Wednesday, October 18, 2017

NM State Aggies vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners Soccer 10-6-17


And it’s Game #2 of the week for me and the girls.  After Monday’s game (10-2-17), I heard Coach Freddy Delgado on the Aggie Coaches’ Show.  He had a huge amount of praise for goalie Dmitri Fong, calling her the best in conference.  No argument from me.  He also said they were really happy with attendance.  You’re welcome.  And to add a postscript to Monday’s game, the coach said he was using a lot of reserve players for that game. 

According to today’s program, that game had 390 in attendance, which wasn’t bad for a Monday afternoon.  This Friday afternoon game, which was the conference opener versus CSU-Bakersfield, was much better attended.  [Edit: Official attendance had the Friday game at 250, a count which fails the eyeball test with me.  If it’s correct, who were they counting at that Monday game?  The birds?]  In fact, I was bit shocked, as this did start at 3:00.  The main grandstand was pretty much full.  There were only a handful of kids.  Even without them, the out-of-bounds balls were being taken care of better than last time.  A couple of little kids took to waving their team posters at rail of the grandstand to cheer on the players.  This was a noisy bunch too.  Bakersfield brought some fans, so there was a lot of cheering going on all the time.  It was nice.  Angry Mom and Angry Dad were either not there or muffled.    

I feel like my notes on the game are a bit sparse.  A nice senior lady named Marty was seated in front of me and was pretty sociable with everyone around her.  I was glad for the company, which was more important than scribbling notes.  She had met four of the girls wearing their team shirts at her work.  They’d invited her to today’s game.  There’s some productive community outreach.

Another older fellow was nearby who used to a referee.  He said he didn’t know anything about soccer before he started.  Well, this explains a lot.  Actually, he was very insightful.  He could see clearly what the teams should have been doing on offense and questioned the coaching.  Certainly he was probably right, but from watching some other games, it’s clearly a lot easier to see these things from the stands than playing in the field.  When asked about fan jeering, he said that the referees don’t hear it.  Okay.          

Certainly it was nice enough to attract a crowd.  After a nasty thunderstorm last night (which apparently tore down part of the NM State Soccer sign on the wall), it was warm and sunny with a light breeze.  The Aggies were in pink, which really confused me at times.  Aileen Galicia and Cristina Bertoldo were back in to start.  Cristina had plenty of fans in the stands.  Audriana “Audrey” Chavez was out, not surprising given her injury in the last game.

First Half
One minute in, before anybody’s even gotten settled, the Roadrunners scored.  It was very well executed.  Dmitri came out to stop the attack, but on the rebound, it was an easy kick in by Aminah Settles, 1-0 Roadrunners.  Mentally, I was worried I was in for a thrashing.  38’ left in the half, Aileen rushed the Bakersfield net was two defenders in front of her and took a shot.  Angry Mom in the stands never has to tell Aileen to “Shoot it!”  Devin Hart and Jody Hernandez combined on another attack at 37’.  34’ a military Osprey flew overhead.  It didn’t sound like anything else.  It was coming from Fort Bliss, not sure where it was going.  Okay, I thought that was pretty cool.  We’ll call it a late Anthem flyover. 

The Aggies got a couple of corner kicks.  Rebecca Mazzie got a good shot from outside the box at 27’.  18’ Aileen had a one-on-one with the goalie.  The Roadrunners regrouped and made three attacks starting at 17’, one on a turnover.  Dmitri turned them away.  On two of the attacks, Aileen ran all the way back down the field to disrupt to the attacks, one of which would have been a one-on-one with the goalie. 

13’ there was disputed foul which left both sets of fans complaining.  Later, a foul was called for Bakersfield and one of their fans yelled out, “Thanks for joining us!”  10’ Aileen made another 1 vs 2 attack on goal.  5’ Cristina took a shot on a free kick.  The Roadrunners attacked for the rest of the half.  4’ Kelly Burton had a good kick out of the box.  Dmitri then made a jump save on another attack.  Bakersfield had a pair of corners.  One led to a header over the net.  The other corner shot went behind the net.  A ball went into the stands to end the half.

