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Getting Down To
Business
By Charles Peeples
Photos
taken by Neil Wagner
Action photos courtesy of The Philadelphia
Charge
It’s mid-winter and they’ve arrived at the
Villanova campus, a knot of fresh-scrubbed, energetic young women
indistinguishable from the indigenous coeds except for their red/
black warmup suits and intense purpose. But behind these pretty
faces and girlish smiles are world-class athletes — professional
ballplayers — and if the roster of the Philadelphia Charge appear
too young, too small, too cute, too... wholesome to be pro
ballplayers, you’re not alone in your perception. An outspoken
advocate of unlimited female athleticism, I’m forever espousing its
feminine harmony. I’d seen the coverage, even written an article for
an international magazine, about the significance of the 1999
Women’s World Cup victory. But it’s so different to see it up close,
to see them in person. Some of these girls look younger to me than
my twin nieces who are in their junior year at the Hill School — a
cognitive disjunction that startled me last May when I arrived at
the Villanova Stadium for the home opener. Then the game began and
the Charge got down to business. Brandi Chastain and her Bay Area
CyberRays got a beating. I got an education.
There’s nothing “cute” or innocent or
small about professional women’s soccer. It’s fast, it’s rough, it’s
explosive and it scarcely pauses. The passes are crisp and precise,
even the long ones that aren’t lobs, but bullets fired in straight
trajectory. There are bone-jarring collisions to make you wince,
adroit ball-handling to make you gasp, and yet, amidst machine-like
coordination, even the occasional brawl. Small wonder the Villanova
Stadium was packed for most of the games, even sold out for a few.
You have to love seeing this dazzling empowerment... the
girls-next-door rising up to so much symphonic fury on the field.
Now the Charge enters its second year in
the WUSA (Women’s United Soccer Association) with a new challenge...
to prove its first season wasn’t a fluke. See, last year was
easier... there were no great expectations to fulfill. In the grand
Philly tradition of “underdogs who get no respect,” WUSA’s youngest
team was supposed to finish last in the league. And in that same
grand Philadelphia tradition of underdogs who don’t read the script,
the Charge stunned everyone by whipping some of the favorites,
finishing fourth and making it to post-season where they yielded
only after a tough double-overtime struggle against Atlanta. Now the
word is out: underestimate this gang and you’re going to be busier
than a frog in a blender.
Philly will be ready. To build on his
young nucleus, head coach Mark Krikorian has signed a couple of
seasoned ringers from France and China. At Villanova, the team is
“enjoying” the physical equivalent of a two-week boot camp under the
supervision of strength and conditioning coach Duane Carlisle of
Lightning-Fast Systems (whose training program will be detailed in
an upcoming article). Come April 13 in the season opener, the ladies
in red will be going down to Atlanta to take care of unfinished
business, then up north to sort out New York Power two weeks later.
They’ll make their home debut at Villanova Stadium on Saturday, May
4 against the Boston Breakers.
If you haven’t seen the Charge in action,
if the excesses of major-leaguers with their overpriced tickets,
overinflated egos and overpaid luminaries have left you a little
disgusted with the pro-sports scene, come on down to the Villanova
Stadium. Come see for yourself what the excitement’s all about.
Don’t let these sweet young faces fool you — they’re among the best
in the world, they’re Philly-tough and they’re looking for a fight.
Come see what happens when the Philadelphia Charge gets down to
business!
Individual game tickets for all 11 Charge home
games at the 11,800-seat Villanova Stadium are $20, $15 and $10. You
can buy them at the First Union Center Box Office and all
Ticketmaster locations, or by calling the Ticketmaster number in
your area: 215-336-2000, 856-338-9000 or
302-984-2000. Fans can find the Charge’s game schedule and
a ticket request form on the team’s official website, http://www.philadelphiacharge.com/.
Discounts are offered for groups of 15 or more and children 12 and
under on the $20 and $15 seats. Season tickets, which are priced at
$330, $165 and $110, are available by calling
215-467-GOAL. |
