Report from Cal

http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-soccer/recaps/092310aaa.html

Here is Cal's article

They didn't score early like we all hoped, but they did get ahead and were able to rest several of the starters. Cloee's injury appeared to be a cramp or something along those lines. She had her leg wrapped and was limping around after the game. Hopefully it is something that she will get past quickly. Hallee's goal was a thing of beauty, she took on 2 Cal defenders and beat them. As far as I could tell I was the only one who remembered to bring their cowbell!

I saw Emma came in for Brooke. Did she play mid for the last 14 minutes?

Here I was so caught up in my work that I forgot that the game was happening! I'm sure my boss will be proud of me for not being distracted at end of day. Thanks to those who were on the ball and reported here so I can get with the program.

I like it that Kassie and Kristen got in to play D and let others rest -- likely that's where Emma played too (with Ellie moving up to mid, I speculate, based on what we've seen earlier this season).

Great score, great result. Onward.

Going back to the thread title...


We send A_Fan down there at PilotNation expense and all we get is two stinking reports before the game?


I'm outraged! Hold the check!

Hey, my fat fingers just don't work well on a phone keyboard and I was too pooped last night when I finally got to my motel to send much. Has anyone mentioned that while we have traffic in Portland, they have TRAFFIC here.

The game was entertaining and I was confident that the Pilots would prevail despite being down at halftime. As mentioned previously Cal was noticeably tiring at the end of the first half.

The officiating was loose which benefited Cal as they play the more physical Pac10 style. They got away with what I thought were some cheap shots, while the Pilots got away with the usual shirt and arm pulling. At the end of halftime Garrett went out on the field and talked to the ref. He motioned towards the Cal bench a couple of times. I don't know what he said, but the officiating style didn't seem to change for the second half.

It was a great team effort, I cannot single out any player who was sparkling, because they all played hard and effectively. Emma came in for Taylor at mid late in the second half.

After the game Cloee started on the warm-down run with the team although her leg was wrapped and she was walking and limping. Garrett called her back and they talk for a couple of minutes, then he sent her back to warm down. I assume with her competitiveness she will want to play on Saturday, it remains to be seen if her injury is transitory or lingering.

I hope this gets me back in good graces and the check will be re-issued! Let me know if you have more questions and I'll try to answer them. Off to be a tourist now, but I'll be back to the motel later.

I'll put down as much of the details as I can remember:

Erin was the keeper for this game. I think it will be Hailee for Stanford. Pre-determined.

On the goal, Cloee had the ball in a situation to pass straight back to Erin. There was a Cal player behind Cloee. Cloee hesitated a little, then passed the ball back to Erin, a little too late. Erin kicked the ball and it nicked the Cal player and ricocheted to the left. There was an unmarked Cal player there and she put an excellent shot into the upper near corner. I'm not going to editorialize on what happened between Cloee and Erin or why the Cal player was unmarked, other than to say it was a situation to learn from and not have happen again. After the game, Cloee and Erin were having a chat, most likely about what happened and how to not have it happen again. Other than that, Erin had a good game and made one terrific parry of a high ball across the middle in the second half. She also was quite vocal in the second half.

Cal played very tight defense on our players, including on our outside defenders, which disrupted our flow through the early part of the first half. I agree that the ref was letting a lot go and Cal plays a pretty physical brand of soccer. In addition, our players came out pretty lethargic. Nothing like the Texas A&M start. Both teams appeared nervous. Our players gradually worked their way out of it and were flowing very well by the end of the game. Also, our possession game wore them down. (Geez, do you have the field size stats for Cal's field as compared to ours? It appeared to me their field is a little narrower, which seemed to help Cal some especially against our outside defenders.)

Cal's Omarsdottir was a good, but very physical player. She got a card for dissent in the second half and about a minute before the end of the game, after Keelin had gotten to a ball before her and bumped it forward to another Pilot, came in with a late tackle and left Keelin on the ground and pretty messed up briefly. (Keelin was not happy and took a couple of minutes to recover.) Unfortunately, the ref missed it and only saw Keelin on the ground after the tackle. The game ended and he actually went up to Keelin and said something, most likely that he didn't see what happened. A Pilot parent was watching the whole play and said that it was a clearly cheap and dirty shot. That wasn't necessarily typical of Cal, but there was a lot that was let go.

Cloee did go forward a couple of times. The first time, she actually was up to receive a long pass forward from the back line on a fast break. We were sitting there saying, "Hey, what's Cloee doing way up there?"

Kassi came in for MO in the first half and played very well. She was very dependable, with good service forward. Dani came on well into the first half, finished the game from there, and played very well, I thought. She just can't get any space to get a shot off, but she did a great job of controlling the ball.

Halley had an excellent game. Her play for the third goal was great. The final defender tried to body her off the ball and Halley blew by her and hit a perfect Christine Sinclair far corner worm burner. Halley also was huge once the Pilots got ahead, receiving throw-ins, controlling the ball, working the short-passing burn-the-clock game with her team-mates.

Michell Cruz came on for Sarah Bridges at the same time Dani and Kassi came in and had an excellent game. On the first goal, it was partly made by her corner kick, which was a very hard low drive only a couple of feet off the ground that hit ground right about the near goal post about a foot out from the goal and squirted across the goal mouth, rebounded off one or more players to Cloee's foot for a one-time open drive into the goal.

Sophie's goal was on a ball she received at the top of the box, faked right, came back left and left-footed (I think) into the left side of the goal right next to the post. The keeper seemed slow to react, possibly wrong footed by the fake right. It wasn't a particularly hard shot but was perfectly placed. It was a dagger, coming so soon after Cloee's goal.