Halftime
Shots on goal were Aggies 4, Roadrunners 6.  A collection was taken up for Puerto Rico hurricane relief.  Tuti Tirado on the team is from there and plays for their national team.  It didn’t hurt that a couple of pretty staff members were taking up the collection.  There was a bike giveaway also.  Boy, they’ve got some prizes to give.  Two ladies on opposite sides of the stands were screaming and dancing for it. 

Second Half
44’ the Aggies made a charge at the Bakersfield net right at the start.  42’ Dmitri made a stop.  She was getting really vocal with the team.  39’ Aileen rushed the Roadrunner goalie, who smothered the attack.  38’ a Bakersfield attack just missed, but a second attack created a scrum in front of the net.  A defender tried to clear the ball out, but Jordan Martinez was able to kick it in as Dmitri dove for it, 2-0 Roadrunners

Well, things looked bad.  36’ Aileen took it down for another solo attack.  She is relentless.  34’ there was a dangerous back pass to Dmitri.  She handled it, no problem.  Those things make me nervous.  26’ Samantha Afonso, who goes by “Fonzi”, took a shot from outside the box.  28’ there was an injury on the far side of the field.  Both teams immediately went to the sidelines for a drink.  24’ Dmitri made a punch save.  17’ the game took a rough turn, as the girls started fighting near the stands over the ball.  The crowd, and myself, loved it.  (We really shouldn’t encourage that.)  Aileen came out with ball and took another shot. 

8’ finally, after an assist by Jody, Aileen put it in on a breakaway, 2-1 Roadrunners.  That’s all Aileen really needs; somebody feeding her the ball, instead of trying to do it all herself.  Aileen then attacked the goalie fielding a pass right after.  The Aggies attacked furiously in the closing minutes.  6’ Rebecca took a shot.  3’ Jody passed to Aileen for another shot.  2’ Devin to Aileen.  Gooooooooal!  It was beautiful.  That was probably the loudest I’ve heard the soccer stadium get cheering.  2 all.  Dmitri blocked a last second shot to send it to overtime.

First Overtime
The announcer was really into it while explaining the rules.  We were all excited, fans on both teams.  Devin and Aileen hugged out on the field during the break.  I think I saw Audrey out there congratulating them.  She wasn’t dressed to play, but she was able to walk on her own.  The Aggies had one chance with Aileen making a good pass across the net, but no one was there to finish.  Bakersfield got off two shots in the last minute; one over the net and one saved by Dmitri.  About halfway through, Jody got laid out on her back, but managed to keep playing.

Second Overtime
Birds attempted to take the field, but wisely decided instead to hang out behind the north goal.  8’ the Roadrunners got a shot that just went high.  6’ Jess McDow got a shot on goal on a free kick outside the box.  3’ Bakersfield took shot just in front of the net, but sent it over the goal.  1’ the Roadrunners had a wide open shot, but Dmitri stopped it and saved the match.  Aileen took a final Aggie shot with less than a minute.  And we end tied: Aggies 2, Roadrunners 2.                 

I would have felt cheated with a tie, but it was fairly exciting.  The Aggies probably should have lost today, but Aileen’s efforts and Dmitri’s stops kept them in it.  Marty went to the field to say “Hi” to the girls.  She asked me earlier if she’d like her to introduce me to them.  I guess going over to give some congratulations would have been order, but I felt a bit shy about it.  I’ll wait and see if they do another autograph session or something like that.  Afterward, unfortunately, no baseball training was going on that I could tell.  The baseball coach invited people to see their inter-squad games, but didn’t mention what time they started at.  Oh, well.  That’s enough for today (except for the sports I’d be watching on TV later).    



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