UP v U-23 National Team at Merlo, 4/18, 7PM

I know this info has been out for a while, but I just got a special email offer from Ticketmaster... if you type in the code U23 when you buy tickets online, they are only $5. What a deal!

http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/x2vlc5?dma_id=362

And the original release about this game:

http://www.portlandpilots.com/news/2009/3/6/WSOC_0306093557.aspx

Stonehouse wrote:I know this info has been out for a while, but I just got a special email offer from Ticketmaster... if you type in the code U23 when you buy tickets online, they are only $5. What a deal!

http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/x2vlc5?dma_id=362

And the original release about this game:

http://www.portlandpilots.com/news/2009/3/6/WSOC_0306093557.aspx

Does that including their handling charges? They are $7 at the box office for General Admission. Got mine...

I paid $20.50 for two supposedly $5 tickets, thus the total fees ($10.50) were more than the tickets themselves. Since the $5 was cheap compared to the normal prices I went ahead with it, but I hope that UP does not continue to deal with Ticketmaster. The fees are an outrage. I'd much rather see money going to the UP than to an outside ticket agent.

Bah... didn't even check the fees. I just saw the email from Ticketmaster and posted it.

$#%#ing service charges... (grumble)...

:rant:I got an offer for one of those $5 ticket "deals" for some game a while ago. With the fees I would have saved about a dollar off the regular price. And just speaking generally, $2.50 to print my own tickets? It's my ink and paper I'm using. But they're such nice people they won't charge you extra to send them by standard mail..


Ticketba$tard sucks. I delete their e-mails on sight.

The U-23s look very different without their pro players, Pilot Players and those full team players who are age eligible but not participating.

GOALKEEPERS (3): Kristin Arnold (Texas A&M; Centennial, Colo.), Alyssa Naeher (Penn State; Seymour, Conn.), Kristin Olsen (USC; Orange, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (9): Lauren Barnes (UCLA; Upland, Calif.), Lauren Fowlkes (Notre Dame; Lee’s Summit, Mo.), Kimberly Germain (James Madison; McLean, Va.), Nikki Marshall (Colorado; Mead, Colo.), Lizzy Nichols (Harvard; Princeton, N.J.), Carly Peetz (Nebraska; Lincoln, Neb.), Kat Reynolds (Santa Clara; Medina, Wash.), Brittany Taylor (UConn; Campbell Hall, N.Y.), Brianne Young (Texas A&M; Castle Pines North, Colo.)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Sinead Farrelly (Virginia; Havertown, Pa.), Ali Hawkins (UNC; Encinitas, Calif.), Kelly Isleib (Utah; Park City, Utah), Katie Oakes (California; West Hills, Calif.), Sophie Reiser (Columbia; Seattle, Wash.), Kylie Wright (UCLA; R. Santa Margarita, Calif.)
FORWARDS (6): Kiki Bosio (Santa Clara; Mission Viejo, Calif.), Melissa Henderson (Notre Dame; Garland, Texas), Alex Morgan (California; Diamond Bar, Calif.), Kelley O’Hara (Stanford; Fayetteville, Ga.), Christen Press (Stanford; PV Estates, Calif.), Katie Schoepfer (Penn State; Waterford, Conn.).

Kelsey and company get a chance to face Stanford forwards Christen Press and Kelley O'Hara again. Think it will be different this time around with Michelle Ellie and Keelin back to help?

Looking forward to seeing Alex Morgan (CAL)...who is a very dangerous striker. A lot has been said of her speed. Alex teamed with the Stanford forwards or Kiki Bosio (SCU..who's also very good) ...we'll have our hands full!

Yes...feels good to have Keelin and Ellie on our backline against these players. But add JTsao's experience as a member of the U-23 squad too. There are some nice matchups to watch for next week. At the same time, Michelle and Sophie should give their backline a lot to worry about....we should expect to see some intense battles.

GO PILTOTS!!!

Nice of you to list the U-23 squad, Auto Pilot. Plenty of talent to choose from there. I hope we get to see Sophie Reiser (Columbia; Seattle, Wash.) -- she made a big impact in the Ivy league.

What burns me about TicketMaster is the UNMITIGATED GALL of calling it a "convenience fee." Real freakin' convenient ... for them to rake in more $$$.

If we don't see her on Saturday, you could see her at Nike on Thursday or next year at the Husky Classic if you go see the Pilots in Seattle.

Sophie Reiser article

I gotta get my eyes checked. I keep seeing double.

Why oh why does this have to be at the same as the Blazers playoff opener? I'll be able to watch most of the first half of the Pilot's match before I am distracted by the NBA stat-tracker on my phone.

