Seattlest Pix 09Nov07
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Seattlest Pix 09Nov08
Overheard while trying to buy a ticket to last night's Real Madrid vs. D.C. United match:
"You ever see a soccer game before?"
"No, man, I'm an American."
Sixtysome-thousand Americans apparently saw their first soccer game ever last night at Qwest Field between a big name Spanish team loaded with stars and past its prime and a MLS team that likely doesn't sell 20,000 tickets to its home matches in the Capitol. These are the preseaon tours that European teams do to warm up for their upcoming season and milk a few dollars out of the American fans.
The game started well, though, and intially didn't have the flavour of a training camp exhibition. After a poor turnover Antonio Cassano beat United's backline for a great goal in the first half which unfortunately happened on the opposite side of the field from Seattlest. Cassano is a problem player who recently joined Real Madrid when a transfer to Juventus was cancelled due to their whole match fixing and demotion fiasco. D.C. United answered quickly when the youngest man in the world Freddy Adu made an incredible run through Roberto Carlos and some other guy and put a cross into the box. United managed to connect on several one touch passes before Escandarian scored. 1-1! Beckham had some amazing kicks that ended up leading nowhere during this part of the match and the young girls behind Seattlest screamed like only young girls can every time he touched the ball. Nothing else exciting happened in the match. Real was flat and tired in the second half and United seemed to finally realize who they were playing and couldn't put together anything worth mentioning. They almost gave up a goal midway through, but it was cleared off the line by a defender.
For many of the eight hundred billion soccer fans who were in attendance this will be the last game they attend until two years from now when another big name team with big name stars comes to town for a warm-up. Hello, guys, the Seattle Sounders use Qwest as their home field. Actual soccer that counts for something played by hungry guys who are on their way up occurs there almost every other week in the summer. Someday some of the Sounders will be playing against Italy in the World Cup and you'll remember them from that time you saw them lose to Vancouver at Qwest Field for $12. For example, Seattlest once saw Brian Ching play for the Sounders and then in this past World Cup he... Well, he didn't get any playing time, but he was on the bench.
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I dont get the sarcasm in this post and you spelled dude's name wrong (read: Eskandarian). This draw was actually a major major coup for DCU-eventhough Real is only in preseason form.
You want hungry, man the back line of DCU make like $30k a year- and two of those bamas were MLS All Stars (the All Stars that beat friggin Chelsea last weekend). One guy works at Sports Authority. The goal keeper works as some mortgage consultant. Real's payroll has got to be in the $150 mill range.
I'm just not satisified with this post. It's like you're throwing salt in DCU's game or something. We didnt want this stupid game to be played in Seattle, but DC just didnt have a venue for that date. Your post makes it sound like Seattle was put out for having to host the game. Damn, couldn't one of my homies from DCist have reviewed this game instead?
Dude, it's not the posts fault you guys didn't play better in the second half. What do you want me to say? That it was a fantastic result against one of the best teams in the world? It was. I didn't know that the United defense sells soccer balls and fits shoes when they're not blanking Real Madrid for 45 minutes. That's cool. And the goal EsKandarian scored came out of a run-up that wouldn't have been out of place in a champions league final. It was awesome. I'm glad we got to see an MLS team play Real instead of some second tier European team like we have in the past. Seattle doesn't have an MLS team however, so we got yours. That's not the posts fault either.
Anyway, no one who was there gave a shit about the game, we just wanted to watch these world-class athletes play. Beckham's passing wizardry is so much more impressive in person--when you see him float a ball 50 yards and have it land so precisely and softly it's like he placed a mint on a pillow.
I am not really sure about the point of either post. But don't fault me for taking the time to read both. I'm merely a soccer fan and there is probably no point to this post either.
Friendlies in the US are circus events. I find it more entertaining to people-watch and enjoy the event for what it is rather than scrutinize the quality of play. Games like the MLS All-Stars vs. Chelsea are a joke--publicity stunts. America, fuck yeah. This shit was embarassing: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=375249&root=mls&cc=5901
I agree that these matches are warm-ups and opportunities to make money. But everyone benefits from this sort of thing. The Sounders make money and gain props for presenting, DC United gets paid for playing and local businesses make money from all the yo-yos who roll in for the game. Even if revenues stream from paltry things like parking or peanuts in the alley--it's still cash and it adds up. It's the circle of life. I do like that it brings soccer into the mainstream. If it takes the glam of Beckham to help soccer reach the tipping point in the United States--so be it.
It is true that our MLS players do not make tons of money--so respect there. The league is still in its infancy and we simply do not develop our players like they do abroad. However we do have many more players going to Europe to play. Parallel to this, many guys who play in the CFL or Arena Football still "bag groceries" or coach Pee-Wee football in the part-time. Those who are good enough come to the states to play.
DC United is a great team with great players, and they were excited to get out there and beat Real. But these teams couldn't be anymore different in terms of quality. Exhibitions lack the investment that you see when teams are playing for cup or country. Whether it's the Sounders v. Portland, Italy v. USA in the first round of the World Cup, or to Co-Rec teams going heads up, there is much more on the line there than any friendly you'll ever watch.
While I agree that the All-Star team's success over Chelsea was played up, I think that DC United's playing toe to toe against Real is substantially more impressive. Sure, it's a great step for our domestic to beat foreign champions (regardless of the circumstances in our favor), but we must remember that the All-Stars is just that: a group of the top talent in America (at least according to the votes of MLS fans, the coach, and the commissioner). DC, however, is just a a team, a sample of the types of squads that play professionally in America. In the opinion of most, the All-Star roster is certainly more talented than DC. Even though they sit comfortably on top of the tables, they are are far from an all star team. They have their good players, along with their lesser skilled footballers. Let's not forget the Celtic FC friendly. Although Real was certainly in better form than Celtic, the 4-0 rout of CFC was surely not a fluke, especially with the second half goals scored by DC's reserve.
I don't mean to sound like Im plugging DC, but I think I speak on behalf of many MLS supporters who are well aware that media makes a much bigger deal out of these mismatched friendlies (as far as the players' fitness on their respective sides) where the home side has the upper hand in some way or another. America is ignorant to football, apart from the obligatory children's recreational and 'select' leagues, so the more people are exposed to not only American talent but top flight talent from the rest of the world, the better it will be for the sports future here.
Huh, looks like the DC fans found Seattlest. Just ignore them, that's what most people on BigSoccer do. ;)
It doesn't matter which team we prefer. I could support Dallas, RSL, Chicago, what have you... the scenario matters, not the team. The fact that a MLS team played very well against one of the world's top clubs is the main idea here. I think the original post was trying to downplay this victory, and I for one think that as supporters of our respective domestic teams, we should take what we can get as far as gaining a little bit of foreign recognition