Eugene weekly., May 10, 2012, Page 14, Image 14

Azul plays its first home game Sunday,
May 20, against Oregon Rush. Be there.
n the U.S., fútbol is a sport that’s overshadowed by
football. Mainstream sports networks rarely cover
soccer unless it is around the time of World Cup — and
it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that there are
more than a handful of Americans who have no idea
when the next World Cup will be (2014, in Brazil).
For the record, that World Cup is exclusively the
domain of international men’s soccer teams — it’s
probably even safer to say that a greater amount of
Americans are unaware of when the next women’s World
Cup is (2015, in Canada), or even that a women’s World
Cup exists.
Lack of cultural enthusiasm for soccer is as American as
baseball and corndogs. While a large portion of Americans
link their personal identities to professional football teams
that play for their respective cities, the rest of the world
derives nothing less than national pride from soccer teams
competing on a global scale.
In Ireland, soccer-fans-turned-hooligan fight it out in the
streets over the outcome of high-profile soccer games. In
Colombia a player was shot to death for accidentally
deflecting a ball into his own team’s goal, which resulted in
a World Cup game loss. Although these are extreme
reactions to something that is “just a game,” both incidents
point to a glaring reality that does not exist in the U.S. —
people take soccer really really seriously in other countries.
So why don’t we?
i
red white
and azul
High-level Women’s Soccer Team,
Born Just in Time for Summer
By Dante Zuñiga-West
Get On The Ball
Perhaps it’s that our culture of fighter jet fly-overs and
21-gun salutes relates more to the regimented military
progression of a football game, rather than the fluid and
continuous jazz of soccer. Is it that the high-scoring
double-digits of the gridiron speak to Americans more
than the stoic punctuations of goals and penalty kicks? If
these things were the case, wouldn’t basketball and
hockey also be condemned beneath purple mountains
majesty?
Frankly, it doesn’t make sense. Are we so close-
minded and isolated a country that we can’t get on track
with what the rest of the world collectively considers to
be the sport of all sports?
There’s a pretty good chance that all it comes down to
is a lack of exposure, and we should find a way to get
ourselves into the stands of highly competitive soccer
games. This summer in Eugene, that won’t be too hard to
do. There’s a new team in town that’s about to bring
fútbol to the masses.
Congrats Eugene, you are now home to a new Women’s
Premier Soccer League (WPSL) team, the EMFC Azul,
and this skilled group of die-hard soccer players is slated
to kickoff a 10-game season in the Northwest Conference.
The WPSL is the largest women’s soccer league in the
country — meaning, these ladies take their fútbol seriously.
The Eugene Metro Fútbol Club (EMFC) is the biggest
soccer club in the Willamette Valley, known for hosting
competitive youth soccer games throughout the Eugene
and Springfield areas. The club is stepping it up with the
formation of Azul, a collection of the best high school and
college-age players from the community. Azul will face off
against WPSL teams from Portland, Bend, Issaquah and
Spokane, over the course of the summer.
Azul is a vision that head coach and EMFC director of
coaching Jürgen Ruckaberle has wanted to bring into
reality for quite some time.
“I grew up in Germany where there is a model for
soccer,” Ruckaberle says. “You play as a youth, and then
Taylor Boyer , a Eugene-born, steeley-eyed midfielder who will
go on to play for Oregon State in the fall, has high hopes (and sights set) on beating
other teams in the league. “I’m looking forward to playing against the Oregon
Rush,” says 18-year-old Boyer. “They’re a solid team and most of them are going
on to play at D1 schools like I am. And of course, the Portland Rain, ‘cause they’re
the best team out there and we’re looking to be the best team out there.”
PHOTOS BY TRASK BEDORTHA
Rianna Mansfield grew up playing soccer at South Eugene
and went on to play for UO. She says she wanted to continue the sport after college,
but there were few opportunities to do so at a high level of the game.
“I’m a true Oregonian, I like playing in the rain. It makes it more fun to slide tackle
people,” says 23-year-old Mansfield, an intimidating midfielder/forward who commutes
from Ashland to practice and play with Azul.
Kicking It
14 MAY 10, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM