Brazbit
Randomness Personified
Premium
join:2003-10-22
Port Orchard, WA
 ·wavebroadband
| reply to SK
Re: [Soccer] Gold Cup
This might have been the most exciting part of the first match.... | 
USMNT Starting XI | 
Adu vs half the opposing team | 
Not pretty but it is a goal | 
It's in the net... | 
Again not pretty but a goal none the less | 
I love the look on the defender's face | 
Holden looks happy with that | 
I think Davies just about made the Grenada keeper wet himself with this goal | 
The keeper needs his reflexes checked. Rogers taps one in |
I had visions of 67K filling the stadium. Then I heard there were around 20K tickets left. Still 47K is a nice crowd. Then I got there and saw the stadium was still in it's Sounders configuration of 32K seats. A whopping 15K showed up for the two matches. I was prepared for this by the lack of enthusiasm online (Holiday, poor match-ups, heat, first game of a non-FIFA cup game, any number of excuses for not going) but it was still a let down. I felt the National Team deserved a better showing even if it was a lame opponent in the group stage of a CONCACAF cup game.
Haiti vs Honduras was the first match of the night. I figured this should be fun to watch. Without having a horse in the race, so to speak, I could just sit back and enjoy a nice match without any stress of worrying about my team. In theory that was true but the game was so poorly played that I found myself having a hard time enjoying it.
Honduras isn't all that bad of a team but they played down to Haiti's level so the whole game was pretty much kick the ball as hard as you can down the field and pray your team can get to it first. There were occasional bright spots but for the most part it was a snooze-fest. On the bright side Honduras had some energetic fans.
The US game was better but it was a total mismatch. The US Squad is far from what they had in South Africa but even so they made Grenada look like a U13 team. With such a disparity in ability the game never did get all that exciting but it was the US Mens National Team and just getting to see them play was a treat.
I have read a lot of comments about the horns... The horns unfortunately are sold in the Sounders team shop. They were put out by the team before anyone knew what the crowd would be like and unfortunately they sell well enough that the team won't pull them off the shelf.
At a Sounders game they are annoying but get drowned out for the most part by the constant cheering and energy of the crowd. It sucks to have one near you but otherwise they fade into the background noise. With the small turn out yesterday and the abnormally high ratio of kids to adults the horns were the primary noise maker at the game. It was like everyone that had them at Sounders games showed up with them yesterday without the other 18K fans to help keep that annoying noise in check.
We had two of them near us yesterday. As I suspected the kids were blowing them to see how loud or how long they could blow them, or just blowing them in siblings ears to annoy them, their activity had absolutely nothing to do with the action on the field. I truly hope the Sounders discontinue selling these next season but I am not going to hold my breath.
Despite the horns and the level of play I would gladly purchase tickets to this event again. Any opportunity to see the National Team in action is worth it. Maybe next time they are in town it will be a better opponent.
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And so it goes in life.... one minute everything is coming up roses the next you are being torn apart amongst the thorns. |
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SK
The member formerly known as Cow
Premium
join:2001-05-18
Toronto
clubs:  | Great pics man! Did Sam Cronin get any playing time?
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Harper is a pro rogue. |
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Brazbit
Randomness Personified
Premium
join:2003-10-22
Port Orchard, WA
·wavebroadband
| No Sam Cronin yesterday.
Starting XI:
Freddy Adu
Kyle Beckerman
Steve Cherundolo
Charlie Davies
Clarence Goodson
Stuart Holden
Chad Marshall
Logan Pause
Heath Pearce
Troy Perkins
Robbie Rogers
Subs:
Davy Arnaud
Brad Evans
Michael Parkhurst
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And so it goes in life.... one minute everything is coming up roses the next you are being torn apart amongst the thorns. |
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