will always be something we have to deal with. If it manifests itself in some sort of made up Media crisis once in a while, I think that's all good. It's better than going unnoticed.


Who was it that said "I don't care what they write about me as long a they spell my name right"?

I thought the timing of the article was perfect. Boaz zeroed in on a topic all of us in this forum have been discussing (in one aspect or another) for the last couple of weeks already. Is there something wrong with the Pilots?

I didn't interpret his piece as being negative. Instead, I thought he portrayed the Pilots as a team that despite its struggles dealing with absent and injured players...continues to persevere and maintain excellence at their sport. The frustrations the gals are sounding off on is really internal to the team. They have a standard of play that they know they didn't achieve against Kansas, Yale and UW!

The folks in this forum are knowledgeable and savy soccer fans. We've been treated to some quality futbol at the bluff my friends! And the one thing that stuck me when I read the article was how atuned we were as fans to the pulse of OUR TEAM!! Before the article was even released, in one way or another, everyone had expressed that something was amiss with the team's current play despite the Ws.

I still see a very high overall quality of play with the current Pilot Team. To me...their perfomance and technical trademarks are still on display! Possession, passing, switches, offensive transitions, speed...still there...and beautiful skills to watch! But I think the missing ingredient for this team is the "killer instinct". Yes...they can and have dominated games. But soccer is a funny game.....even with that...the Pilots had some trouble putting away recent opposition who have no business staying with them. They've put the noose and hood on...but they haven't been good executioners!

Here's my observations in a nutshell. I always had a feeling with previous Pilot teams that they could score when they wanted too!! It was just a matter of when. And it's always been fun to watch them toy with opponents. I "sat back" during games and enjoyed some personal sadistic moments!

However, this season...I find myself sitting at the "edge of my seat"...mostly wondering...when are they going to score? I've lost that intangible confidence factor that they can score at will. And that's really what I think the girls are looking to build towards! They know they can play to that higher standard...but have been frustrated because they realize that part of their game hasn't been mastered yet. I certainly feel like its within their grasp. They are all players with so much character...who can deny that they won't come together and win a 3rd Cup?

GO PILOTS!!

Hey Phantom!

Well thought out and written post. I have been searching for a way to convey my feelings about the article for a day now. After your post, I don't have to anymore. I agree with you totally, on just about every point. Can I sign my name on your post, too? (Just kidding).

There's just so much space and so many words and large pics in the article, it's probably the biggest O exposure since the day after the two national championships.

Great post, Phantom. As FANatic said, I think you hit the nail on the head.

Let's hope that the floodgates will open this weekend against Portland State... I'm talking 5-0 or 6-0 or something like that. It would be a nice catharsis and get everyone all amped up for the LA trip.

Historically the Oregonian has given the Pilots a fair amount of column inches early in the season before football gets heated up. Once college football gets into league play and the Pros get deeper into their schedules the number of column inches dedicated to UP soccer generally declines. Even in 2005 when they went undefeated this trend held. It will be interesting to see if the pattern holds true again this year.

Yeah... if the Ducks keep winning and get into the top ten, I'm sure they will be the focus of most articles.

Then again, if the Pilots keep winning (if they beat UCLA, USC, and Santa Clara) and get a full roster back... then they will most likely be No. 1 and will be favorites to win the title. So they'll still get some attention!

But if they lose a few more games and are ranked around 10 or so, then the attention will probably dwindle, because hey... top ten just isn't good enough for the city to care about the Pilots! (I was being sarcastic... in case that didn't come through.)