Stanford v. Portland

Absolutely. And a #1 ranking is probably on the line too. No pressure there, huh?

I know it's already been talked about, but it's worth noting again that Stanford has tied both North Carolina and Boston College, who appear to be in the "top tier" along with Portland and maybe Notre Dame.

My point is... though of course you have to take everything in context, if Portland wins tonight, it's an indicator that the Pilots just may truly be the best team in the country.

This has been an interesting season so far, I think, for all of us fans. Because the Pilots haven't necessarily been blowing people away, I think a lot of people might think the team isn't as good as previous years or maybe doesn't belong in the conversation with the likes of Stanford, North Carolina, etc. But what I saw against Texas A&M leads me to believe that, when clicking, the 2010 version of the Portland Pilots is a bona fide national title contender and no one can convince me otherwise.

Can't wait for the game tonight... high stakes, big pressure, the eyes of the country (well, the percentage of the country that follows women's college soccer, anyway) on you... that's what you live for as a player and a fan. It's gonna be great!

from Portlandpilots tweet:

Position vs position we are in trouble... offensively we just do not have the experience up front ---yet... but think it will be a fantastic game!
I would love to see Capelle and Fox start this one together and see Halle sub in with Fox for that
sudden impact burst she has. Halle reminds me of the WPS player Natasha Kai (spelling?)
She has that put me in coach attitude but seems to be a better burst player not a full game time player. Put her in and she is totally aggresive to go for the goal off the bench... Capelle and Fox could maintain that fine oiled machine if they get more play together this season .. could be a great combination to see develop. Capelle and Foxhoven seem to feed off of each other and have similar play thought and styles. Formula suggestion to watch ....Fox= Experience/finisher + Capelle=speed/drive + Halle= aggression= WIN
not the mention we have one of the best defense's in nation!

I don't really know Stanford position by position, but I doubt if they can match us across the defensive line and center midfield. You could add outside mid to that without injuries, but you play with the cards you are dealt. That leaves the attackers. I agree with scrfn about the best way to use our attackers, but no matter how you look at it, Capelle is our only attacker who can take someone on one-on-one, and she does not yet have the maturity she needs to get herself into position consistently to be dangerous. I think this is why we have not been blowing teams away, like Stonehouse mentioned. This really is a great team, but we will win lots of close games, including Stanford - 1-0, maybe 2-1.

When Keelin and Sophie are in the midfield, no one can touch the Pilots player for player there -- they simply own the turf. The starting 4 defenders are second to none with power, speed and experience. That's the core of a great team even without mentioning the forwards and outside mids.

Forward Cristen Press for Stanford stands out. Stopping her with team D will likely be crucial. Her Stanford roster writeup says: " Outstanding skills ... one of the fastest players on the team ... great quickness with the ball ... has the ability to score inside and outside ... enters the season ranked sixth at Stanford in career points (123), sixth in goals (45), and tied with Julie Foudy for third in assists (33) ... "one of the best strikers in the country," coach Paul Ratcliffe said."

This should be a fabulous matchup just ahead. The Pilots have the players, fitness, attitude and work ethic to succeed.

I agree FFA! The back line of Olivier, Colohan, Tsao and Reed are the best in the country. And our mid-fielders? Winters and Schmidt are the backbone! I'd say they''re the stronger pair against Noyola her partner.

I think the key to victory is how much pressure offensively Tsao and Reed put on Stanford's wings. Those 2 can go really deep! And will cause a lot of havoc for Stanford. And maybe hold Press and the other Stanford forwards back to help. Jessica and Ellie overlap the attacking mids (Brooke, Cruz, Johnson and Bridges) often...and will demand the Stanford defense to mark and account for their threats from the wing. Since we play a heavy outside-in style of attack from the flanks....they will be key to opening up free space and opportunites in the middle of the pitch and box.

I expect Stanford to defend us well...but eventually our style and fitness will wear them down if we can win out on possession time.

GO PILOTS!!!

PH...are we on the same page or WHAT?

http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&KEY=&SPID=237&SPSID=4314

Giggling* Did anyone see this?

Ducks count down to Pilots

I wish the Pilots would use Twitter as Live Stats or some sort of game tracker when playing at schools that only provide live audio. I'm in South Bend after watching Stanford win and would like to follow our ladies but wont have audio internet access.

