(DUDLEY FIELD, El Paso, TX) - It was the last regular season match of 2002, and maybe the last match ever played at a venerable El Paso landmark.
Ironically, neither the match nor the future of Patriots soccer at Dudley Field came to a satisfying conclusion for Patriots fans after Thursday night's 2-2 tie with Pacific Division rivals Seattle.
However, in front of a solid weeknight crowd of 1,776, interesting possibilities have appeared on the horizon for El Paso's soccer franchise both on the field and regarding the field itself.
With the one point gleaned for the tie El Paso (10-11-7, 54 points) has a solid hold on the fifth seed for the A-League's Western Conference playoffs to begin next week.
Vancouver (10-12-5, 49 points) has already secured a playoff berth, too, but must beat Portland and score three goals in its last match this Monday to snatch the fifth seed away from El Paso.
The Patriots also learned there are three possibilities for their next opponent: Portland - in which case El Paso's home match in the two legs of each playoff series would come Saturday, August 7th - Milwaukee or Minnesota, with first-round home matches coming Thursday, August 5th against either of the latter.
The big revelation is that the Patriots are likely to play their playoff matches in the 51,000-seat Sun Bowl, which was soccer-sized in the winter of 2001 and fitted with AstroPlay turf, the FIFA-approved artificial surface that resembles grass.
There are also serious negotiations underway with UT-El Paso, owners of the Sun Bowl, to make the scenic stadium the permanent home for Patriots soccer.
Dudley Field is scheduled for demolition sometime in the next couple of years to make way for the expansion of the neighboring El Paso Zoo.
Thursday night was not a time for getting misty with nostalgia, though. Far from it, as a matter of fact.
There was still the little matter of a match between two serious rivals who had not gone a whole 90 minutes without at least one ejection this season.
Though Seattle is the only A-League team to have topped 100 points for the season, gets a bye in the first round and the choice to play host when they want throughout the playoffs, they had not been tied all season until their excursion to the United States' southern border.
Leave it to El Paso to be the "1" on the Sounders' record of 23-3-1. It's not a win, but it's noticeable.
There were no ejections this time, but 10 cautions were handed out by referee Gibby Widner - five for each team.
Actually, until the Patriots' Freddy Juarez got the first yellow of the match in the 42nd minute, neither team made any time for the rough stuff - they were both too busy playing one of the more entertaining halves of offensive soccer seen at Dudley this season.
Though El Paso had most of the possession in the early going, it was Seattle that scored first.
The Sounders utilized their superior speed and size to great effect on counterattacks, showing an uncanny ability to suddenly appear around the Patriots box with superior numbers.
In the 19th minute, forward Darren Sawatzky found one of his many teammates in such a spot.
With a row of red-clad Seattle players standing in front of his net, El Paso goalkeeper Jesse Llamas could only wait to see which would come up with Sawatzky's cross from the right. The roulette wheel ball landed on Red 25 - Jason Boyce, on the left wing. Boyce simply put it where Llamas couldn't get it, near post and high, and it was 1-0 Sounders.
But just two minutes later, the Patriots got to show their stuff with a nifty bit of ball-handling in the Seattle 18 from forward Matt Stewart.
Stewart, who had missed quite a bit of the middle part of the Patriots season with a knee injury, proved he was 100-percent healthy by speeding to create open space, receiving the ball, cutting inside on one hapless Sounders defender and zipping a short beauty far post past the outstretched arms of Seattle keeper Rich Cullen, tying the match, 1-1.
Just three minutes after that, in the 24th, Seattle again showed its rock-solid positioning as Sawatzky crossed a perfect long ball from near the right touchline to the far post, finding Brian Ching right at the goal-mouth.
Again, Llamas had virtually no chance with a scrum of players from both teams headed right at him. Ching's simply-touched volley was an easy goal, and the Sounders once again led, 2-1.
But to cap off the wildest seven minutes of offense seen this season, El Paso answered again just two minutes after Seattle's goal. This time it was the golden foot of Brazilian play-maker Renato DaGama.
DaGama started and ended the play, drawing the Sounders foul about 20 yards from the Seattle goal and just outside the box.
Though the Sounders have a decided height advantage against the Patriots, DaGama simply stepped up and bent a beautiful ball around the defensive wall, beating a lunging Cullen to the right post to tie the match, 2-2.
Both teams traded offensive, defensive and pugilistic blows the rest of the match, keeping fans and teammates on the edge of their seats, but no one else was able to break through.
From about the 40th minute, this match was probably more notable for the incredible near-misses than anything else.
El Paso's Dominic Schell perhaps came closest just seconds before the halftime whistle.
Another DaGama free kick just outside the Seattle 18 in added time again beat the Sounders wall but caromed off the crossbar right to Schell's waiting feet.
Cullen, already on the other side of the net after sprinting for DaGama's shot, was nowhere near the ball and Schell merely had to tap it home. But Schell chipped too far underneath the ball, which sprang hopelessly over the cross bar and out of the stadium, probably scaring motorists just over the bridge from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
All this was roughly a minute after Ching was robbed by Llamas on a nearly point-blank shot near the Patriots six-yard box.
Ching would also miss his own clear shot at an empty net that might have ended things in the 82nd minute, but also sprayed an extra-springy ball over the same crossbar Schell had missed in the first half.
El Paso forward and second-half sub Daniel Frias again showed why the Patriots picked him up just over a month into the season, breaking away from a Seattle defender in the 97th minute to walk in on Cullen.
But Frias continues to be snake-bitten against Seattle. Trying to shave the shot past Cullen, the ball popped off the far post and was cleared by the Sounders defense, leaving Frias in a heap of his own making along the Seattle goal line.
SEATTLE 2, EL PASO 2, 2OT
SEATTLE 2-0-0-0-2
EL PASO 2-0-0-0-2
SCORING: SEA, Boyce (19, Sawatzky); ELP, Stewart (21); SEA, Ching (24, Sawatzky); ELP, DaGama (26).
SEATTLE (2): GK Rich Cullen, D Scott Jenkins, D Ryan Edwards, D Craig Waibel, M Viet Nguyen, M Danny Huet (90, D Scott), M Andrew Gregor, M Leighton O'Brien, M Jason Boyce (67, F Smith), F Darren Sawatzky, F Brian Ching. DNP: GK Preston Burpo
EL PASO (2): GK Jesse Llamas (59, GK Alfred Estrada), D Guillermo McFarlane, D Carlos Martinez (39, M Alex Pinto), D Pablo Cabrera, M Ben Waldrum, M Federico Juarez, M Renato DaGama, M Dominic Schell, M Jose Abarca, F Jose Lomeli (70, F Danny Frias), F Matt Stewart. DNP: M Ahmed Figueroa.
Shots: SEA 3-9-1-2-15; ELP 8-7-1-2-18. Saves: SEA 0-1-0-0-1; ELP 2-1-0-0-3. Fouls: SEA 8-4-1-1-14; ELP 4-4-2-2-12. Offsides: SEA 1-0-0-1-2; ELP 2-0-1-0-3. Corner Kicks: SEA 5-2-0-3-10; ELP 1-1-0-1-3. Cautions: ELP Juarez (42, USB), SEA Sawatzky (49, USB), ELP Stewart (50, USB), ELP Lomeli (60, DT), SEA Edwards (75, USB), ELP Frias (76, USB), SEA Gregor (86, USB), SEA Scott (95, USB), ELP Estrada (96, DEL), SEA Smith (99, USB). Attendance: 1,776.
Referee: Gibby Widner. Senior Assistant: Troy Travis. Junior Assistant: Jair Marrufo. Fourth Official: Andy Kelly.
