With soccer being the fastest growing and most popular sport in the world, and knowing very little about it, I was really looking forward to checking it out in person at the Richmond Kickers’ home opener at University of Richmond Stadium on Saturday. 

I arrived just before Isabel, Jared and her friend from out of town, Jenny. “I just talked to Mauricio,” Isabel said. “They’ll be here in just a few minutes. Let’s go ahead and grab seats.”

We walked through the ticket gates and around the concessions building toward the field. As we walked up to the wall near the stands we realized we were not going to get the best seats.

“Guess we should have gotten here a little bit earlier,” I said as we maneuvered up and down the stands in search of a good place to sit.

We finally found a decent spot off to the right and settled in to watch the game.

Knowing Isabel was attending a bachelorette party the night before I asked, “So, how are you feeling today?”

“Surprisingly not bad! I totally thought I’d be dragging,” she said. “Oh! I have pictures! Want to see?”

“No!” Jared and I exclaimed in unison. Jared continued, “I’ve seen two already and that was two too many.”

Having had enough of that conversation and stomach grumbling, I decided to get a snack from the concession stand before the game began.

When I returned with hot dog and drink in hand Mauricio and his sister, Andrea, had found Isabel and company and the game had started. “Did I miss anything?”

“Not yet,” Mauricio replied. “The Kickers have a really good team so it should be a fun game.”

Having missed the kickoff I wasn’t sure who was who. “Okay, who are the Kickers? Are they the team that’s red with white or the white and black with red?”

Jared provided that bit of information. “Red with white. Look at the mascot. He’s wearing the same jersey. Western Mass is the other team.”

Several minutes into it I realized I knew as much about soccer as I did cricket and began peppering Mauricio and Jared with questions.

“What’s the difference between a regular foul and a yellow card foul?”

“When is a corner kick called for?”

“How is time kept? It’s not like football or basketball… the clock just keeps running!?”

As the first half came to a close it was a scoreless game. Several contests including a game of musical chairs and a Frisbee toss took place while we awaited the second half to begin.

“I have no idea how you guys can do this,” I said to Mauricio and Jared, both of whom are on a league soccer team. “I’d be done in after the first ten minutes or so!”

Kickeroo, the Richmond mascot, kept pacing the sidelines doing an assortment of weird gyrations to get the crowd revved up. On his pass by our end of the field Isabel took Jared down there so she could get a picture with him.

Watching from afar, the sight was something out of a comedy. Isabel waved her hands motioning him over to her. He did the same. She tried again explaining she wanted a photo. He motioned her toward the field and mimed dancing with her. When she refused, the mascot began strutting around waving his elbows in a visual insult, calling her a chicken.

With all the antics ending in a stalemate he finally gave in and let her take a photo with him without getting his dance.

Right after that we took notice as several good passes ended in a score for Richmond. Everyone went wild as the team swarmed each other.

Just a couple minutes later there was another score for Richmond effectively ending any chances Western Mass had due to the time.

“Hey, we’re going to bust out so we don’t have to fight traffic,” Mauricio said.

“Yeah, us too,” Isabel agreed.

On the way out there was a call for a penalty shot for Richmond. We paused at the top of the stands to watch the Kickers score their final point of the night.

That was the signal for everyone else to leave as we got swept through the gates toward our cars believing the Kickers had secured a 3-0 victory.

“Wow! That was pretty intense. The other team just caved in at the end” I said.

“Conditioning,” commented Mauricio. “It’s all about conditioning.”