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I'm sitting here feeling a little stunned, depressed, and worried. UP had their first game of the 2006 season today. #1 UP (undefeated 2005 NCAA champs) vs. #11 University of Florida and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. A freakin' tie! Granted, this was the first game of the season so UP's a bit rusty and Florida's goal was questionable (they were awarded a penalty kick with 4 minutes left in the game), but I really hoped UP would start the season better than this.
It's difficult to know what went wrong since the game wasn't broadcast on tv or radio. The only access I had was the live stats on cstv, and it was torturous spending 90 minutes staring at my browser waiting for one or two sentence text updates. Not that I'm complaining about cstv, I'm glad they offer live stats and they do a good job of keeping up with the game, but without actually being able to see the action, it's hard to know what was off kilter for UP.
But, this was just the first game of the season and you can't gage a team or season by one game, especially the first. That and UP needs time to adjust to the loss of Christine Sinclair and Lindsey Huie. Christine was UP's top scorer (broke an NCAA record last year with 39 goals in one season and she's the 2nd highest scorer in NCAA womens soccer history), and Lindsey lead UP in assists, so UP lost their dynamic duo of scoring and it will be awhile before they learn how to fill the void. But, UP still has superb players and they'll have a good year, just not quite as magical as last year's undefeated season.
And that's ok. Really, it is. I'll be able to cope. I'll just get some valium and a bottle of vodka and I'll be fine. Besides, it's not like I'm unfamiliar with losing. I am a Timbers fan, after all.
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