Re: Portland-Washington, the rematch, 11/15/09, or, thread #998

[gnarly]

Sitting over in the student side the huskie fans were more interested in yelling at the ref than supporting their team.

A good test for the pilots and thanks to the UW team for their effort. Especially, being a player down.

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Whew! I'm exhausted from being on the edge of my seat for most of the 2nd half. The Dawgs played a great game against us...even when they were down a player. I was so happy to see Halley's ball go into the net in the 89th minute.

On a side note:
It seems like the Pilots have gotten away from the short corner kicks that they were using during the regular season. I wonder if this is the coaches don't feel that they would be effective without Michelle E. on the field. Just curious...

[DaTruRochin]

Yes, that is absolutely the reason why they've opted for the more conventional route.

[Harry Redknapp]

We expected a rough game from UW and that's what we got.

UW plays physical and paid the price. Midfielder (#6) got yellow card for persistent fouling early in the second half and miutes later she scythes down Sophie right in fronyt of the ref. He thought that was a yellow card foul; called it and she's gone.

All of the Pilots played pretty well. Star turns today from Elli, Michelle O, Sophie, Dani and Kendall. Kudos to Hallie for both goals.

Michelle O gets in so many crucial touches on defense, she is rarely beaten and she plays the ball out to feet better than any defender in the team.

Elli uses her quickness to get great position on her player, and covered lots of ground.

Sophie had a monster game. When at forward she controls the ball and holds it up so well she makes it look easy. It's only when someone else comes on to play that role and shows how hard that is that you realise how talented Sophie is. Fights for the ball, runs and runs. Sophie, Keelin and dani were pretty tied at 90 minutes today.

Dani showed the growth in her game for me today. Dropped back to get the ball, hold it up and look for support. Passed up shots several times to find a better placed team mate and ran a lot. UW marked her tight and usually had at least two players on her all game, especially after Sophie dropped back to midfield.

Kendall fought hard in defensive situations and got forward with speed a number of times.

Pilots scored a good goal, nicely worked by Dani and Sophie, finished by Hallie.

Then less than a minute later UW scores direct from a corner. However well the corner is struck that is a defensive disaster.

Pilots dominated the game but it was squeaky bum time for the rest of the game.

Garrett has made some great sub calls this playoffs - Taylor comes on and sets up a goal and scores a belter. Hallie comes on and scores two: but playing the last 32 minutes without Michelle O was a bit baffling for me and all of the folks that I sit with.

[SoreKnees]

Good observations, 'arry.

The first caution to #6 was interesting. It happened on a modest foul immediately after halftime, which suggests that the referee crew discussed the situation at halftime and agreed that there had been a pattern of consistent fouling directed against Dani. In that situation, it doesn't have to be the same player committing the foul to justify a caution for persistent infringement. The player who happens to cross the line on team fouls against a single player gets singled out for the yellow card. I don't remember what combination of purple players was chopping Dani down in the first half, but #6 may have gotten a bit of a bad break to get the first caution. That said, the ugly foul immediately afterward was stupid: daring the referee to send her off, and he did.

[gnarly]

I was looking at GT and they have Dani down for Yellow at 90". Anyone know what they called on the last play of the game?

[A_Fan]

She broke from the wall towards the player taking the free kick before the player struck the ball.

[Harry Redknapp]

As the UW player was about to take a free kick lofted into the box, Dani ran back and into the 10 yard zone in front of her. Not very smart by Dani. Ref called play back and carded Dani. UW player hit ball harmlessly long for a second time and it was game over.

[Harry Redknapp]

One other fun feature of the game today was that we started the "Go Pilots" chant across the field with student section without the usual assist from student cheer leaders.

Normally only happens when some students come over to B and C sections and prompt us in coordination with others across the field.

Today we decided we needed to get some atmosphere charged up so we just yelled out "Go". No response the first couple of times but by the third cry out the students got the picture and responded with "Pilots" amd we were off and running.

Not on a par with a cure for cancer but we were pretty chuffed to know we could do it by ourselves.

[Geezaldinho]

in the men's game we had the "nil" song going for the men's scores.

By the way - piss poor showing from the students for both games.

I understand the NCAA makes them charge $5.00 for students to get in, but that's still no excuse.

The men's game was free for the students, and there were still only maybe 25 of them over there to watch a blowout on Senior day. It's a disgrace.

[ShipstadPilot11]

One other fun feature of the game today was that we started the "Go Pilots" chant across the field with student section without the usual assist from student cheer leaders.

Normally only happens when some students come over to B and C sections and prompt us in coordination with others across the field.

Today we decided we needed to get some atmosphere charged up so we just yelled out "Go". No response the first couple of times but by the third cry out the students got the picture and responded with "Pilots" amd we were off and running.

Not on a par with a cure for cancer but we were pretty chuffed to know we could do it by ourselves.

That is GREAT to hear! Keep it up! There is a very good chance that there is only 1 home game left and I'd challenge all the non-student fans to compete with the students' section and to try to one-up them and/or play off them. There is no reason why only the students can get loud/creative.

[PurplePrideTrumpet]

I agree with Harry's comments on Sophie. She and Keelin were all over the place today, winning and holding the ball against a UW team that was keeping everyone back today. The Pilot offense did well considering what they were up against.

