No football, but plenty of fútbol

[This post originally appeared on my xanga on October 13th, 2006. It is here for reflection reasons. To view the original entry, click here.]

So while buying scantrons might be disappointing (They are something like 48 cents each… but thank goodness I didn’t need one for my math midterm today…), there is nothing like watching a good game of soccer under the lights here at Buck Shaw Stadium on a Friday.

That’s right, while the majority of the nation gets ready for an action packed Saturday of beer, body paint and bombs (touchdown passes), we here at good ol’ Santa Clara lace on the soccer cleats, pick up some popcorn and pay two dollar bills for 90 minutes of fútbol (soccer, for those of you who never took any spanish), involving kicking, tackling and sometimes, scoring. I say sometimes because there seem to be so many people on the field (12 I think?) at one time, so you really have to try hard to get ball through. The women (ranked third in the nation here) seem to do it better than the men (ranked fifteenth?). After all, it was the women who beat San Jose State 6-0 on a wet, rainy and cold night last week, while the men, under perfect conditions, cool skies and a decent crowd, tied a St. Mary’s team, 0-0.

I’d have to say though, the highlight of this game was not the two shots that hit off the crossbars (exciting, even for a soccer newbie like me), but rather the guy who sat next to me and ripped apart and heckled the goalie for the second half, shouting things like “The school you go to isn’t even one!!” (It is much easier to get into St. Mary’s than SCU, truth not bias) and whatever else. That was really, really funny.

So no football here at Santa Clara (the team was actually disbanded in 1993 due to financial reasons), but plenty of fútbol. And that’s the way we like it. After all, Brandi Chastain graduated from here…

Can’t wait for college basketball season to begin.

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