Walking toward campus recently, I heard the noise of crowds and drumming. I assumed it was halftime of the Saluki football game at McAndrew Stadium. As I moved closer, I realized the noise was coming from another direction. The racket came from Stehr Field, the site of the International Soccer Championship Cup semi-finals taking place that day. The Greek Originals team was playing Palestine-Africa, and the crowd which appeared to be hundreds but sounded like thousands was chanting, drumming, shouting and waving flags.

I wondered how a Saluki might react to this kind of frenetic and raucous support.

About all anyone ever hears about soccer at SIUC the ISC tournament are some details regarding fan or player violence and strange combinations of the two. It is easy to overlook what it is implied by this these teams really do care about winning.

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While watching the finals this year, the tournament organizer mentioned that security wasn’t always a necessity, although prominent throughout many of the matches. He was right, though, in dismissing security for the final. There was no fan or player violence that couldn’t be controlled by the referee.

Not too long ago, Sports Illustrated ran an article on the best pick-up basketball games in the country. If such an article were to be written on the best soccer leagues and tournaments in the nation, the ISC Tournament would be among them.

SIUC doesn’t have a soccer team it’s something they might consider. Given the players at SIUC, they could probably compete on a collegiate athletics level (perhaps NCAA). With professional soccer clubs in the United States recruiting directly from the ranks of college teams, SIUC could become part of the connection circuit using its access to native-born and foreign talent. Hundreds of internationals come to the United States to get tryouts with teams here.

Still, this doesn’t really matter to the participants of the ISC tournament representing their squads or their nation or occasionally someone else’s nation. Players here just play the game the best they can because like a common language, it’s part of them.