2018 Season

Geezaldinho wrote:UP is now ranked 9th and St Mary’s is #10. The conference RPI just jumped to #4.

And the two WCC schools are two of only four teams to remain undefeated, the others being Kentucky and Denver

RPI this morning shows SMC at #9 and UP at #10....seems fair considering the results this past weekend.

The WCC jumped to #3 behind the ACC and Pac-12.

#8 Kentucky is no longer undefeated after falling to #104 Florida International, 4-3.

1. Indiana
2. UNC
3. Wake Forest
4. Notre Dame
5. Virginia
6, Louisville
7. Syracuse
8. Kentucky
9. St. Mary's
10. Portland

The United Soccer Coaches poll is out for Week 7:

1 University of North Carolina
2 Wake Forest University
3 University of Denver
4 Indiana University
5 University of Kentucky
6 Saint Mary's College of California
7 University of Portland
8 Michigan State University
9 University of Notre Dame
10 Stanford University
11 University of Louisville
12 Creighton University
13 University of North Carolina-Wilmington
14 University of Virginia
15 United States Air Force Academy
16 University of Michigan
17 Duke University
18 Cornell University
19 University of Central Florida
20 University of Connecticut
21 UCLA
22 Coastal Carolina University
23 Wright State University
24 Syracuse University
25 Missouri State University

Pretty sure this is the highest the Pilots have ever been ranked by the coaches...  
http://unitedsoccercoaches.org/web/Rankings/College_Rankings/NCAA_DI_MEN/web/Rankings/NCAA/DI_MEN.aspx

Before the coaches poll was run by the NSCAA, it was run by Soccer America.
Those were also coaches who voted.
The Pilots hit #7 then, also.
https://portlandpilots.com/news/2000/8/30/64467.aspx?path=msoc


I’m trying to imagine they weren’t ranked higher during the college cups the two times they made it.

Geezaldinho wrote:I’m trying to imagine they weren’t ranked higher during the college cups the two times they made it.

I tried to do some looking online for polls from 88 and 95, but couldn't find anything. It's possible we were ranked higher in 88... we were one of eight teams to receive a bye into the second round of the playoffs, so we were at least considered to be in the Top 8 by the RPI or whatever metric they used then. We were 19-0-0 when the playoffs began.

The 1995 team was 11-0-3 at one point during that season... wouldn't surprise me if they were ranked in the top 5.

I seem to remember that for a brief, shinning moment we were ranked #1 in 2000, before Clive Charles (and Conor Casey) left the team for the Olympics and the wheels totally fell of the cart of that season. I could be wrong on that though.... that was when there were something like 6 different men's soccer polls.

This is great news... very exciting!

I had the same exact thought when I read that this was the highest ranking ever for the men's team--while I don't have anything specific either, I have to think we were ranked higher than this at some point in the 90s...

PilotNut wrote:I had the same exact thought when I read that this was the highest ranking ever for the men's team--while I don't have anything specific either, I have to think we were ranked higher than this at some point in the 90s...

Best guess I have is that men's college soccer polling was pretty weird in the 80s/90s... there were a bunch of different polls that often differed from one another quite a bit, and maybe none of them were considered the "official" poll like the coaches poll is now? I don't know, but I'm happy to aimlessly speculate... as is duty of any true message board poster!

Stonehouse wrote:

PilotNut wrote:I had the same exact thought when I read that this was the highest ranking ever for the men's team--while I don't have anything specific either, I have to think we were ranked higher than this at some point in the 90s...

Best guess I have is that men's college soccer polling was pretty weird in the 80s/90s... there were a bunch of different polls that often differed from one another quite a bit, and maybe none of them were considered the "official" poll like the coaches poll is now? I don't know, but I'm happy to aimlessly speculate... as is duty of any true message board poster!  

There actually is no "official" poll for NCAA soccer. And, the Men's Soccer Committee cannot consider polls when making at large selections for the NCAA Tournament. For seeding? That's a little murkier.

The only official rankings are the RPI rankings. Those are the only rankings the Committee can consider for at large selections.

Game Day!!

This month's WCC All-Access on ROOT featured the Villa Drum Squad in the first segment....

From the seats the 4-0 win seemed pretty easy compared to some of the games this year, but beating #116 LMU probably won't do anything to improve UP's #11 RPI.

Sunday's 2:30 game against #129 USD is the last regular season game at Merlo until the anticipated showdown against #9 SMC in the final game of the WCC season on November 10....gotta stay focused!

Nice to see Rey back. 

It seemed to me the whole team intensity picked up when he came on the pitch in the second half.

