North Texas Premier Soccer Association

Division 1A (Spring Season)

Sunday 8th May 2016

Kick off 15.00 Actual 15.20

Santos F.C. 1 Matadors 2,  attendance 13

3′ 0-1

60′ 1-1

90′ 1-2

@ Harry S. Moss Park, Pitch 6

7874, Greenville Avenue

Dallas, TX 75231

No admission or programme.

Annoying that players can’t make a proper effort to arrive in time for kick off, given that they couldn’t use traffic problems as an excuse, or even working late, for the majority of them. Makes the hanging around worse when it was only about 10 yards travelling distance for me from the last match !

The game hinged on a red card for Santos F.C. after 57 minutes, although they had the better chances, even when playing with a man light.

North Texas Premier Soccer Association

Division 1B (Spring Season)

Sunday 8th May 2016

Kick off 13.00 Actual 13.03

Classics F.C. 2 Crusaders A.S.F. 1,  attendance 7

6′ 0-1

9′ 1-1

88′ 2-1 (pen)

@ Harry S. Moss Park, Pitch 5

7874, Greenville Avenue

Dallas, TX 75231

No admission or programme.

Harry S. Moss Park is a multi pitch complex, although only two of them are full size adult, Pitch 5 and Pitch 6. On site there is a central building that houses toilets and a refreshment stand. With the two pitches used in the NTPSA being parallel to each other, it offered up a very convenient double opportunity.

Third versus second and a draw would have been a fair result in a decent game, as you would expect, from two of the leagues top three teams.

National Premier Soccer League

South Central Conference

Saturday 7th May 2016

Kick off 19.30

Tulsa Athletics 1 Liverpool Warriors 1,  attendance 3,457

12′ 0-1

35′ 1-1

@ Athletics Stadium

4600, East 15th Street

Tulsa, OK 74114

$7 admission

No programme*

I had ample time to get from the baseball so plenty of time for a relaxed meal. Parking was adjacent to the stadium and free. The renamed Athletics Stadium, previously Drillers Stadium, had been home to Tulsa Drillers MiLB team from 1981 to 2009. There have been alterations to make the stadium more ‘soccer’ friendly, which included removing the 1st base bleachers, enabling the pitch to be lengthened. Capacity  here is 10,997, although that will surely never be tested. I am not sure who dreams up the attendance figures here, but I only estimated the turnout to be around the 600 mark ! There are plans for the stadium to be demolished and replaced by an indoor BMX arena, which is expected to be completed by 2019.

On entering the stadium, which had a proper professional feel to it, there was a programme being sold for $1, which apparently had been produced by the son of one of the Committee members. I declined the offer, but then decided to go back and buy one, only to find out they had sold out. Unlike some English Groundhoppers, who would have sulked, or even gone home,  it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game by not getting one. As for the match, it was far too rushed and played at 100 mph. It was very physical and a surprise that the only red card, for the visitors, came five minutes into stoppage time at the end of the match.

North Texas Premier Soccer Association

Division 1A (Spring Season)

Thursday 5th May 2016

Kick off 20.45 Actual 21.32

Leon F.C. 1 Legends F.C. 3,  attendance 14

2′ 1-0

6′ 1-1

18′ 1-2

88′ 1-3

@ Premier Park, Pitch 3

11115, Elam Road

Balch Springs, TX 75180

No admission or programme.

This second part of a double sees the third pitch of seven done at Premier Park, so far in numerical order. The organisation here was pathetic, to say the least. Another game, due to start at a slightly earlier time than ours, had no officials, so the 3  from our game were moved to that. The obvious thing to do was then appoint the officials due to do the following game there, to our match, as they would be running late anyway. However, the 3 stood and watched the second half of that game, with our original officials then doing our match, once they had taken a rest break.

When it finally got going, top of the table Legends won it, despite having a man sent off in the 83rd minute.

North Texas Premier Soccer Association

Division 1A (Spring Season)

Thursday 5th May 2016

Kick off 19.00 Actual 19.18

Dallas City F.C. 2 F.F. Premier 2,  attendance 7

4′ 0-1

13′ 0-2

25′ 1-2

59′ 2-2

@ Premier Park, Pitch 2

11115, Elam Road

Balch Springs, TX 75180

No admission or programme.

Second visit to Premier Park having previously done Pitch 1.

