I hate soccer.

Ahem, let me restate that. I used to hate soccer.

Why should anyone put themselves through such boredom, watching eleven people kicking around a stupid white ball trying to put it in a box with a net around it?

Maybe it wouldn’t be so boring if the players actually put the ball in that box with the net around it a little more often. But they don’t.

They run around on this huge mass of grass for 90 minutes and usually score less than four combined goals.

Perhaps the worst part about the whole soccer thing is there’s usually no hitting involved. Nobody bleeds, nobody really does anything to draw the attention of the national media, and nobody in America really cares about soccer.

Well, I can assure you the Eastern women’s soccer team cared about this game.

In possibly the worst period in sports’ collective history, soccer is a good change of pace.

Baseball has steroid problems. Basketball players think they are allowed to cross into the stands and fight fans. Hockey players and owners can’t seem to get their priorities straight. And football has Terrell Owens, who I think is more comical than harmful.

But soccer, at least women’s NCAA soccer, doesn’t have any of those distractions.

On Sunday the Notre Dame women’s soccer team played UCLA for the NCAA national championship. I understand that most American televisions are tuned in to some NFL game on Sundays, as was mine for the most part. But I found myself intrigued by this soccer game on a Sunday nonetheless.

Sunday is football day in America. It could be considered a religion because I know a lot of people who choose football over church on a weekly basis. But yes, I took some time to watch some women’s soccer, and I’m glad I did.

Earlier in this column I said soccer was boring. This national championship game did a lot to change my overall outlook on the game.

I also said earlier that there is usually no hitting in soccer. At some points in this soccer game I actually thought I was watching football. There was even a little bloodshed.

I said soccer players don’t score enough. Including two shootouts, there were nine goals scored in this game.

Every hockey fan should have been watching this soccer game because every hockey fan loves penalty shots. Every hockey fan loves a shootout. This game had two of each.

This national championship soccer game couldn’t have ended more exciting than it did. Not only did the game go into overtime, it went into a shootout. The shootout couldn’t determine the winner, so it went to a sudden death shootout.

When all was said and done, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were the only team left standing and were crowned national champs.

Does anyone recall who the Eastern women’s team lost to in the playoffs this year? If you said Notre Dame, you’d be correct.

And now, if you said this year’s national champions you would also be correct.

John Hohenadel is a journalism senior and the sports reporter at the Daily Eastern News

You can reach him at [email protected].