Between Weekends

An amazing weekend just passed. Can you even remember Friday night's match against LMU?

It seems everyone was so keyed up after the Pepperdine match that we almost collectively exploded!

(Witness the Pepperdine game thread. Not only a huge post-game thread, but also filled with many different emotions and opinions about the match and the play of the Pilots.)

I think it shows first of all how much we all care about the team, but I think it also shows the high expectations we have for this team.

Now, after having slept on it for a couple nights, I am ready to give the Pilots a pass. So they had a poor 2nd half for their standards.

As Sophie said in a post-match interview with the Oregonian/Oregonlive.com, "We've got a huge target on our backs. It's a good lessen learned that teams are going to come out hard against us. Everyone wants to beat us. So we can take nobody for granted."

Although a link to the article was posted in the game thread, I'll post it again for those of you who missed it. It does quote several Pilot players and Garrett.

Oregonian On Pepperdine Match

I would be very surprised if we didn't come out this weekend at San Francisco and St. Mary's and play 90 minutes of "in your face" Pilots' soccer.

There was a bunch of talk by the team before the LMU game about not coming out flat, due to fall break, etc... The team certainly didnt come out flat for Friday's game, but might have been a bit so on Sunday... I am just glad that we escaped still with the win.

A good scare now and then isnt always a bad thing... to remind the team that they need to have focus and execution during every game, due to the target...

And credit Pepperdine for coming out tough--they brought thier A game, for sure.

Taking into acount their narrow lost to UCLA and us, does anyone else think Pepperdine is poised to knock off #14 USD this week?

Auto Pilot wrote:Taking into acount their narrow lost to UCLA and us, does anyone else think Pepperdine is poised to knock off #14 USD this week?

Poised? hmm.... I don't know. They certainly have the tools to do it. they are pretty fast, tough, athletic. they have scorers.
They also get SD in their own yard. Our discussion last week about venue shows it's a concern for most teams to play on their narrow field.

My reservation is that they have had a pretty erratic season. they have hung tough with us and UCLA, but they also lost games to teams that are skirting a .500 season Like UC Irvine and Northwestern and also lost to Fullerton, who although they play a tough schedule, are having a losing season. Any team that wants to challenge a top 20 program should be winning those games.

They are 6-8-2. All their losses except one are by 1 goal, so that leads me to believe their problem is mostly a mental toughness one, and not one of being outclassed. Who knows? maybe their game with us will spur them on a bit. If they score one early, it could really change the dynamics of the game. USD has had a problem late in games themselves.