Jasmine Rodgers  |  Contributing Writer

Who’s confused, excited and mistakenly thinks she understands what she’s looking at?  Me at a soccer game, of course!

The Azusa Pacific men’s soccer team won 2-1 against Simon Fraser University on Sept. 13. At the end of the game, it was still a wonder to me how the squads had gotten to that point. A green field, black-and-white ball, spiky shoes, shin guards, shorts and red-and-white jerseys were the only things that made sense at the soccer game — I mean “match,” the soccer match!

After almost two hours and halves of heated kicking, falling, jumping and running, I could barely keep track of the ball. Despite all my confusion, I don’t want to discount the players’ soccer skills. It is for this reason that I will not attempt to name any of them, for fear that I may misrepresent their positions and achievements. Instead, I’ll just say that the team seemed to be well-versed in soccer from the way its members were playing.

The beginning of the match looked like a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. All the players lined up along the center of the field, with their uniforms whipping in the dry breeze.  Out of nowhere, the National Anthem blared while the players stood quietly during the song. The pageantry seemed a bit much for a soccer match, but rules are rules, I guess.

Before the game actually began, a handful of players from each team stood around the center white circle on the field — to me, resembling a crop circle — and awaited their chance to make a move on the ball. Tension mounted as the players and crowd anticipated how Simon Fraser would make its first move.

The whistle blew, and the players began to strike like lightning rods. Simon Fraser kicked the ball to the left, but seemed to be caught off guard by APU. An Azusa Pacific player was somehow able, by some feat of skill and physics, to kick the ball high into the air and across the field. For the first half, the ball was energetically jockeyed back and forth between players, with varying whistle blows and pauses in between which meant nothing to me but a lot to the crowd.

As the match wore on, it was apparent the fancy footwork of Simon Fraser’s team could not keep up. Although it looked like the team would run in and try to kick the ball away at some point, its players couldn’t compare with the good backup of APU’s fast-footed Cougars.

Fans sat in their lawn chairs or stood on the sidelines, understanding what was going on.  Cheering from the crowd was one of the only indicators that let me know when one team had kicked the ball into the net for a point; it must be something to be a soccer fan — to know what’s going on — and reserve the right to wear face paint when your team is playing.