I would have liked to have checked the website before the match to see how the team was doing, but wasn’t able to. I did watch the Aggie profiles show the night before, which featured two of the girls on the soccer team: #20 Dominique Rivera and #24 Tuti Tirado. Both played for the Puerto Rican national team. Rivera was very complimentary of 5’0” Tuti, saying she showed no fear facing Caribbean girls over a foot taller than her. Tuti was very appreciative of playing at NMSU. She wished that the rest of the Puerto Rican team could play here with NMSU’s superior facilities and equipment. New Mexico State supports Women’s soccer better than the Puerto Rican national team? I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
Driving in, I saw about 10 people in the stands, which caused immediate concern. I was also concerned about parking at the university during the day and had a one day pass on my dashboard (which you can get on their website). While getting my ticket, the girl at counter said they aren’t strict about parking on gamedays when I asked her about it (I wouldn’t put that to the test). Looking behind me, I suddenly realized I was holding up a line of dozen people, who’d just came up behind me. I felt better about the parking and the crowd. One lady brought up a van full of little kids, who were signed up as ball kids on the sidelines. Shouldn’t they have been in school? Whatever. It was mostly partly cloudy for the match, which was good, because the sun was hot whenever it came out. There was the occasional lovely smell of freshly cut grass whenever the wind shifted to carry it.
The crowd did fill in nicely before the match. There may have been more people for this match than the Saturday match I last attended. A few Chicago State fans were in attendance. The referees were introduced as they came to mid-field to the tune of Linus and Lucy. Not sure if there was a message there. The girls on both teams lined up and were introduced. For the anthem, the Aggies held hands. The Cougars held hands and had their other hand on each other’s shoulders. So many of them look so small and young compared to other female athletes at the university, which is surprising given some of the rough, physical contact out on the pitch.
I have two and half pages of notes on the first half, which was scoreless. Let’s just do a quick recap instead. The Aggies held the ball in Cougars’ end for much of the half. #10 Alieen Galicia and 4’11” #22 Gabby Campbell were involved in much of the action around the Cougars’ goal. A few of Alieen’s supporters were sitting behind me. Cougar #0 Audra Wisehart was kept busy, but many of the shots just went wide, though a Chicago State player was shaken up on a scrum in front of the net. (She came off to a round of polite applause. There was another injured Cougar player in the second half that was also acknowledged.) Chicago State had a few chances. #1 Ashley Martin had a couple of good saves, including one on a breakaway. By halftime, shots on goal were 7 to 2 Aggies.
A couple of late offsides calls waved off a pair of goals. I understand hockey offsides. Soccer offsides I’m not quite getting, especially when it’s called well after a shot on goal. The knowledgeable fans were also angry about it, so it wasn’t just me being ignorant. As the missed shots and opportunities started piling up, the crowd became more and more vocal and a bit unruly. They were calling for the girls to take shots and not dribble or pass it. I saw a piece on the El Paso TV news recently about the UTEP soccer team. Their facility is next to the Sun Bowl, and they lead their conference in attendance, averaging about 1000 per match. Ugh. If those fans are the same as here, you’d have to listen to more of them yelling at their own players. I’ve been told that fans at international matches are even worse.
The halftime show was a game of Musical Soccer. Some football players (I think, they were big, strapping young men), who had come in during the first half, were brought to midfield, each with a ball. While the music was going, they needed to dribble the ball around in a circle. When it completely stopped, they had to kick it downfield and into a goal. Then they needed to pick up the ball and run back to the circle. The last person would be cut. PA was clearly having a good time mocking their efforts and messing with them, stopping and starting the music. When it was down to three, the fratricide started, and when it was down to two, the boys just went at each other. One of them finally won, though the PA also gave it to the ball kids, who were running down the guys’ bad shots.
For the second half, local girl #16 Cristina Bertoldo, came in on defense. She has some supporters in the crowd. After about ten minutes into the half (and me fearing a nil-nil tie), Alieen Galicia just took over. For about 15 minutes, she made charge after charge into the Cougar’s box. A couple of times, she clashed directly with Keeper Wisehart. Finally with 18’ left in the half, after a great pass from Gabby, Alieen kicked it in. The PA goes into a long call of “GOOOOOOAL!” The crowd goes crazy. Alieen and Wisehart collide again soon after. Alieen was taken out of the game a minute later. I don’t think she was injured, but she must have been exhausted.
#9 Valerie Maestas had a great shot about five minutes later that was only stopped by a tremendous poke save by Wisehart, the save of the match. Other than that, the Aggies were in a more defensive posture after getting the lead. It was right after that save, that the Cougars charged downfield. At 9’ left in the game, #7 Makenzi Marier had the angle kicked it for the tie, 1-1. A few cheers went up from the crowd, but most of the Aggie fans were angry.
With a couple of minutes left, there’s a yellow card issued to a Chicago State player for running over an Aggie at midfield. (The paper account mentions another yellow card against Chicago at about the same time, but I didn’t see it.) In the last minute, a corner kick by Dominique into a mob in front of the Chicago State net finds her Puerto Rican teammate Tuti. The shortest player in the bunch heads it in. “Goooooal!” The Aggies win 2-1!
My Aggie player of the game is #10 Alieen Galicia for her determined, relentless assaults on the net. #22 Gabby Campbell was also all over my notes for shots on goal. Cougar #0 Audra Wisehart deserves commendation. Aggie shots on goal were 12 to 2. The score shouldn’t have been so close and Audra gets much of the credit for that. The paper also mentioned she was a last minute sub into the game.
The Aggie girls came out of midfield and waved to the crowd. The poor Chicago State girls had to run a lap from their bench to stands. I also noticed they had to stand for the whole game. The Aggie coach gave the girls a talk, and they let out a cheer afterward. Much of the crowd came on to the field to talk to the players. Even one of Cougar players was met by family on the field. For me, I’m still not entirely sold on the sport, especially the other fans. Unlike volleyball and softball, the action and the girls are further away from the fans most of the time and developing a connection with the players is harder. Still, it was nice for an afternoon and took my mind off the Ranger loss.
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