Geez, New Jersey and suburban DC -- the twa armpits o the east coast--have hardly any reason to look down on Richmond. And you're not talking about Richmond there--that's Chesterfield County. Congrats to UCSB and good luck in the Final Four.
I'm sorry. I was just going on personal experience and numerous stories from friends originally from Fairfax who are now at Virginia Commonwealth.
What a moment. UCSB is sooooo hungry for a national title. The crowd rushed the field at the end and carried the goal off the field. I've never heard of that happening before.
Nope. they're in the city. The border is the Chippenham bridge over Midlothian Turnpike. Just had to point that out since I grew up about 4 miles down the road in Chesterfield. VCU was pretty much finished once Oduro got injured. He was almost all their offense this season. Still, better than anyone could have expected out of them this year after losing Delicate, Cephas, Neagu, and Pauls (basically their entire offense).
Congrats to the Gauchos. Making the Final Four is great under any circumstances but even better considering they played without one of their top players, Neil Jones, who was serving a red-card suspension. After IU ragged on them in Soccer America, it would sure make for good drama if UCSB faced the Hoosiers in the final! How good is this cat Andy Iro? Sounds like he is a tough bastard and is 6-4, 200 so he has great size and he came up big today. Is he a legit MLS prospect? Finally, it's about damn time we got a quasi-local team in the Final Four. Since UVa made it in Richmond in 97, no local teams have made the Final Four. No Virginia teams made it in Richmond in 98, though some might say Maryland counted as "local." The two years the FF was in Charlotte, no teams from the Carolinas made it and the closest team there was UConn and that didn't exactly have much of a local following. In 01 and 03 in Columbus, Indiana made it and that's just one state away but a good 3 hours, at least, from Bloomington and none of the other teams - UNC, St. John's, Stanford, Maryland and Santa Clara - would be considered local. And in 02, in Dallas, the closest team there was Creighton and Omaha is a LONG way from Texas. Hopefully UCSB's presence will help the crowds at Home Depot.
http://ucsbgauchos.collegesports.com/sports/m-soccer/stats/120504aaa.html Box score says there was over 11,000 at Harder Stadium! From reports I've heard from friends, it sounds accurate. Gaucho fans are absolutely starving for a national title.
Wow. Congrats to VCU for making it this far though, and a streaker! Sounds like I was at the wrong disappointing-resulting game tonite!
Wow. Thats cool. I'm rooting for UCSB in the final four. Its funny, I'm a huge college basketball fan and during championship week I have always watched like every conference final for years. i've always remembered that whenever the gauchos were in the final game how great their fans were. Good luck UCSB. Hope you take it.
To let you know, I was just busting your chops because I'm an ODU grad. you guys have a great program. You guys did a great job making the CAA proud.
I just returned from the UCSB-VCU game. The crowd was just over 11,000...what a sight! After the shock of the initial VCU goal, the Gauchos carried the game. I walked past the SB team on the way in...some big dudes! They are very physical, but I don't think it was anything outrageous, as some have stated...just very physical. The speedy VCU forwards caused some trouble early one, but that was it. The third goal was scored when the keeper came out to cut off the angle, sending the UCSB player (Proctor, I think..) out wide right. He hit a sweet shot from a pretty intense angle. The first and finals goals came of some wicked corners from Lochead...classy crosses on both. A streaker ran across the field with about a minute left and the score 4-1....it was freaking hilarious. I am pretty sure he got away. The students totally swarmed the field afterwards..what a sight! A handful grabbed the goal at the south end of the stadium and carried it away...another true SB moment. They made it about a quarter mile, to one of the main campus entrances. When I got to the spot, the goal was laying on its side in a median (The El Colegio guard station for you former Isla Vistans). It was surrounded by about ten police and Highway Patrol officers, including one with a dog...total comedy. I cannot wait for the semis next Friday. Who said we have no chance against Duke? One of our best players (Neil Jones) missed tonight's match with a red card suspension and will be ready for next weekend. I'll try and post some pictures to my website....Go Gauchos!!!
He got beat up pretty good tonight, but he is a man among boys (or tree among shrubs) on high balls, even as a freshman. How tough? He's from Liverpool...'nuff said!
Sandon, what was printed in SA about IU-UCSB? I must have missed that one. I'm guessing Freitag commented on UCSB's physical play/style of play after the Gauchos beat the Hoosiers earlier in the season? Do tell . . .
OK, I'll stand corrected on the location of the stripjoints. I haven't been further South than dogtown in years. Yup -- a great year, and getting to the quarters should help recruitment. Especially once they see the Midlothian Turnpike. I wonder why some Chesterfield County youth team doesn't call itself "Hearts of Midlothian Turnpike" and play in the median....