North Texas Premier Soccer Association

Division 5 (Spring Season)

Tuesday 3rd May 2016

Kick off 18.45 Actual 18.55

Dallas Cosmos 1 Dot’s Hop House 5,  attendance 3

4′ 0-1

12′ 0-2

21′ 1-2

39′ 1-3

56′ 1-4 (pen)

66′ 1-5

@ The Colony Five Star Soccer Complex, Pitch 1

4100, Blair Oaks Drive

The Colony, TX 75056

No admission or programme.

Fourth visit to the complex having previously done Pitches 2, 6 and 7. Despite this being the bottom division it was a decent game as the league leaders won comfortably.

North Texas Premier Soccer Association

Division 1A (Spring Season)

Sunday 1st May 2016

Kick off 13.00 Actual 13.20

Somerset United 0 F.F. Premier 1,  attendance 8

84′ 0-1

@ The Colony Five Star Soccer Complex, Pitch 7

4100, Blair Oaks Drive

The Colony, TX 75056

No admission or programme.

This was my third visit to the complex having previously done Pitch 2 and Pitch 6. A really poor game, not helped by Premier playing the entire match with 10 players, despite having a substitute kitted out.

National Premier Soccer League

South Central Conference

Saturday 30th April 2016

Kick off 19.30 Actual 19.35

Fort Worth Vaqueros F.C. 1 Houston Regals S.C.A. 1,  attendance 500

38′ 1-0

54′ 1-1

@ Texas Wesleyan University

Martin Field

South Collard Street

Fort Worth, TX 76105

$10 admission

No programme.

This was a perfect double as Fort Worth is on the way home from Stephenville. It was the first game of the season in the South Central Conference and a great turnout on a very warm evening. Vaqueros seemed geared up for the large crowd and as well as a beer tent there were a couple of mobile food wagons. There is no official parking inside the complex so the side streets had to make do. Although looking a bit dodgy it turned out ok. By that, I mean the car was still there afterwards !

The game wasn’t great and tailed off when Regals had a man sent off three minutes after grabbing an equaliser.

I-40 Cup

2nd Leg

Sunday 24th April 2016

Kick off 18.00

Memphis City F.C. 3 Little Rock Rangers S.C. 3 (4-5 aggregate),  attendance 650

8′ 1-0

11′ 1-1 (pen)

25’2-1

48′ 3-1

57′ 3-2

85′ 3-3

@ Mike Rose Soccer Complex

9000, East Shelby Drive

Memphis, TN 38125

$10 admission

No programme.

It was about half an hours drive east from the basketball, so plenty of time to eat before the match although the refreshments in the stadium looked ok.

Memphis looked like they had turned the tie round when they went 3-1 up on the night, but Little Rock had the advantage of the tie being decided by the ‘away goals rule’ so only needed to be a goal down to win the cup. In the end they won overall anyway. The crowd count here was so much more realistic than on Friday. Only 50 more than I had estimated.

After the match, which finished off my little 5 match tour, I drove back into Arkansas and stopped overnight just west of Little Rock. At least it would only be 300 miles home from here.

I-40 Cup 1st Leg

Friday 22nd April 2016

Kick off 19.00 Actual 19.07

Little Rock Rangers S.C. 2 Memphis City F.C. 1,  attendance 3,700

12′ 1-0

62′ 1-1

85′ 2-1 (pen)

@ War Memorial Stadium

1, Stadium Drive

Little Rock, AR 72205

$10 admission

Programme free, 4 pages, plus free team sheet.

This is a new competition to be played annually between these two clubs, with the cities of Little Rock and Memphis separated by the I-40, hence the name of the cup. It was the first game played by the newly formed hosts who will compete in the National Premier Soccer League, which is level 4 in U.S.A., whilst the visitors were formed in 2015 and also play in the N.P.S.L., albeit in a different region.

The official attendance was 3,000 more than my estimate, but even the more realistic crowd of 700 was pretty good for this level, although somewhat lost in a ground that holds 53,727. Although multi purpose, it is mainly used for American Football, being home to the Arkansas Baptist Buffaloes, Catholic High School Rockets and an occasional University Arkansas Razorbacks game. The stadium was built in 1948, but has undergone numerous renovations and nowadays has a synthetic pitch. Marked out primarily for American Football, it makes the ‘soccer’ lines difficult to see, despite them being in yellow and makes watching the game awkward at times. I prefer these old bowl type stadiums as they have a bit of character to them. Don’t know what to make of the lone flag draped at one end of the stadium. Very odd thing to see in U.S.A., let alone Arkansas.

This was the first game of a small road trip, starting off with a 320 mile drive via the I-30 E, staying overnight in Little Rock, AR.