My Alex Morgan
crush has officially reached its zenith: I went to a soccer match. No, she wasn’t there. It seemed like a long shot of her just randomly
showing up. (I even watched a half of an
international game last week and didn’t see her, other than standing with her
hand over heart during the anthem next another player who was kneeling, protesting
whale hunting or something.) I hadn’t
really ever considered going, but there was a radio ad on Friday promoting
“Bark at the Park.” I considered this an
invitation. I’d just assume listen to
the Cowboys football game on the radio anyway, which I could do anywhere.
I usually have a few stock comments about soccer. In this country, soccer is more part of a
socio-political agenda than it is a sport.
As a friend of mine once said, “Soccer is popular internationally
because it’s a poor man’s sport. You
just need a ball and a couple of goals.”
It’s also not known for producing entertaining games and for ending in
ties, which I think produces soccer’s main byproduct: fan violence. Soccer won’t achieve mainstream popularity here
until it is a sport dominated by large black men. (Wait!
Think about sports in America for a moment. I’m right.)
I do appreciate that play is continuous and matches play out in a fairly
tidy two hours. I can’t understand how
networks can show 45-minutes of a soccer match uninterrupted, but can’t go five
minutes without a commercial break in a NASCAR race. And finally, Alex Morgan is so gorgeous.
(Hope Solo is too, but she’s
been bounced from the US team. Here’s
hoping she gets a reality show.)
The Aggie soccer field is in between the football stadium
and the softball field. The entrance to
the field and the concessions serve both the soccer and softball
complexes. I let out a sigh driving into
the parking lot, missing the softball team.
I found myself schlepping in my seat, a cushion, a notebook, and a
radio. I picked up a terrible lunch with
a hot dog, drink, and a box of popcorn.
Worse, they’ve changed from Coke to Pepsi, so I don’t get my usual Coke
Zero. One of the guys in the trailer
asked about my Chihuahuas hat, which I was wearing to wearing to celebrate
their winning the PCL championship last night.
He was impressed when I told him.
At this point, I’m really juggling things and have to bypass
the courtesy table. I came back after
quickly eating. I picked up four posters
(two soccer, one football, one volleyball).
I made the comment that they looked good. I also got a Larry Rose football card. Cool. Later,
one of the courtesy girls went into the stands and recruited a kid in a soccer
jersey as a ballhawk (retrieving out of bounds balls). I was interested in one of the new t-shirts
on the souvenir table, but not at $28. I
liked the design on the new hats, but didn’t like the snapback strap on them. The lady at the table also commented on my
Chihuahuas hat. She was listening to the
game last night too.
I have to mention, I loved the music they were playing over
the PA when I came in. It was some rap
number with yodeling. I have no idea who
does it or what the name of it is. I’ll
say the crowd was about 500-something (not including the dogs), but that’s just
from looking at previous game attendance off the program. All the stands are on the west side of the
field. There was one long grandstand and
two small stands on either side. On the
other side are the benches with shade over them for the teams, along with the
scorer’s table.
Many of the fans, smartly, had umbrellas and also sat on the
top row, to get the best overall view of the field. There’s a park-like area with a couple of
trees on the north end of the field were where most of the people with dogs
went. A several kids played around the
hill. A few people sat in front of the stands. It must have been uncomfortable, but it was
in the shade. Several people did bring in
some precious-looking dogs, but I got no petting in. “Bark at the Park,” was a complete fail for
me. (And that was the other reason I
wore the Chihuahuas hat.) And, oh
no. There he is. I can hear him and see him. It’s that older fellow who’s at all the games
and is really obnoxious with his cheering.
I’m glad Ron didn’t come with me.
He pronounced this guy his nemesis from watching all those ball games
this spring with him. Thankfully, he’s
on the other side of the stands, almost out of earshot.
I looked up the girls on their website Friday and even
watched some of their game with the Lobos live over the Internet. It was a loss. The announcer mentioned that they had a full
house for the game. People behind me,
who’d went, were talking about the game and facilities there. I really liked the Aggies’ road uniforms,
white with a sprinkled crimson trim on the shoulders. I wouldn’t mind having one of those tops.
As the teams were lined up before the game for
introductions, I looked for #10 Alieen
Galicia. The website seemed to tag
her as their star player. She looked
really young with a slight build in the pictures and indeed, she was
in-person. #22 Gabby Campbell was also a standout in the lineup, because she was
about a head shorter than everyone else.
The program lists her at 4’11”.
Again, a fellow behind me was pointing her and Alieen out saying, “You
don’t have to be big to make it on the field; you just need heart and
guts.” #16 Cristina Bertoldo got the biggest ovation from the crowd, being
from Las Cruces. For the anthem, the
Aggie girls were standing and holding hands.
