Montreal Fans Travel to NJ - NY Times
Why do I suspect that these guys didn't make the shorter trip to see Canada play in the Gold Cup on a weekend?
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/01/sp.../01vecsey.html
You need to register to read the article... Can you post the text pleasequote:Originally posted by Rivaldo
Why do I suspect that these guys didn't make the shorter trip to see Canada play in the Gold Cup on a weekend?
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/01/sp.../01vecsey.html
For American papers, there is usually a bigsoccer account, where "bigsoccer" is the username and password. It's the case here, I believe.
Also, I doubt that those 19-year olds from Montréal have been to an Impact game, but more and more are coming.
Allez l'Impact!
Allez les Rouges!
Allons Ultras!
Here is the text:quote:You need to register to read the article... Can you post the text please
Fans Mingle Peacefully for Rare Treat
By GEORGE VECSEY
AST RUTHERFORD, N.J.
ALL the way down from Montreal, Matthew Raposo wore the red of Manchester United and his friends wore the black and white of Juventus - with no animosity and no bloodshed.
They were making a pilgrimage to sold-out Giants Stadium, where Manchester of England and Juventus, from Turin, Italy, two defending national champions, were playing a preseason exhibition last night.
Manchester won, 4-1, with offensive soccer typical of the preseason. Instead of the intense passion and occasional edginess that might be engendered for a regular-season game in Turin or Manchester, there was mostly warm thankfulness for a glimpse of Edgar Davids, the Dutch star with Juventus, and Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Dutch star with Manchester.
Fans also brought a sense of melancholy that soccer of this caliber is rarely seen live in the United States or in Canada.
Juventus did not start three of its best offensive players to keep them fresh for the Italian SuperCup with A.C. Milan here on Sunday. Both teams showed speed and ball skills, but the really impressive trait was the purposefulness of the attack, far more coordinated than anything American teams can muster.
Raposo and his pals, Jason Landolfi and Marco Luca, all 19, were part of a busload of fans from the Juve Club of Montreal, who came down the Northway yesterday. Raposo explained that he had gravitated to Manchester because of its charismatic star, David Beckham, who recently defected to Real Madrid. Raposo's friends said they liked him all the same and even squeezed into a photograph with him.
"That wouldn't happen in Europe," said Marcello Vitale, watching fans of both teams mingling in the parking lot.
Vitale, who was born in Calabria, Italy, and later played for Syracuse University, was part of a busload of Juventus fans from Syracuse and Utica in upstate New York. He was thankful that some of soccer's excesses did not follow the game over here, but he would love to be able to watch a high-level game in person.
"The bad thing is that the kids know the difference," Vitale said. Most of the Juve fans from upstate have roots in Italy but are now raising their children in the United States and trying to keep the old loyalties to their home regions, their old teams and the world's most popular sport.
They watch the Syracuse Salty Dogs of the A League, a fast pro league, and they watch Major League Soccer, but mostly they eat their hearts out when they watch the best leagues in the world on television.
"It's growing," Vitale said. "In the early days, we couldn't get these games on TV, but now we get a lot of soccer."
Although American soccerphobes do not like to admit it, there is a significant community of soccer buffs. They do not translate into huge ratings on television, but they are out there, working the clickers to find good old ESPN2 and good old Fox Sports World, and working the Internet to get the copious news of the top leagues on the other side.
These fans must exist, because astute marketing agents at clubs like Man United, Juventus, A.C. Milan and Barcelona have sent their teams over here for preseason exhibitions to sell their sponsors' sports gear.
The European clubs know they are not about to evict the Giants and the Jets and other American teams from their pre-eminent place, but somebody is buying red Man United shirts and striped Juventus shirts.
Jon Pearson was wearing a Beckham 7 shirt last night and Jennifer Corden was wearing a red Manchester shirt.
"I started watching the World Cup on television and I liked England and I liked Beckham, so now I like Man U," said Pearson, from Waterbury, Conn.
There were more red shirts than striped Juve shirts, which seemed to have little to do with Tim Howard, formerly of the MetroStars, playing his first game in goal for Man United. The promoters said they had sold tickets to fans from 42 states, but clearly some people had flown across the Atlantic for this game.
Nasser Hashmi and Shabina Hussain, from High Wycombe, near London, flew in Monday. Hashmi, originally from Manchester, and an assistant sports editor for The Sunday Mirror, was here strictly as a fan, wearing a shirt bearing the name of Eric Cantona, the retired French star who played for Man United.
"He was so flamboyant, so skillful, so intellectual, that he raised Man U football to another level," Hashmi said.
Matt Wiseman, from Portsmouth, England, just off the plane from London, was pulling a small suitcase. His friend Andy Hodder, originally from Portsmouth, had just flown in from Chicago, wearing a white Beckham 7 shirt from the English national team.
"I watch the games on Saturday at 6 a.m. in Chicago," Hodder said. "We go to an English pub, Ginger's Ale House, at Ashland and Grace. They serve a full English breakfast. It's like being home."
Wiseman is a Portsmouth fan, and Hodder is a West Ham fan who is suffering this season because the Hammers have been relegated to the First Division. They both got on airplanes to watch two of the best clubs in the world, temporarily in New Jersey. For 79,005 fans, it was very much like being home.
Only by people who ignore what is going on in their own backyards. How many New Yorkers saw Tim Howard live for the first time that night? How sad is that?quote:Originally posted by Rivaldo
Fans also brought a sense of melancholy that soccer of this caliber is rarely seen live in the United States or in Canada.
