I’m not a soccer fan. I’ll go ahead and get that out of the way at the beginning of this post so I can get to enjoying a Cavalier national championship in something. I didn’t like it when I was made to play as a chubby elementary schooler, I didn’t like watching it in high school when my friends wanted to go watch our team, and I have yet to enjoy it on the MLS or World Cup stages. I’m probably never going to become a soccer fan – just like I’m probably never going to develop a fondness for olives or James Taylor. You can blame my ingrained disinterest in soccer on why the Hoos’ run to the Collegiate Cup final merited virtually no coverage in this blog – a blog is nothing more but the interests of the blogger.

I guess you can see how Sunday presented me with a tough decision. I would have felt like a sub par fan for ignoring a University of Virginia athletic team playing in a national championship game – I mean, how often do we even see one of those? On the other hand, if I haven’t followed the team closely all year and have little to no interest in the sport they play, why start now? I let my conscience dictate my action, and watched the game.

This UVa-Akron tilt was a shining example of why I would enjoy soccer more if it took place in a giant dome where the walls and ceiling were playable a la Arena Football and the goal was doubled in size. The teams came in to the NCAA final both ranked amongst the best in the nation defensively and played like it, treating viewers to 110 minutes of rainy, scoreless futbol that ended deadlocked and scoreless. To the soccer fanatic, it was a defensive gem. To the uninitiated, it was the aesthetic equivalent of a 13-9 Cleveland Browns game in swirling winds.

As you probably know by now, the game ended on penalty kicks. The subtleties of a full length soccer match are lost to me, but the penalty kick session locked me in. There’s something about the unpredictability and one on one nature of penalty kicks that basically makes it an idiot’s condensed guide to soccer – and so I loved it, even as the announcers lamented having to resort to penalty kicks. When we went up 3-1, I thought it was in the bag. When it was 3-2, and Akron’s Blair Gavin had a chance to tie it up, I thought we were finished. Finally, when Gavin put his shot over the crossbar, I’ll admit to a fist pump or two. National champs!

When I was growing up a ‘Hoo fan during that 1991 to 1994 run of titles, I remember my Dad telling me how good our soccer program was. Getting this win feels great on several levels: keeping our iron in the fire as a national power and continuing our long term success in the sport, further establishing Craig Littlepage as a skilled architect of the non-big revenue sports, and finally, last but not least, having something to truly celebrate as a Virginia fan.

So good job, guys, and congratulations coach Gelnovatch, on a job well done. And when in doubt, always support your team.