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Tampa Bay, FL: A Search For The Heart Of America's Game
Eric Betts takes a look at women's soccer in the South.
Jun 16, 2010 3:03:00 AM
By Eric Betts
Chances are this Saturday’s USL W-League rematch between the Tampa Bay Hellenic and the Atlanta Silverbacks won’t be pretty.
For starters, the two teams are geographic rivals, the two closest teams in a soccer-thin Southeast. The Silverbacks look to sell out their 3,000 seat stadium every time Tampa Bay comes to town, and the Hellenic players know it. “It’s going to be packed,” Hellenic forward/defender (you didn’t misread that) Jasmine Johnson told me before the teams’ first meeting in Atlanta last month. “And their fans are obnoxious.”
What’s more, the Silverbacks are currently in first place in the W-League’s Atlantic Division. In second? The Hellenic, with the only separation between the two coming courtesy of the Silverbacks’ two victories in Atlanta over Tampa Bay. And since the two teams finished last season in the same position, it’s safe to say that they are each other’s closest competitive rivals as well. That gives the matchup some added intensity; when the two teams play, Johnson says, “We’re trying to kill each other.”
See what I mean?
The rivalry is perhaps fed by some of the animosity the players carry over from their college teams. The W-League, like the USL’s Premier Development League, is open, meaning college players can participate and keep their NCAA eligibility. And so the Hellenic draw players from most of Division I college teams in Florida; while the Silverbacks have current and former college players from schools like Georgia, Clemson, Auburn, and Florida State, as well as a couple of dynamite high schoolers from the Atlanta area and the occasional former professional with the WUSA. But though the personnel come from similar backgrounds, the atmospheres the two teams practice and play in are a stark contrast to one another.
The Silverbacks practice where they play their games, on the turf field at the bottom of the big stadium in Silverbacks Park, running drills on the Monday I watch them in the unseasonably cold Atlanta rain, which is puddling a bit along one of the endlines, allowing you to almost see the paths former Silverbacks have trod jogging laps around the field. When they set up their end of practice scrimmage, each of the team’s three coaches takes a position on the field, filling in for absent players.
The Hellenic, by contrast, are training on one of the back fields of the Ed Radice Sports Complex in the northern part of Tampa, a 138-acre, multi-sport complex that’s hosted everything from the Florida State cross country championships to the National AAU winter baseball championships to an NFL Europe training camp. The Hellenic are out among club teams and players working with their private coaches.
It’s hot and humid, but then again Central Florida doesn’t seem to have any other settings. A single assistant coach is running their practice. The players call him as Suicide, which they tell me refers to a disregard for his own health, not a personal predilection for the back-and-forth running drill, though he does put the players through those kind of suicides shortly after practice starts.
This discrepancy makes sense: The Silverbacks are part of the Atlanta Silverbacks organization, a club that has included — and likely will again in 2011 — a men’s professional team, in addition to youth teams and several adult recreational leagues. They play home games in a soccer-specific stadium with 3,000 seats. They are part of a professional organization.
The Hellenic are officially the adult women’s team of the Hillsborough County United Soccer Club, a large, successful, but predominantly youth-focused organization. This means the Hellenic players are more than just players; they’re the team’s top marketers, role models for younger girls ages U9 to U18. “Other W-League teams just have their administration do all the work,” Hellenic midfielder Sarah Chapman tells me. (I don’t know for sure, but I get the sense that she’s referring to the Silverbacks.) “We’re hands-on with this team. We’re here, showing our faces. I like that.” As I watch the Hellenic practice, I hear a woman watching some younger girls practice tell her fellow soccer moms how great it is that their girls have these players here to look up to.
And it is great, because the players are, well, very good. The best thing the Atlanta-Tampa Bay rivalry has going for it is the talent and skill of its players. I had no idea what to expect when I watched my first W-League game ever, the Silverbacks season opener against the Hampton Roads Piranhas. I thought I was going in with a cautious neutrality, ready for anything from these women who had started practicing together only weeks before.
Instead, I was blown away by the level of play; mostly that of the Silverbacks. Their 1-0 victory was the most thorough 1-0 beating of a team I’ve ever seen. The Silverbacks defense played much of the game around midfield, and their midfield and outside forwards pressed so effectively that the Hampton Roads defense had to resort to kicking the ball out of bounds several times in the first 20 minutes alone. They were confident in their ability to possess the ball. At times their formation seemed closer to a 4-2-4, and centerback Bailey Powell carried the ball out of the defense and well forward on the field on multiple occasions.
They were under so little pressure at the back from the Hampton Roads forwards and midfielders that they can get away with occasional bad touch. They switched fields early and often, keeping the Piranha defense chasing the ball. They slid passes to their wingers running diagonally into the center with regularity. The only thing lacking was the finishing; the score stayed 1-0 thanks to both poor shooting on the part of the Silverbacks and some bang-up play from the Hampton Roads goalkeeper.
And both teams played physically. The referee asked the players to clean it up multiple times, especially in the box on corner kicks, where the Silverbacks like to put Powell, who is listed at 5’11” but is almost certainly taller than that, directly on top of the opposition goalie.
In other words, the W-League offers just about everything we go to watch soccer for, and in an atmosphere intimate enough that even from the top of Silverbacks Park you can see every grimace and hear every word they shout at each other. If this level isn’t high enough for you — if you started this column thinking “Why would I bother to watch minor league women’s soccer?” — then you should probably consider asking yourself what is.