The league's don't grow and flourish because people view it as second rate. It's second rate in part because no one gives it any credit. Paul Stalteri and Nik Ledgerwood are proving the gap between the A-League and the Bundesliege isn't that great (oh say the gap between the CHL and the NHL for the top young A-League players) and yet the defeatist attitude seems to prevent a lot of people from giving it a chance.
If you're a soccer fan you should support the game. And don't get me started on people who fly over the ocean and then go to some place that's 'just like back home'.
Yeah I'm getting bitter in my old age. What can I say.
cheers,
matthew
The car is on fire and there is no driver at the wheel and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides. A dark wind blows. The government is corrupt and we are all so many drunks with the radio on and the curtains drawn. We’re trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death.
Not that I'm among those who saw Tim Howard for the first time last week, but I can't blame those who did! Did you see the ticket prices for MLS games??? It's roughly 3 times more expensive to see a MetroStars game (at an empty stadium in the middle of nowhere) than, for instance, a Bayern Munich game! Scary! I've heard that ticket prices at a Toronto Lynx game are $15 (?) which would make it around the same price as a Bungesliga game. And if you go to a Bundesliga game they actually have GOOD beer!
So I'm thinking that price (not just the quality of the beer... errr.. make that soccer) might also be a factor. If you have a family of 4 or whatever, things can add up quickly.
Andrew, New York Cityquote:Originally posted by matthew
Only by people who ignore what is going on in their own backyards. How many New Yorkers saw Tim Howard live for the first time that night? How sad is that?quote:Originally posted by Rivaldo
Fans also brought a sense of melancholy that soccer of this caliber is rarely seen live in the United States or in Canada.
The league's don't grow and flourish because people view it as second rate. It's second rate in part because no one gives it any credit. Paul Stalteri and Nik Ledgerwood are proving the gap between the A-League and the Bundesliege isn't that great (oh say the gap between the CHL and the NHL for the top young A-League players) and yet the defeatist attitude seems to prevent a lot of people from giving it a chance.
If you're a soccer fan you should support the game. And don't get me started on people who fly over the ocean and then go to some place that's 'just like back home'.
Yeah I'm getting bitter in my old age. What can I say.
cheers,
matthew
Geezus, MLS tickets are expensive! Think Bayern might not be a good example though. Gameday tickets at least in Scotland are on a quick browse going at around 20 pounds and up. More at Celtic Park! And the dirty buggers jack the price for derbys and "premium fixtures" just so they can milk the travelling supporerts.
England's just as bad or worse if that's the right choice of phrase. What's the dollor to the pound these days? Two dollors, two dollor fifty? If you want to see the Liverpool derby it's going to cost you $60 for a cheap seat.
Still, $40-$50 to see a MetroStars match? No dragging the youngsters out unless they're realy interested in watching.
What where Whitecap season passes going at? $160 bucks?
Remember the Fury gameday tickets going at $8 adult. Think they were $4 for children and pensioners. Little wonder they're not around anymore.
"Minority of one"
I think Britain is the exception more than the rule. Everything is a rip-off over there, not just football tickets! Haha... 20 pounds to see a (5-Nil) scottish league game?? I'd sooner get something amputated! My question is, what do the Scottish teams do with all that money?? ... Maybe our members from around Europe can verify this, but I'm guessing you can even get into the Nou Camp or the San Siro for 20-25 Euros/dollars!?
Andrew, New York Cityquote:Originally posted by Cheeta
Geezus, MLS tickets are expensive! Think Bayern might not be a good example though. Gameday tickets at least in Scotland are on a quick browse going at around 20 pounds and up. More at Celtic Park! And the dirty buggers jack the price for derbys and "premium fixtures" just so they can milk the travelling supporerts.
England's just as bad or worse if that's the right choice of phrase. What's the dollor to the pound these days? Two dollors, two dollor fifty? If you want to see the Liverpool derby it's going to cost you $60 for a cheap seat.
Still, $40-$50 to see a MetroStars match? No dragging the youngsters out unless they're realy interested in watching.
What where Whitecap season passes going at? $160 bucks?
Remember the Fury gameday tickets going at $8 adult. Think they were $4 for children and pensioners. Little wonder they're not around anymore.
"Minority of one"
Go watch some soccer games in Eastern Europe... some first division matches only cost $1 in the Czech Republic.
--------------------------------------------------
Sigma do toho!
fotbal.idnes.cz
Fair play on the ticket prices, but at the same time they're cheaper than any of the other big sports except baseball and baseball gets 81 home dates per year.
That being said, the cheapest game I've been to was the A-League game in Saskatoon and that was still more than $40 when you factor in a tank of gas (more than four hours round trip) and ticket cost. I don't live anywhere near somewhere where you can see a live match. I'd kill for the priveledge of being bilked to see the likes of Tim Howard, Clint Mathis (well maybe not this year), Eddie Pope and Amado Guevara. Those are some damn good players.
In any event, the writer was making the point that the product in North America was low quality, not that it was over-priced. You might be right on the second count, but I'll argue all day that there isn't some good footy being played in MLS and the A-League.
cheers,
matthew
The car is on fire and there is no driver at the wheel and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides. A dark wind blows. The government is corrupt and we are all so many drunks with the radio on and the curtains drawn. We’re trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death.
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