Another Kind of Ball

There was a lot of gardening done last weekend, but we took a break Saturday evening to spend some time at another professional sporting event. And, no, it wasn't baseball. In fact, apart from the fact that it involved a ball, it didn't seem particularly related to our nation's pasttime.

At the elementary school auction, I'd bid on and won, a pair of tickets to see the FC Gold Pride...our local professional women's soccer team.I originally thought that Mam and I would go to the game on our own. That was before I learned that the team had moved from a local stadium to one across the bay. Daddy bought additional tickets for himself and Smunch and we all went. As Murphy's Law would have it, Daddy and Smunch ended up with the better seats. Go figure. My seats had been donated by the coach of the team. You'd think he might've done better than gotten general admission tickets on the 10 yard line. Still, the Pride was shooting at our end of the field for the first half, so that was fun to watch...and photograph!

Their move across the Bay messed things up a bit and their "permanent" stadium was still undergoing renovations. Instead, the team, playing the New Jersey Sky Blue FC, played in a high school stadium that night.No matter. It meant there were really no horrible seats. And it was really a fun, relatively low-key event, where they auctioned off the ball that was used for the first goal and the honor of meeting the goal scorer on the field after the game.

The highlight of the home opener was the Gold Pride's newest player, Marta...so world-famous that she apparently needs only one name. And Marta did not disappoint.She's got incredible foot control and is lightning fast. Her legs actually look like this when you watch her play:And yes, the Sky Blue really has violent orange visiting uniforms.

Mam was really tired after a long day of "gardening" and was pretty grumpy, but watched gamely, especially after we moved to sit next to Daddy and Gavin for the second half.Still looks a little dazed though, doesn't she?

On the whole, it was a fun night. Although the game was tied for much of the time, the Gold Pride ended up winning 3-1. The kids were happy, we spent nothing on food (unlike the small fortune we spend at baseball games) and had a good time. Oh, if we'd only had more of this during the oh-so-long Spring Break!