vs USD

our 16th ranked pilot men...yes, 16th in the country...finally return home tonight after being on the road for a month. they are 6-1-2 and at the top of the wcc table. lets all show up and welcome them home. i can't wait to see this new version of mens soccer. is the program returning to the glory days?

golaso wrote:is the program returning to the glory days?

I sure hope so. This is better than I had anticipated coming into the season. They've been an extremely pleasant surprise. Now UP (once again) has three fall sports teams ranked in the Top 20 nationally.

San Diego 2, Portland 1. A very disappointing loss. We had plenty of good chances, but did not capitalize. After we tied the score on the combination PK and San Deigo red card, things looked up. But after the red card, it seemed like we became a bit passive, and San Diego turned things up a notch. I think they had more good scoring chances after they were down a player than we did--and one of them hit the mark.

So right now our road record is 5-0-2 and our home record is 1-2-0. Go figure.

This one was a little tough to take. USD scored on two long-range shots that I have to say were well taken. The Pilots had plenty of shots, but it seemed to me like the Pilots could not quite connect on the last pass when they got close to the USD goal. I like the style though. No more Route 1 (I-5?), lots of precision passing. There were some Total Football elements too with guys shifting around and filling in.

One player that stood out to me was freshman Ricardo Carrillo. He set up some of the other attackers well and had a few shots of his own. I might keep an eye on him.

Those USD shots were pretty impressive, I'll have to say. But I don't think you could say USD had the run of play in either half. I really like the passing game UP is playing. If you think back to what we were doing 2 or 3 years ago in that department, this is WAY better.

We do have to learn to not waste our chances, though. There were shots in the trees with open nets and other not-so-near misses. I don't know what it is about college men - they always think they have to blast every shot. sometimes a well placed slow roller would be better.