Epic Battle of North and South

14 hours and 57 minutes ago, I set forth to see Northwestern take on the University of Illinois-Chicago in a second round, men’s D1 NCAA game. Northwestern, from the far north side of Chicago against UIC, the team from the Southside — well, if you Chicagoans want to get technical, maybe I am splitting hairs here, but UIC is at 600 South. (here is Google street view of UIC’s stadium.) While I’m noodling around with Google maps, I might as well show Northwestern’s stadium (which was apparently under construction when Larry and Sergey drove by to take this picture.)

Like virtually all NCAA tournament games, last night’s showdown was a riveting affair, even though neither team played to its full potential. There were moments of brilliance, but by and large it was what they call a “midfield battle.” Which is to say the ball was flying all over the place all evening. Still, it was great fun to be in the stands. UIC brought a huge student contingent that was singing and cheering the whole time. The rest of the stands were packed with Northwestern fans.

It was just one of those games where neither team could generate a serious attack. And after a short time it became clear that the game would be decided on some sort of opportunistic goal. Northwestern had the first chance off a sloppy back pass to the goalkeeper that was intercepted by a Northwestern forward. Somehow, and I still can’t figure this out, the UIC player who passed the ball back was able to race back and slide tackle the Northwestern guy on the goal line. Crazy play, but still 0-0.

The big break for UIC came on a corner kick with about 15 minutes to go. Two UIC players headed the ball in a row, which froze the Northwestern defense as the ball found the back of the net. The pace then became frenetic and Northwestern almost scored off a couple well developed opportunities. Finally, with 40 seconds left, Northwestern won a dangerous free kick and brought everyone including the goalkeeper into UIC’s penalty box. UIC cleared ithe ball and one of their players gathered it up about 40 yards out from goal and ran the length of the field and finished it off with a tap in. I honestly don’t remember ever seeing another empty net goal. It was wild, and of course the UIC fans went crazy.

This game was only one big surprise in a night of huge upsets. Notably, UMass knocked off top-ranked Boston College and Bradley beat Indiana. There are a lot of very interesting games to come. Santa Clara — Notre Dame is one of particular interest. Here’s the bracket. Get to a game if you can.