Pilots 1 Beavers 1

Erin Dees; Sarah Bridges, Emma Nelson, Michelle Olivier, Kendall Johnson; Cloee Colohan; Taylor Brooke, Danielle Foxhoven; Hallie Kreminski, Micaela Capelle, Amanda Frisbie.

First half highlights: Taylor Brooke hit hte bar with a sweet shot early on. GK made a superb save down low on a firm shot from Cloee Colohan. Bad pass out of defence by UP is quickly converted to an opening by OSU and its 0-1. Kendall Johnson running back to shepherd the ball to Erin and she appeared to twist her knee. Was down for a long time and very upset. She walked off and was promptly iced heavily. Left at HT with her parents. Fingers crossed. Molly Klier came on to play alongside MO, Sarah Bridges moved to left and Emma Nelson played right.

At half time Hallie De Young replaced Erin as Garrett maintained the revolving door at GK. Only other sub action was Michelle Cruz making a welcome return to action for a spell in the second half - giving Hallie a break. They switched to 4-4-2 at that point with Amanda and Micaela up front and Michelle Cruz wide left. When Hallie came back they stayed with the 4-4-2 and Amanda dropped back to left mid.

Pilots goal was a nice finish by Micaela from a superb back heel by Amanda that set her clear. GK made a good save at close range from Dani, Hallie missed a good chance scoppoing it over from about 6-8 yards, and then dani made space with a noce turn and GK made a fine diving save to preserve the level score.

Pilots struggled to cope with physical opponent and did not play the composed possession game to day. They were way off the pace in the first half, but better in the second.

Some players enhanced their reputations in these four games; some not so much so IMO.

Big question is what shape they line up in come fall. Was 4-1-2-3 just a spring fling? Time will tell.

Pilots did look better in the 2nd half of the 2nd half, but OSU dominated the play, forced the pace, kept the Pilots on their heels. A 1-1 tie on the board, but despite some looks at goal for the Pilots near the end, definitely a much stronger performance by the Beavers than the Pilots.

Bad news. Talked to a player after the match. Preliminary report is that Kendall has torn ACL & MCL. Huge loss for Pilots.

Kendall Johnson was one of the players who enhanced their reputation in the spring. Nobody on the team played better. She played strongly at left defence and got forward with pace in the fine tradition of Elli Reed and Stephanie Lopez/Cox. With four major starters having graduated there are lots of questions about the team in the fall but Kendall had solved one of these.

Heart breaker for her if she is not able to play come the regular season; and a huge loss for the Pilots.

This is such sad news for Kendall and her team. I wish her the best possible recovery.

Greetings to all.

This is my first (near) post, although I have been a Forum watcher for many years. Kendall's injury prompted me to register...what a sad deal. She seems like a very committed athlete and I'm sure she'll make it back, but that is a very long haul, as so many can attest.

The Spring games were interesting and mostly positive, the major exception noted above. I think the incoming frosh will impact things (as they always seem to) and can shore up the few iffy spots. I like the schedule and the potentially strong competition. The addition of BYU is also of interest.

Here's to another great season...I can hardly wait!

Welcome, OldePilot. It will truly be an interesting season.

I'd be interested in observations of others about the Beavers. For my part, I'll say that they were pretty big and have some pretty good players. Their forwards are fast, although were pretty well contained except for the breakdown leading to the score. They have a central midfielder who was bigger than Cloee and who did a good job in the air. And another player, #15, who has a massive foot and could launch balls from the defensive half of the field into the box. Altogether, I thought they were a pretty good and dangerous team.

They also played a very physical game that I thought, in spots, verged and maybe went over the border on being reckless and even dirty play (nothing to do with Kendall's injury, which was in the open field). There was a point at which the ref came very near to losing control of the game. Eventually, the Pilots started dishing it back, with a couple of the Beavers getting rewarded for their physical play by getting clobbered back. Did others at the game see this the way I did, or did you see the Beavers play as within the realm of fair, physical play?

It was a tough game, no doubt, but refs allow contact not permitted in the NCAA rulebook. The only contact allowed in the NCAA is "a nudge or contact with the near shoulder and arms held close to the body" , which means just that. So, a hit from behind with the chest or body, hip check, etc should be an offense regardless of how violent, but often doesn't get called at all. Coaches even teach you to prepare for contact by holding your arms out to protect yourself.

( as an aside, the game was called a lot closer to that standard back in the stone age when I played- especially the arms. Any attempt to use them on an opponent was an automatic foul.)
J
A grab of player or clothing should be an automatic direct kick and the player MUST be cautioned, but that doesn't get called either, so teams do it. I'll note that the section on that doesn't allow an option. It says you caution the player.
(12.2.12)I think.
While I think the ref allowed too much of it, I don't fault a physical team from doing it if they can get away with it. In all sports, you play to the edge of what the ref allows.

