Nicholas Gerard-Larson, a senior on the 2009 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his fourth blog entry.
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Our campus is showing the unmistakable signs of the first week of classes. Freshmen in their multi-colored striped polo shirts or lurid jean mini-skirts strut around the quad reveling in their newly realized freedom. The air is palpably full of surging hormones. Remnants of high school adolescence still brand these creatures sophomoric teens, easily recognizable by their fits of giggles and overcompensating outbursts of insecure masculinity. It’s the fragile male ego in its natural habitat. I guess insecurity should be expected, given the self-perpetuating identity crisis imposed on eighteen-year-olds by cultural stagnation, tawdry MTV notions of “cool,” and the whole other host of manipulative images shoved down our throats by the technological monsters at large. Take one look at a college campus and you’ll see these agents at work, keeping the brand name products popular and the easily disposable goods streaming in off the boat from China.
I am, of course, a profound hypocrite. Our team is sponsored by Puma. You don’t see me selflessly renouncing these free possessions or replacing my Hanes, Dr. Martens, and Billabong merchandise with homespun, environmentally friendly hemp alternatives. Instead, I’ll gripe and moan about the increased imposing of commercialist culture on all aspects of life, while I secretly suck down a latte from Starbucks and bathe myself in 50 Cent’s new cologne.
In all seriousness, I abhor using brand names and products as ways of defining oneself or showing one’s true character. But I’ve found it’s difficult, especially as a collegiate athlete, to make some sort of bold, courageous stand against status symbols and American materialism. It’s simply a conflict of interest, one in which free cleats and ostentatious new clothing win out over my compromised values. Fortunately, the NCAA has strict rules on what types of logos and advertising can be used on collegiate uniforms, so our jerseys merely have little Puma emblems on their seams or sides. We’re not the walking billboards seen in many professional games.
Our first regular season game featured our crosstown rivals, Marquette, and was full of all the bravado and excitement of a typical rivalry game. Each year, regardless of whether the game is played at home or away, a sizeable crowd turns out to witness who gains the bragging rights for the city of Milwaukee. The fixture is highly anticipated on both sides and its position as the season opener this year created an even more energized atmosphere.
Marquette’s stadium complex, Valley Fields, is located directly south of their campus, inopportunely squeezed between the Potawatomi Bingo Casino and the dirty Menomenee River. Additionally, it’s bordered by numerous industrial buildings, warehouses, and rundown railroad tracks. An ever-present stench of damp, fermenting grain greets the nostrils when you arrive here, although after about half an hour you get accustomed to this smell of burnt Malt-O-Meal. I silently relish the placement of this acclaimed, private school’s sports complex, reminding myself of the clean, odor-free air we breathe in around our publicly funded field.
As usual, the game turned within a few minutes of the opening whistle. One of the Marquette center backs dived late into a tackle on (Peter) Sanger, sparking outrage from our bench, and was rightfully booked. Our players responded with equally vigorous challenges, yet most of them remained fairly clean.
At halftime the game was still scoreless. The play remained aggressive for most of the second half, with both teams visibly starting to tire towards the last 15 to 20 minutes. With about five minutes remaining we got caught out of position with many of our players pushing forward into the attack. As Marquette quickly transitioned into the counter-attack we gave up a foul just outside of the eighteen in order to stymie any further progress into our box. We watched helplessly as the Marquette player rifled a well-placed free kick into the upper left corner. The last five minutes saw us franticly push forward, but to no avail. The game ended in a 1-0 loss.
We played Western Illinois in the first game of Madison’s weekend tournament and the game turned out to be a hard-fought, scrappy contest. We opened the scoring early when Sanger took a beautiful free kick with his left foot that hit the post and was redirected into the net by Rosey (Greg Rosenthal), putting us up 1-0. The score didn’t change for the rest of the game, although both sides ended up having a fair amount of good chances. I feel bad for any neutral spectator watching this match, because it turned out to be one of the ugliest college games I’ve been a part of. There was limited, inconsistent possession and a lot of defensive errors from both teams. But we maintained enough defensive resilience to keep the shutout, aided greatly by the acrobatics of our backline and particularly goalie John Shakon.
The second match of the weekend proved to be far more exciting and attractive to watch. Our opponents, Virginia Tech, moved the ball well and were dangerous in the final third. Some defensive mishaps, coupled with Virginia Tech’s strong offensive play, cost us two goals, one early on in the first half, and another later in the second. We were much more effective with our possession and attacking chances than in the Western Illinois game, and after a number of strong opportunities throughout the game we were finally rewarded with a goal by Robert Refai in the final two minutes. Our overall play was much improved from the previous game, despite giving up two goals. As we left Madison’s stadium morale remained fairly high, and it was obvious everyone looked forward to the upcoming trip to California.
