UCLA v. Virginia and Great Soccer Culture

Looking at the UCLA v. Virginia game from a few weeks (ok, months) ago, two words sufficiently sum up the game: UCLA dominated. Even when Virginia had the ball, UCLA was only a touch or two away from reclaiming it. More importantly, the Bruin women stepped onto their field knowing they owned that ball. Though this is not Football (you will never get me to talk like this about Bruins and the pigskin), even admitting the obvious talent of last years Bruin women’s soccer squad hurts my Trojan sensibilities. So when I say they were good you know that it is overcoming a lot of collegiate prejudice to get there. The 3-0 score—one goal by Dea Cook to start the whole game off in the 3’ minute and two more by Sydney Leroux in the 41’ and 88’ minutes—reinforces their authority on that field.

I wish I could remember more about the play in the game or that I could decipher the incomprehensible scribbles in my notebook; sadly neither my memory nor my handwriting is working in my favor at the moment. Moving past the game itself, I want to focus more on the crowd and atmosphere in UCLA’s Drake Stadium.

(via the Bruin Athletics Site)

For those who do not know, UCLA has a big section of seats going up the hill that (sadly) are too big to be filled by women’s soccer fans (at least in any of the games I have gone to). As far as I can tell, the UCLA fans seem to leave that desolate space to the away team and the away team rarely brings that many fans. Not even the cross-town USC v. UCLA match-up had more than a handful of Trojans—the loudest of which, I assure you, were me and my friends—so why not regulate them to a desolate space that rarely produces more noise beyond a dull gust of wind.

(via the Bruin Athletics Site)

Across from this sparsely populated hill of seats are a few full stands bursting with Bruin blue and blue. If you ignore the college students playing soccer or Ultimate Frisbee on the fields behind the stands and focus on the game be forewarned that you might get involved in the game. You might start cheering with the crowd around you, passionately calling the players by name and number, cheering them on and harassing them when they make a mistake.

The crowds I have seen at UCLA’s Drake Stadium and USC’s McAlister Field got involved in the games. Almost as much as the players on the benches across the field. They may have been small when compared to the crowds either school’s football team could call upon, but they were passionate and loud. The good was cheered on, the bad were cheered at and the fans were as integral to the game experience as the players themselves. That’s great soccer culture.

Until next time,

Are You On the Ball?