Pilots v. Rutgers, Penn St.

Uncle John wrote:Geez,

When was the last time you have seen either of our outside defenders sub'ed out of a game?

Fortunately, they have been solid rocks so far this season, and a big part of that is that they, Sophie, and Keelin have been healthy all year.

Now, How about the rest of our starting 11....

Which defenders had health , injury issues, or surgeries in the last year? Which players were playing with a leg wrap? Which with a soft cast?

Which freshmen have been totally healthy since they arrived on campus? ( I'll give you a hint -- none).

who are they trying to redshirt? -- (that plays into the equation)

If you go back and figure all those things out, and they were almost all on the forum at one time or another, you will know why some players are playing and some aren't.

I've seen postings on the forum in the past week questioning whether a player was a D1 player or not, which struck me as a completely off the mark question. Every player on this squad could start at most D1 programs. Most could start at any top 10 program.As an example, I'll cite Charney who is starting at UCLA but couldn't earn a starting role here and left, there being no prospect for her here considering who was in front of her.

We are spoiled. Anything less than perfection and we question if players are good enough.

Remember when folks on this forum questioned if Elli should be replaced? Anyone want to ask that now? Players evolve, but they do it at different paces, enjoy the process.

Uncle John wrote:

My issue is UP could do a better job at planning for unforseen injuries and forseen graduations. They seem be caught flat footed at times.

Just my observation.

UJ

Yeah, and my financial planner should have planned for 9/11 and the banking crash of 2 year ago, too.
Lehman bros. And Bernie Maddoff were so obvious.

Unforseen injuries and graduations are by definition---- unforseen

If you have ouija powers that are flawless, talk to Garrett. I' sure he'll listen.


Look- UP's strategy to compete with the huge schools is to get small squad of players who can all compete . We can't stockpile an endless wave of replacements. The one defining difference between the championship years and the rest of the recent attempts is player health and national team commitments. That will always be a fact for this school. You don't plan for stars to be injured. Even the Yankees can't do that.
What was your backup plan for Enyeart getting a season ending injury last year? I'd love to know.... Was it anything like your plan for 4 Rapinoe ACL injuries or Kendra getting one at the u23 camp?

Just this last couple of weeks, Cloee had to leave a game because of a wrist injury. Friday and Sunday she had to leave th game because an opponet whacked her in the face. She looks like she was in a fight today.

Please post your suggestions for what to do when/if that happens next week. t could help Garrett better plan his week.


Yesterday we had a right footed player playing the left side in a knee brace because someone else was hurt worse and scoring a goal against a traditional power... And somebody questions if she is a D1 player.


Ridiculous.

Just a note, since some people were thinking Sunday was Kristen Kelly's first game this year. She played the full game against Syracuse, Sunday a week ago. My guess was that this was part of planning. The problem against Penn State was that we had to replace both central defenders at the same time.

Last year, North Carolina had their right mid-fielder and arguably best player go out with a season-ending injury, relatively early in the season. They then had a rough series of games while they figured out how to adapt. This happens to all teams when they lose top players. There's no realistic way to have the transition to the next lineup be seamless.

They had their best defender in their 3 back formation go out this year, and some of their fans attribute their lack of production on that, also.

The best teams work through it, but it's never easy

UP has the largest squad that I can remember (26, and still small by most standards) and if you listened to Garrett's interviews, he said he would try to rest players on Sunday so that they would be fresher at the end of the year.

He has done that and put UP in the position of being the only 8-0-0 team in D1.

Injuries or no, occasional misplay or no, that's fantastc.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:
Last year, North Carolina had their right mid-fielder and arguably best player go out with a season-ending injury, relatively early in the season. They then had a rough series of games while they figured out how to adapt. This happens to all teams when they lose top players. There's no realistic way to have the transition to the next lineup be seamless.

by Geezaldinho on Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:42 pm

Uncle John wrote:

My issue is UP could do a better job at planning for unforseen injuries and forseen graduations. They seem be caught flat footed at times.

Just my observation.

UJ




Yeah, and my financial planner should have planned for 9/11 and the banking crash of 2 year ago, too.
Lehman bros. And Bernie Maddoff were so obvious.

