The United Soccer Coaches Poll preseason rankings have the Panthers ranked #3.
Pitt Soccer - #3
- Thread starter TheSpecialSauce
- Start date
Amazing that I dont know if you mean you think they were slighted. Current Pitt Soccer is late 70s/early 80s Pitt football
That poll is obviously screwed up. I mean number one is Marshall, and everyone knows that they are a joke that wasn't anywhere close to the best team in the country last year, let alone this year. And number two is Indiana, and everyone knows that Pitt is way better than Indiana, because Pitt plays a more attacking style of soccer and teams that play attacking soccer are way better than teams that play defense first and look to attack off the counter.
I wonder how those Soccer Coaches could be so damn stupid.
I wonder how those Soccer Coaches could be so damn stupid.
IU lucked into a W over Pitt so they deserve to be #2 but nobody who watched that game would agree that IU had a better team. Please stop with your theory that IU was just as good or better and just decided to defend all game. They did that BECAUSE THEY HAD TO. There are little to no examples in the history of soccer of a team, who has better players, sitting back and defending the entire game.
There are little to no examples in the history of soccer that show you have any understanding of the game at all.
I bet you cannot name 1 time in the history of the sport, where a team with similar or better players decided to sit back and defend the ENTIRE game. Its amazing to me you don't understand why teams do that. I'll say it again, they do it out of necessity because they arent as good.
FK, help me out here. I know you dont want to agree with me but please tell Joe its very likely that Pitt was far superior to IU
The fact that you don't think that there have been any good soccer teams ever that prefer to play on the counter shows that you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to soccer.
Add it to the list.
Watch soccer. Listen to people who understand the game. You will see teams that do it all the time.
Yes, teams with inferior talent. You cannot name 1 team that has EVER done it. Its like you believe Barcelona or Man City are going to decide to sit back and defend all game against some inferior team because of "strategy." Teams with a lot of talent attack, attack, attack. Teams without a lot of talent defend and counter....and sometimes are successful in doing so. You know this
Possibly the most famous coach in the soccer world is Jose Mourinho. He has coached at places like Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and now he is at Roma. That's some of the biggest clubs in the world. His teams have won titles in England, Spain Portugal and Italy. His teams have won both the Champions League and the Europa League.
His teams have ALWAYS been defense first, counterattacking teams.
If you ever watched soccer and ever paid any attention to it and actually knew what you were watching you'd know that. But you don't.
C’mon man. You know I’ve supported you at times when it’s warranted. It’s not often but it happens. I even think I’ve done so a few times the past few weeks. I know because it pains me when I do agree with you because it makes me think that I’m crazy.
as far as this discussion between you and Joe, I think you are both right to a point.
as far as IU, they weren’t as good of an attacking team, but they were very well coached, very good staying organized, suffering, and limiting Pitt’s chances. So that counts for something. And combine that with being a blue blood and their ranking is justified. They can beat a team both ways, as evidenced by last season.
The Mourinho comparison is a good one. I’ll even include Tuchel’s Chelsea this year. He played a more disciplined system of defense first. Even within that system, they were able to out possess the lesser teams, but it allowed them to beat the more talented teams like Pep’s Man City team, who they beat 3 times in the last month of the season. That’s included the counter attacking goal to win the Champions League.
Also, Simeone with Athletics Madrid has put on master classes on defensive organization. But like you implied, the best teams tend to possess the ball and attack.
That was the other example that I thought of off the top of my head, but SMF probably (probably) knows who Jose Mourinho is, and it seems really unlikely to me that he would have any idea at all who Diego Simeone is.
And for the record, I agree that most of the best teams play more attacking soccer. In the professional game, if for no other reason than that premier attacking talent costs a lot of money, and the only clubs that can afford the best of those guys are the big clubs. And if you have one of those guys you might as well use them.
But the key word there is "most". Not "all", "most". Because there absolutely are high level teams and high level coaches that prefer to play defense first, counter attacking soccer. No matter what SMF thinks.
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