Afterward, someone behind me made a comment about NFL spokesman, Colin Kapernick. No doubt he was thanking him for making the
anthem more important and a proud act of patriotism and not just a formality.
I already like the college game better than the professional
or international game. The clock counts
down, not up. They also stop the clock
during any injuries or other prolonged stoppages. Gee, that only makes sense. There wasn’t much in the way of theatrics on
injuries or goal scoring, which also got on my good side. Let’s see, our match up here is the 2-7 NMSU
Aggies vs the 2-4 Nevada Wolfpack (I hope that’s their nickname, because that’s
what I’m going with for the rest of this post).
It doesn’t seem like the Aggies are overmatched on paper here. I’m really missing not having any radio
commentary to help with this game summary.
My first game note comes at 38’ (minutes left in the half). The Aggies get a shot on a nearly empty net as
the Wolfpack goalie aggressively came way too far out to defend. Okay, so this is what I’m doing. I’m recording near misses on goal. I was wondering how I would write about the
game. I’m still not sure when to cheer. At 32’ the Aggies make a close header shot on
goal. 30’ good jump save by the Aggie
goalie. 28’ another good save, caught on
the chest.
At 24’ the crowd starts screaming for an Aggie to pass to an
open player in the Wolfpack box. Right
after that, there’s a collision on field that sends both girls to the deck for
a moment. A guy yells out, “Good
job! She’ll remember that for the rest
of the game!” The fans here were very
vocal, very knowledgeable and very critical of the ref’s and the players. The Aggie players. It was like being at a Little League game
with a bunch of bad parents. It was a
shock. At softball and baseball games, I
never heard anybody being anything other than supportive of our players. They weren’t trying to coach them from the
stands or shouting out criticism. I kept
hearing, “Make space! Make space!” I’m sure the game is a lot easier to play
sitting in the stands than running up and down the field.
23’ an Aggie slow roller heads towards an empty net, but the
Nevada keeper corrals it before it gets there.
17’ our first goal. Wolfpack #15 Aless Abbuhl scores by herself in the
box with two defenders on her. I’m not
happy about this, but somewhat relieved that I won’t be sitting through a
nil-nil tie. The program lists Aless as
being from Switzerland. There must
surely be an interesting story here.
There’s another Wolfpack player from Germany. In fact, most of the Nevada team is from out of
state. Most of the Aggies are from
Albuquerque. (No wonder there was such a
good crowd against the Lobos there.)
16’ the Aggie goalie has to make a jump save. 9’ after a good pass deep in the box, the
Wolfpack goalie stops a hard roller. At
6’ in I have to note a cat call from the crowd to a referee, “Hey Jim, your
wife is calling! She wants you to come
home!” 5’ and there’s an Aggie
breakaway. #18 charges into the goalie,
who is again way out defending. At 4’
there’s an injury stoppage. It doesn’t
seem to be too serious thankfully. 2’
and there’s a Wolfpack stationary shot (not sure what the technical term is)
from the sideline that goes directly on goal.
It’s caught right on the chest by the goalie. The PA announces one minute and then counts
down the last ten seconds of the half.
At halftime, Aggie football standout, Striking the Wonder
Dog, came out for an extremely energetic athletic display. I reapplied my sunblock and spent $3 on a
bottle of water. It was robbery, but I
wasn’t sitting in a cool enough place to argue.
(88 degrees was the announced temperature, but only in the shade with a
fan. It was a lot warmer than
that.) The Wolfpack players were sitting
under their shade. The Aggie girls were
sitting at a corner of the field. Both
were going over strategy. I turned on my
radio to listen to the Cowboys game. I’m
immediately rewarded, hearing Alfred Morris “walk the dog” into the
endzone. As Babe put it, “He made a hood
ornament out of the defender.”
The second half begins.
At the 41’ mark, Aggie #10 makes a good pass in the box, but the
Wolfpack goalie makes a good, point-blank save.
I’ll make a point here that the TV really doesn’t communicate how
physical the game is. The girls were
constantly hitting and colliding with each other. There’s tackling and shoving up and down the
field. There’s also quite a bit of
chatter going on, something you really don’t hear on TV.
37’ and I applaud a 27-23 Cowboy victory over the
Redskins. Unfortunately, Ron’s nemesis
has changed ends and I can now hear him cheering clearly. I keep the earplugs in and listen to the
post-game show to drown him out. At 29’,
a ball on the sidelines is popped up and goes over the stands. Like foul balls at the ballpark, keep your
head up during the game. It’s not like
they’re going to let you keep any ball you catch here. 26’ the Aggie goalkeeper gets a save and
immediately makes another save off a rebound shot. Good concentration.
The action drags a bit.
