Oregon State Match

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.

yup


It also clears up the Offsides issue on Kendra's called-back first goal.

definitely a defender on the far post.



Unless there have been rapid advances in teleportation technology, she held Kendra on.

The thing I like about the goal is that Charney hit it with the inside of her foot (I think) and placed it, and didn't just blast it. Great shot.

Please notice, on Kendra's non-goal, what a GREAT, quick move Danielle made to keep possession, and notice that she passed rather than taking a fairly low percentage shot. Certainly no selfish play there.

That certainly does seem to be a terrible offsides call, unless Kendra was off and came back on - which seems very unlikely, given the defender right on the post.

fan from afar wrote:That certainly does seem to be a terrible offsides call, unless Kendra was off and came back on - which seems very unlikely, given the defender right on the post.

She's the same player that chased Michelle, then coasted 3-4 steps to the end line and stayed there (#12 or 15? its a little fuzzy)

she drifts out of the picture after Michelle's cross at a point ahead of where Kendra was

Her number doesn't appear again on the players in the fracas in front of the goal. Those player numbers are identifiable.

first frame -chasing Michelle



last frame she's visible (just a little blue and an arm on the right)


Note that's she's already deeper than Kendra ever gets. The next time we see her is on the post.

Maybe Kendra was so quick she got behind the GK, which would mean Nike's boots really do make you faster...

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Maybe Kendra was so quick she got behind the GK, which would mean Nike's boots really do make you faster...

This actually, in addition to the humor, could be a good point. If Kendra was behind the keeper, then even if the defender was on the line, wouldn't Kendra still be off-sides?

Here's the frame when the ball is played.

Keeper on right(orange), Kendra on left (White and leg)



I think the video establishes two players to the goal line.

Offside? C'mon now...that one counts...its 2-0!

Also, from where I sat, I completely missed Kendra's header off the post! Glad to see that the clip captured that too!
Good showing by Kendra against the Beavers.

The clip also confirms how much of a breakaway beast Michelle can be. She can just flat out run past the back line if given any free space. I've lost counts of the many one-on-ones she had versus a goalie. Her goal counts should be way higher. Usually, she's money and finishes those chances. But, there have been some good stops by a few of our opponent's keepers. Also, Michelle is a great teammate. She works hard to create those chance on her own, but is so unselfish. I've seen her give up some of those opportunites with last second passes and/or crosses to try and credit a teammate.

GO PILOTS!!!

Right on, from looking again, Kendra was not behind the keeper. Bad call.

GUPhantom wrote:Offside? C'mon now...that one counts...its 2-0!

Also, from where I sat, I completely missed Kendra's header off the post! Glad to see that the clip captured that too!
Good showing by Kendra against the Beavers.

The clip also confirms how much of a breakaway beast Michelle can be. She can just flat out run past the back line if given any free space. I've lost counts of the many one-on-ones she had versus a goalie. Her goal counts should be way higher. Usually, she's money and finishes those chances. But, there have been some good stops by a few of our opponent's keepers. Also, Michelle is a great teammate. She works hard to create those chance on her own, but is so unselfish. I've seen her give up some of those opportunites with last second passes and/or crosses to try and credit a teammate.

GO PILOTS!!!

Michelle under a head of steam is a very exciting moment, even on the computer screen. She is that rare player who seems to be as fast with the ball on her feet as she is just running - the ball does not seem to slow her down.

The other remarkable thing about that play is that Michelle pops back out to the penalty spot to be the actual target for Dani's cross, and the defender didn't go with her.


Watch where Michelle is at the 24-25 second mark on the video.


But I confess The fuzzy player on the post at the end looks like she has a single digit number, and the player who followed Dani was #9, who wouldn't have held Kendra on side.
Every other OSU player in the scene appears to have a two digit number.

That would mean the player who chased Michelle originally is in front of Dani at the end of the scene, which makes the offside somewhat less clear.

I remember watching the scene live that I thought there was a wide OSU player that held Kendra on.

Now I'm less sure. Maybe if I look at it another 100 times....

The best part of the whole video for me is the huge smile on Keelin's face when she's congratulating Charney on her goal.

The number and intensity of the comments on the OSU game reveal what an entertaining night of soccer it was. This game had depth to sustain Pilot Nation for days of comments and insights and opinions -- and even freeze-frame analysis of the video replay. This game had everything: controversy about officiating, hard tackling, tons of action. Gotta love it!

purple haze wrote:This game had everything: controversy about officiating, hard tackling, tons of action. Gotta love it!

Don't forget the all-important W! I don't want to imagine the choice words that we be soaring around right now if we hadn't won, especially considering Kendra's "non-goal."