Men vs. Florida Gulf Coast

Excited for this first home game tonight! Does anyone know anything about Gulf Coast?

FGCU is in it's first year of tournament eligibility. Too bad for them, because they had a great season last year going 13-3-2 and 9-0-0 in the A-Sun conference.

They came into this season ranked #14 by Goal.com, lost their first game 3-1 to Florida Atlantic and dropped to #20 in the first week.

They play their home games on fast rolling Bermuda grass. It will be interesting to see how they do on Merlo's bluegrass blend.

It should be a good test for UP. Folks tell me we will have a fine team this year.

Bitter taste in the mouth after that one, I think the Pilots let a win slip from their grasp.
I thought they were fantastic in the first half. They pressed well and won possession a lot of times in the FGCU half. I thought Connor did well holding up the ball and giving chances for our midfield to support the attack and Mike gave them fits down the right. Unfortunately they couldn't take their chances and bury the game in the 1st half.
Second half was a scrap fest, not a whole lot of good soccer played on either side. It looked like the guys tired a bit in the 2nd half and OT as they didn't put quite as much pressure on. Gotta hate giving up late goals as well. This tie feels like a loss if you ask me

With about 20minutes left, UP took out a couple of starters, presumably to rest them for Sunday. Then they got passive and let FGCU back into the game.

After the score tied, it looked like we picked it up again, but couldn't get the winner despite a few good chances.

Very entertaining game. Both teams were good passing teams and contested everything.


I agree we handed this win back to them.

The UW Loyola-chi game was a stinker. Bad passing, UW must have gone offside a dozen times, and the game degenerated into a punt fest. UW won it 1-0 in the first OT. A mercy killing.

Also, how 'bout basically the entire defensive line going down with cramps?

Yeah, I'm not sure what that was about. It's not that hot.

The drum squad and students brought it, though.

Though the ref chant was inventive

Nielsen and Barbaree had nice nights. Justin looks like the latest in a line of fine Pilot keepers and had several huge saves.

When the Pilots got into the passing game they did fine but it looked like they struggled defending long balls, especially in the second half. FGC #10 was a very nice playmaker among a few others.

As for the Washington-Loyola game, all I have to say is:

A player is in an offside position when he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.

I think the UW coach will have his guys recite it before every practice for a week.

I also think they will get tremendously better when Stevie and Richy come back from injury, that gives them more attacking depth and both guys will add new dimensions to the attack. Mike and Thomas do alright getting behind defenders, but between Conner, Joe, and Anderson there is not a whole lot of speed in the middle of the attack to get behind the defense, which I think would help create some good chances with our passing game