Portland-Texas A&M, September 17

Congrats on the win, and good luck with the rest of y'alls season!

A good win last night. As others have said the game is coming together. Road trip this week is huge now.

Back four are very very tough. Kassi did fine in her cameo at the end. Starters can all play the ball, which is a great advantage because there are many occasions when they play he ball to feet rather than hoofing it down-field (although they resorted tot hat in the last 15 minutes or so when they shut up shop and played the game out). Cloee is so strong and she is vocal too: looks like the captain after Sophie and Keelin are gone. Elli is quietly having a monster season.

I thought that Taylor had the best game I've seen from her. She always works hard and runs and runs. But she made more good choices tonight and mixed it up a nit - inside passes and outside runs. One thing we noticed is how high she jumps on headers. She starts at a disadvantage but she gets real height.

Hallie took her goal well and it was a great assist from Sarah B.

Late to the commentary game, but I agree with all that others have said.

If I had to give out a "woman of the match" award I'd have to split it between Clo and MO (and Brassie Kassie OrangeBoots when she came on). Hooper looked amazingly slippery up front, yet our central defense never let her get free for a clear opportunity. It's easy to imagine her scoring any time the defense has the slightest mis-step, but I didn't see one all night from our girls.

Perhaps it has all been said, but there is no doubt that the Pilots are reaching mid season form. Tonight's match was the "beautiful game" we are accustomed to seeing on the bluff. My sense is that the variations in the starting line up is causing the girls to go all out in practice to earn a spot. I still would like to see Dani up front a bit more, but I defer to Garrett on this stuff.

As I sat in the rain and watched over four thousand Portland fans cheer on our girls for two plus hours I couldn't help but feel proud of the commitment this town has to this team. I am not sure where else you would see a crowd like this sit all night in the rain to watch college soccer. Ya gotta love Portland! What a team! What a school! What a town!

I loved Hailee's performance last night. She seems to be more confident in goal than the frosh. She's a Kelsey clone and her maturity stands out.

She had one fantastic save....a lay-out dive in the air to her left on a hard shot! From the angle I had...when the shot was made, it looked like a for-sure goal...then out nowhere dives in Hailee to snag it! One of the best saves I've seen. Awesome!

GO PILOTS!!!

agsoccer2007 wrote:Congrats on the win, and good luck with the rest of y'alls season!

Good luck to you, too. We enjoyed the friendly banter. You have a good team ( my guess is a 2 or 3 seed) we may even meet again this year for the rubber match.

In the meantime, congrats again on the marriage, and stay thirsty.

What a fantastic game! Beautiful!

Lots of slipping and sliding on the rain-soaked field for both teams. (Even on the sunny days I've seen the Pilots slip on the new turf, and you could see water spray up when the ball hit, which makes me wonder why they water it so close to game time!?)

Every player played well and made a contribution! Hustle plays were the difference. There were numerous times that players made the extra effort to touch the ball just out of reach of the opposing player. What a game for Ellie...she contorted herself making awesome defensive plays all night long! She runs full speed all night and ends the game with as much energy as she starts it.

Ellie was a standout, but *everyone* played aggressively. This is what held this team back last year. I'm hoping they get it now - that they understand what it takes to win.

I, too, wish Dani got to play more, but it's hard to argue with her replacements.

Hailee did well. Her hands are good. Her coverage is good. Her decisions are good. Her weakness is kicking.

This team is getting better and better and is so much fun to watch!

camille wrote:which makes me wonder why they water it so close to game time!?)

Special strategy agains teams from dry climates. This one was ordered up at a special Mass in St Mary's chapel.

True, Hailee's kicking from the ground was not very good. It looked to me like she was worried about her back foot slipping due to the wet field and got distracted from just kicking the ball. In the second half, she stopped trying to kick from the ground and aired the ball from her hand. That was pretty effective.

Regarding the wet conditions, I also thought she was very aware of the potential for the ball to slip through her gloves and was extremely careful always to get her full body in front of the ball.

Regarding Dani, I can't help thinking she is not 100% healthy. When she was in the game, she played well and got off a good shot. But, she wasn't in very long. I just don't see her not playing more if she's 100%.

One think I could see with Halley K yesterday was that, when it's time to start killing the clock, she's a great player to have in there. She's strong and can hold defenders off on throw ins, she traps the throws well off her chest, and she can hold the ball long enough to find someone to dish it off too. She was a major part of the Pilots possessing the ball for almost all of the last 15 minutes of the game.

