Wednesday, September 13, 2017

NM State Aggies vs Incarnate Word Cardinals Soccer 9-10-17


As promised last year (10-29-16), I came back.  Actually, I was eager to get back to see the girls.  They’d had great wins over UTEP and UNM earlier this season.  I’m pretty sure Coach Freddie Delgado’s job is secure for another year.   Speaking of him, I’ve heard the coach on the Aggies Coaches’ Show a couple of times.  He is a surprisingly soft-spoken guy for a coach.  During one interview, Freddie encouraged fans to come down to the field after the matches to meet the players.  And further, he asked the fans to go ahead and coach from the stands during the game.  Shout out instant criticism of the players as loud as you can.  I’m kidding there, but he did encourage the fans to meet the players.

Since their 4-0-1 start however, the team has dropped three in a row.  The coach was crediting their winning record to red-shirt freshman goalie, Dmitri Fong’s efforts in the net.  Then she got a concussion and hasn’t played since.  (I don’t know any of the details.)  This coincides with the three-game losing streak.  Coincidence?  It’s also a pretty young team with only two seniors, both defenders, so there’s not a lot of offensive leadership.  Today’s opponent, Incarnate Word, is 0-3.  Hopefully, this would be a good opportunity for them to bounce back.

After arriving at the stadium, I picked up a Cristina Bertoldo poster and a team poster and the program page at the courtesy table on the way in.  I did this after getting a small popcorn and a Gatorade at the concessions.  I was also holding my seat and cushion, an umbrella, and my notebook.    You may imagine the amusing juggling act I put on at the table.  I spilled my popcorn, and then shamefully, scooped it back into the cup.  (Hey, I paid good money for it.)  Somehow, I made it to a seat in the grandstand without losing anything. 

The pleasant voice of the soccer PA (whoever that guy is, I like him) said it was 80-something degrees, but it was hot as heck.  I was dripping sweat well before the match.  I didn’t even hesitate on popping my umbrella.  A good sized crowd filed in.  The girls lined up for introductions.  While the local girls on the team got the biggest applause, Aileen Galicia was the biggest, hammy personality.  That cracked me up. 

Suddenly, KC Tohm from the volleyball team and volleyball alum, Nathalie Castellanos, came in together.  They were tall, beautiful, and were showing lots of large tattoos (which I don’t really approve of, they don’t make you prettier).  I wanted to yell out a “Hi,” or congratulate them on yesterday’s win, but was too intimidated to bother them.  This set a bad precedent as the rest of the team trickled in after the game started, and I still didn’t say anything.  The girls kept walking by during the match to get water at the courtesy table, making me feel worse.  At least one guy nearby them noticed them and said, “Yea Aggie Volleyball!”  (Megan Hart is pretty conspicuous when it comes to recognition.)  I saw a bandage on Bridgette Lowe’s hand, so that was probably why she wasn’t playing in the games on Friday and Saturday.

I wrote down a bunch of notes for the first half.  Unfortunately, my pen failed and my pencil-writing is even worse than my pen-writing.  It’s barely readable and the information isn’t terribly useful either.  Trendwise, the Aggies had the ball in the (somehow, I never got the other team’s name) Cardinals' (is that it?) end for most of the half.  Alieen came up making a lot of the attacks.  She got a couple of shots from inside the box a couple of minutes in. 

The fans started yelling at the girls shortly afterward, “Shoot it!”  I’m thinking and mentally groaning, Already?  Next volleyball match, I should start shouting, “Spike the ball!  Jump higher!  Hit the ball inbounds next time!” and we’ll see how that goes over.  (Coach Jordan comes up into the stands and punches me out, “That’s MY job!”)   Cristina got a foul early for tripping.  I heard behind me, “That’s a good foul!”  Then there’s, “Go to the ball!” and “Make space!”  The lady in front of me kept saying, “Shoot it!” and then “Stop going backwards!  Turn around!”  (She might have had point there.  I questioned that myself.)  These are very passionate, knowledgeable fans, and they really suck.

After a few attacks, Aileen had her hands on her knees during a stoppage and looked like she was about to puke, or the fans were making her sick.  These attacks didn’t produce points.  Incarnate Word (IW) started getting in some counter-attacks.  At 23’ left in the half, there was a bad tackle in the Aggie box, which resulted in a penalty kick.  The fans yelled out some encouragement to goalie, Ashley Martin, but  Isabel Garcia would convert on the opportunity for a 1-0 lead for IW.

The game got more physical as the Aggies intensified their attack.  Audriana Chavez and Devin Hart got in some shots.  9’ left and Aileen got in two shots on goal on the same play.  She looked winded afterward.  The coach must have seen it too, and Tuti Tirado came in for her.  I saw an interview Adam Young did with her before the season.  I think she said played over in Europe in the off season.  She’s another player I like on the team.  The half ended without a change in the score.

