2021 Season

The Pilots expect to have 6-8 home games during the preseason, including a game against Air Force as part of the double-header with the women playing Cal on Friday August 27 at the end of the first week of the fall semester.

Among the other opponents are UW, OSU, and Denver.

Tentative preseason schedule:

Aug 15 @ OSU (Exhibition)
Aug 20 Corban (Exhibition)
Aug 27 Air Force
Aug 30 Denver
Sep 3 Oregon St.
Sep 6 TBD
Sep 10 @ UCLA
Sep 13 Sacramento St.
Sep 17 Seattle U.
Sep 20 @ Cal State Northridge
Sep 24 Washington

Love the abundance of home matches, some against good sides.

This is the TENTATIVE WCC Schedule…and unlike the women’s schedule there are gaps between some of the games and I am told UP is looking for road games to fill those gaps.

Oct 2 @ SMC
Oct 9 USD
(Oct 16 @ TBD)
Oct 23 @ LMU
Oct 27 GU
Oct 30 UOP
(Nov 2 @ TBD)
Nov 6 @ SCU
Nov 13 USF

There are gaps and there is a string of games on short rest?

Who makes these schedules?

2021 (Official) Portland Men's Soccer Non-Conference Schedule:

Aug. 20 vs. Corban (Exhibition), 7 PM
Aug. 27 vs. Air Force, 7 PM
Aug. 30 vs. Denver, 7 PM
Sept. 3 vs. Oregon State, 7 PM
Sept. 6 vs. UC San Diego, 7 PM
Sept. 10 at UCLA, 7 PM
Sept. 13 vs. Sacramento State, 7 PM
Sept. 17 vs. Seattle U, 7 PM
Sept. 20 at CSUN, 7 PM
Sept. 24 vs. Washington, 7 PM
Nov. 2 vs. Northern Illinois, 5 PM

Home games are in bold.
Copyright 2021 University of Portland Athletics
(WCC Schedule will be released on July 15)

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2021/7/1/mens-soccer-announces-non-conference-schedule-for-2021-season.aspx

There have been a few changes to the originally published schedule:

Aug. 20 vs. Corban (Exhibition), 7 PM
Aug. 27 vs. Air Force, 7 PM (WSoc vs. Cal, 4PM)
Aug. 30 vs. Denver, 7 PM
Sept. 3 vs. Oregon State, 7PM
Sept. 6 vs. UC San Diego, 7 PM
Sept. 10 at UCLA, 7 PM
Sept. 13 vs. Sacramento State, 7 PM
Sept. 17 vs. Seattle U, 7 PM
Sept. 20 at CSUN, 7 PM
Sept. 24 vs. Washington, 7 PM
Oct. 2 at Saint Mary's, 1 PM*
## Oct. 9 vs. San Diego, 7 PM 4PM* (WSoc vs. USF, 7PM)
Oct. 23 at Loyola Marymount, 7 PM*
Oct. 27 vs. Gonzaga, 7 PM*
Oct. 30 vs. Pacific, 7 PM*
## Nov. 2 vs. Northern Illinois, 5 PM
## Nov. 3 vs. Northern Illinois, 4:30PM (WSoc vs. BYU, 7PM)
Nov. 6 at Santa Clara, 7 PM*
Nov. 13 vs. San Francisco, 7 PM*

Home games are in bold.
Copyright 2021 University of Portland Athletics

## UPDATE: SEE CHANGES ABOVE.

The Pilots are picked to finish 3rd by the WCC coaches in the preseason poll:

1. LMU (7) 49
2. Saint Mary's (1) 43
3. Portland 31
4. San Diego 28
5. Santa Clara 26
6. Pacific 21
7. San Francisco 18
8. Gonzaga 8

Unfortunate the Pilots will be playing both LMU and SMC on the road this season.

Well, we get to see how good the halftime speech is. This highly ranked recuiting class is getting out hustled by an NAIA team.

Reminder: Beginning today, we are required wear a mask to all indoor and outdoor events in Oregon regardless of our vaccination status.  If we are not eating or drinking at Merlo, we are required to wear a mask.

Student-athletes participating in the game are NOT required to wear a mask and neither are people “who are performing music or theater.”  

I’m no lawyer, but it would seem the Villa Drum Squad can go unmasked because even when they are not performing music, they are certainly performing theater.