I also thought the caution for persistent infringement was absolutely the right decision as the Huskies had been hacking at the Pilots all day and would have kept on doing so.

Not a pretty match, but I love the intensity level.

[purplehaze]

The wet pitch impacted the play of both teams today. I am surprised to see no one has mentioned Jess and her solid performance. She is gifted at turning and send the ball up the line. Makes it look effortless. She is such a smart player. Doesn't seem to get rattled.

Taylor and Hallie have been great tournament surprises for us. The future of the Pilots looks solid.

[PurplePrideTrumpet]

If they made Pilot replica shirts I would have mine made up with #16. Easy call.

[SoreKnees]

On Dani's card: Did she actually jump in? I didn't see for sure. What I did see was the Pilot wall about 6 yards from the ball with the final 10 seconds ticking off. The UW kicker had a tough situation. If she asks for 10 yards, the clock runs out while the referee sets the wall. If not, she has to take the kick with opponents in her face. Looked like she just kicked it at the wall and let the referee stop the clock to issue the card for encroachment.

This is one of the many problems with using the scoreboard clock in college and high school soccer rather than letting the referee add on time at his discretion.

[PurplePrideTrumpet]

I was wondering why she would be cautioned if the Huskies were going for a quick restart.

[fwill]

One other fun feature of the game today was that we started the "Go Pilots" chant across the field with student section without the usual assist from student cheer leaders.

Normally only happens when some students come over to B and C sections and prompt us in coordination with others across the field.

Today we decided we needed to get some atmosphere charged up so we just yelled out "Go". No response the first couple of times but by the third cry out the students got the picture and responded with "Pilots" amd we were off and running.

Not on a par with a cure for cancer but we were pretty chuffed to know we could do it by ourselves.

Yeah, actually, it was the Huskies fans that started the cheer across the field to their band members. We just did it better and louder!

[Geezaldinho]

Garrett has made some great sub calls this playoffs - Taylor comes on and sets up a goal and scores a belter. Hallie comes on and scores two: but playing the last 32 minutes without Michelle O was a bit baffling for me and all of the folks that I sit with.

I just assumed they were limiting her minutes like they have since she came back from being held out.

I would expect that to continue.

[UPreveler]

We just keep adding to the stars of the game and rightly so. They were all playing like stars in my book and it’s basically impossible to even single out one player over another. All the players raised the level of their game today. To finish off the list of our stars: Kassi for her defensive energy/speed and smart play, Megan for her stop the attack and get it forward determination, Kendra for aggressively handling all areas of the field and her crisp passing, Charney for her relentless attacking mode, Taylor for her spark off the bench, and Kelsey for being the #1 goalie in the nation. They all played so hard and so well. It was great to see and let's all make sure to get to next week's game to give our all-stars support on their mission to win a national championship. Yes, we will win it this year.

[PilotDrummer]

Was a great game, too bad there was a poor student turnout (Sunday games normally have a bad turnout, but this is the playoffs!). The girls played fairly well, especially against a seemingly boring Washington strategy of "dump 6 players in the box and never play offense." Hopefully that was the closest game we see until next season!

After three days of UW fans I can now say that I'd rather root for ANYONE other than UW. I grew up in the Bay Area and hate Stanford and Cal with every fiber of my being, but three days of whiny UW fans (Friday, Saturday at PSU women's basketball, and today) makes me think they're the biggest d-bags we've seen at Merlo in a while.

Men's game had terrible turnout, which was also too bad, because it was an awesome game.

[fan from afar]

Reveler - I agree about Kassie. I thought she looked tentative in her earlier games, which is certainly understandable after what she went through. At least on the computer, I thought she looked extremely solid yesterday, playing with all her old flair.

Geezer - I would lay odds that you are correct about limiting MO's minutes, because of her past (hopefully) health problems.

Did anyone really see what happened on their goal? I couldn't tell a thing on the computer. You would ordinarily expect Kelsey to get that kind of ball.

[SoreKnees]

It looked to me like Kelsey couldn't get there because there were players from both teams in the way. Because they were also going for the ball, there is no issue of obstruction. The Pilot on the far post wasn't able to jump high enough to deflect the ball (and chose not to try a Danielle Slaton trick, for those who remember...).

[UPSoccerFanatic]

It looked like Kelsey was blocked from getting to the ball. Elli was far post and couldn't get up to it. And, it was a great, bending corner kick. Justi used to do it, but this one had a ton of pace on it.

It's poetic justice that Hallie's winning goal was somewhat similar. Just high enough that the keeper could touch it, but too high for her to keep it out of the goal.

[Geezaldinho]

It looked like Kelsey was blocked from getting to the ball. Elli was far post and couldn't get up to it. And, it was a great, bending corner kick. Justi used to do it, but this one had a ton of pace on it.

It's poetic justice that Hallie's winning goal was somewhat similar. Just high enough that the keeper could touch it, but too high for her to keep it out of the goal.

Kelsey tipped the ball, or it looked like Elli might have been able to get it.

If that's the type of shot it takes to score on us, I'll take it.

[ohhh_yeah]

There was actually huskies band members up there with no instruments but they pretended like they were playing one anyway.



Also did anyone else notice their chants seemed to come from other sports. Air ball = basketball. Defense = Pointyball or baseball. Doing the wave = Being bored.