I think he played more minutes than they intended when he came back in for Benji when he got dinged up.

A good result last night, and a decent performance. In my experience, LMU are always a very physical side, pushing the edge of what the referee allows (and sometimes beyond). Josh Wilkens, the referee, mostly kept the game well in hand and was not afraid to issue the well-deserved second caution to the LMU player in the second half.

It was good to see Ortiz back, even if briefly, and I hope that Michel is not seriously injured. It didn't look bad to me, but one never knows. The team are not the same without those two on the pitch.

Kudos to Shane Aranda, who filled in more than adequately for the suspended Jake Arteaga, who has himself been very impressive all season.

LMU had a good plan for Michel, using the offside trap to good effect in the first half and double-teaming him most of the match. He didn't trouble the scorekeeper, but the Pilots scored four. This side has a lot of quality depth and can hurt an opponent so many ways. Coach C-V had magic in his halftime talk, because the team came out much more composed in the second half, moving the ball more quickly and smoothly and never really giving LMU much of a look on the attack.

Good performance in the kind of somewhat ugly game that good teams have to win. More of the same on Sunday, please!

DoubleDipper wrote:...the anticipated showdown against #9 SMC in the final game of the WCC season on November 10....gotta stay focused!

That Saint Mary's team just beat San Francisco 8-0 after a 7-goal second half!

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:That Saint Mary's team just beat San Francisco 8-0 after a 7-goal second half!

And just like that, SMC moves to #8 while UP drops to #12.

SMC, 13-0 (2-0), has outscored its opponents 12-0 in after two games of WCC play, and has allowed only four goals in 13 games.

Interesting that neither match recap even mentions a USF straight red card occurred.

I guess no one wants to talk about the Draw against USD? I was not able to watch, so I cannot offer any thoughts.

We are still in good standing for a playoff berth, but we will likely have to win out and beat SMC to get the WCC crown and auto-berth.

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:I guess no one wants to talk about the Draw against USD? I was not able to watch, so I cannot offer any thoughts.

We are still in good standing for a playoff berth, but we will likely have to win out and beat SMC to get the WCC crown and auto-berth.

USD scored on a penalty kick in the 2nd minute. Then for the next 80 or so minutes it was missed opportunities, a tough USD team, and nothing really going the Pilots way. Somewhere near the end Benji went down in the USD box and left the game, Rey couldn't capitalize on the PK, almost looked like it was over. Then Dixon came into save the day and our hearts. Then for the rest of the game it was kinda back to how it was those previous 80 minutes until the final whistle.

Haha, yeah that about sums it up.

Not to second guess having Rey in the game, let alone having him take the PK attempt, but he did not look to be in game shape nor near his best while apparently still recovering from his groin injury.  Having said that, Rey at less than 100% is better than most.

One of the intriguing aspects of the game outside the lines was the USD coach exploding at Coach Nick for at least two or three minutes after a USD player went down from a foul.  I yelled at Nick to not react (I sit behind the UP bench), and he didn't, but it seemed the coach was accusing Nick of dirty tactics.

I'm not fully fluent in Irish accented English (I don't think it was Gaelic), maybe Geezer, who sits right behind the visitor bench, or someone else could better tell what he was saying.

I was impressed that Portland kept going higher and higher in attempt to score, but were still able to retreat on defense in the second half, but I too have been waiting for someone who knows a lot more about soccer to give their impressions of the game.

Getting a direct translation was a bit like listening to Bigs when he was excited ( almost never )

Their coach went on about almost everything. At one point he complained to the linesman about a ball into touch. I yelled at him that if he wanted the call, he shouldn’t stand on the touch line blocking the linesman’s view.

I know he heard me because he stepped back.


I think he thought that we should have kicked the ball out when the injured player went down. Thing is, it was non critical and  his hurt guy is the one who committed the foul. The ref played advantage.



I told him to catch his breath and take a sip of water to calm down.

I agree with most of what has been said. It's a shame that we didn't score the penalty and win the match, but overall we didn't deserve more than a point.

I kind of feel the same way about this one as about the women vs. UO: a game they should have won, but the other team out-hustled them, getting to loose balls more quickly and closing the Pilots down on the ball before they had a chance to be dangerous.

As well as Shane Aranda played on Friday, and he was not bad on Sunday either, the Pilots' game changed when Jake Arteaga came on at about 60'. He has an amazing knack for (1) always finding space to receive a pass, (2) knowing exactly what he wants to do with the ball before it arrives, and (3) doing it successfully. I won't be at all surprised if he ends up being a national team player in a few years. I think he's that good!

