PILOTS HUNT THE MIGHTY BUFFALO - 12pm TODAY - 11/18

Better run, Buffs! Better hide, Buffs! Because you are standing right in the middle of the road; our road to the 3rd Round of the NCAA National Championships! Better go now, Buffs, or you'll get caught in a stampede of wild Pilots!!!


(Thanks for inspiration, wrv.)

And now the bigger quest begins....getting tickets to Saturday's game at Merlo.

Buffs held their positions well and simply wouldn't allow a stampede. Their defense was very prickly, especially in the first half.

Our goal was a beaut! Great set-up by Michelle and good, hard finish by Soph against a very strong keeper. Buffs played us tighter than I thought they could.

Our defense, however, was rock-solid as Kelsey had to make an eye-popping zero saves. We loosened up after our goal and I thought we would probably put away at least one more golden nugget. Our passes seemed less contested as they concentrated on getting the equalizer and our offense started to look very fluid and dangerous again.

Our "D" was determined to protect Kelsey, however. Give the Buffs defense and keeper credit that we didn't break it open with at least one more goal.

I saw the game on Comcast. The Pilots dominated play but didn't appear as sharp as they have been. We seemed to struggle with maintaining a consistent threat. Hats off to the Buffs. Their back line and midfield were very strong on the ball and influenced a lot of the incosistencies with the UP attacks. Good challenge and test from CU. Cream is rising to the top. Opposition is only going to get tougher with each round.

It seemed like the elevation took a little bit of a toll too. I thought it was pretty noticable in the second half. The intensity with both teams fell off and everyone looked a tad slow...sometimes it looked like they were all running in mud.

GO PILOTS

Yeah, all coaches going into a high high altitude place want to say altitude won't make a difference, but you know it does.
That the Buff's were also played out is a tribute to the UP system-make the other team chase.

Also, the big 12 is known being physical. Earlier in the year we got beat up pretty good by Purdue. I think that we're a lot better able to deal with that style now than we were back then.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Purdue lost to Indiana on a shootout today! Wow! I thought the Boilermakers would go deeper. A darkhorse to keep an eye out for. Not anymore I guess.

Stanford also barely made it to the next round. Won in a shootout against Cal.

Sweet 16 is shaping up!

Fla also squeaked by UCF in a shootout

USC had to go to overtime to eek out a win against Missou,

and our next opponent, Tennessee just got past Clemson in OT
I think Clemson beat them up Physically pretty well
It seems the refs are allowing a lot. I guess if you want to move on, you have to be willing to dish it out or take it, or both.

Colorado has a link to an end zone video here:
http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=3937&SPID=259&DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=1321791

In the upper left is a video link. If you scroll out to just about an hour into the video, you can see Michelle's steal and feed, and Sophie's finish.

All you need to see...

For you instant-gratification Pilot Junkies, it took a little bit of tinkering, but I uploaded the goal (and about a minute's worth a build-up before hand) to YouTube in a little 3 minute clip. I hope I don't get sued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac6TWz-klPM

P.S. If there's any interest, I can add the remainder of the game on there...maybe in 4 clips, split at the media timeouts and half-time?

Thanks for making the clip for us. It's fun to watch that beautiful play again.

That was awesome!! Thanks for the clip KFTC!!

Go Pilots!
Beat Vols!

short clips are OK under the fair use clause for the reporting of news and education
here's a piece on that: http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/04/the-clicker-youtube-and-fair-use-a-match-made-in-heaven/

and what is an accurate and what may qualify as the most annoying explanation of any legal concept I have ever encountered:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo
all the clips fall under fair use.

I don't think putting the whole game under 4 clips qualifies as fair use, but I wasn't able to sit through the whole video.

Thanks for putting that up. Now, if we can just get somebody to put up "the Goal" from the San Diego game..

Amen, on "the Goal". I'd love to see a clip of that. Thankfully, it was right below me and is etched in my mind forever. But it happened so quick and Michelle made such a series of incredible to impossible moves, there is no way my memory can remember everything.

It was simply sublime...

Thanks for posting that for those of us in Mexico to enjoy!

Speaking of the altitude: In Boulder, during the Denver game I sat/stood next to some very savvy fans from Boulder -- they weren't really Colorado fans, but just loved watching the soccer. In talking about Denver having beaten Stanford, they pointed out that it was on Sunday of a Friday/Sunday tournament in Boulder and said that the Stanford players were really dragging from the altitude. They loved how the Pilots played.

I think I remember the first year the Pilots won the NCAA, they started out with a tournament in Colorado, playing Denver and CU. I think we lost at least one game. Am I correct?

For Sunday's game, I was next to a very knowledgeable man from Boulder who also mainly was a soccer fan vs. a Buffaloes fan. He loved watching our team play, repeatedly saying, "Oh, that was so beautiful!" after a long string of passes.

Reminds me of how lucky we are to be here in Portland.

It's nice to see fans out there enjoyed the soccer. The UC players and coach Kept saying we "danced on the ball" in the post game interviews. I couldn't tell if it was a slam or not. I don't think they see our brand of ball much in the big12.

In 2002 we won it all despite losing to Cal and Stanford early. 2003 was the year we went to Boulder, then Denver. Lost to Denver in the second game of the weekend 4-3 in overtime. I think Denver scored the first three goals. That was the year we had Christine and others out with National teams. Our season ended at home in the tournament third round against Santa Clara in a shootout after 3? overtimes. I tried to block it out, but now I'll toss all night. Thanks for nothin'.