College Cup

sorry to intrude on your forum which I like to troll, but I just read your post re: kelly and had to respond. your opinion has to be based on her first 2 years of play, not the last two. I have seen nearly every match in that time period and I can assure you that the fouls in the Final game were not indicative of her play this year. don't know if it was frustration or what. also- the comment about flops is totally wrong. In spite of being severely mugged repeatedly all year she did not flop. just got up and played after being knocked down. again- maybe her frosh and sophomore years , but that attitude has been absent the last two years.
she has been very businesss like and played the game at a high level all year, as shown by her stats ,the team results, and her invite to WNT. we will miss her a lot. obviously I am a fan of her team, but I had to give a response to your comments which were not very kind, to say the least.

I think Kelly showed a lot of frustration in the final match. These fouls were obviously very poor decisions, BUT, I agree cardinal. She is a great player. I've only seen her play clean before this. I rooted for you guys. Good luck next year!

I would agree about Kelly O'Hara, having watched the game live and in person, fouling out of frustration. It would be difficult NOT to be upset about the way the match was being officiated. Several UNC players were committing fouls off the ball, coming in late on tackles, and sliding at the Stanford players feet unnecessarily. Yet, no calls and in fact the whistle blew against Stanford on some pretty egregious UNC fouls. It was also interesting to watch the 4th official come harass the Stanford bench for stepping outside the technical area, yet when UNC was doing the same thing (Anson Dorrance even stepped about a half a yard onto the field at one point) she just sat at the halfway line and looked at them and then looked away.

The officiating was not up to the caliber of this match. In the first two minutes of the game, Stanford was called for offside after the ball came off a UNC player's foot on a clear deflection/pass back and a Stanford player hustled onto it as it was headed toward the UNC goalkeeper. I know most everyone here had the benefit of watching on TV and could verify the offside calls (although I heard the commentary was fairly nauseating), the two Stanford goals appeared legit to everyone in the stadium. Press, from where I was sitting which was closer to the play than the linesman was, appeared to have the UNC centerback right behind her as she received that ball in the air and then turned the defender in one swift move to the goal. It was baffling to watch the linesman run from several yards behind the play to make that call, AFTER the ball had been put in the back of the net.

I felt even worse when they hustled O'Hara from the field and wouldn't let her watch the rest of the game from behind the boards right by her team; they made her leave the field completely which I know is the rule, but she was standing in the corner nearest her team behind the boards off the playing field and they told her she had to go to the locker room. As a Portland fan and as a soccer fan, this was a difficult game to watch and stomach; Stanford did not play well the first half, but they legitimately outplayed UNC in the second and deserved a better-officiated match for their effort.

Cardinalfan, you can answer something for me. Over on BigSoccer, a good number of Cardinal fans are absolutely trashing the Cardinal's coach. After a 25-1 season and getting to the College Cup finals? What's your take on all of that? I haven't wanted to ask on BigSoccer, because I don't want to intrude on this question into Stanford's thread.

he does some things very well. obviously he can recruit , but with the stanford school name he has a big advantage there. you can read my post on the bigsoccer site about his substitutions, coaching, etc. I think he just needs more experience and willingness to trust more players and try new approaches.

KFTC wrote:I would agree about Kelly O'Hara, having watched the game live and in person, fouling out of frustration. It would be difficult NOT to be upset about the way the match was being officiated. Several UNC players were committing fouls off the ball, coming in late on tackles, and sliding at the Stanford players feet unnecessarily. Yet, no calls and in fact the whistle blew against Stanford on some pretty egregious UNC fouls. It was also interesting to watch the 4th official come harass the Stanford bench for stepping outside the technical area, yet when UNC was doing the same thing (Anson Dorrance even stepped about a half a yard onto the field at one point) she just sat at the halfway line and looked at them and then looked away.

The officiating was not up to the caliber of this match. In the first two minutes of the game, Stanford was called for offside after the ball came off a UNC player's foot on a clear deflection/pass back and a Stanford player hustled onto it as it was headed toward the UNC goalkeeper. I know most everyone here had the benefit of watching on TV and could verify the offside calls (although I heard the commentary was fairly nauseating), the two Stanford goals appeared legit to everyone in the stadium. Press, from where I was sitting which was closer to the play than the linesman was, appeared to have the UNC centerback right behind her as she received that ball in the air and then turned the defender in one swift move to the goal. It was baffling to watch the linesman run from several yards behind the play to make that call, AFTER the ball had been put in the back of the net.