Geezaldinho wrote:The virus will be with us forever. 10% of people at the game thinkwearing a mask on your chin protects people.

Yeah, 90% compliance looked about right.  

The other 10% looked like they were either nursing their beverages or were not schooled on proper mask wear.

DoubleDipper wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:The virus will be with us forever. 10% of people at the game thinkwearing a mask on your chin protects people.

Yeah, 90% compliance looked about right.

The other 10% looked like they were either nursing their beverages or were not schooled on proper mask wear.

I didn’t mention the others who didn’t wear any mask and when asked to mask up said they couldn’t breathe.

Those same people knew perfectly well how to wear a mask when the were in the Pilot tent talking to Scott Laykam.

I felt like the Flying Dutchman moving around trying to  avoid these folks.

There was no nursing of beverages in many cases, just selfish exceptionalism.

The Governor has outdoor mask wearing mandates, and the university does as well. A new study at UCSF tells us that most of the breakthrough variants are new vaccine resistant strains, at least three of our Pilotnation gang weren’t at the game either because they contracted Covid even though masked and vaccinated or because they are isolating because of contact with people who contracted Covid.

I took pictures I’ll be happy to post. There was the whole back row in the stadium seats without a single person masked and nobody eating. At the same time there were chin masked people talking and hugging and such in the front aisle all the time blocking access for people who were trying to get by without asking to be infected.

And there was even the couple who chin masked right in front to me, so I had to leave my paid-for season seats because of their discourtesy. Not only that, when they came back after halftime, they moved back a row and sat in MY SEATS! So I had to move back again. My wife and another person left before the second game because of the lack of masking behavior.


Asking people to mask didn’t work. And I’m not even talking about the superspreader event across the pitch. There is better better compliance when we go to Providence park, and unless things change,  that’s where I’ll have to confine my soccer viewing. My viewing of UP sports will end until the pandemic ends.  I’m just glad I haven’t paid for my basketball seats yet that I’ve sat in for 30 years. Terrible teams didn’t drive me out of the Chiles center, but this might.

Without going into my personal health, I have underlying conditions that make going to a sporting event risky enough even with people watching out for each other.

When people decide to just not give a f*ck about others it’s just too risky.

The last known case of the 1918 pandemic was in 1928. If this follows  a similar life span I’ll be 84 when I see my next pilot game.

Can confirm. Seven gentlemen sat in the front row for the entire men's game, at least 3-4 consistently had their mask only covering their chin for most of the game. While sitting there they interacted with UP coaches and staff, none were concerned they were sitting in a blocked off front row. Such a shame there was such a disregard for the safety measures in place for both fans and athletes.

I think that if UP's Vice-President for Athletics, Scott Leykam, were to read your concerns and observations he would at the least provide more reminders...and possibly more.

This may be a statewide/nationwide problem, but UP is a tight community...we should be able to do more to remind others when they are discourteous or even breaking the rules.

leykam@up.edu.

DoubleDipper wrote:I think that if UP's Vice-President for Athletics, Scott Leykam, were to read your concerns and observations he would at the least provide more reminders...and possibly more.

This may be a statewide/nationwide problem, but UP is a tight community...we should be able to do more to remind others when they are discourteous or even breaking the rules.

leykam@up.edu.

I had a discussion with Scott about fan masking behavior and got assurances there would be meetings and staff would implement changes.

Whether the university can gather enough staff to follow through or not remains to be seen.we are still in a precarious financial situation, sports wise.

I have always thought of UP as a close community but community implies shared concern and responsibility that isn’t there, and I  expect that short of banning fans altogether there is not much Scott and the Athletic department can do.

I predict if current behavior continues teams will once again play without fans, either by a decision by UP or a shutdown by the State. We all remember our outrage when UP was treated differently than the P5 schools in the state last year. All the struggle Scott went trough to turn the Governor’s office around will just go down the drain.

We won’t have anybody to blame but ourselves.

Interesting, we sit in the bench back reserve seats east of the press box, about half way up. People in our area were very good with wearing masks. Of course, we are right by player families and I expect they are being very careful.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Interesting, we sit in the bench back reserve seats east of the press box, about half way up.  People in our area were very good with wearing masks.  Of course, we are right by player families and I expect they are being very careful.

You didn’t notice the seven guys in the front row of your section talking to the coaches?? They were pretty hard to miss if you were going to get a snack.

