…Continued from the previous post.

So there I was, having traveled the treacherous terrain of the 405 freeway deep into an urban jungle of education. I was on a mission:  To discover and document the differences between men’s and women’s collegiate soccer. Fortunately for me, the perfect combination of circumstances had aligned to create a pristine living laboratory.

It was that rarest of species in its natural habitat – the double-header. The women of UCLA vs. Pepperdine in the opener and the UCLA men vs. Washington in the nightcap. We explored my preliminary findings on the women’s game in yesterday’s post, so let us return to the wilds of Drake Stadium, where the men are about to take the field…

UCLA Men (#20) vs. Washington (#14)

The first thing you notice when you enter the grandstand at The Drake is how far away from the action you are. UCLA students have exclusive access to the three small portable grandstand sections that sit immediately adjacent to the far sideline. Where I sat with the rest of the soccer-watching public though, was in Drake’s permanent grandstand arc.

From this vantage point you look out over three lanes of tartan surface, then the eight lanes of the main track, and then the player’s benches on the sideline before you get a peek at the actual soccer field. It’s a long way, especially if you are inclined, as I am, to sit in the upper rows of a stadium to get a bird’s eye view. But hey! At least we weren’t staring directly into the setting sun during the first game, as were the students across the way in the up-close-and-personal seats.

This long-distance perspective came as a surprise, given the quality of spectator views in every other UCLA venue I’ve been to:  Easton Stadium for softball, Jackie Robinson Stadium for baseball, the Los Angeles Tennis Center – and of course Pauley Pavilion, which gets a pass on anything negative because…well, because it’s Pauley Pavilion. The 9,392 championship banners (give or take) hanging from the rafters will do that for you. I hear the Rose Bowl is a fairly popular place to catch a game as well. So what’s up with The Drake? Sorry Jerry Seinfeld, but I don’t love The Drake!

But I digress…

The cleat was on the other foot for the nightcap game, so to speak. While the 9^th ranked UCLA women had been heavy favorites to beat unranked Pepperdine, the men’s team came in as an underdog to Washington – on paper anyway.

Surprisingly, the crowd for this game was only marginally bigger than that which came out to see the women’s game. And a healthy portion of that additional fan base was on the bigger, more amenity-laden “visitor’s” side of the field, as Washington fans in L.A. for the next day’s football game against USC took the opportunity to swing by and cheer for the lads on the pitch as well.

Much like the early game, the underdog took an early 1-0 lead, when UCLA freshman Joe Sofia converted a nicely executed corner kick. This delighted the friends and family of Sofia, who had traveled up the coast from his hometown of Mission Viejo. I knew they were there because during the break between games, a few of them had spent a good bit of time affixing a poster dedicated to Sofia to the facing of the press box.

For a homemade banner, it was attractive and well-designed. Borderline charming, in fact. And in less than 15 minutes it was gone – taken down by stadium security folks who no doubt believed the poster to contain secret code that relayed critical information to suspected terrorists. To add insult to injury…only a few minutes after Sofia scored his goal, he was slapped with a yellow card. Oh, the emotional roller-coaster ride that is collegiate athletics. 

Despite multiple offensive surges by both teams, Sofia’s goal still stood up as the game progressed. At minute 55, this was starting to look like a carbon-copy scenario of the first game: Underdog scores quick early goal and then holds on to withstand multiple flurries, dodging bullets until the opponent runs out. But would UCLA be able to assert control down the stretch and put the game away as the Pepperdine women had?

As of minute 70, it looked like they were starting to…and by 80 minutes in, the field was tilting more dramatically in UCLA’s favor. Sometime around the 85^th minute, the Bruins even pulled ahead in all of the statistical categories – a combined 18 shots and corner kicks to Washington’s 14. And while I couldn’t tell whether it was intentional or not, UCLA also drew the lion’s share of fouls coming down the stretch, which effectively disrupted any kind of momentum that Washington was able to generate. Once again, just like the women’s game, it was over before the favorite got around to scoring that “inevitable” tying goal.

I couldn’t have asked for a more balanced test environment for pure research. Back-to-back games, both of which were won 1-0 by the underdog. When the evening was over, I had confirmed the hypothesis that I’d come with – that men’s and women’s soccer offer vastly different viewing experiences. And one was decidedly better than the other.

I’m not one to make a knee-jerk assumption that the male version of any sport is always better than its female counterpart. In fact, I more commonly tend to favor many games as they are played by women. But based on the direct comparison that I saw at The Drake, soccer is not one of those games.

It’s undeniable – the men are faster, more aggressive, and better at both handling and shooting the ball. They can also kick the ball much farther, which gives you the feeling that a scoring breakaway could happen at any time. Plays develop quickly and teams are able to mount sustained offensive pressure. As a spectator, you don’t want to look away for fear of missing something.

In contrast, scoring opportunities in the women’s game seem to be more of the “one and done” variety, ultimately making goals look more random – or even fluky. While men’s additional leg strength makes them capable of scoring from longer range, women need to be much closer to the net to have a realistic scoring chance.

Consequently, it seems that two evenly matched women’s teams would be almost destined to have a very low-scoring game. It takes so much to get the ball to within scoring range, and the defensive hurdles presented as you get closer to the goal get progressively larger. It’s almost a mathematical equation:  Men can score from a larger portion of the field, thus men will score more, all things being equal.

Finally with regard to the relative viewing experiences provided, men play with much more reckless abandon, throwing themselves around the pitch – tumbling, sliding, and aggressively leaping into the air in pursuit of head shots. That’s just plain more interesting to watch. To be fair, this also means that a lot more fouls are called during a men’s game, which tends to disrupt play a bit more than I found in the women’s game. But only a bit.

So there you have it. Your intrepid Sports Fan has once again risked life, limb and a numb backside to bring you answers to the questions that you didn’t even know you had.

You’re welcome.

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