I felt even worse when they hustled O'Hara from the field and wouldn't let her watch the rest of the game from behind the boards right by her team; they made her leave the field completely which I know is the rule, but she was standing in the corner nearest her team behind the boards off the playing field and they told her she had to go to the locker room. As a Portland fan and as a soccer fan, this was a difficult game to watch and stomach; Stanford did not play well the first half, but they legitimately outplayed UNC in the second and deserved a better-officiated match for their effort.

Ohara was told to leave because the NCAA rule says that is the normal occurrence in an expulsion (it's not mandatory).

One can only assume these were highly rated officials. They do seem to be ones who have regularly reffed Tournament games for a long time, They do seem to be refs who do mostly BIG12 games, so there seems to be some cost savings there.

The head ref for this game did a UNC semi in 2003, This crew also did the UNC- Notre Dame semi this year (swapped jobs), and the head ref was the same one who did the UP-Penn State semi in 2005.

But there is the larger issue of appearances. Doing a semi and a final in a FIFA tournament is unheard of. Also, having referees who regularly do games for the conference of one participating team also seems smarmy. Last year's finals ref does many ACC games (He lives in Virginia). This year's UP-UCLA ref does predominantly PAC10 games (the ref was at UCLA 3 times this year and did CAL, Oregon, UW, and USC games, among , I am sure, others)

It just doesn't look good. Why not just mandate refs from other regions? Would you ever see a ref from Brazil doing a Brazil-Argentina match?

Another interesting observation: Portland area referees are never assigned to be centers for WCC conference matches. However, in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament this year, all referees (including the center) were local. And local referees are routinely used for big non-conference home matches against UCLA, UNC, etc.

I do not for a moment question the impartiality of the local referees in UP matches, but I totally agree that it does not look good. This is a situation in which one must not only be impartial, but also be seen to be impartial.

Cardinal fan: I certainly do not want to come off as being unkind to Ms. O'hara. Let me reiterate, she is very worthy of all the accolades she has received and will receive. I also agree with some of the other remarks that were made concerning her actions in the championship game which were, for the most part, and aberration from her stellar career and most likely, based out of frustration. Now, having said that, the context of my comments were, somewhat of a comparison to the historic play of Cheney, which for the most part, falls upon, deaf ears in this forum, which is understandable based upon the history of the UCLA/Portland rivalry. You have, no doubt seen Ms. O'hara play more games than I. I have seen her play more than 10 times, whether live or on your site and I will continue to maintain that she does go down quite easily, which I call a flop. I've seen her warned, more than once by the ref about it. Most quality strikers are "mugged" continuously. That's part of what they have to deal with. That's all. I will be happy to soften my remarks about her leg kicking. I think she plays very aggressively, which is great to see. This particular game for her, unfortunately, she lost a little bit of her poise. We have friends at Stanford and whish them much continued success.

no doubt that KO's smaller stature will cause her to be knocked down a lot more often than Cheney who is an absolutely great player. still do not agree KO flops but no big deal. hopefully we will get to see both of them a lot more in the pros and WNT.

so no other pilot nation regulars witnessed Father Tyson's discussion of Coach Charles and his possibly being lured away in '98?

slick wrote:so no other pilot nation regulars witnessed Father Tyson's discussion of Coach Charles and his possibly being lured away in '98?

No, although I remember The Oregonian reporting that Connecticut had offered Clive a director of soccer position and that he decided to stay in Portland.

But, here's an interesting piece of information I was not aware of. I found it while trying to find info about the Connecticut offer:

"Heinrichs Named Women's National Coach

"April Heinrichs, women’s head coach at the University of Virginia, has signed a four-year contract to become the new head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team. She is only the third full-time head coach of the women's full national team. The announcement was made at a news conference in New York on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

"She is the second University of Virginia head coach to be named to a head coaching position by US Soccer. Bruce Arena who became the U.S. Men’s national coach following the ’98 World Cup, coached the Cavaliers to four consecutive NCAA Division I men's championship before beginning a three-year stint as coach of MLS' D.C. United.

"Heinrichs replaces Tony DiCicco, who posted a 103-8-8 record as the women’s head coach. DiCicco’s contract with U.S. Soccer expired at the end of 1999. It has been reported that she may have been US Soccer’s second choice, and that the job originally was offered to Clive Charles, men’s and women’s head coach at the University of Portland and the current U.S. U23 (Olympic) men’s team.

"Charles, who had been the leading candidate for the job for several months, apparently was unwilling to leave the collegiate coaching ranks for a full-time job as the women’s head coach."

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:

slick wrote:so no other pilot nation regulars witnessed Father Tyson's discussion of Coach Charles and his possibly being lured away in '98?

No, although I remember The Oregonian reporting that Connecticut had offered Clive a director of soccer position and that he decided to stay in Portland.

I recall that the offer was to coach the Women's team only.