Geezaldinho wrote:

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Interesting, we sit in the bench back reserve seats east of the press box, about half way up.  People in our area were very good with wearing masks.  Of course, we are right by player families and I expect they are being very careful.

You didn’t notice the seven guys in the front row of your section talking to the coaches?? They were pretty hard to miss if you were going to get a snack.

Oh, I was referring to the women’s game, sorry. I stayed in place the whole game, so did not look anywhere else.

Not sure if UP’s defense was slow to react or AFA just loves to shoot the ball, but they took 17 shots of which 7 were on frame while UP put three toward the net.  An impressive 7-save start to the season for grad-transfer goalkeeper George Tasouris from Cypress and Grand Canyon University, a very late addition to this year’s also impressive recruiting class,

Apparently highly sought after by D1 programs nationwide, just two days ago was named to the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List for the 2021 season.

Tasouris has just this one year of eligibility remaining and last season was the WAC Defensive Player of the Year after allowing just six goals while posting a goals-against average of 0.86.

A fiery leader, I think he’ll become a fan favorite on The Bluff.

DoubleDipper wrote:Not sure if UP’s defense was slow to react or AFA just loves to shoot the ball, but they took 17 shots of which 7 were on frame while UP put three toward the net.  An impressive 7-save start to the season for grad-transfer goalkeeper George Tasouris from Cypress and Grand Canyon University, a very late addition to this year’s also impressive recruiting class,

Apparently highly sought after by D1 programs nationwide, just two days ago was named to the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List for the 2021 season.

Tasouris has just this one year of eligibility remaining and last season was the WAC Defensive Player of the Year after allowing just six goals while posting a goals-against average of 0.86.

A fiery leader, I think he’ll become a fan favorite on The Bluff.

Well, AF had terrible shot selection and worse finishing.

I just hope they don’t waste sidewinder missiles at the rate they sprayed shots.

Geezaldinho wrote:I just hope they don’t waste sidewinder missiles at the rate they sprayed shots.

They can have mine!!

I carried the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile for years and NEVER fired one!

Tonight's game against Denver is the 2nd of UP's 3 games during the Portland/OSU Tournament that I did not know was a thing until this morning.

The Pilots are likely slight favorites over the Pioneers (3-0 losers to OSU on Friday), while Air Force (0-2 losers to UP) will be in Corvallis tonight before the Beavers head to Portland this coming Friday. Denver eventually plays at Air Force, but not until September 17.

OSU is currently the #23 team in the country according to Top Drawer.

DoubleDipper wrote:I carried the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile for years and NEVER fired one!

Has any A-10 pilot fired a Sidewinder in anger?

Seems to me they are more noted for their GAU-8 30mm Avenger cannon.

That ball was over the line after careening off the cross bar.

Those of us in the Pilot Club enclosure saw it and the assistant referee saw it, and indicated it was a goal.  

However, the referee, whose puffed-up ego appeared to be bigger than the Chiles Center throughout the game , said NO!!

Pilot lose 1-0 despite pushing, pushing, pushing in the second half...

DoubleDipper wrote:That ball was over the line after careening off the cross bar.

Those of us in the Pilot Club enclosure saw it and the assistant referee saw it, and indicated it was a goal.  

However, the referee, whose puffed-up ego appeared to be bigger than the Chiles Center throughout the game , said NO!!

Pilot lose 1-0 despite pushing, pushing, pushing in the second half...

Had we pushed as hard at the start we might not have been a goal down for 84 minutes. It’s the start of a trend of starting slow that bit us this time.
OSU beat that team 3-0 and last night beat AF 4-1. If we come out flat again it won’t be good.



What were the mechanics of how the AR signaled a goal?


The correct mechanics are for him to Make eye contact with the referee and sprint to midfield 15-20 yards. That would have placed him at about the Club entrance. It’s a hard signal to miss if you know what to look for, and puts the AR out of position to see any further offside.

For him NOT to sprint the Ref would have to actively wave him off,  Or he would not have done the sprint to begin with if he didn’t judge goal. I didn’t see the referee wave the AR off  before any sprint.  I also didn’t see what the AR did in the corner.

A later signal by the ref of no goal would not have stopped the sprint.


3:20 in the video .


( I also got a text from a viewer at home isolating that a replay from behind the goal seemed to show a goal but it wasn’t 100% clear that the ball was 100% over the line from that angle. Hopefully we will see that replay)