Considering they had over 11,400 at their game in Santa Barbara (that is more than attended the Final Four in Dallas a few years back), I don't think you have to worry about the crowd in Carson. It will be huge. Probably break all records.
http://fascha.smugmug.com/gallery/308772/5/12280338 Here is a pic of the crowd carrying the goal away along with a whole gallery of photos from the match. Can you believe the selection committee almost prevented that crowd from ever occurring. Now bring home that national title Gauchos!!!!
Unless there were any crowds this year to outdo last night's 11,214 attendance, that was the 26th largest crowd in NCAA history! http://www.ncaa.org/library/records/soccer_records_book/2004/2004_soccer_records.pdf Let's break the record at the HDC!
There was finally something for all the wasted ucsb students to do. Looks like they moved DP street parties to the soccer stadium. UCSB bring it home for Cali...
If you look closely, it's actually better than 26th. By my count, it's 18th. It's also the best NCAA Tournament crowd EVER outside the Final Four - that's pretty cool - and the fifth best non-Final Four crowd ever. For some reason, the NCAA counts double-headers as two different crowds even though the attendance is identicle. Here's how it should look, if the double-headers are counted as one gate. 1. 22,512: 10/30/80 - Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis vs. SIU-Edwardsville (Reg. Season) 2. 21,319: 12/8/95 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: Duke vs. Virginia; Wisconsin vs. Portland (NCAA Semifinals) 3: 20, 874: 12/15/96 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: St. John's vs. Fla. International (NCAA Final) 4. 20,703: 12/10/95 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: Duke vs. Wisconsin (NCAA Final) 5. 20, 269: 12/13/96 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: Fla. International vs. Charlotte; St. John's vs. Creighton (NCAA Semifinals) 6. 20,143: 12/14/97 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: UCLA vs. Virginia (NCAA Final) 7. 20,112: 11/9/73 - Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis vs. SIU-Edwardsville (Reg. Season) 8. 18, 202: 12/12/96 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: UCLA vs. Indiana; Virginia vs. Saint Louis (NCAA Semifinals) 9. 17,616: 12/11/98 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: Maryland vs. Stanford, Indiana vs. Santa Clara (NCAA Semifinals) 10. 16,503: 12/4/77 - Berkeley, CA: Hartwick vs. San Francisco; SIU-Edwardsville vs. Brown (NCAA Final and consolation) 11. 15,202: 12/13/98 - Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA: Indiana vs. Stanford (NCAA Final) 12. 15,000: 11/5/72 - Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis vs. SIU-Edwardsville (Reg. Season) 13. 13,231: 12/10/99 - Erickson Stadium, Charlotte, NC: Indiana vs. UCLA; Santa Clara vs. Connecticut (NCAA Semifinals) 14. 12,224: 9/27/87 - Fresno, CA - Fresno State vs. San Francisco (Reg. Season) 15. 12,033: 12/11/94 - Davidson, NC - Virginia vs. Indiana (NCAA Final) 16. 11,848: 12/9/94 - Indiana vs. UCLA; Virginia vs. Rutgers (NCAA Semifinals) 17. 11,421: 12/10/00 - Erickson Stadium, Charlotte, NC: Connecticut vs. Creighton (NCAA Final) 18. 11, 214: 12/4/04 - Harder Stadium, Santa Barbara, CA: UC Santa Barbra vs. Va. Commonwealth (NCAA Quarterfinal) Congrats to UCSB and its fans for being part of a historic crowd. And, yes, here's to hoping the Gauchos fans help this weekend's games crack this list. BTW, Tom or any others with knowledge of the situation, what was the story with those SLU-SIU-Edwardsville reg. season matches back in the day. I know the programs are close together and both were powers, but those were some great crowds for a reg. season game. It would be really cool if a promoter tried to get a couple of high profile teams together sometime in the future in the reg. season and tried to break that record.
The Games between SLU and SIU Edwardsville were epic battles between two teams made up of all St. Louis born and bred Players with both teams each year being Natonal Powers and ranked in the top 10 in the country and usually higher than that. These games were really was just a natural carryover from all the Saint Louis area High School and Club Ball battles between longtime friends and teammates. The games were billed as "The Bronze Boot" with the winning Team awarded a handome trophy of "The Bronze Boot" and much more importantly as far as the players were concerned the winning team would get the St. Louis bragging rights which in those days was almost equal to winning the National Title. The games were highly anticipated throughout the year and were a big local event receiving plenty of recognition in terms of Newspaper and TV build-up and coverage of the match. The winning team would be assured of the higher NCAA Seed and hosting the inevitable NCAA Tourney Game between the two teams. Tis a shame the tradition hasn't carried on.