Oregon State Match

And we all root for the same team...

Just to offer up a break from

There are post game inteviews up here.

My thoughts as I watched the game last night: Sophie was not seeing the ball nearly as much as past games and it seemed that the other Pilots were not looking for her. Normally, it appears that she is the comfort pass because they know she will control the ball. For some reason, they were not making that happen last night. You would think that being at midfield would put her closer to those passes. Kendall is one tough, scrappy player. She works as hard as anyone to get around her defender, to keep control of the ball, to get the ball back or take it away. She did get one good shot off from close range during her second half stint up front though it was with her right foot and did not seem as well hit as with her left. The Pilots first great shot was actually saved by a defender standing on the line, 3-4 yards to the keeper's right. I asked my daughter at the time why she would even be in that position with the flow of the play at the time. Very good fortune for the Beavers. Kendall and Elli still need to perfect the give and go on the left. The opportunities were there but Kendall didn't seem to recognize it--probably freshman anxiety. Once they add that dimension, Elli will be more productive. Kendra has become a beast. Opposing players are paying the price for going up against her. Her energy is igniting the rest of the team at times. She has won me back. On her "goal" in the first half, it seemed that her shot was actually deflected off a defender and I wondered how she could be offsides. Charney is clearly faster than last year. Her goal was great to see as she works so hard. She does take a lot of outside shots and hits them very hard, similar to Megan R. last year, and has some of the same problems Megan had--too high more often than not. Anxiety, technique, rushing? The tendency to clear the ball with long kicks to the other team made the game much too uncomfortable for long periods. Getting Kassi or Cloee back should settle some of that down.

ejjqb wrote: The Pilots first great shot was actually saved by a defender standing on the line, 3-4 yards to the keeper's right. I asked my daughter at the time why she would even be in that position with the flow of the play at the time. Very good fortune for the Beavers.

If it's the play I recall, that defender was still on the post from her set piece positioning to make the goal mouth smaller. They are supposed stay there until released by the keeper. Not so much luck as good discipline.

Corner kick by POR FOXHOVEN, Danielle [01:00].
[01:12] Shot by POR ENYEART, Michelle, SAVE TEAM {shot from far left wing}.

On the computer, it looked like Michelle really hit that shot well, and the OSU girl hardly even reacted - she was just there.

I am still trying to figure out where this business about Danielle comes from. I thought she was pretty much a one-dimensional player last year, although that one dimension was a real good one - scoring goals - pretty important dimension. She is so much better this year - quicker and faster, handling the ball 10 times better, much better first touch, taking defenders on successfully. I think she is much more involved in the flow of play than last year. Does she occasionally miss the right pass? Well, who doesn't?

Put aside the civil war of words over Dani shoot versus Dani pass or Sophie versus Michelle up top, the OSU game still rises to the top as the season's most exciting home game so far. Really entertaining, paleyd at a high skill and intensity level by aboth sides. The Beavers were aggressive, physical and never gave up. The Pilots were in playoff mode using only 12 players. 1-0 is a November playoff score -- the closest of the season. So kudos to OSU; even though they didn't threaten to win, they did threaten to tie and no Pilots fans near me felt secure with a single-goal lead. Time and the Pac-10 season will tell where the Beavers rank, but they deserve to feel good about this game.

ejjqb:

It's not often that I can agree with everything posted but your post has it.

I'll add a comment about why I like Michelle at forward, to add to why I like Sophie at attacking mid (defense).

The games I've seen where we've had trouble are when teams move their defenders as far up the field as possible -- is it correct to say, playing a "high defense"? Washington did this in the second half of our game in Seattle, and it caused real problems. It looked to me like Texas A&M was doing it, too. (It's also the classic North Carolina way of playing.) It seems to me that the best offense against a team that plays a high defense is to have a really fast forward, who is faster than the defenders. In that situation, a ball over the top or to the feet of the fast forward creates the chance for a breakaway. This makes it dubious, at best, for our opponent to use a high defense.

With Sophie and Dani at forward, I don't think we have a forward who is going to beat the really fast defenders. But with Michelle at forward, I like her chances in that situation against any defender.

I'm guessing there's starting to be a "book" on how to play Portland when Sophie and Dani are at forward, which is to play a high defense and take your chances with your defenders being able to keep either of them from getting a break away. With Michelle at forward, we make that book a high risk strategy.

UPSF and Harry...I'd add-in OSU and UO as other teams using this a high-defense or packing the midfield against us. It probably explains why we're seeing more long balls over the top than usual. Who better than the Ex-Pilots now associated with the Beavers and Ducks respectively...to know how best to counter our offensive inclinations and profile? It has seemed to worked to a small degree in affecting change to our typical rhythm of play, but we have a excellent counter-measure in Michelle's breakaway speed. I think she's had the most 1 on 1 against a goalie this season.

We probably didn't see much long ball with Christine because she was ultra-fast at getting to free balls that got past the defensive line. Instead, a lot teams in 2005 ended up packing the box...and "tried" to kept Christine and the ball in front of them.