An unfortunate result: 3-2 for the U-23s. Our gals outshot them and arguably outplayed them. All three goals, I felt, were the result of defensive breakdowns. Michelle O. was injured in the first half and didn't play again. Our first goal was by Danielle F. in the last minute of the first half on a 1 v. 1 with the keeper (who was injured on the play), tying the score at one. In the second half Sophie scored on a p.k. tying it at two. But they scored again with about five minutes left. The offense looked good, the defense less so. Come on Cloee!

harryb wrote:An unfortunate result: 3-2 for the U-23s. Our gals outshot them and arguably outplayed them. All three goals, I felt, were the result of defensive breakdowns. The offense looked good, the defense less so.

That's exactly what I was thinking. The defense looked a little gassed at the end. I'd have to say, though, that the Pilots played a better match this spring than they did last spring against the U23s.

I thought the offensive end of things was midseason form. there's no question UP controlled the midfield . I think the defense faltered a bit after MO went out. Other than the Bosio slip-up, I thought even the defense was pretty solid. they were winning challenges.

I think that perhaps they shouldn't have pushed up quite as much when she left, the u23's had some speed merchants (OK, Alex Morgan) who got too much room in back of the defense to set up the two scores, Had the defense set up even a few yards closer to our goal, I don't know if that room would have been there either for her of for the players that ran onto the ball.

Still, I'm pretty happy with the effort. we took it to them, and it's exactly the way I want to see UP play next season. There aren't a lot of teams that have that kind of speed and ball handling skills. UP pressured from all over the field, and every college team has weaknesses somewhere. I would have been pretty unhappy if we went out and bunkered.

Spring teams are always short in some area, but this team played as well as any team since 2005. We probably have some more places we can try people, but the level of play was pretty high.

I'm pretty happy.

April isn't such a bad time to have the defense get a little bit exposed. There's plenty of time to improve...

as soon as michelle went out kelsey began hovering around 16 yards out... she seemed like she was having a few trust issues with her backline...

i will upload some photos and video later...

Did anybody notice if the hurt players were ambulatory at the end of the game during warm-downs?

I forgot to check.

Olivier was wearing a boot when she returned from half-time, although she did not seem too upset. On the other side, there was the starting goalkeeper injury. Which keeper was that? And then, Cristen Press of Stanford went down with what looked to be a pretty serious injury, near the end of the game. She was not happy.

allyssa naeher is the keeper who had to be carted off... at the end of the match she was on crutches and seemed to be in pain...

good news of the night: the girl (fan) who was nailed in the face is all fine and dandy now... she lost a lot of blood... she also got a great talk from garrett and a shiny new nike ball...

Yeah, it was Naeher who was carted off. I didn't see that Press was hurt - too bad. I thought she left the game earlier.

It seemed like the game was played at an intensity you don't see at most Spring games... or even games during the season.

Any evaluation of the Pilots performance has to start with consideration of the opposition. The U23 team was strong, very physical, had no weak links, and is essentially an all star team of current and recently graduated college players. Now the very best of the recent grads are playing WPS but this was still a strong team.

Pilots played very well. Those that have experience at this kind of level: Elli, Keelin, Sophie, Michelle E showed that with good performances from all of them. Keelin got knocked around all game but just kept getting up and getting after it. Elli was quieter in the second half: I think she had to stay back more because Michelle O was out and she need to be there for the defense. Sophie held the ball up and chased everything down. I had the father of one of the players on the team I coach with me and he commented that he now understood what he'd heard me saying to the girls: that everyone plays defense when the other team has the ball. Sophie is the perfect example of how much difference this makes. Michelle E got more involved in the second half and her pace on the ball is always a threat.

Kelsey had a sound game: she might be a little disappointed not to have got more of the ball on the first goal when she came out on Bosio, but she made a magnificent diving save in the second half when the score was still 1-1.

Last time UP played the U23s I came away thinking that there were several players on the UP team who had looked very much off the pace and unable to play at the level of the national team. That did not happen last night. In the second half the Pilots had a center defense of Megan Sweeney and Kristen Kelly.

Meaning no offense to either player but that's not a pairing you'd think of first to hold a national team offense but they both played well and did not look out of place.

Michelle O had looked very capable until she got hurt. She was wearing a boot and smiling when she came out to sit on the bench in the second half. I hope it's not serious.

Kendra is back and healthy. She had a great chance to put UP up 2-1 which she couldn't get enough power on, but appears to back at full speed and looks like she could have a big role out wide in the fall.

Danielle took her goal well: no surprise there, she's the "fox in the box" and has a great sense for the goal.

Overall, a good showing by the Pilots and another example of why we are so pumped up for the fall season.

