Oregon/Washington Games

Surprised to not see Ellie and Michelle Cruz on the lists.

I don't understand how Elli is not on the list.

Back to the PK in the U of W game. When I initially saw it first hand, [eye ball test], I thought Cruz got mugged an I was sitting at that end of the field. Watching the video, I'm not so sure now.

Now for my anomosity towards the Huskies, I despise them more then any program in the NCAA. They were border-line brutal in their tactics during this game, garnering 4 yellow cards. They deserved what they reaped!!

fan from afar wrote:So, Golaso, do you think the only people who can possibly know the game of soccer are those who have played at a high level? That would leave out a number of very successful coaches.

It seems like we have a discussion similar to this every season about calling out players in public. I know that I was a part of one last season. On the one hand, I'm not a fan of publicly critiquing our own players in the posts...on the other hand, I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech. If we don't have it at a public blog site, where do we have it? But, criticism of the team as a whole instead of individual players might be more productive in my opinion...

Asking serious fanatics not to critique their own team just isn't realistic. You can ask people not to do it, but, the same type of argument will come up next season...and the season after that as well. The program at UP has grown too big for it to be a realistic expectation...whether it's fair or not...

fozziewozzie wrote:
Now for my anomosity towards the Huskies, I despise them more then any program in the NCAA. They were border-line brutal in their tactics during this game, garnering 4 yellow cards. They deserved what they reaped!!

Nothing new. Same game plan as in the playoff game last year. Last year, the referee caught on to the persistent infringement and they ended with 10 players.

Back again to this subject -

Well put, one touch.

I really do think there is a difference between critiquing someone and dumping on someone, especially if the critiquing is done THOUGHTFULLY. To use Danielle as an example - Saying Danielle is a selfish player, TO ME, goes way over the line (in addition to being pretty stupid). Saying she missed seeing a few open passes? OK (although I don't think she ever does). Observing that, for her to score, she seems to need someone like Michelle to set her up, that she has trouble creating her own goals - that seems TO ME well within the bounds - a thoughtful analysis. Unacceptable to me would be something like, she is worthless because she can't score on her own (no one has said that here).

I guess, in short, criticize thoughtfully and carefully. They are on a public stage, but these are still young people who are giving their all for OUR team.

I'm happy to to try to live within those guidelines FFA.

There's always talk radio for those who need to rant without peer review.

I think we have all agreed that Dani is not and has never been selfish. Some may think that if she is not selfish than she must not be smart enough to see the play in front of her. I disagree. Dani is the "Bobby Fisher of soccer. The pitch is her chessboard. She doesn't just see the pass or give and go in front of her, she see's 5, 10, 15, even 20 moves ahead. When she doesn't make that pass or "give and go" it's because she saw that by not making that particular play it led to an even better scoring opportunity farther ahead.