Soccer Weekend: SLU, SLYSA, and CITY2

Last Saturday night (1 October), I went to Saint Louis University's Robert R. Hermann Stadium to cheer on the Billiken men against Atlantic 10 Conference rival Loyola Chicago. There was a good crowd on hand and I found my seat to await the game.

The visiting Ramblers took the lead on 14 minutes and it remained 1-0 until SLU leveled it on 47 minutes. The Billikens would win it on a fluke own goal, when a Loyola defender passing it to his goalkeeper overshot and the ball rolled into the net. SLU took advantage of this miscue to hold on to a 2-1 win. It was an odd way to win, but this Billikens fan will take it.

The next afternoon, I drove to Maryland Heights' Lou Fusz Athletic Complex to referee St. Louis Youth Soccer Association matches. I worked two under-14 matches and had the middle in the first one. The games generally went well, except for a situation in my first match where I had to send off two players for fighting. Fortunately, no other players got into it and the match ended calmly. I quickly wrote out an incident report that was turned in with the game card.

After my games, I drove to my girlfriend Julie's house in Florissant, picked her up, and drove us to SIU-Edwardville's Ralph Korte Stadium. St. Louis CITY 2 was playing Tacoma Defiance in the MLS NEXT Pro Western Conference Final. Before the match, Julie and I enjoyed the tailgate experience. The St. Louligans were set up in the parking lot, along with Saint Louis City Punks, the Thieves, and Fleur de Noise.

Before our match, we knew that Columbus Crew 2 had defeated Toronto FC 2 in the Eastern Conference final that day. Thus, Columbus would host the winner of our match. Julie and I joined with the other supporters in marching into the stadium for the match.

We were singing and chanting away from before the opening kick-off. Our constant chants paid off in the 31st minute, when CITY 2 scored to take a 1-0 lead. Tacoma nearly equalized a few minutes later, but the shot hit the post.

In the second half, two quick Tacoma shots early on were saved by CITY 2's goalkeeper. The home side doubled the lead with a 59th minute score. Tacoma pulled one back from the penalty spot 16 minutes later, but that was as close as they came. CITY 2 was Western Conference Champions. The St. Louligans--including Julie and I--went nuts.

CITY 2 plays at Columbus this Saturday late afternoon/early evening (Central Time) for the MLS NEXT Pro Championship. Julie and I plan to watch the live stream of that game.

I drove Julie and I to her home, where I stayed for a bit to chat before going home--tired, but happy. 

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:

Saint Louis University Athletics: Saint Louis University - Official Athletics Website (slubillikens.com)

St. Louis Youth Soccer Association: Home - St Louis Youth Soccer (slysa.org)

SIU-Edwardsville Athletics: SIUE - Official Athletics Website (siuecougars.com)

St. Louis CITY 2: STL CITY 2 | St. Louis CITY SC (stlcitysc.com)

MLS NEXT Pro: The Official Home of MLS NEXT Pro | MLSNEXTPro.com

St. Louligans: Saint Louligans – Supporting Soccer in the St. Louis Area – St. Louligans – Supporting St. Louis Soccer (stlouligans.com)

Saint Louis City Punks: SLCP Home (slcitypunks.com)

The Thieves: Home | Up the Thieves! (stlouligans.com)

Fleur de Noise: Fleur De Noise

Quite a Week for This Soccer Fan

Last Saturday night (6 October), I was at Robert R. Hermann Stadium on the Saint Louis University (https://www.slu.edu/) campus to cheer on the men's soccer team (http://www.slubillikens.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=27200&SPID=93202&SPSID=632571&DB_OEM_ID=27200) play Atlantic 10 Conference (http://www.atlantic10.com/) rival LaSalle. The Billikens came back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to win 4-2. It was quite a fine match and I was happy to be supporting my alma mater. A number of SLU men's soccer alumni were honored at halftime.

The next morning, I was at World Wide Technology Soccer Park (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/SOCCERPARK) to run lines on two under 16 girls soccer matches. These were friendlies among member teams of the Elite Clubs National League (http://www.eliteclubsnationalleague.com/), a group of top girls soccer clubs around the country. The matches went well, and it was good getting some nice exercise that morning.

Two days later, I heard of the big announcement about an effort to land a Major League Soccer (https://www.mlssoccer.com/) team here in St. Louis. A new group named #MLS4THELOU (https://mls4thelou.com/) introduced themselves. They are made up of the Taylor family, of Enterprise Holdings, Inc. (https://www.enterpriseholdings.com/en/index.html), and my friend Jim Kavanaugh, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of World Wide Technology, Inc. (https://www.wwt.com/). The group announced that they would seek an MLS franchise, shooting to begin play in 2022, and that they would have a privately funded stadium built in downtown St. Louis. This soccer fan is most happy about this development--not just because I am friends with Kavanaugh and an Enterprise Rent-A-Car employee--and wish this group all the best in their efforts.

Wednesday night (10 October), I was back at World Wide Technology Soccer Park for Saint Louis FC's (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) match against Tulsa Roughnecks FC. This was the match rescheduled from 14 July, when lightning and stormy weather interrupted the match. I joined in the tailgate before the match with the St. Louligans (http://stlouligans.com/), where I enjoyed nachos and beer, and took in a soccer kit contest by several of our group. We then marched into Toyota Stadium for the match, were a first half goal sufficed for Saint Louis FC's 1-0 win. This result means a draw in tomorrow night's season finale at home against OKC Energy FC will be enough to send us into the United Soccer League (https://www.uslsoccer.com/) playoffs for the first time in club history. This should be great!

Later.

Scale Modeling, a Friend in Town, and Aerospace History

After a rather quiet weekend and a busy start of the work week, I was at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/) this past Tuesday night (21 August) for the IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) (https://www.facebook.com/IPMSGateway/) meeting. Besides helping set up the Fellowship Hall for the meeting and taking down the meeting minutes, I was drafted to help run the contest judging seminar. Our contest director, Marion Morris, could not make the meeting due to a family emergency, so Bill Wagner and I gave the talk about what judges should look for in contest models. We used a few models of our own and others loaned to us in making our presentation. This seminar was done because we will need as many judges as possible for our Invitational on 8 September.

Off work the next day, I met up in mid-morning with my Saint Louis University (http://www.slu.edu/) classmate and friend Stacy Alcorn-Davenport. She was visiting family and friends here from her home in England. We last met four years ago when she was in town for a visit. It was great seeing Stacy at Saint Louis Bread Co. (https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/home.html) in Mehlville. Over coffee, we caught up on things in our lives. It was great talking with Stacy and was so happy to see her, as she was to see and talk with me.

After a brief stop home, I was off again. (My mom was hosting her monthly bunco get together that afternoon.) I drove up to visit the James S. McDonnell Prologue Room (http://www.boeing.com/company/tours/prologue-room.page) at Boeing's St. Louis Headquarters near St. Louis Lambert International Airport. I had not been to this museum since before Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997. The Prologue Room tells the story of Boeing and its component companies--Douglas, Hughes, North American, McDonnell, Piasecki, Vertol, McDonnell Douglas, and Rockwell--through models, pictures, and memorabilia. Full size engineering mock ups of the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, which McDonnell built during the 1960s, were also on display. It was very nice to visit this museum, which is open to the general public during June, July, and August, and to organized groups throughout the year.

I definitely recommend this place to aerospace history buffs and to educational groups.

Later.