At the end of the row, I see a lady with an umbrella reading a
magazine. I notice that all the girls
playing have long hair, like the softball girls. You’d think short hair would be much more
practical. Maybe it’s to protect the
back of their necks from the sun.
Finally some Aggie offense at 18’, the Wolfpack keeper makes a great
punch save off a shot after a cornerkick.
At 17’ right after, the ball gets down field. An Aggie tries to head it to the goalie and
it gets away and a Wolfpack player kicks it in.
(Sorry, I didn’t get her number to properly give credit. That’s what I get for having earplugs
in.) The Aggies at least didn’t record a
dreaded “own goal.” It’s 2-0 Wolfpack
regardless.
The crowd got noticeably louder and, finally, more
supportive of the girls after that second goal.
The Aggies started taking a few long pot-shots on goal. At the 11’, the Aggies made a nice chipshot just
outside the box at the goal, but it was caught.
My scorekeeping is suffering as my pencil is now covered in sticky
sunblock. (It doesn’t come off when
washed either.) Another fan came over to
me and asked about the goal. It was
referred to as a “hat goal?” Well, it
wasn’t a “hat trick,” since that’s three goals by the same person (in
hockey). Why don’t people ask me
questions during a baseball game? I
could probably answer those. In any
case, I had to confess that, in spite of my note taking, I didn’t really know
anything about soccer, certainly not as much as the loud-mouthed fans around
me.
Hey, is that Aggie quarterback, Tyler Rogers, walking by in the stands? He had on an Aggie football t-shirt and
looked like him. I wasn’t able to
confirm it until I got home and looked at my football program from going to the
Lobo game last week. Crap! I didn’t see him again. I would have congratulated him on the win
versus UNM and a 42-point performance yesterday (albeit in a loss) and gotten
an autograph. I’d ask why he was there,
but I’ve seen guy basketball players at a softball game. Why not?
My last game note came at the 2’ mark. There was scrum of sorts in the Aggie box,
and there was a great save at the end of it.
Our final was 2-0, err. . . 2-nil, Wolfpack. It was the next to worst case scenario for
the game for me: the opposing team going up by two or more goals, functionally
ending the game, but still having to still sitting through a half waiting for
the inevitable loss. The worst case
scenario would have been, me distracted by something and missing a goal being
scored. There’s no videoboard here. You’re not getting a replay.
After the game, a fellow walked by with an Albuquerque
Isotopes hat. I restrained myself from
taunting him, but still felt smugly superior with my PCL champion Chihuahuas’
hat. Even better, a co-worker, whom I
hadn’t noticed in crowd (since I was sitting down front) came over and said
“hello.” She was there with her
boyfriend, who was there rooting on his little sister. I forgot to ask the obvious question of
“Which player?” Having seen me writing
during the game, she asked me if I was reporting on the game. If want to call this reporting, bless your
dear heart.
After the game, the Aggie girls came out to midfield and
thanked the crowd. That was nice. I appreciated that. I think I spent five minutes gathering my
things and trying to figure out how to hold them to leave (that’s a seat, a
cushion, a notebook, a radio, and four posters I’m trying not destroy). Much of the crowd stuck around, presumably
waiting to see the girls after the coach finished speaking to them. Hopefully they weren’t sticking around just to
yell at them more.
I’m not familiar enough with soccer to make any constructive
criticism or really even dish out much praise.
The most I can say is that the Aggie goalie was kept really busy making
saves (#1 Ashley Martin, I think, I
didn’t get her number when she was introduced), and the Wolfpack goalie (who I
totally didn’t get a number for) got fairly fortunate in the first half, as she
kept charging out of the box, leaving the goal undefended.
So the big question, how was it overall? Well, this wasn’t the immediate love affair I
had after going to an Aggie softball game.
The girls there were very entertaining with their cheering and general espirit de corps. Also, it was more-or-less baseball. I was hoping that seeing a soccer match
in-person might be more enjoyable than on TV.
It was about the same, but I couldn’t change channels at the park. I’m probably less critical than most of the
people in the stands, but I did want to see a win.
What did I like?
Aggie #18 Reilly Marks and
Wolfpack #8 Mackenzie Robinson were
rather attractive. They were playing on
the wing on the sidelines, so I was able to see a lot of them. (Mackenzie also lost her headband by the
sidelines right before the end and came back around and get it after the
game.) Hey, I’m doing what I can to sell your sport
here. I wouldn’t have ever shown up for
a guy’s soccer match. Bottom line, I
actually did enjoy it. All of my issues
with soccer are still there, but the in-person experience kept my attention the
whole time. Certainly it’s better than
watching it on TV. I’ll go back if I
can. I was warned a long time ago by a
friend that I might like soccer. It’s
taken a while, but he might have been right.
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