Fans find Germantown to revel in soccer-mania

Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo J Adam Fenster⁄The Gazette Members of The Crew, a group of about 30 University of Maryland students who travel to cheer for the men’s soccer team during the ACC tournament last week.

Ah, the soccer fan. Thousands of them converged on the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds last week for the Atlantic Coast Conference’s men’s soccer championship, the highest-profile event the venue has hosted since opening in 2000.

On Wednesday three friends — Malcolm ‘‘born playing soccer” Harris of Germantown; Stephen ‘‘kicking before he walked” Sawicki of Bethesda and Cody ‘‘juggling before cursive” Albrecht of Silver Spring – joined about 4,000 people to watch the 2005 NCAA champion University of Maryland defeat Boston College 1-0 in double overtime.

‘‘Come on, don’t complain about it!” Cody yelled to a Boston College player after a call.

By 9:45 p.m., as the game neared its final minutes, the three friends recalled their day.

‘‘I’ve been here since 9 a.m.,” Malcolm, 12, said. Like his friends, he left the SoccerPlex only for his own soccer practice with the Potomac Cougars. ‘‘I was born in a family that plays soccer.”

Stephen said the adrenaline rush is what drives him and the players on the field.

‘‘It’s all about the adrenaline,” he said. ‘‘And if you win, it’s worth it.”

Germantown was full of adrenaline last week when eight college teams and their fans arrived for games on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Youth soccer is a force in Montgomery County, with more than 30,000 players on recreational leagues.

‘‘As a fan, as a coach, as a player and as a person who lives in Germantown and seeing soccer grow here, I love it,” said Claude Sayag, coach of Seneca Valley High School’s varsity girl’s soccer team. He also coaches the U-14 boy’s Seneca Soccer Dragons, which served as ball boys during the second game of the tournament Wednesday.

‘‘It’s really fun,” said Luis Hernandez, 14, a player on the boy’s junior varsity team at Northwest High School and a Dragons player. ‘‘It calms me down. Soccer is one of my main outlets. If I’m mad I just start. When something’s wrong, I turn to soccer.”

Hernandez, a freshman who’s been playing soccer since he was 4, said watching the game from the field will help him in his own game.

‘‘Having something like this at the SoccerPlex is a dream,” said Mike Manolatos, a coach with the U-18 girl’s team Germantown Glory.

‘‘Are you watching the same game I am, sir?!”

That comment came Wednesday from members of The Crew, a group of 30 University of Maryland students that has faithfully followed the men’s soccer team for the past four years, complete with synchronized chants and taunts.

‘‘We have great fans and great fans make the games,” said Andrew Gackenbach, a senior from Eldersburg, holding five pieces of poster board each with one red letter of ‘‘CHRIS,” the first name of the Boston College goalie, Chris Seitz.

‘‘We always sit behind the goalie,” said Maryland senior Mike Mastranuono. ‘‘That’s what we earned our reputation on.”

They’ve been known to chant an opposing team’s goalie’s telephone number for five minutes straight, Gackenbach said. It affects the goalies, and not in a good way.

‘‘When guys spit water at us and give us the finger or talk back to us, obviously, we make an impression in their minds,” Mastranuono said.

But The Crew does have a softer side. A few minutes after the game started, 75 university students, all standing behind goalie Seitz started singing the ‘‘Star-Spangled Banner,” which wasn’t played before the game started.

The University of Maryland lost to Duke 1-0 in the quarterfinal game on Friday night.