Out of My Sports Comfort Zone

A surprising number of people over the years have thought that because I'm a hockey fan, I'm a sports fan, and that really isn't true. My dad watched football and basketball as well as hockey, but I imprinted on the Bruins like a baby duck, ignoring all else.

However, a friend of mine invited some people to come to a soccer game, and I decided to go along for the fun of the outing. The local team, FC Naples, is in a minor pro league, and is new to the area.

I drove up with one of the group, and we noticed a lot of smoke not that far from the arena. We weren't sure if it was a controlled burn or not, but we did see helicopters go by periodically with water bags, so it looked like they were trying to put it out. Happily for us, the smoke never got close enough to be a problem.

The weather was hot and humid, but there were some clouds as well as smoke cover, so at least the sunlight wasn't always too much.

Apparently my guess that this meant "fortune favors the bold" was correct! Fun phrase to put over a climbing wall.

We walked around the pitch before the game; it was lovely, but also very very hot, and very very buggy. Damned no-see-ums, get out of my eyelashes!

I was very glad that not only were we not at ground level, but our tickets actually included both inside and outside seating. That air conditioning was such a blessing!

The rest of the pictures I took were of warm-ups.

The game itself was fun. I did find some of the ways soccer is different from hockey to be confusing, but that's not a surprise, is it? (Seriously, though, their offsides is weird.)

We got to talk to a young man who watched part of the game in that area, who it turns out was the team's number-two goalie. He got a red card in the last game and had to sit this one out! He was very nice, and explained some things to us. 

Later on, a couple of young girls, maybe 11 or 12, were also explaining things to us: they both play soccer themselves, so they were a font of knowledge.

And our team won! Which of course made things even more fun. I'm not signing up for season tickets, but it was a very entertaining evening.