Unforseen injuries and graduations are by definition---- unforseen

If you have ouija powers that are flawless, talk to Garrett. I' sure he'll listen.

UPSF - I don't think Uncle John was implying that a coach can always have his team ready for all the consequences of all injuries - the "seamless transition" you mentioned. He was just saying that if subs get playing time, they will be more ready to step in should injury occur. Actually, I think UNC does sub a lot, and I'm sure the loss of Washington was still a blow, but almost by definition, if someone had been subbed in for her occasionally, they would have been at least a little better off.

Lighten up, Geezer. I agree with you that players may not be playing for any number of reasons - you mentioned some - that we are unaware of, but - I don't think the outside backs have been out all year, and if one of them goes down, then what? I don't see that as a criticism of the coaching, it just seems to me to be a talking point.

I actually thought of a few ideas (talking point) of how Garrett might adjust to the above situation, but I don't want to think any more about anyone else going down. Too much of that already. The PSU player getting hurt put a damper on the game for me.

Our injuries seem to come by position - central defenders last year, outside mids this year. It would be easier if they were spread out a little by position - easier and better still if there were none, for any teams.

Seems to me a lot of non-starters would have gotten more playing time already this year if we had some 3 goal leads in games. None of the games thus far have really been in the bag.

As I pointed out recently part of the fun of this forum is endless speculation. It's amazing how many different opinions there are about the team, how they are playing and how we think they should play. I find it interesting, sometimes aggravating, sometimes hilarious, sometimes insightful, but always thought provoking.
I don't for a minute think the coaching staff gets it's ideas from us. They are highly competent, outstanding in their field. They don't need our help, but that doesn't mean we can't keep sharing our opinions with each other about the team and it's fortunes.
Just remember that anything I post is right and the rest of you are always wrong if you don't agree with me.

I agree with irish78. Given the "larger than we are use to" close games, it would be very hard to replace the outside backs. I agree that keeping them from being hurt/giving other experience would be great, but we have not had the blowouts this year to do it. And at least for me, I would rather play for a win now than risk a loss just to get someone experience.

NewUPFan wrote:I agree with irish78. Given the "larger than we are used to" close games, it would be very hard to replace the outside backs. I agree that keeping them from being hurt/giving other experience would be great, but we have not had the blowouts this year to do it. And at least for me, I would rather play for a win now than risk a loss just to get someone experience.

I actually think that the coaching staff has been willing to take quite a few risks this year. I think they are getting experience for players as much as they reasonably can, are protecting injured players, and have been willing to take chances to do it.

Also a note: Someone seemed to suggest that Amanda Frisbie has not played yet this year. She has played in two games that I have seen. My impression is that she is not near 100% yet. A few of the players have not played, but most of them have found playing time.

There is one other thing the coaching staff and players are painfully aware of: Given that the Pilots are not in the ACC or Pac 10, it is highly likely they must go undefeated in order to get one of the four #1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, entitling them to play their quarter-final game at home. Realistically speaking, playing the quarter-final game at home is very important. This is a factor they must take into consideration in determining who plays and how much.

Obviously, there are a lot of factors at play. It's a tough balancing act. I have no doubt that the coaching staff takes all the factors into consideration and makes its best judgment. They are the pros, and the Pilots' records over the years attest to their being good at what they do and to their generally making good judgments. They also have more knowledge of the facts related to the individual players than we do, and the Pilots' history has been to keep a good portion of the facts "in house." As a matter of interest, North Carolina does the same thing.

I think that they are giving more PT to players this year than past. In the paper this morning Garrett was quoted as saying the the three center backs have not played much in the past 18 months - assume he's referring to Kristen, Cloee, and Kassi. Implication was that this is a conscious strategy to get the time. Kristen has now had two 90 minute games. Sunday, Hailee had 90 minutes in goal. Ellen Parker got time in both games this weekend. That's a fair amount of rotation. Add in the sharing of minutes up front and keeping Elli, Jess, Keelin and Sophie on the field makes more sense in terms of senior leadership and the backbone of the team.

I think one of the positives of the season so far is that UP has a 8-0 record while dealing with injuries (Kendra, Kendall, Ellen P, Amanda F), hard knocks (Michelle C, Cloee), a FR keeper, and has given playing time to a number of FR (Erin, Ellen P, Sarah B, Michelle C, Micaela C) and others (Kristen K) not in the starting XI.

