What it was like
August is when a season stops being a season and turns into arithmetic. Everybody in the stadium is doing the same math and nobody has to say a word about it.
By now the roster is healthy, the press is running on months of repetition instead of instruction, and the players who decide matches are at the top of their form. Home results in this stretch determine where the club enters the bracket, which is the kind of stakes that sharpens a Friday night into something you can feel out on the concourse before kickoff. Mission Valley in late summer handles the rest: warm, clear, the stands full of people who have been at this all year and know exactly what tonight is worth.
Snapdragon Stadium on Friars Road, a Friday evening in August.
Take somebody who has never seen women's soccer live. This crowd will do the convincing for you.