Cats miss golden opportunity in loss to visiting Sun Devils
I sat in my car in a faraway parking spot near Plumer Avenue and 15th Street on Friday evening, reviewing a few items scribbled on a notepad.
• Arizona’s star soccer player, Gabi Stoian, wears jersey No. 9; I was eager to watch her play in a Territorial Cup series game.
• ASU went 0-7-1 during a midseason stretch.
• A payback angle: The Wildcats were 3-16-1 against ASU soccer teams, 2-8 in Tucson.
• Mulcahy Stadium seats about 900; the UA expected almost 1,300 for Senior Night, creating a standing-room-only area.
• An Arizona victory would enable Tony Amato’s team to finish third in the Pac-12, setting up an unprecedented NCAA tournament game at Mulcahy Stadium.
Clearly, the small soccer facility was abuzz with expectations.
When I squeezed through the sideline crowd, the first thing I noticed was a small pocket of Sun Devil fans, maroon and gold, seated in the bleachers.
They seemed so out of place on a night staged to celebrate the UA’s rise as a soccer power.
The second thing I noticed was that No. 9, Stoian, was not on the field. A pulled quad muscle would keep her sidelined. It was like the UA playing a football game without Scooby Wright.
I don’t know much about soccer, but when ASU’s Cali Farquharson scored 52 seconds into the game, the first of her three goals, a sense of dread engulfed the intimate soccer stadium.
The Sun Devils won so easily, 4-1, that I wondered if I showed up at the wrong place.
This is what Sun Devil coach Kevin Boyd said after the game: “I love the crowd that they had tonight. I love our crowd when it gets like this. There were a lot of people, it was loud, and we love that atmosphere. These are the games you enjoy the most.”
Fun?
Wait ’til next year.