GO PILOTS!!!

purple haze wrote:Put aside the civil war of words over Dani shoot versus Dani pass or Sophie versus Michelle up top, the OSU game still rises to the top as the season's most exciting home game so far. Really entertaining, paleyd at a high skill and intensity level by aboth sides. The Beavers were aggressive, physical and never gave up. The Pilots were in playoff mode using only 12 players. 1-0 is a November playoff score -- the closest of the season. So kudos to OSU; even though they didn't threaten to win, they did threaten to tie and no Pilots fans near me felt secure with a single-goal lead. Time and the Pac-10 season will tell where the Beavers rank, but they deserve to feel good about this game.

It really was a fun game. OSU could certainly steal some points from some Pac-10 teams. I would keep an eye on them. The gentleman next to me said he thought we'd see OSU in November. Maybe so, but I'd be a lot more nervous for a Pilots-Beavers playoff match having seen how last night went.

I'll close by saying we must have it pretty good if all we can talk about is Player A should pass/shoot more, or Player B should be up top instead of C. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the season.

UPSF and GUP - Your high defense ideas are REALLY good thoughts on why Michelle might be more effective at forward. This is why I love this site.

I too agree with this point about Michelle at forward as one good way to combat the high defense. But it is more fun to watch when we play through the mids with lots of crisp passing.

Harry Redknapp wrote:Phantom

I agree that the game seemed to degenerate to the long ball too much after the first 30 minutes. I don't think it will work as well without Sophie up front as a target. It's also a function of how the opposition defense is setting up; if they are crowding midfield and the back four are setting a high line then you have to look to the longer through ball more than we might like. Same thing was true against Oregon in the first game. They packed the midfield and almost challenged the Pilots to play it over the top. Good news is that Kendra, Michelle E. and Elli are very fast; and Danielle and Kendall are not slouches either.

Overall it's a matter of balance and mixing it up to keep the defense honest and off balance if possible.

Phantom

I agree with you about UO and OSU - I also think that there is more than one way to combat this. One is the ball over the top which requires the speed at forward and would argue for Michelle at forward. The other is to play the ball long to Sophie who is the best player on the team to win and hold the ball on long passes and who can then lay it off and through for the runners streaking through, which would be Michelle and Kendra, and Elli or Kendall.

It will be fun to see how this develops.

Harry Redknapp wrote:I agree with you about UO and OSU - I also think that there is more than one way to combat this. One is the ball over the top which requires the speed at forward and would argue for Michelle at forward. The other is to play the ball long to Sophie who is the best player on the team to win and hold the ball on long passes and who can then lay it off and through for the runners streaking through, which would be Michelle and Kendra, and Elli or Kendall.

It will be fun to see how this develops.

I'm reminding myself that maybe it's not all one or the other.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:In a side note, here are this week's scores so far for the Pilots' opponents (home team in bold face):

Columbia beat Central Connecticut 3-2
Miami lost to Boston College 2-0
St Mary's beat Nevada 4-2
Pepperdine lost to Arizona State 1-0
Texas A&M beat Baylor 1-0
California lost to Cal Poly 1-0
Colorado College beat SMU 4-1
Columbia beat Cornell 1-0
San Francisco tied Eastern Washington 2-2
Loyola Marymount beat Long Beach State 1-0
Oregon beat Portland State 2-0
Santa Clara beat Cal State Fullerton 1-0
Washington beat UC Irvine 3-2
Gonzaga beat Wyoming 2-0
Washington State beat Weber State 4-0

The Pilots' strength of schedule continues to look good.

To continue, here are the balance of the Pilots' opponents' results for last week (home team in bold face):

Washington tied CS Fullerton 1-1
Columbia lost to Colgate 1-0
Colorado College beat Tulsa 2-0
Gonzaga lost to Boise State 1-0 (neutral site)
Illinois tied Minnesota 2-2
Loyola Marymount beat CS Bakersfield 3-0
Miami beat Maryland 2-0
Texas A&M lost to Oklahoma 3-2
Santa Clara lost to USC 2-0
San Francisco beat Seattle 1-0
St Mary's lost to Stanford 1-0
Pepperdine beat Utah 1-0
SMU lost to UTEP 2-0

Altogether, for the week the Pilots' opponents went 16-9-3.

Interesting comments. On a positive note, at least we're facing the "high defense" right now and we can start adapting to it now instead of in the playoffs. The crazy thing is that it would seem like a team would need to be very deep team to be able to do that without being hurt on other parts of the field. In the games that I saw that were closer, UW spent the whole game trying to make substitutions to adapt to our size and Colorado College was trying to just cram the box with defenders for survival. It's tough to pass or dribble through that much traffic at any level.

In my opinion, playing one touch technical soccer and just getting shots off earlier will counter this strategy. So few teams in the world other than Brazil do that well, but, we have the talent to do it at the collegiate level.