USD

Ugly; take the win but we didn't play well offensively for the second match in a row

Hmm, I thought it was an excellent game. Especially in comparison to last Sunday's game v Pepperdine. This was an opponent that beat USC twice this year, once at home and once away. USC beat UCLA today. UCLA is having a somewhat "off" year, but still, San Diego is a good team. And, they have an excellent scoring threat who necessarily drew a lot of attention. And, they were playing at home. I'll take this one and be very happy!

Great finish by Dani.

Wonderful to see Kendra play.

Hideous field that hampered Pilots passing game.

Harry Redknapp wrote:Great finish by Dani.

Wonderful to see Kendra play.

Hideous field that hampered Pilots passing game.

Speaking of which, did you all catch the commentary about Dani? Apparently, according to Garrett, she was exhausted after her summer play. She's been getting rest and is just getting her freshness back. I agree with Harry, a great finish and probably one of only a handfull of women's college players who could have made that one!

Harry Redknapp wrote:
Hideous field that hampered Pilots passing game.

It was flat out embarrassing... I can't believe I'm going to say this, but if you HAVE to share a field with football it seems almost preferable to keep an artificial surface just to keep the center of the pitch actually playable. And I get that USD has that aqua blue color as an official one, but that color was terrible for line visibility. On a positive note, their stadium announcer was REALLY enthusiastic for home substitutions...

And the commentary on FSN was so lame I had to turn the sound down. Who gives a sh*t about the USD mens program in the middle of the game: that long interview with Seamus McFadden was complete disrespect to the game that was being played.

Harry Redknapp wrote:And the commentary on FSN was so lame I had to turn the sound down. Who gives a sh*t about the USD mens program in the middle of the game: that long interview with Seamus McGadden was complete disrespect to the game that was being played.

I couldn't possibly agree more about that. It was irritating beyond belief. I remember FSN doing that in previous years - a long interview with a soccer game going on in the background.


Interesting about Danielle. I thought she looked MUCH better yesterday than before. And, I loved seeing Kendra back on the pitch, although she looked very tentative (probably to be expected). Let's hope she works back into game shape before, say, the quarter finals.

pilotfan4ever wrote:Ugly; take the win but we didn't play well offensively for the second match in a row

I thought we possessed the ball pretty well, especially given the condition of the field. We seemed to be missing that last dangerous pass to create an opportunity. I think San Diego probably created more dangerous opportunities off of many fewer possessions.

This was my first time watching the Pilots play this season. Tsao was my favorite. Her footwork was phenomenal. McClussie and DeYoung surprised me. I expected them to be better than they appeared from reading comments on this site. Did they have an off game?

I'm not sure what you mean about Kassi and Hailee not being as good as you expected. I thought they both played very effectively - as usual. Can you be more specific on what you saw that disappointed you?

Harry Redknapp wrote:And the commentary on FSN was so lame I had to turn the sound down. Who gives a sh*t about the USD mens program in the middle of the game: that long interview with Seamus McFadden was complete disrespect to the game that was being played.

There are so many things that were wrong with the broadcast last night. How hard is it to know how to say some of the player's last names? They could have brought up the fact that Jessica Tsao is up for the Lowe's award. How about Cori Alexander being the goalie coach for San Diego? Very poor and hard broadcast to watch. Hoping the ESPNU coverage for Sunday's match is a better.

Haha, and who knew the "s" in Winters is silent? And agreed on the men's coach interview... just strange, I mean it's one thing to have them as a guest analyst, but it's like they just stopped watching the game to talk to him about things irrelevant to the game being played. Isn't that what half time is for?

As for DeYoung not playing up to snuff, there were a few balls she mishandled, but also had some pretty spectacular saves. And, um, you are really splitting hairs if you look to criticize a defense that kept a clean sheet...

Observation: I think Elli and Kendall are still re-figuring out how to play with each other, like when to overlap and whatnot. I saw improvements over last weekend, but they can still improve. I think getting these two on the same page will be another very vital weapon in getting dangerous balls into our strikers.

A_Fan wrote:I'm not sure what you mean about Kassi and Hailee not being as good as you expected. I thought they both played very effectively - as usual. Can you be more specific on what you saw that disappointed you?

I thought they each had one shaky moment. Hailee misjudged that ball and let it get away which led (I think) to the shot that hit the crossbar. I thought Kassie was excellent except for one moment. She was one on one defending near the goal (critical situation), left her feet, and let the attacker around her - instead of just standing up the attacker - containing the attacker until help arrived. You can't leave your feet in that area of the field. She got beat and created a dangerous situation. I love the way Kassie plays, especially the intensity, but also the excellent entry passes into the offensive third, the way she is able to cover ground, and the way she breaks up attacks around midfield. However, she has gotten beaten in dangerous one on one situations before (think Penn State especially, but a few others besides).

DaTruRochin wrote:

As for DeYoung not playing up to snuff, there were a few balls she mishandled, but also had some pretty spectacular saves. And, um, you are really splitting hairs if you look to criticize a defense that kept a clean sheet...

The crossbar had a lot to do with the clean sheet.

I agree with the commentary comments. But then, for those of us who have endured JP Dellacamera for years ANYTHING seems better. The Hi Def was great, I forget that watching them live or on a tiny stream you don't really get to see their faces. When they zoomed in you could see their expressions and fatigue or freshness. How come Jessica always looks like she is hardly breathing? She is quite fit and playing outstanding.
Dani showed once again she belongs in front of the goal. She is a true finisher. For me, she still does not do well with her back to the goal 30 meters out. The big problem is that service to her is so rare this year. I said in earlier posts that I was waiting to see how this team developed and that I had concerns that the midfield to striker transitions were very suspect. This still seems to be the reality for this year's team. There are just very few quality chances made. In fact, in the last several games it's the opponents who have have more danger and been unlucky with hitting posts and missing shots. We've been lucky to go 1-0. MC (trying not to use names for those who only accentuate the positive) still plays very young. In fact, she looks like a good high school player running around. She never seems certain where to be, loses the ball regularly, and turns and dribbles right into players. It seems the only passes she connects on are the very safest variety. Then, she has a moment of brilliance when she gets a chance to turn and run a defenders and I see the attraction and all is forgiven. It's just that against solid defenders they seem to stop her too often and too easlly. It was nice to see Kendra back although I just don't foresee her ever getting that beautiful stride of hers back this season. If you're wearing a brace of that size, its for a reason. Nice to see that at least one knee brace has disappeared on the left side.
Well, I know its not always popular on this board and I hope the girls don't read here (they shouldn't) but I still don't think this team is as good as their ranking. Never thought that before about any Pilot team. Sometimes it's lucky to be better. Others its better to be lucky. This year's team seems to me the latter.