Purplegeezer wrote:

It seemed like the game was played at an intensity you don't see at most Spring games... or even games during the season.

I agree. The U23s were veery physical. Lots of sliding tackles, diving in, pushing, and more Pilots left on the ground after a challenge than most games we'll see. Players who held the ball up with a defender on their back paid a price for doing so.

There's a fine line between hard and dirty. U23s came very close to the line. Pilots did not back down.

Purplegeezer wrote:Yeah, it was Naeher who was carted off. I didn't see that Press was hurt - too bad. I thought she left the game earlier.

It seemed like the game was played at an intensity you don't see at most Spring games... or even games during the season.

Despite the injuries which I hate to see, that's a good sign. Our national championship teams took more fouls and were generally more physical teams. Sinclair was one of the toughest players to ever play on the Bluff...

Foxhoven seems a little bit underrated in my opinion. She might be our most consistent player next year. Of course, it's tough to call a player underrated if she already has a lot of national team experience...

Yes. I agree with all. What a fantatic team we'll have this season 2009! The match did not NOT play like a spring exhibition game at all. The level of play was very high...and the Pilots looked sharp..considering who they were playing!

I didn't look at possession time....but...I bet we won most of those minutes. I'm giddy at seeing that the Pilots dominated offensive possesion and play. Its seemed to me....that most of the game we were threatening and spending a lot of time on their side of the pitch.

One word to say about Midfield play...."KEELIN"! Damn...she's really good folks! She's tough as nails defensively but yet a ballerina with her dribbling and passing skills! And then having Michelle O behind her (before she got injured)...we were solid down the middle!

I think our defensive line held their own. No worries there for me. Jessica and Ellie took care of business against Kelley Ohara and Christen Press on the wings. The U-23s strategy seemed to be to keep Ohara up top and play long ball with her. She's ultra-fast. I think we risked her threats pushing up the defensive line so deep. Sometimes we seemed to give her too much open space to chase balls down. Alex Morgan took advantage of that. She didn't play in the first half...but when she came in on the second half...that's when we got stung! It'll be interesting to see how effective she is against us in August when she plays with her CAL teammates.

Did you see the play with Sweeney literally climbing over Ohara to gain possession on a play!? That was sweet!

Add Cloee somewhere back there...Sheesh! "Forget about it!"...

I can't close without mentioning Sophie! She's becoming...if not already...a crowd favorite! Her world-class world-cup skills were evident last night. She showed why she was team MVP last year.

Very good preview of what this 2009 team can do! Something special brewing here everyone...I'm loving it!

GO PILOTS!!!

Ayone who chose the Blazers over the Pilots got a raw deal. I loved the Pilots vs U-23s match -- there were great performances throughout the Pilots lineup against the college all-stars. The Pilots played a solid possession game against a powerful foe, seldom seeming to panic or act hastily. They looked very calm and poised ina high-speed game. The team was definitely playing to win and desrved no worse than a tie. This was hard-fought with many injuries and many ice bags on knees, legs and ankles afterward. Some observations:
Kendra Chandhoke showed what the team missed in her absence last year with strong runs and nice passing as outside mid; she also showed toughness against a riled- up Christen Press of Stanford who appeared to be talking trash. Kendra had a point-blank shot on goal that she no doubt would like to take again. Looks like she is healthy and back to form.

The Pilots let Jessica Tsao or Ellie Reed make attacking runs from the outside back positions -- I like the attacking attitude even if there is a defensive risk. The Pilots were not in awe of the opposition and played their own style. Fall opponents will suffer trying to match their speed up the wings.

Michelle Enyeart really wanted the ball at the end of the game. She was on fire making run after run and darn near broke through. She needs the ball often in crunch time as she is a game-changer. She is the glue holding the offense together in the midfield (but I still hope to see her up top at least some of the time). Sophie Schmidt was phenomenal in controlling the ball and working nonstop. Keelin Winters stands out as a likely captain for fall; she's the one calling the team together during injury breaks and the players gather around her -- a voice of authority.

On D, Kristen Kelly came on for the injured Olivier and played really well, IMHO. Even with subs in the game, and against the extremely deep bench of the opponents, the Pilots were attacking and threatening till the final whistle.

Where the U23s stand out: individual speed and amazing through passes to the front line. Even their longest kicks from the back line can find a player in stride into open space. They can slice open a defense with great efficiency using diagonal passes -- they are a level above college teams in this skill. Seeing these excellent players gathered from across the country reminds me of how the strong the women's game has become, how many schools have powerhouse soccer programs, and how hard it will be for any team to win the Division 1 title.

Even wthout their heralded frosh recruits the Pilots look strong. Lots of competition ahead for those seeking starting roles. Is it August yet?