There are two twitter accounts sure to have something on the game.

PortlandPilots is one, and the enemy is sure to tweet ad Nauseum from StanfordWSoccer. they have no other timely method of keeping us up on their games.

Also, CS360updates will be sure to mimic other sources and keep you up to date

But live audio will be in two places.

http://www.truetalk800.com/ (click on the "800 AM" live feed at the upper right)

and

http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/up.portal#

will both have the same audio feed. if one cuts out, try the other.

you might have to download a radio client like wunderradio for iphones or ipads (free or 99¢), but i have had 100% success getting the audio feed from one of those sources.

Beautiful conditions here at Stanford. Pilot fans are here in good numbers. Cloee appears ready to play, suited up not limping. They are predicting a sellout.

merlogirl wrote:

I wish the Pilots would use Twitter as Live Stats or some sort of game tracker when playing at schools that only provide live audio. I'm in South Bend after watching Stanford win and would like to follow our ladies but wont have audio internet access.

If you go to the Stanford sports site, and bring up "Schedule", I think you'll find GT there.

http://www.gostanford.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/stan-w-soccer-sched.html

Now whether it works or not is another question.

PortlandPilots tweets that he tree has been trimmed to a stump!

My theory is that they are trying to kill it.

heading to the chat room.


they just announced the starters


Tree players:
Levin, Garciamendez, Verloo, Paine , Noyola, Quon, McCann, Taylor, Nogoya?(that can"t be right), Press. must have missed one .

UP players:

DeYoung, Brooke, Reed , McKClusky, Colohan, Winters, Bridges, Schmidt, Tsao, Capelle, Parker.

I'm not getting audio. How are you getting it?

I wasn't getting audio on the "stretch" feed, but I am getting it through the Truetalk800.com website. Even though it lists something else "on air now" the game is being broadcast.

Stanford has certainly looked like the better team so far, beating the Pilots to most balls. Dani and Halley picked up the Pilots energy level when they came in.

A_Fan wrote:Stanford has certainly looked like the better team so far, beating the Pilots to most balls. Dani and Halley picked up the Pilots energy level when they came in.

did Sophie move to mid?

Well, that could certainly have gone better.

Stanford exposed our weaknesses like a the good team they are, and we didn't appear to get a plan until too late.

All is not lost. We are now # 4 in the RPI, which isn't exactly shabby, we only have one loss, we have beaten ranked teams, and there isn't another Stanford on the schedule.

It will be an uphill fight for that one seed now, but we have done fine as a 2 seed before (2002)



Just for the record, we knocked them out of the tourney that year.

I'm up early tomorrow morning for the drive back, so I can't comment too much. But ...

It was clear early in the game that the Pilots' initial strategy was to not put high pressure on the Stanford defenders, so the Pilots backed off a lot. Presumably, this was to avoid giving the fast Stanford forwards space to run into. I almost have the feeling this was something the coaches wanted the Pilots to have experience doing against a really good team.

It also was clear with the starting lineup that the coaches are absolutely committed to giving the young players experience lots of experience, even against the best teams the Pilots are playing. Hopefully, this will be an investment that pays dividends in the future.

Credit to Stanford, they played a great first half. They are very skilled technically and played a varied attack combining sideline passing, balls over the top to the sides, balls on the ground down the middle to players on diagonal runs, etc. They played the kind of game we all love to see. Both goals were great shots.

The second half was very different. Although starting again with relatively low pressure, the Pilots gradually increased the pressure on Stanford and had the strong run of play at the end. As noted, when Dani and Halley came in, the dynamics changed. They kept the passing game flowing better. Dani's goal was well deserved, and it came as a result initially of Halley pressuring the keeper on a back pass into an errant clear, followed by the rattled Stanford defense again failing to clear.

A couple of details: For a bit, Halley played what looked like right mid, although perhaps it was a 4-3-3 more than anything. Also, for a bit it appeared that Michelle Cruz was playing a forward position. Jessica Tsao, I thought, had a great game. Elli too. Dani too, and I'm expecting to see her starting in upcoming games. Kristen Kelly was very solid and plays with confidence and poise, not letting herself get rattled at all. It was interesting to see how Garrett rotated the central defenders, clearly wanting to have as fresh legs as possible in there given the amount of work they were having to do. Although the youngsters are doing well, and certainly doing their best, we missed Kendall and Kendra and their speed of play. I think that was part of the difference when Dani and Halley came in - speed of play.

