UC Santa Barbara does it again

From Soccer America:

UC Santa Barbara became the first team to draw two crowds of 10,000 or more in a season when the Gauchos attracted 11,242 fans -- the sixth largest crowd in NCAA regular-season history -- for their 2-0 win over Duke.

The soccer attendance story of 2010 rolls forward again. Tennessee has football, Kentucky has basketball, but CA has soccer.

Defenses the World Over Feeling Generous: Encourage Being Scored On

The first 30 seconds of the video show that "professional" doesn't equate with "I know what I'm doing." The ball is played into the box and then incorrectly played right back to that player. Perhaps the defender thought it was a practice day and they were supposed to just give "passive defense." Then, the ball moves to a man who isn't covered for at least ten yards even though the play is dangerously close to goal. He shoots the ball. Yet another defender, perhaps seeing that his own goalie will have an easy time with it, deflects the ball into the corner of his own net. You think I'm exaggerating. Roll tape.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to a Perfect Record

#1 Ranked and revered Akron men's team was only able to manage a 2-2 draw against #19 Ohio State. This means, oh my, Akron isn't invincible. Here is Akron's video summary of the match along with a game report.

Textbook: How to Give Away Goals

Here you will immediately notice a Chicago Fire player (in red, of course!) completely unmolested and easily able to receive a pass. Both players are in the offensive half. This is professional soccer? There are ways to mark up these guys to cut down the number of successful forward passes. I have heard the arguments for giving quick offenders space for fear they run by you freely and then are a massive threat. Isn't this pro soccer? Isn't everyone fast? and, Aren't defender able to rotate over and cover that stray offensive player that gets by someone? Yes, yes and yes. San Jose just looks lazy here.  It should be very difficult to receive the ball while facing forward in the offensive half, not easy as it is pictured here. Defenders are there to contest, molest, harass, and generally be complete pains in the neck for the offense every second of the game.

This was a key game for a San Jose side that is on the bubble to advance in the playoffs. This weak effort shows that they aren't up to muster at this late point in the season. No surprise that they went down to an embarrassing home loss that night.

15,000+ all in one night, not for the whole season

Not too long ago, 15,000 fans would have been the SEASON attendance total, not just for one game. Times are changing quickly, with attendance up nation wide and two of the top five most-attended regular season NCAA soccer matches of the modern era occurring just in the last 2 weeks. I should add also that they both were played in California, not in Maryland or Connecticut or North Carolina, or even in St. Louis.

UCSB defeated UCLA 2-0. By no means a crushing win, so the story becomes the event itself. Out of nowhere, soccer this fall is capturing the attention of money-restricted fans with attendance numbers way up in California as well as back in the traditional soccer-center of the mid-atlantic.

I asked my soccer-neutral wife what she thought of the attendance-record-smashing year and she commented that "People must like soccer." I thought for a moment. Yes, it probably is really that simple.

8,700 fans for a NCAA soccer match? Of course

A time traveller from the year 1994 arriving in San Luis Obispo in 2010 would incorrectly extrapolate the '94 World Cup soccer interest in the USA and assume that 8,700 fans must be totally normal and a logical progression from the WC excitement. 8,700 fans for a college soccer match makes it the 10th largest crowd (Soccer America) ever for NCAA soccer. So, what to make of it?

Well, 8,700 is news precisely because it isn't the norm. The last 16 years have seen a slow and steady rise in the MLS, but it still is only the 6th or 7th most popular pro sport in the USA, depending on what one measures. But people who live in SLO aren't the sort that cares to live in NYC and root for the Yankees. They probably wouldn't have gone to the game is their team consistently lost, but thrills come in many different colored packages. SLO residents consider themselves better than the average townies. Heck, they can get 5,000+ to show up at a farmer's market every Thursday evening.

The weather was perfect. The Cal Poly Mustangs have gone a coon's age without a single goal against at home. Soccer isn't $80 (or even $35) a ticket, so the whole family can go. The Spanos stadium upgrades a couple years ago have created an intimate sports arena with great site lines. If you build it, sell it at a reasonable price, on a nice night, with the reasonable hope of a winning feeling at the end, they will come. Even, or maybe because it is 3,000 miles from Gotham City.

