Pitt men soccer
- Thread starter ThePanthers
- Start date
Pitt dominated possession and play. Lehigh scored late when Pitt pulled 5-6 starters and never really threatened. S, Pitt has some work to do. Lehigh dropped everyone and defended the whole game but Pitt didn't have a ton of great chances. Yea, there were 3-4 they could have scored on but they werent exactly peppering the GK with shots.
Campuzzano was effing around back there trying to be a sweeper again. Nearly gave up a goal from 40 yards out when he misplayed a ball and it went to a Lehigh player who shot it but a defender deflected it
He also was off his line another time and Lehigh should have scored but Jasper made the save on the goal line.
They seem to be going to a platoon on the wings. Dexter/Jacquesson on the left with Mort and Almeida on the right. Almeida played great. Beautiful goal and the Lehigh GK had a great save on his header.
UNC #4 gigantic game vs them Friday.
WVU #5
PSU unranked
This is why I HATE polls. How could Pitt be ranked ahead of Akron?
We have the best players. I still believe that. We are just playing poorly.
The problems appear systemic. Last year, teams played Pitt straight-up. You saw what happened when Indiana sat back and defended the whole game. You hit Pitt with a counter and that's all it might take because as long as you defend, defend, defend, Pitt isn't going to score a ton of goals.
WVU and Akron didn't exactly play like Indiana did. Lehigh did, however, and we only beat that vastly inferior team 2-1. WVU and Akron were very organized on defense even though they didn't drop everyone and defend the whole game.
I think the game plan to beat Pitt is very well known at this point. Defend and counter. And Pitt isnt Barcelona, they may have Petkovic and Noel but its really difficult for them to score when teams are this committed to defending.
So in terms of "bouncing back," in the terms of being a Top 5-10 type team, no, I don't think we can get there. The schedule is too tough and teams know how to play us. I think we'll end up with a record similar to 2019.
This Pitt team lacks intensity, discipline, and desire. There are only a few players that show any desire. SMF hit the nail on the head, Pitt's shape breaks down and they are very susceptible to counterattacks. The need to start playing more north and south instead of east and west. They do not have the offensive talent to play that style of game. Outside of Noel and Petkovic they have little else. They do miss Bryce Washington at the center back also. The ND transfer and the other center back make way too many errors both physical and mental.
So to recap, in the span of about a week and a half we went from being the long term powerhouse in the sport to basically not even being a top 10 team.
We went from being “Alabama” to being Clemson. SMF logic applied.
The guys who run sports books love people who think like you. Absolutely love them.
Beating number 4 North Carolina half way through the first half 2-0.
Alabama is back, baby!
Alabama is back, baby!
3-0 now.
Alabama wishes they were us!
Petkovic scored the first, then Almeida scored the second two.
Alabama wishes they were us!
Petkovic scored the first, then Almeida scored the second two.
Ok, so this is what happens when teams decide to play Pitt straight up. You get "Alabama" because they have better players. Now I don't want to take anything away from WVU and Akron because those are legit mid-level ACC type teams and they didnt sit back and defend the entire game like Indiana and Lehigh did but neither played "straight-up." They were cautious defensively and certainly very organized defensively and didn't send a ton of guys forward. Honestly, really great game plans by those 2 coaches.
Its probably a pride thing by UNC's coach but ACC teams don't really alter their shape for Pitt.....and this is what you get.
The blueprint to beat us is there for all to see. You don't necessarily have to sit in the whole game like Indiana but you can do some type of modified version of that like WVU and Akron.
Its probably a pride thing by UNC's coach but ACC teams don't really alter their shape for Pitt.....and this is what you get.
The blueprint to beat us is there for all to see. You don't necessarily have to sit in the whole game like Indiana but you can do some type of modified version of that like WVU and Akron.
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I’m watching Akron vs Indiana because my tv is telling me that I don’t subscribe to the ACC network and I don’t feel like messing with usernames/passwords, etc.
The atmosphere at Akron tonight is 5x what it was for Pitt. I assume because it’s a Friday night game. The place is packed and there have to be 500 students behind the goals. At least.
but Indiana is the better team. They’ve been on the front foot and should have had 3 goals alone in the 2nd half. This after outplaying Akron in the first half.
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The atmosphere at Akron tonight is 5x what it was for Pitt. I assume because it’s a Friday night game. The place is packed and there have to be 500 students behind the goals. At least.
but Indiana is the better team. They’ve been on the front foot and should have had 3 goals alone in the 2nd half. This after outplaying Akron in the first half.
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Pitt vs Akron?
Just saw the attendance for Indiana tonight…
3400 fans. Pretty darn good. I don’t think they draw that for football
Pitt is drawing really good crowds. However, there really is no "atmosphere." There’s plenty of students but no student section and the crowd is pretty quiet. But, that comes with time I guess. Cant complain about all 3 home games being at >100% capacity.
As for Akron/Indiana, I bet that was an electric crowd like you said and yes, they dont always draw that for football. You say IU was better and I believe you. I felt Pitt was better than Akron. But shots and corners were very even though that obviously doesn't tell the whole story.
As for shots, did anyone see the stat shown that UNC had 50 shots vs VCU? How is that even possible? I mean at least half of those, maybe 3/4 had to be extremely low percentage from outside the 18.
So just to touch on a couple things you mentioned. I spoke a little too soon on Indiana. Now that the game is over, I can say they had the better of the chances, but the final shot count had Akron slightly ahead. But the difference is Indiana had more quality chances. In the 2nd half they had two crosses that they just barely failed to run on and tap in. And the Akron keeper had 3-4 top notch saves while I only remember the Indiana keeper making 1.
on a side note, about 50 shots…I attended a boys high school game last week between Fox Chapel and Southmoreland. The game was scoreless for the first 10 minutes. It was also scoreless for the final 15 minutes. But during the 55 minutes in between, Fox Chapel scored 30 goals. The final was 30-0. It was 19-0 at halftime.
Pitt soccer beating an ACC blueblood with 1k+ on fri during fb season?
Would have never believed it possible not that long ago.
Would have never believed it possible not that long ago.
And to beat them 4-0??? That’s like beating them by 40 in basketball. Simply stunning the turnaround of this program.
Seriously. 30-0? Did you mean American football?? I’m our conference they have mercy rule. Nothing past 9-0.
When my niece played in high school they had a conference game that 8 minutes into the game they were already ahead 5-0, and by 12 minutes it was 8-0. And they didn't even play their all state forward and had taken all the other starting attacking players out in the first five minutes. At that point the coach told them that they were not allowed to score any more goals, so they spent the rest of the half getting into great scoring positions and then turning around and passing the ball back to the defenders at the half way line. When the second half started they did the same thing, and when it got to something like 15-0 or 16-0 they stopped scoring for the game. They got those 15 or 16 goals in about 25 minutes of "real" playing time, maybe a little less than that.
At one point I started counting consecutive completed passes, and they got close to 70 straight completed passes in a row at one point. If the coach was a jerk they could have easily won that game 50-0. And I do mean it would have been easy to get to 50.
They reported the final score to the PG and the Trib as 9-0 (iirc), I guess so as to not embarrass the opponent.
