NOVEMBER 30, 2008
We didn't say the S word all weekend. The S word, of course, being soccer and, while soccer is usually my favorite word in the universe, it became a dirty, painful, gut wrenching word Friday when UP lost their quarterfinal game against Stanford, which eliminated UP from the playoffs.
The game was a heartbreaker in that UP came so close to scoring, including one that hit the crossbar and would've gone in if it had been just a centimeter lower, but neither team could find the back of the net so the score was 0-0 going into the last five minutes. And at that point, I was sure it was going into overtime, which would give UP more time, so hope was still alive.
But then it happened. With less than four minutes left in the game, Stanford scored and there wasn't enough time for UP to make a comeback. The game was over, UP lost, and that was the end of their playoff run and championship hopes.
But, on the flip side, UP did better this year than anyone thought they would. In fact, at the start of the season, the sports experts wrote UP off due to the fact that they'd be without five of their best players for the season (two players out due to injury, three players gone due to the U-20 World Cup), and losing five of your best players is the kind of thing that would doom most teams. Even I didn't think UP would do well, what with the challenges they faced, so the fact that they only lost two games and made it to the quarterfinals is utterly amazing.
But then, that's also what makes the quarterfinal loss sting so much. UP wasn't expected to do well this year, they were the underdogs, so the experience of watching the players really come together and fight like hell to defy the odds was incredible and left you wanting them to win the championship that much more.
So, we are depressed about the soccer right now. And I'd make a joke about feeling like we got kicked in the balls but, truth is, we got kicked right in the goal, and that hurts a hell of a lot more. I'd take a painful shot to the nards over a playoff defeat any day, especially since I don't have any nards.
So, that's the end of soccer this year and the dreaded off season has begun. UP is done until next summer and the Timbers' season doesn't start until April, so we're facing four excruciating months without soccer. Oh, the agony.
Sigh. Time to hibernate. Someone wake me up when there's a reason to exist. Er, I mean when soccer season starts again.
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