A year ago it would have been different.

On a December Sunday morning back then, if I were given the option of:  (1) a 5-hour round trip drive to watch a soccer game; or (2) a day consisting of a couch, a remote and a full slate of NFL games, the beer and Cheesy Poofs would have won over the sunshine and fresh air in a landslide.

But on this particular December Sunday morning, it was quite the opposite. Somewhat distressingly, the NFL holds little in the way of enjoyment for me ever since about Week Three of the season, when I was mathematically eliminated from contention in the Demon Deacon Fantasy Football League.

Once I stopped fretting over whether Anquan Boldin was getting enough touches, I realized…I don’t much care about the football action that takes place increasingly sporadically among the steady onslaught of commercials. I know, I know – I’m aware that my U.S. citizenship is at stake for having said that out loud.

In contrast, as I’ve experienced soccer played at various levels over the past several months, I’ve really come to enjoy watching the sport – in person, anyway. On television…well…it is gaining on “paint drying”.

An added bonus on this particular day was that I would be viewing the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship with a real live knowledgeable fan. The C.O. was along for the trip to Santa Barbara, and having played soccer at the collegiate level, he would undoubtedly be able to answer the burning questions that had entered my mind while watching previous games.

For example…How do soccer players come about their astonishing recuperative powers? I have witnessed players somehow progress from writhing on the turf in absolute agony, to miraculously dragging themselves to their feet, to limping around in unsteady circles, to running down the field at full tilt – all in the space of less than two minutes. This is remarkable!!

I have to admit to somewhat uncharitably wondering if this phenomenon had anything at all to do with the fact that a foul just might be called on the opposing team as a result of the egregious assault visited upon the innocent player. The C.O. cleared that up for me though. “No connection whatsoever,” he said with a broad grin. “How could you think such a thing?”

The NCAA’s final four of soccer is called the College Cup, and this year it featured two of the usual suspects when one thinks about national sports powerhouses (Michigan and North Carolina), and two teams that don’t immediately leap to mind as such:  Louisville and Akron.

The former is known as an enduring presence in basketball and…um, basketball. The latter…well, let’s put it in context. If Akron were to win, it would not only be the school’s first NCAA championship in any sport, it would be the first national championship for their entire Mid-American Conference since Western Michigan won the cross-country title in 1965.

So naturally Louisville and Akron dispatched with North Carolina and Michigan respectively, in matching 2-1 semi-final victories. The Cardinals and the Zips (yes, I said “Zips”), prepared to meet for all the collegiate soccer marbles as The C.O. and I wound our way up the Pacific Coast Highway to join them.

In actuality, it wasn’t a major surprise that these two less-heralded schools were playing for the title. With a record of 20-0-3, Louisville was seeking to become the first team to finish the season unbeaten since Santa Clara in 1989, and they had not been held scoreless since a 0-0 tie with Ohio State in mid-September.

For their part, Akron had been here before. One year earlier, to be exact. In the 2009 College Cup, the Zips had been unbeaten and untied before losing the national championship to Virginia – in a penalty kick shootout, no less. And their “drop-off” in performance in 2010 wasn’t exactly precipitous, as they entered this title game with a record of 21-1-2.

Suffice to say, it would have been a stretch for either team to claim Cinderella status, and aside from each other, the biggest challenge for both teams would definitely be the weather. It was too good. It had probably been months since these two teams had played in a game under these conditions:  Temperatures approaching 80 degrees, with very little breeze to speak of. Dare I say it…it was borderline hot.

Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was the holiday season, but the atmosphere that we came upon when we got to Harder Stadium on the campus of UC Santa Barbara was festive and communal. If there are such things as hooligans in college soccer, they’d have met their match at the College Cup. They would’ve been friendlied into submission.

It was a General Admission event, meaning that the seating policy was “first-come, first-served”. So once inside the gate, we of course made a beeline for the nosebleed section – the last row of the grandstand, passing up dozens of available seats much closer to the field along the way. Why? Well since it is the season of giving, I will pass along a little tip…

Up until this very moment, one of the best-kept secrets in all of Spectatorship is that for many sports the cheap seats actually provide the best vantage point from which to watch a game unfold. Especially in the case of soccer, the higher up the better.

You’re welcome.

And while I’m at it, here’s another nugget for those of you planning an IGTS Tour of your very own:  Whenever possible, bring along a personal expert analyst to games that you are somewhat unfamiliar with. On this day, not only was The C.O. able to answer all of my questions about rulings on the field, he also provided a nice running commentary on strategy, which for the first time enabled me to spot plays unfolding long before I’d ever been able to do so previously.

Given the combination of the tutorial and the birds-eye view, I immediately began to tune into the undercurrent of crowd reaction that arose every time the ball went out to an unguarded player on the wing – as opposed to the relative lack of response when the ball was in the middle of the field outside of the penalty area. It is from the wing that the best scoring opportunities are initiated. Who knew? Well, apparently the vast majority of soccer fans in Harder Stadium.

And now I do too. As do you. Feel free to pay it forward.

To be concluded in next post…