Category: soccerwatcher

The Raleigh World: Month Seven

My, how time flies! It seems like I just wrote the six-month po…oh yeah. I was a bit late on that one, wasn’t I? Well, here’s to not letting another update languish in my Drafts folder for three weeks! So I did some stuff in my seventh month in North Carolina. I’m still working hard as a freelancer. That’s the...

Being An Ally: Playing For Pride

On March 23, 2016, the North Carolina legislature delivered a rebuke to the city of Charlotte, NC after it passed an ordinance extending protection to transgender people by allowing them to use the public restroom corresponding to the gender they identify with. Known as House Bill 2, or the “Bathroom Bill” the infamous legislation disallowed cities from expanding on state...

NCFC v Landsdowne Bhoys Football Club

Last night I went to my first Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match at WakeMed Soccer Park. The tournament has been around for over a century1 and includes teams from more than 30 states, from amateur clubs to Major League Soccer teams. Although MLS has dominated the tournament over the last two decades, there is always an Anything Can Happen...

NC Courage v Chicago Red Stars: 6 May, 2018

During the 2017 regular season, the Chicago Red Stars were the only team the North Carolina Courage could not solve, though they did beat them in the National Women’s Soccer League semi-final when it counted the most. Going into their first meeting of the 2018 season, the Courage and Red Stars sat in first and second place in the NWSL...

NC Courage v Utah Royals game recap

It was a perfect afternoon for soccer in Cary, NC as the 4-0-0 NC Courage took on the Utah Royals, in their first-ever NWSL matchup1. Utah was coming off a 0-1 loss to Chicago a week ago, while the undefeated and league-leading Courage were playing their third game in eight days. Utah challenged the Courage in the very early moments...

The Raleigh World: My First NC Courage Match

For all that the Bay Area has to offer in sports, it lacks women’s professional basketball1 and soccer teams. Luckily, now that I’m in Raleigh, National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) matches are just a few minutes from home. I attended my first North Carolina Courage match last Saturday against Sky Blue FC (based in New Jersey). The Courage held a...

North Carolina FC v Tampa Bay Rowdies

On St. Gertrude’s Day I got to attend my first North Carolina Football Club match. I had been looking forward to it since I discovered just before moving from California that I’d be living a few minutes from Wake Med Soccer Park. It also happened to be St. Patrick’s Day, which meant many of the #NCFCFam were decked out in...

USMNT Soccer: The Gut Response

Welp. Owing to an own-goal and an utterly lifeless performance, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team eliminated themselves from the 2018 World Cup. Trinidad and Tobago were already eliminated and had nothing to play for, yet the United States made them look like a team headed for World Cup glory. The last time the USMNT missed the World Cup? 1986...

For the Love Of Soccer: Part 1

For several weeks I’ve been writing and editing (and writing and editing and writing and…) a post about my love for soccer. And I’m realizing that the problem I have with the post is that it needs to be a series, because even with a gap in the 1990s, 30-ish years of loving a sport is a lot to cram...