College Women's Soccer

Tonight I went to the first home game for the UM women's soccer team. They played University of South Florida and UM lost 3-2. It was a game that UM probably should have won but a few tough breaks went against them and in the end they couldn't get the victory. In my opinion they did look like the better team on the field.



Within the game I was very impressed by the performance of Um midfielder Sheuneen Ta. She posses a remarkable amount of on ball handling skills. She adds a fair amount of excitement to the game, something that isn't really thought about when you think of women's soccer. I'm not in any way experienced enough with soccer though to really critique anything that she does or doesn't do but I would like to see her attack the goal more.

Also when a person watched UM soccer they can't help but notice or hear the intensity that goal keeper Lauren McAdam brings to the game. She always commands the defense in front of her and seems very effective in her leadership most of the time. She is also very fearless in the way she plays and definitely needs to be congratulated for that.

Now on to what I observed. The crowd was a pretty good sized one. This was the first home match of the season so a decent crowd would be much more likely. Also it was against a somewhat local opponent so their was a decent sized contingent from USF there. Now the real question to be answered is will the team keep to draw decent crowds or will they fall off. The crowd will certainly be smaller on Sunday. The game is at 1 in the afternoon and I'm not even that crazy to go to a game at that time of the day in south Florida.

I'm always intrigued by the types of crowds at the non-major collegiate sports, especially the women's events. Usually it's a lot of family members and kids. Heck at $5 a person it makes for a cheap night of entertainment for a family, especially in south Florida. The crowds are never all that enthusiastic though. I like to think that is because they are more their to enjoy the sport rather than to scream their hearts out like some sports fan seem to want to do. I don't think the relative lack of cheering is a bad thing as long as the people are enjoying the game. Of course it can be more fun with a loud cheering crowd. What I would like to see now is a loyal fan base being built for sports like soccer. They can be just as good of entertainment as a football or basketball game just people don't know about it. A winning team always helps though and UM isn't off to a good start in that respect.

I would encourage anyone that reads this to go out to some of the collegiate sports that don't draw big crowds. It's like going to a bar to see a live band. You get an intimate experience and a lot of the same enjoyment as a big time show.