Fresno Pacific Downs Holy Names 2-1 (OT)

Paul Islas put the Sunbirds up 1-0 in the first half. As their leading scorer, Islas is a force up front. He could use more support in the midfield (Gabriel Ramirez wherefore art thou!), but with the stellar work of Shawn Grieco that caused Holy Names nothing but grief all day long, FPU has scoring ability above many teams at this level.

FPU's slow start may have just turned a corner.

Bakersfield?

Soccer America Men's Top 25
(Sept. 14 rankings)
TEAM (RECORD) LAST WEEK
1. Akron (3-0-0) 1
2. Virginia (2-0-1) 2
3. North Carolina (2-1-0) 3
4. Tulsa (4-0-0) 4
5. Boston College (2-0-1) 5
6. Duke (1-0-2) 7
7. Connecticut (3-0-1) 6
8. Monmouth (4-0-0) 8
9. Ohio State (4-0-0) 9
10. Louisville (3-0-1) 11
11. Maryland (1-1-1) 12
12. Wake Forest (1-1-1) 14
13. Harvard (2-0-1) 15
14. Creighton (4-0-0) NR
15. Michigan State (3-1-0) 17
16. Portland (2-0-2) 18
17. Cal State Bakersfield (3-0-0) 20
18. UCLA (3-1-0) 23
19. St. John's (3-1-0) 24
20. UC Irvine (5-0-0) 25
21. SMU (5-0-0) NR
22. Butler (4-0-0) NR
23. New Mexico (2-1-1) 22
24. Notre Dame (2-1-1) NR
25. Penn (4-0-0) NR
25. William & Mary (3-0-0) NR
(Records are for games played through Sept. 12.)

World Cup 2010 Venues: Part 5 - Pretoria

Loftus Versfeld Stadium has a very classic though modern feel. With design inspiration from Europe, Loftus Versfeld looks permanent, well-built and experienced at hosting major soccer events. It was built in 2003 and has already been renovated (2008) for the World Cup. Some of rounds 1 and 2 will be hosted here in great style.

World Cup 2010 Venues: Part 4 - Rustenberg

Royal Bafokeng Stadium will be used in the early rounds of the South Africa World Cup next year. It is a multi-use stadium, which is not perfect, but very understandable smaller city to want to get the most future use out of the stadium decades after the World Cup has come and gone.

World Cup 2010 Venues - Part 3: Nelspruit

Mbombela Stadium takes its name from a southern African language called Swati, and it means "A lot of people together in a small space". Well, 40,000 people in the same building will be just that. Let's wait for its completion, which is expected this year.

Design? Nothing crazy here. I know that there are only so many ways to skin a cat, but I thought people went into the architecture field to be expressive. Well, most don't, obviously.

World Cup 2010 Venues - Part 2: Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein is home to Free State Stadium. Standard modern soccer stadium fair. Nothing to inspire, but at least fans are close to the field. Notice the cricket stadium at the top of the picture. This isn't Kansas anymore.

South Africa World Cup Venues - Part 1 : Durban

Of the ten stadiums planned for inclusion in next year's big adventure, this one is the most dramatic. It breaks from the English model (Finally!) and seems like Spain's Calatrava was channeled for the roof suspension design. Very innovative. Innovation is good.

It will be named King's Park.

FIFA 2010 South Africa - Number of Teams by Region

Home Team............ 1
Africa............... 5
America - At large... 1
Asia................. 5
Central and North Am. 3
Europe...............13
South America........ 4

Total................32

BTW, the official mascot as shown is named Zakumi. Using both a Z and a K (two unlikely letters in most languages) is astounding.

US MNT is listed as 17th in the World ?

FIFA rankings normally appear to made by drunk monkeys throwing darts at a board with the team names on it, but it is fun and quite heady territory to think that the drunk monkeys may be on to something that could prove quite intereting in the coming 15 months. The Men are winning convincingly and they haven't even really had all their best players on the field all at the same time yet.

Hope is a strange thing when it can spring from sauced primates.

Only 4 Countries NOT in the Hunt

FIFA recognizes 209 countries for the purposes of the World Cup. All but four are taking part in at least the preliminary matches for their region of the world. Those four that just aren't that into soccer are Bhutan, Brunei, Laos and the Philippines. Thanks to world cup blog for this heads up.

So, between today and early 2010, the world cup will shrink for a record 205 participants, to the 32 actually at the tournament in South Africa in June and July of 2010. (Do you say "two thousand ten" or "twenty ten"?)