Saturday’s grudge match has all the potential to be a truly great game — the Silverbacks looking to pad their lead at the top of the division and the Hellenic trying to avenge their early season loss — between two disparate organizations. Just don’t expect the teams involved to play nice.
For starters, the two teams are geographic rivals, the two closest teams in a soccer-thin Southeast. The Silverbacks look to sell out their 3,000 seat stadium every time Tampa Bay comes to town, and the Hellenic players know it. “It’s going to be packed,” Hellenic forward/defender (you didn’t misread that) Jasmine Johnson told me before the teams’ first meeting in Atlanta last month. “And their fans are obnoxious.”
What’s more, the Silverbacks are currently in first place in the W-League’s Atlantic Division. In second? The Hellenic, with the only separation between the two coming courtesy of the Silverbacks’ two victories in Atlanta over Tampa Bay. And since the two teams finished last season in the same position, it’s safe to say that they are each other’s closest competitive rivals as well. That gives the matchup some added intensity; when the two teams play, Johnson says, “We’re trying to kill each other.”
See what I mean?
The rivalry is perhaps fed by some of the animosity the players carry over from their college teams. The W-League, like the USL’s Premier Development League, is open, meaning college players can participate and keep their NCAA eligibility. And so the Hellenic draw players from most of Division I college teams in Florida; while the Silverbacks have current and former college players from schools like Georgia, Clemson, Auburn, and Florida State, as well as a couple of dynamite high schoolers from the Atlanta area and the occasional former professional with the WUSA. But though the personnel come from similar backgrounds, the atmospheres the two teams practice and play in are a stark contrast to one another.
The Silverbacks practice where they play their games, on the turf field at the bottom of the big stadium in Silverbacks Park, running drills on the Monday I watch them in the unseasonably cold Atlanta rain, which is puddling a bit along one of the endlines, allowing you to almost see the paths former Silverbacks have trod jogging laps around the field. When they set up their end of practice scrimmage, each of the team’s three coaches takes a position on the field, filling in for absent players.
The Hellenic, by contrast, are training on one of the back fields of the Ed Radice Sports Complex in the northern part of Tampa, a 138-acre, multi-sport complex that’s hosted everything from the Florida State cross country championships to the National AAU winter baseball championships to an NFL Europe training camp. The Hellenic are out among club teams and players working with their private coaches.
It’s hot and humid, but then again Central Florida doesn’t seem to have any other settings. A single assistant coach is running their practice. The players call him as Suicide, which they tell me refers to a disregard for his own health, not a personal predilection for the back-and-forth running drill, though he does put the players through those kind of suicides shortly after practice starts.
This discrepancy makes sense: The Silverbacks are part of the Atlanta Silverbacks organization, a club that has included — and likely will again in 2011 — a men’s professional team, in addition to youth teams and several adult recreational leagues. They play home games in a soccer-specific stadium with 3,000 seats. They are part of a professional organization.
The Hellenic are officially the adult women’s team of the Hillsborough County United Soccer Club, a large, successful, but predominantly youth-focused organization. This means the Hellenic players are more than just players; they’re the team’s top marketers, role models for younger girls ages U9 to U18. “Other W-League teams just have their administration do all the work,” Hellenic midfielder Sarah Chapman tells me. (I don’t know for sure, but I get the sense that she’s referring to the Silverbacks.) “We’re hands-on with this team. We’re here, showing our faces. I like that.” As I watch the Hellenic practice, I hear a woman watching some younger girls practice tell her fellow soccer moms how great it is that their girls have these players here to look up to.
And it is great, because the players are, well, very good. The best thing the Atlanta-Tampa Bay rivalry has going for it is the talent and skill of its players. I had no idea what to expect when I watched my first W-League game ever, the Silverbacks season opener against the Hampton Roads Piranhas. I thought I was going in with a cautious neutrality, ready for anything from these women who had started practicing together only weeks before.
Instead, I was blown away by the level of play; mostly that of the Silverbacks. Their 1-0 victory was the most thorough 1-0 beating of a team I’ve ever seen. The Silverbacks defense played much of the game around midfield, and their midfield and outside forwards pressed so effectively that the Hampton Roads defense had to resort to kicking the ball out of bounds several times in the first 20 minutes alone. They were confident in their ability to possess the ball. At times their formation seemed closer to a 4-2-4, and centerback Bailey Powell carried the ball out of the defense and well forward on the field on multiple occasions.
They were under so little pressure at the back from the Hampton Roads forwards and midfielders that they can get away with occasional bad touch. They switched fields early and often, keeping the Piranha defense chasing the ball. They slid passes to their wingers running diagonally into the center with regularity. The only thing lacking was the finishing; the score stayed 1-0 thanks to both poor shooting on the part of the Silverbacks and some bang-up play from the Hampton Roads goalkeeper.
And both teams played physically. The referee asked the players to clean it up multiple times, especially in the box on corner kicks, where the Silverbacks like to put Powell, who is listed at 5’11” but is almost certainly taller than that, directly on top of the opposition goalie.
In other words, the W-League offers just about everything we go to watch soccer for, and in an atmosphere intimate enough that even from the top of Silverbacks Park you can see every grimace and hear every word they shout at each other. If this level isn’t high enough for you — if you started this column thinking “Why would I bother to watch minor league women’s soccer?” — then you should probably consider asking yourself what is.
Saturday’s grudge match has all the potential to be a truly great game — the Silverbacks looking to pad their lead at the top of the division and the Hellenic trying to avenge their early season loss — between two disparate organizations. Just don’t expect the teams involved to play nice.
Have an idea as to what constitutes America's Game? Send an e-mail to americas.game.book@gmail.com.
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