Rey was stretching and rubbing his groin muscles before he went off, so I assume he re-injured himself. Do any insiders have any info on Benji's injury? It will be difficult to finish the conference season successfully if both of them are out of the lineup. All in all, it's a good time to have a week off!

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:We are still in good standing for a playoff berth, but we will likely have to win out and beat SMC to get the WCC crown and auto-berth.

Yeah, surprisingly UP dropped only two spots to #9 in the Coaches Poll, and from #12 to #15 in the all-important RPI.

http://unitedsoccercoaches.org/web/Rankings/College_Rankings/NCAA_DI_MEN/web/Rankings/NCAA/DI_MEN.aspx

https://amp.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d1/ncaa-mens-soccer-rpi

SMC is now #4 in the nation according to the coaches, with an RPI of #9.

Had a great time at the Seattle alumni chapter reception tonight. Got to enjoy free food, catch up with old classmates, meet the soccer coaches, listen to news about Franz Campus...also ran into a fellow Pilot Nation member who shall not be named (frequents here enough to know who I was, certain people on here were also mentioned) Arrived a bit early and overheard some discussions on RPIs/what-if scheduling scenarios if the Pilots were to host some tournament games. Scott Leykam had a short hot seat "Q&A session" with Nick and Michelle (in quotes because the questions were pre-determined). Kinda the usual why UP, what players have been most inspiring, goals for a successful program, etc. Nick mentioned Rey will be graduating a semester early.

Introduced myself to Coach Nick afterwards (he told me he doesn't follow these forums 🤔), and I mentioned Benji. Told me he will be out for at least a week, I believe, due to a rolled ankle or some ankle injury.

Sound Voltex wrote:Introduced myself to Coach Nick afterwards (he told me he doesn't follow these forums 🤔), and I mentioned Benji. Told me he will be out for at least a week, I believe, due to a rolled ankle or some ankle injury.

Hmm, well to rearrange what Coach Nick said, he has asked that we be somewhat careful what we write on PN because now that UP is a nationally ranked team, opposing coaches/staff do read fan forums in hopes of gaining some insight.

SV, are you now living in the Seattle area just when UP MBB, WBB, and BB, will be in the Islands? At least you got to see UP VB. Bad timing.

DoubleDipper wrote:

Sound Voltex wrote:Introduced myself to Coach Nick afterwards (he told me he doesn't follow these forums 🤔), and I mentioned Benji. Told me he will be out for at least a week, I believe, due to a rolled ankle or some ankle injury.

Hmm, well to rearrange what Coach Nick said, he has asked that we be somewhat careful what we write on PN because now that UP is a nationally ranked team, opposing coaches/staff do read fan forums in hopes of gaining some insight.

SV, are you now living in the Seattle area just when UP MBB, WBB, and BB, will be in the Islands? At least you got to see UP VB. Bad timing.

Eh, I would've watched it all online anyway.

As much as I understand the appeal of watching games and cheering in person, they aren't really for me without some form of insightful(-ish) commentary regarding strategy, play-by-play, etc. as someone who doesn't follow sports seriously outside of UP apart from like maybe March Madness and some MLB. Otherwise it just feels like a lot of yelling (positive or negative) without really knowing what the heck is going on (I know there's fun in not know what's going on either but that's just my preference). If technology comes one day where I can listen to commentary in near perfect sync with the game (sitting behind the commentators or listening to the stream on my phone while at the game doesn't really count) I might bite.

The good news is that I don't have to worry about missing 7pm games and dealing with obvious 30 second stream lag due to time zone differences. I also did mention to the PN member who shall not be named at the reception that I wouldn't mind someday taking a weekend trip to a game to connect with some of y'all in person

Dang, you're just old school, SV.  

Beginning in the mid to late '50's my dad would attend baseball, basketball and football games in the Bay Area with an earpiece in just one ear, that's how it was done then, with the wire running to the transistor radio he had balanced on his lap, or in later years, stuffed in his shirt pocket.

He said it brought much more insight to the sports he loved to watch live by listening to those who knew the game best....guys like Lon Simmons and Bill King and Russ Hodges.

After 12 days off, the Pilots are on the road for the next three games, including Friday against USF and Sunday against SCU.

UP's RPI is now #16, and as USF is #87 and SCU is #108, even if the Pilots were to win each game, it's unlikely their all important RPI would change much.

The United Soccer Coaches rank UP at #7, up from #9 a week ago after the tie with USD, and SMC is #4, unchanged from last week.