KC and Nathalie left at halftime.  KC stopped in front of me for a moment and looked at the crowd.  Finally I said, “KC!” and smiled and waved.  In another venue, she would have likely had a “Do I know you?” look on her face.  At the university however, it’s obviously a fan.  She smiled sweetly and waved back.  My day was made.  There was no halftime entertainment other than a bunch of kids storming the field, playing around the goals.  The wind kicked up momentarily, scattering my stuff.  “Look at the pretty clouds overhead,” I put in my notes.  I was probably having a heat stroke, or was still dazzled by KC’s smile.

In the second half, the volleyball team relocated to in front of the stands, where there might have been some shade.  Fair-skinned, Canadian Megan thankfully had an umbrella protecting her.  The Aggies went on the attack again.  33’ left Rebecca Mazzie passed to Devin Hart in the IW box.  “Goooooooooal!” went the PA.  A little boy ball in front of me did a somersault in joy.  We’re tied at one.

“You’re wrong, Ref!” at least the fans would criticize the referees too.  A girl on the Cardinals was flattened on a play.  “She’s okay!” interjected a fan.  She was down for quite a while before their trainer was able to help her off.  I couldn’t figure out the injury, but she spent the rest of the half on the bench with a towel over her head.  During the time out, volleyballers Ari Sierra and Sasha-Lee Thomas were playfully fighting on the sidelines.  Ari had already chewed her out for showing up an hour late.  She really is the vocal leader of the team, even though most of the rest of the team is a foot taller than her.

Devin Hart again!  “Gooooooal!” 26’ left in the match.  She got it into an unprotected net with the goalie out battling in a scrum.  2-1 Aggies and there wasn’t even time to get comfortable before that changed.  IW went on the attack.  Ashley made a block in front of the net and instead of catching it with the box full of Cardinals, she batted it forward.  Sam Batley made her pay immediately with 23’ left.  Tied at 2.

One minute later, Brooke Hanson of IW was back in the Aggie box on a one-on-one breakaway.  Ashley made another poor decision trying to stop her, and the Cardinals were up 3-2.  The coach immediately took her out; Raeann Garcia came in.  (I should mention the wind kicked up again.  Not only was I still writing down notes on the last goal, my stuff was flying around.  By the time I was more composed, it was too late to more accurately record the play.)  Right after this, Cardinal Jade Piper stripped the ball and ran past four defenders to take another shot.  Obviously, the Aggies had lost control of their surroundings too.

Raeann did make a few good saves at this point, which was good, but bad in that the Aggies were having trouble getting the ball out of their end.  The PA missed giving the one-minute warning, but inside that last minute, the Aggies made a desperate charge at the net.  In the scrum at the front of the net, it was momentarily left wide open, but the kick went high.  The Aggies tried a corner kick, but time expired.  3-2 Incarnate Word was our disappointing final.      
 
Our stat of the match is actually on the program under goalie stats, which I noticed afterward.  Dmitri Fong: 5 games, 1 goal allowed.  Ashley Martin: 3 games, 10 goals allowed and go ahead and add another game and three more goals.  Oh, how I hate singling out unpaid student-athletes for poor play.  Really.  It’s not even fair to blame one person for a series of defensive breakdowns.  Those soccer fans must be negatively rubbing off on me.  (Actually, they didn’t get mad at Ashley.  There was some yelling about the decision-making, but nothing personal or demands to take her out.)  This team is not prolifically scoring and unless it suddenly figures out how, there has to be a change in the box.  Ashley was making the physical stops, but her problems unfortunately appear to be mental.  Hopefully, Dmitri can come back.  In the meantime, Raeann Garcia should be in.     

The girls came out on the field afterward and thanked the fans.  The coach talked to them and led them in some stretching.  Afterward, many of the fans (I’m assuming family and friends) stayed around and went down to see the team.  It was a bit subdued though.  On the way down from the stands, I found another Aggie Athletics report (11-9-16) that was abandoned.  I’ll write something about this later.  Driving out, I saw the injured IW girl being carted off.  Her head was still wrapped in a towel.  God bless her.  For lunch, I used a Schlotzsky’s coupon on the back of a recent Aggie ticket.  It was delicious $5 meal.  If I add in the Gatorade and popcorn, food was still less than last night’s meal at the Pan-Am Center.  

To this point, I still haven’t been scared off from returning to the soccer field.  In spite of the crowd and the heat, it is kind of interesting in person.  (It’s still not interesting on TV for me.  Don’t hold your breath.)  I’m planning on going some more, but this sport is on thin ice with me.  A win would help my attitude.


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