The start of the second half was interesting. For 5 to 7 minutes, Cal had almost all of the possession. They did a lot of passing among the defenders, up to the mid-fielders, and back to the defenders. The Pilots refused to put high pressure on the defenders. Our speculation was that they were trying to force the defenders to come forward to mid-field, in order to open up space in the Cal end of the field. If that was what they were trying to do, it worked.

When Emma came in, she came in for Taylor, and she played mid-field the whole time. She did quite well. She doesn't have Taylor's speed of size/strength, but she was more than adequate.

Cloee went out with what I believe was a cramp and Kristen came in for her and was very solid. Although, as reported earlier, Cloee started to warm down with the team after the game, got called over by Garrett for a little chat, and then went back with the team, Cloee did not do the warm down. She was walking pretty gingerly, and walked with the team while they did their warm down. However, later she appeared to be fine. Let's hope so.

Sophie and Keelin had their usual games. Keelin, Jessica, Elli, and Erin played the whole game. All the others got at least some rest.

Overall, it was an anxious first half, but it also seemed unlikely Cal would be able to keep the Pilots from scoring. Still, it was hard to avoid thoughts of bunkered defenses and a bad start to the road trip. Once we got the first goal, though, everyone relaxed, and Sophie's quick following goal let us all relax and enjoy the good weather.

Onward to Saturday. GO PILOTS!

For those of you who were at the game, thank you so much for your excellent and detailed reports. Go Pilots!!!

The Cal field is listed on their website as 70 x 115 yards, which is 5 yards narrower and 5 yards shorter than Merlo's 75 x 120 yards.

It was originally the worlds first track only facility, later converted to add soccer.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Sophie's goal was on a ball she received at the top of the box, faked right, came back left and left-footed (I think) into the left side of the goal right next to the post. The keeper seemed slow to react, possibly wrong footed by the fake right. It wasn't a particularly hard shot but was perfectly placed. It was a dagger, coming so soon after Cloee's goal.

The Pilot website's description of Sophie's goal made it sound like Halley had dummied Jessica's cross, which then went to Sophie. Is that your take on what happened?

Geezaldinho wrote:The Cal field is listed on their website as 70 x 115 yards, which is 5 yards narrower and 5 yards shorter than Merlo's 75 x 120 yards.

It was originally the worlds first track only facility, later converted to add soccer.

See, you post a question on the forum, and someone else looks it up for you! Easy!

eProf wrote:

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Sophie's goal was on a ball she received at the top of the box, faked right, came back left and left-footed (I think) into the left side of the goal right next to the post. The keeper seemed slow to react, possibly wrong footed by the fake right. It wasn't a particularly hard shot but was perfectly placed. It was a dagger, coming so soon after Cloee's goal.

The Pilot website's description of Sophie's goal made it sound like Halley had dummied Jessica's cross, which then went to Sophie. Is that your take on what happened?

wProf, thanks for the reminder. That is exactly what happened. It was a great play by Halley.

Thank you both for the details.

up7587 wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:The Cal field is listed on their website as 70 x 115 yards, which is 5 yards narrower and 5 yards shorter than Merlo's 75 x 120 yards.

It was originally the worlds first track only facility, later converted to add soccer.

See, you post a question on the forum, and someone else looks it up for you! Easy!

Well there is a danger to that.

You might have had to sit through an explanation that the metric conversion to both those fields is 64 x 105 metres for Cal, and 69 x 110 metres for Merlo, to the nearest metre.

FIFA allows lengths of 90 to 120 m , and widths of 45 to 90 m , as long as the width is less than the length.
For international Play, the length must be between 100 and 110 m , and the width must be between 64 and 75 m.

So both pitches would conform to standards for international play. I will state that FIFA declared an "ideal" pitch size of, guess what, 69 x 110 m. and states that that is the size it would like to see all new stadiums built to. I believe all the pitches in the last world cup were that size.

( back off, Stoney. I'm just spelling Metre like FIFA does)

I also could have pointed out that the dimensions of both fields are within parameters the NCAA mandates for new fields. From the 2010 rule book:

1.1 Dimensions
1.1.1 The field of play shall be rectangular, the width of which shall not be
more than 75 yards [68.58m] or less than 70 yards [64.01m] and shall
not exceed the length. The length shall not be more than 120 yards
[109.73m] or less than 115 yards [105.16m].
Note: The optimum size is 75 yards [68.58m] by 120 yards [109.73m].
Facilities in use before 1995 need only to be rectangular the width of which
shall not exceed the length.
1.1.2 Facilities constructed after 1995 shall be a minimum of 70 yards in
width [64.01m] by 115 yards [105.16m] in length.

note that there is no rule on what size fields built before 1995 must be, but The Cal field is the current allowable minimum and Merlo is exactly the "ideal" NCAA size, although Merlo doesn't have the 20 yard borders that are decreed for new NCAA fields. I prefer the Merlo dimensions. you are closer to the action.

but I decided to spare you all that.

Wasn't I considerate?



Stanford claims that its field is

115' x 76' "

http://www.gostanford.com/facilities/stan-cagan-stadium.html
which I find curious for an institution noted for the rigor of its fine mathematics department.
It doesn't conform to any standard set by FIFA or the NCAA if that is true, being only one third as large in each dimension as the "ideal" size, and not conforming to either allowable standard since it was built AFTER 1995.


I'm hoping that the field is actually that many YARDS in each dimension, or it will seem very crowded, being only about 1/9th the area.

it does seem very small in this picture:


(the tree looks small, too. A bonsai, really)

Just one of many marvels of this forum: Geezer is up near midnight, yet still sufficiently perspicacious to notice the faulty notation on the Stanford web site and to remain sensitive to the differences between European and American spellings. County Cork must have been out of Pliny again.