12th Man Sets another Record

Congratulations to everyone who was a part of the NCAA’s 2nd largest crowd to see a regular season match this past Friday night. The 12th Man, spurred on by members of the class of 2012 was fantastic! More than 6,700 fans were packed into the stadium, most of them at least 45 minutes prior to kickoff.

What a cool experience for our young players! But, I must admit that we were a little nervous in front of such a big crowd, and they were all there to support us! I can only imagine what our opponents feel like as they step out in front of the biggest crowd they’ll ever play in front of, and know that they are all against you.

So, A&M now has the #1 and #2 All Time regular season record soccer crowds in NCAA soccer history – 8,200+ were at the stadium when we beat North Carolina to open the 2006 season. Additionally, we played in front of the two largest crowds in America during the 2007 season, and then hosted a sold out NCAA Women’s College Cup in December.

It is an absolute honor to play and coach in Aggieland, knowing that you’re the best supported team in America.

Get Your Tickets!!!!

I think it is a very safe bet to figure we’ll have another giant crowd when we host North Carolina this Friday night at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.

We have sold out our season tickets for the soon to be completed west side VIP seating section (seats should be fully installed for the Princeton match), but we have added an extra 600 reserved seats for this weekend and some of these reserved seats will be avialable for the UNC and Indiana game. Individual game tickets go on sale this Wednesday!!!! I strongly suggest that you go to our ticket site to purchase your tickets first thing Wednesday!!!!

General Admission tickets will be on sale through kickoff, and I think you’ll be able to get into the game with a GA ticket, but you probably should plan on arriving around 5pm to get your seats. Then you can hang out, have a hot dog, a coke, and watch the two nationally ranked teams warm up for what should be a fantastic match.

A Busy/Fun Weekend

Our 6pm match against UNC kicks off a very exciting weekend of sports in Aggieland.

Here’s the Schedule of Events:

• Friday at 6pm – 1st game of Texas A&M Invitational – A&M vs. UNC Soccer (gates open at 5pm)

• Friday at 8pm – First yell Concert featuring Bill Cosby at Reed Arena

• Friday at 8:30pm – 2nd game of Texas A&M Invitational – Indiana vs. Tennessee

• Friday at midnight – Midnight Yell practice at Kyle Field

• Saturday at 3pm – Aggie Fan Zone opens on Joe Routt Blvd

• Saturday at 6pm – A&M Football vs. Ark State at Kyle Field

• Sunday at 11am – 3rd game of Texas A&M Invitational – UNC vs. Tennessee

• Sunday at 1:30pm – Final Match of Texas A&M Invitational – A&M vs. Indiana

Texas A&M Invitational Preview

Be on the lookout for the full preview of the tournament on www.Aggieathletics.com

All 4 teams were 2007 NCAA Tournament teams. UNC won the ACC Championship, Tennessee won the SEC, and we won the Big 12 Championship. IU was invited to the NCAA Tourney and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen after defeating the Big 10 Tournament Champion Purdue.

We have had some great battles with UNC over the year, and we have the maximum amount of respect for their coaches, players, and tradition. The last 3 games between the Aggies and tar Heels have been 1 goal decisions, A&M winning once in College Station (1-0 in 2006), and UNC winning the last 2 in Chapel Hill (3-2 in 2006 and 2-1 in 2007).

A Big Debut Weekend

All of our healthy players played this past weekend. It’s nice to get our players valuable game experience this early in the new season, and it’s great to see how much our players improved in their play from Friday night to Sunday’s game.

For the weekend, newcomers Beth West, Jen Kmezich, Alyssa Mautz, Bri Young, and Shawn-tae Greene each scored their first collegiate goals. I think each of these players will be scoring a good number of goals during their careers in Aggieland, so it’s great to see their first one is behind them.

Great Fitness Pays Off

I was generally pleased with our team’s speed of play and level of fitness this weekend. We played against two teams that were well organized. To break down these teams’ systems of play, our players had to work very hard off the ball, and play crisply when they had it. That takes a lot of physical effort and I thought that our players looked incredibly fit. On Sunday our team seemed to get stronger as the game went on, and at one point, we were able to score 3 goals in just over a 4 minute time span.

Fouls are “Even”

You may have noticed that the statistic on our scoreboard that lists “fouls” for each team has been left blank this season. This is intentional, and is done to help the referees.

We feel this is a stat that’s not always an accurate reflection of the match, and there is no reason for a referee to try to keep the number of fouls called at an even number – especially if the fouls being committed (and the intent of those fouls) aren’t always committed in an “even” manner. So, to keep things simple and fair, we’re not using that stat on the scoreboard. We hope to replace it with something like “shots on goal” or some other type of statistic. But, because it takes time to change out and match the color on panels, we’ll just be leaving that space blank for the time being. FYI – the “fouls” stat can still be found in the official box score after each match.

I hope that you’ll be here for the big weekend in Aggieland – it should be lots of fun for everyone!

Gig ‘em!

~Coach G