Overall, I will say that this Pilots team is as good as any I've seen at mercilessly running the opposition defense all over the field. The wear-down effects of this have really shown in the second halves of games.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:
Overall, I will say that this Pilots team is as good as any I've seen at mercilessly running the opposition defense all over the field. The wear-down effects of this have really shown in the second halves of games.

Current scoring stats in the second half:

UP 18 : 2 opponents

I was looking for pictures from last night's game and ran across this forum.

I've been going to UP soccer games for the past 3 seasons (since I moved here) and this was one of the best games I've seen played by the team. To be honest, I had my doubts about UP when I saw them play against OKState a couple of weeks ago. But then again, maybe OSU was on fire and shocked UP. Last night was a different story. Sophie was aggressive from the very beginning and the Pilots looked like a completely different team. Very impressed.

Hopefully last night's game is setting up both teams for a further trip into playoffs. I wouldn't mind taking a last minute trip to Cary. And now that this game is over, I can put my A&M shirt back in the closet and pull out my Pilots one.

Amazing game last night. Great hustle and play by both teams. If they were to replay it on the internet, I'd definitely watch it again. wow!

aggie2004 wrote:.

Amazing game last night. Great hustle and play by both teams. If they were to replay it on the internet, I'd definitely watch it again. wow!

Nothing stopping you. The replay is on the GAME TIME portal at portlandpilots.com.

Watch soon, they only will be keeping it up for 48 hrs.

Color this game purple and white. This was the result we wanted -- a win, a shutout, a statement. The Pilots totally ruled over a very good foe. TAMU could do NOTHING in midfield. They won ZERO 50-50 headers. They COULD NOT possess the ball. All credit to the Pilots defense and the mids for being aggressive on every ball every time. The Pilots strikers were all over TAMU. The contrast in styles was apparent: Pilot ball control and patient attack versus TAMU's long ball to Hooper (and hope) approach. Just a fun, exciting game from this fan's viewpoint.

You know...This was just a match that lived up to its billing! All the factors that define soccer as the "beautiful game" was on display last night.

Despite the wet conditions...a BIG crowd showed up! No, not because it was a BBQ promo night! No, not even because of the free cowbells! The crowd was anticipating that Two of the Top Ranked programs in women's soccer would battle it out and play QUALITY championship level futbol. AND THEY BOTH DID!!! It was a EUPHORIC environment last night. The Crowd, the Drum Squad, the Student Section and the Teams... all contributed something. It was truely a celebration of the game. I remembered thinking to myself that the Drum squad beats always seemed to be in-synch and in-rhythm with the pace of the match. They seemed to drive and encourage what was happening on the pitch.

It was just magic last night....it's why I come the CCSC! More please....

GO PILOTS!!!

The first half w/ Schmidt playing striker was truly a thing of beauty! That said, Reed had a stellar game, too, but every time I see Sophie with the ball I am amazed by her skill level. If only she was a little bit faster...

Frankly I was surprised at how much better the ladies were technically than A&M. They are very good athletes but they were overmatched when the ball was on the ground.

Ditto on the Sophie comment. I thought she played one of her better games last night.

They all played one of their better games last night.

And, they did not do one of their "let's get a feel for what's going on" starts. They came out firing on all cylinders right from the beginning. I'm betting that is something they learned from last year.

UPS you are right the whole team stepped up last night. I was very impressed with the way they all played. No let up, kept on charging a thing of beauty to watch.

Another fan and I were talking about it it after the game and thought that Rutgers actually played better game against us than TAMU did (better passing, disrupting our plays, more dangerous scoring opportunities, etc.). Did anyone else notice that?

Also, what's up with Boston College being ranked so high? They have only played one decent team (Stanford) and yet they are ranked #4 in three polls and #3 in one poll. Graham Hayes seems to really like them this year, too.

Okay, so BC just beat Rutgers by a bigger margin than we did. Maybe they are pretty good.

Our margin would have been the same if not for an UGE (unusual goalkeeper event).

I agree with fwill that Rutgers played UP tougher than A&M -- as shown by the number of shots for taken and yielded by those opponents. Rutgers had more ball possession than TAMU as well. May they both win out the regular season to make the Pilot victories even more impressive.

I hadn't noticed this on the UP site before:



Enjoy.

Thanks Geez. That was like the best of the highlights. I did not get a good look at the goal and this was a perfect angle. Also the defensive intensity was very evident. I was so impressed with Elli's game. Also Sophie and Keelin played great as did the rest of the team. This was just a very satisfying win!!