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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