I call a team dirty when they start going at legs either because they are too slow or have a disregard for an opponent. In that case, it think it is the obligation of the ref to protect players with ejecting the offender without a bunch of warnings. First time, yellow at least. Second time, send the player to a contemplative place away from the field. Dirty play would stop.

OSU was tough and tested the ref ( and I agree the ref lost control and lost sight of the intent of the rule book) I wouldn't call the play I saw dirty, though.

I pray that was a ref in training, and there was a referee instructor there who will do an evaluation, but there probably wasn't.

Used to be the Pilots would would win a lot of matches on reputation alone...having many players who were technically skilled. But we've also had a reputation of being a finesse team. We've seen many opponents use physical play to counter and intimidate our sharper style of play...get us off our game. Sometimes I do think rougher play gets in our heads.

That said...I didn't get the impression that the Pilots were affected by OSU's physical play yesterday. But, I do think OSU believes they have a team who's capable of beating us now....their physical play being an indication of their confidence to do so. Same sort of thing with UW. They feel like they can compete physically and beat us.

One former player in partiuclar (M Rapinoe)... brought an edgier game to the Bluff. Loved it. She certainly dished it out as much as well as anyone. In the book "As One"...Megan described her style of play as "fighting for her team"! I think her aggressive efforts certainly changed the finesse reputation for the time when she played at UP. Don't mess with the Pilots...or I mess with you!

GO PILOTS!!!

I think we saw a bit of that yesterday with several players. As the game wore on, UP got control of the game, got just as physical, and showed better conditioning.
We actually looked a bit leg weary to start.

We only had two subs, one of which is playing a little dinged up yet (Cruz)

They subbed pretty freely, and by the end of the game it was mostly in their end, and we had several point blank chances. ( Ok, 4-8 yards)

Here's a clip of the Beaver's Goal. Defensive lapse. There was a Beaver lingering on the left side during the first clear. It looked like the Pilots back line were surprised when they realized they had an opponent unmarked right in front of Erin. Too late!?

This is a good example to listen to the keeper when she yells for D-line to "get up" and clear the zone in the box. Otherwise...the goal would've been offside.

Beaver's Goal

too bad they didn't get Amanda's backheel.

ME being the they!

I ran out of space on my card. I used too many bytes on the men vs the U-18s. Frankly...I was impressed with the U-18s. Those "boys?" are well ahead of where I expected them to be. They were big...fast...and skilled! Though by the time I left...UW was taking advantage of some fatigue....it being the 2nd match of their day. Overall, I'd say USA Men's Soccer is doing well developing young talent. Though the team was only together for a short while in their training cycle...they were fun to watch. We're lucky UP and Nike have strong ties to US Soccer that we get a chance to see them here locally once in awhile.

GO PILOTS!!!

For want of an SD card, a backheel was lost.



Doesn't scan right

I think the OSU goal was a great learning opportunity for the players, and I'm sure they learned from it. Watching the clip, everyone was a little too casual. Then, there was a poor (casual) pass the an OSU player intercepted followed by a quick pass and the goal when the Pilots defenders did not move up the field fast enough to put the offensive player offsides. I'm sure they all got to talk about this later. Better to learn now than later!

Thanks for the video, it is great!

I think that the Beavers pushed the envelope on physical play and the referee failed to keep them in line. I agree that teams use this approach to challenge the Pilots finesse game. UP can play through the physical game if they have 10 outfield players who have the skill, touch and vision to play one- and two-touch soccer which also requires the movement necesary to get open and the vision to pick up the open and/or running player. That wasn't the case yesterday and UP gave up possession a lot, especially in the first half.

The ref's foremost responsibility is to keep players safe. This is women's college soccer, not the NHL playoffs. I always chuckle when a team is called "physical" -- as if their opponents were somehow not of the physical world but rather spiritual, intangible or metaphysical. What kinds of fouls are called when two metaphysical teams collide?

purple haze wrote:The ref's foremost responsibility is to keep players safe. This is women's college soccer, not the NHL playoffs. I always chuckle when a team is called "physical" -- as if their opponents were somehow not of the physical world but rather spiritual, intangible or metaphysical. What kinds of fouls are called when two metaphysical teams collide?

Being objective about this thread, we need to remember that some of our national championship teams actually fouled other teams more often. Soccer is a physical sport in a completely different way than the NHL playoffs whether it's a men's sport or a women's sport. Most athletes can leg press or squat far more than they can bench press, and a clean tackle on the ball can generate a lot of force and even look a little bit dirty. I personally am for letting some contact in the sport go, but, red carding players who obviously flop (which is often hard to tell). But, I understand when people want games called tightly as well for the sake of safety and fairness. Sometimes dangerous fouls can look innocuous...