I don't think anyone has said that any of these players are not D1 players. Some of us have said that some of the FR are struggling to adjust to the pace of the game.

I also agree with Irish. None of the four senior leaders have been subbed out much, and probably because of the closeness of all the games. I think Sophie has been out a tiny bit, but It's tough to replace a defender with an untested player in a one-goal game. And, I couldn't agree with UPSF more about the coaches making the right decisions. None of us can possibly know what the real situations are with various players - who has little injuries, who is showing well in practice, etc etc.

A Fan - I'm devastated!! I thought for sure Garrett was devouring our every word and that our comments were making their way into his game plans every week.

FFA - I think he does devour our every word, but is reluctant to let know it be known. If it got out that we are actually the source of his coaching ideas, he might lose his job.

I feel much better now!!

Gents:

I hear what you say about play time. But I still can't help wondering about Molly K. Two years with only 40 minutes of play time is a long, long time; especially while studying engineering on top of soccer. But I guess the coach knows what he is doing. (She just seemed like a good player to me.)

UJ

I watched practice today - all running. Molly is hard at work getting back into shape after her injury, but she clearly isn't back yet. I'm sure she will get her chances.

On another note. I noticed that Penn State flew home Monday, practiced today, and Plays Bucknell tomorrow. That seems like an awfully quick turnaround after the hard weekend they had here. I wonder who made that schedule - another upset in the making?

fan from afar wrote:

A Fan - I'm devastated!! I thought for sure Garrett was devouring our every word and that our comments were making their way into his game plans every week.

I turn in the starting lineups for the weekend to him every Thursday. Any suggestions?

I just noticed from the game program that Christine Nairn is only a Sophomore! I thought that was a mis-print! Excuse me?! Wow! That was a surprise!

I wasn't paying attention to her class level...but she certainly lived up to her billing this weekend, I thought?! She played hard and definitely runs the show for the Lions! Has a bright future. Very young and plays with an edgy tough attitude...sorta like a Megan Rapinoe.

GO PILOTS!!!

Geezaldinho wrote:

fan from afar wrote:

A Fan - I'm devastated!! I thought for sure Garrett was devouring our every word and that our comments were making their way into his game plans every week.

I turn in the starting lineups for the weekend to him every Thursday. Any suggestions?

Start Enyeart and Rapinoe.

Enyeart is still recovering from injury ... so she fits right in as an outside mid for the Pilots!

Geez, helpful to hear about Molly and the injury recovery. That probably explains why she has not featured yet. She looked useful when she came on last year. But was one of the five "walking wounded" at the start of the season.

I know that there are multiple things going on that we mere spectators go not know about. For example, one of the players we have and are writing about was suffering from heat and dehydration on Sunday - that is bound to have impacted her performance. I only know because of a relationship with a family member. Important reminder to me that we often don't know the whole story.

Speaking of injury recovery, here is the article on the Penn State player (Lexi Marton) injury. It is an MCl so she might be back this year.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2010/09/15/martons_injury_to_mcl.aspx
Penn State will miss her in the back line.

Thanks for the follow-up link on Lexi Marton, Indigo. Here's hoping she will be able to join Sophie on the Canadian national team later this fall.

Harry Redknapp wrote:We often don't know the whole story.

Cannot be overstated.

I was fortunate to meet the Timbers' new MLS coach at an event for supporters' trust members. He told that when we wonder about his team selection or substitutions to remember we haven't seen the players' performances in training. We don't know who has a knock. We don't know if Player X is being disciplined for being out late the night before. We have to put a lot of trust in the coaches to make the right decisions based on the information they have.

On another note. I noticed that Penn State flew home Monday, practiced today, and Plays Bucknell tomorrow. That seems like an awfully quick turnaround after the hard weekend they had here. I wonder who made that schedule - another upset in the making?

No upset. the Nitany Lions took out out their aggressions on a hapless Bison team.

The final hurt was 5-1.

two goals from Toney, and goals from Hayes, Schram, and Brock.

Nairn had two assists.

Christa Matlack had the lone Bison Goal.