My Favorite 21 Soccer Photos Of 2021

This was a crazy year for many things, but also for soccer. I didn’t get to many games, but the games that I got to were awesome. There seemed to be great emotion this entire year. Here are some of my favorite soccer photos from this past season.

21. Soccer is a sport where you don’t get many chances for action up close. Here as a player was waiting to sub into the game I made an up close photo that I really liked.

 

20. Rain seemed to be the story of this year in soccer. For a while this fall it seemed to rain at every event that I photographed this fall. For most of the rivalry game against Indiana it really rained down. Here you can see some of the effects of that rain.

19. Another crazy aspect of the year was that we had a spring and fall soccer season for Purdue. Here is a tough header in some good light from the first time that Purdue played the Hoosiers at home this year.

18. There is nothing better than that moment a goal goes in during a soccer match. Even in an exhibition game the emotion is amazing.

17. You have to love it when a senior scores the go ahead goal against a rival. Here Ally Mussallem celebrates what would be the game winner against Indiana in the fall contest this year. I love the emotion and the rain here.

16. Soccer is much more of a contact sport than I used to think it was. Now that I have spent a few years around it I am amazed at how these athletes do it. Every chance at a ball is a battle, and that is part of the fun of photographing soccer is to document those battles.

15. Here is another battle that has just finished. This was part of an amazing opening night for Purdue soccer this fall that seemed to have everything.

14. Did you think that I was kidding when I talked about rain being the story of this year. So far nearly all of the pictures have had rain in them. That is a common theme. The rain just adds to the difficulty when playing this game. It seems to make the games far more tense as one slip could turn the game around.

13. This was a fun moment this season. Before sending a couple of subs into the game Harrison coach Bryan Clouse gave them some instructions. I moved over a few feet to use the last light of the day to my advantage. I liked the photo, and when these two went into the game and immediately scored I knew that whatever was said here was pretty good.

12. I basically went to the Harrison game on senior night for this photo. I wanted to try out my 135mm lens with soccer. I knew that I wouldn’t get a lot of keepers so I basically decided on one photo that I had in mind, and then anything else close would work too. Just before I left I finally had the chance with the ball in the right part of the field to make this photo. Photos like this are looking more and more like the future of where my photography is heading. I still have a lot to sort out, but if I am going to just be making photos for fun then they will be ideas that I have. The galleries will also be smaller because why edit a ton of photos all of the time? This was a fun night that helped me imagine what the future could be.

11. Lately the flag seems to be at half mast more than it is up. Here during the spring match against Indiana that was the case. Being lower allowed it to be in more of my photos. I really like how it made this photo look. It was just something different at a venue where I have made lots of photos over the years.

10. There is nothing like victory. Here West Side wins yet another sectional championship. You can’t beat good emotion, and a title will bring that every time.

9. Here Charlie Sharp jumps over the West Side goalie after scoring a goal. It was a fun moment during a very fun game. The athleticism of these players is really something else. It keeps me coming back to the soccer pitch.

8. This was an interesting night. I was originally booked to make photos for the home team, but the offer was pulled late because they found a cheaper option. I had already made plans to be there so I just went anyway. Without having to cover every bit of game action I was free to play around a bit. While I was up here I missed the first goal of a record setting season for Sarah Griffith, but I would capture many of them on the season. I wanted to show the amazing crowd that turned out for this game. It was my first game with fans in quite a while, and I was loving the noise that they brought.

7. What a great year. Purdue played Indiana twice at home for the boot in 2021, and they came home with it both times. Here the celebration was a fun one to capture.

6. Folk Field sunsets are fun to watch. Here the sky was clear so that meant that we would have no color so why not play with the sun as it went down. I moved to the other end of the pitch to make this photo of goalie Marisa Bova with that great light.

5. I only attended one Harrison girls soccer game this season and two photos from it are in the top five. That should tell you what kind of a game that it was. Here they celebrate the goal that sent them to the regional finals. When you are the underdog and you go ahead you celebrate hard, and that is what this team did. If they always play with this kind of emotion I will need to attend more games.

4. The West Lafayette team huddles just before a sectional game at home. I went down to the game knowing that it would rain, and the sunset could be pretty cool. That did not pan out, but the rain clouds coming in during blue hour made for an interesting photo.

3. Here is a wide photo from that Harrison girls regional game. More cloudy skies lead to this amazing sunset. I quite making action photos to have some fun with the sky. Of course the action quit coming to mid field for a long time. I finally was blessed with this play right at mid field so that I could make this photo.

2. While Harrison was playing at West Side I made this photo as the sun was going down. I took the opportunity to play with the sun a little. As it was almost at the horizon it made for some great light on the players. Of course the game action never came through this zone, but during a stoppage I made this photo.

1. This was by far my favorite moment of the season. This team just had a sense of destiny to it. From early on they were doing amazing things. When the regular season ended I wanted more. We got that with a Big Ten Tournament game at home. To have one more chance to cover them a Folk Field during the NCAA Tournament was a great thing. To have the game end in overtime with a celebration like this was amazing. This was a special group that gave us a lot of great memories this season. One of my last paid gigs in 2021 was covering this game, and it was an awesome experience.