Altogether it was a great game, in great weather, in a great atmosphere. Stanford deserved the win, but as the second half progressed, they found out that the Pilots are a team that is capable of beating them. I think the game will help the Pilots over the balance of the season and expect their next battle to be even better.

Here is my final report from on site at Stanford - OK I'm back at the motel, but close enough. The Stanford fans were out in force and are as supportive of their team as we are ours, just not in the numbers we get at Merlo. Since it is all general admission fans started lining up before 5:30.

The Pilots seemed to come out a little flat and Stanford was raring to go. They are fast, well coached and play the physical Pac10 style. The officiating seemed pretty even to me. Stanford controlled the ball for much of the first half. MC appeared to have freshman jitters and never did seem to get comfortable with the conditions. When Dani and Halley came it seemed like they were playing midfield rather than forward. Sarah came out and I can't remember who else when those two came on late in the 1st half. They really energized the team and the team seemed to re-group somewhat. Both of Stanford's goals were just good hustle plays, very difficult shots for Hailee to get to. Kristen Press is fast, quick and heady. She made some terrific runs fortunately the Pilot defenders were up to the task of stopping her with one glaring exception.

The Pilots were a different team in the second half. They put together passes better, got to balls quicker and generally outplayed Stanford for much of the half. The Stanford defense was very good, including Tualatin's Courtney Verloo. The Pilots had opportunities in the second half, but getting a clean shot a goal was difficult against the Stanford defense.

After the game Garrett gather the team and talked to them for at least 10 minutes before they did their warm down. I wondered when they came to our side of the field during their warm down if they would as my friend Jeff says "have their daubers down", it didn't seem to be the case. They seemed to know they gave it their best and today it just turned out that Stanford was the better team.

It will be interesting to see what happens to top 5. The Stanford fans all seemed to think they would be moved up to No. 1, discounting any claim BC might have to the spot.

By the way Tiffany and Christine seemed to be no shows at the autograph table during half time. I went out to at least get their picture and the three former Stanford players were their signing for a long line of girls, but the two chairs reserved for the Pilots were empty.

Back to Portland via Horizon for me in the morning. Some of the Portland fans who drove down got tickets at $50 a head for the WPS game tomorrow.

Stanford outshot Portland 17-6, including 11-1 in the first half? Hello? This was the stat that puzzled me?

I don't know. The Pilot's offense has always been its defense. If they're not looking for a goal and focused on defense (particulary in the first half)...well.... I don't see this team as one that can counter very well....especially if they have to makeup for 2 goals against a good team like Standford. Yes they fell behind against Cal...but they were always offensive-minded and it only was a matter of time. But as its been described by those who were there versus Stanford...the strategy seemed to be defend 1st and counter 2nd. But, the Pilots are not a defend and quick-strike type of team. I've never seen Pilots play a back-off strategy on purpose right off the bat....anyone?

Well...let's hope they the Cardinal soak in their victory and take Santa Clara lightly. We all know better than to do that. Never ever...

GO PILOTS!!!

Having been unable to follow the game live, I want to thank those who sent reports from the road. I had high hopes but wasn't assuming a tie or win. I'll admit to letting out a mild oath when I saw the final score. Beating a higher-ranked team on the road is no easy feat. Perfection is elusive as we know. It's no disgrace to lose by one goal to a team like Stanford. Yeah, we all hoped for a better result. Time for Pilots to come home and take care of business vs UO. One game at a time, one win at a time, and see what the other top contenders can do. Wait till next time.

UP switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 alignment which in many ways defensively plays like a 4-5-1. This allowed UP to have more help up the middle and close the wide spaces Stanford was enjoying. Often times Kellin, Taylor, and Sarah in the first 40 minutes had two offensive players to cover - it forced us to do a lot of chasing and we couldn't close all the lanes. Not taking away anything from Stanford who has better overall team speed and quickness, it is a good lesson for spectators to realize sometimes it isn't about which player performed better but was the player in an alignment which allowed for better results. With the switch, with the key being Taylor moved to a more middle of the field role, we had more help and closed down Stanford's spacing. I have no doubts a rematch can be a more positive response for us.