The Villages SC 1–1 FC Miami City**
Second in the division came to the Polo Club and left with a point. But that is not what anybody who was there remembers about this evening.
The dragon boat crews came to the match.
They sat together, they made themselves heard, and our players had clearly given some thought to what would happen if we scored.
We scored.
And the team ran over, sat down in a line on the grass in front of them, and began to row.
The whole bench, in formation, in time, in front of the people who had taught them how to do it a few weeks earlier at Lake Miona.
And thirty exchange students were in the crowd.
Fourteen to seventeen years old, from Spain and France, in The Villages for three and a half weeks on an EF Educational Homestay Programs exchange — living with volunteer host families in this community, learning how Americans live, and showing those families something of how they do.
One of them presented the game ball.
Thirty teenagers from two countries, at a soccer match in Central Florida, cheering for a club most of them had never heard of a month earlier. We hope they go home and tell people about it.
1–1, and forty-two goals with one match of the regular season left. Four short of the all-time PDL record, with ninety minutes to play.
That is what this club is for. A tie against second place, a rowing celebration for the dragon boat team, and a kid from Spain carrying the match ball out at the Polo Club.
