Saturday, September 11, 2004

Build-Up and Dispossession

We motored over to the soccer stadium near Manley Fieldhouse around 1:15 p.m. today, fifteen minutes after the start of the men's soccer match between SU and Boston College.  Tied, they were, nil-nil.  It was beautiful, sunny weather.  Syracuse, I've concluded, is a town shrouded in weather moods.  When it's sunny, great place.  When it's cloudy/rainy, straight pits.

Ph. got in for free b/c it was Youth Day.  B.C. is currently ranked #8 in the nation, it turns out; they were deep in SU's backfield when we arrived mid-way through the first half.  

SU's got a young team this year, and their reputation in soccer is unremarkable.  Orange soccer, in my regard, is anxious soccer, or so it was today.  Touch, touch, dispossession.  Touch, dispossession. Dispossession, dispossession. And while I'm certainly no expert on the finer points of high-level soccer, I understand one of the basic tenets of passing-oriented team sports (basketball, soccer, etc.) to be build-up: coordinations of spacing, angularity, control, and distribution.  In hoops, the gem play is the give-n-go (well, fine...not to mention the screen-n-roll--an entry for another day).  In futbol, it's the give-give-give-give-give-give-n-goal (or SOG)--all predicated on masterful control and possession, which seems immensely more complicated because it is hands-free and kept by boundaries.  

Perhaps because the level of Big East soccer is extraordinary, the build-ups for both teams today were sub-par.  The kick-away style, characterized by desperate long-balls, was so glaring that Ph. and I started counting sequences in the second half.  (Of course, it's not official, but) SU had a total of two strings with three passes or more; BC had as many as seven or eight strings of three passes or more, including two strings of five gives--the best examples of possession and sharing of the last half of the match.  On one of the three-pass build-ups, BC scored the only goal of the match. Final: BC 1, SU 0.

SU's next home match is against Georgetown on October 3, but I don't know whether we'll hurry back to the stadium or grow into full-blow Orange soccer fans.  It was Youth Day, after all, and near the end of the match, a frustrated player let loose an f-list curse toward the kid-filled stands.  No jog-over acknowledgements after the match.  And I get it that sports can be frustrating, disappointing, etcetera, and that classy programs tend to be winning programs these days.  If nothing else, it added to a sense of nostalgia about the program at my last U., where vocal cussers, rare as they are, do push-ups on the sidelines and the entire team and coaching staff always--home and away--clap an appreciative gesture, even after a loss.  And so it doesn't concern me that Ph, for now, has recanted his wish to be a ball boy.  Doesn't concern me one bit.

Posted by Derek Mueller at September 11, 2004 11:23 PM to Sport