So, I went to a soccer game

rnoldh · Aug 17, 2008

A friend of mine bought a very, very small piece of the local soccer franchise, the Houston Dynamos.

So I went to the game last night which the Dynamos won 4-3.

I was way overdressed

see here!

I was probably the only one in the house wearing a blazer (which I later took off).

The game was OK, but I know nothing of soccer. They hooked me up with the team marketing director, who was a real nice girl, but I understood little of the soccer finer points.

Oscar De La Hoya owns a piece of the team but he wasn't there. He's supposed to be coming soon to games. I would have liked to have met him. I think he and I have a common interest in sartorial pursuits ands strippers

Here's my Dynamo friend:

Note how well he's dressed

Other pictures of the game:

Where we were in the pressbox:

The "Crowd", which was about 4500 people:

Final score was 4-3 Houston Dynamos won:

It also surprised me that the crowd was only about 20-25% Mexican. I was told that was because the Dynamos are basically a gringo team and that they were playing a team from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Last week when the Dynamos were playing a Mexican national team, they packed the place.

I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon, unless I'm assured that De la Hoya will be there, or if it's the final game of the Soccer Championship.

Anyone have in interest in soccer or the Dynamos?

matadorpoeta · Aug 17, 2008

i would love more people here to appreciate the sport, but the local league is not going to inspire anyone. i hope you attend another match someday when you are on vacation in another country.

rnoldh · Aug 17, 2008

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

i would love more people here to appreciate the sport, but the local league is not going to inspire anyone. i hope you attend another match someday when you are on vacation in another country.
Hi,

Yes, I agree fully. To be frank this was sort of bush league. It reminded me of the WNBA, and our own Houston Comets. They were the champs 3 years in a row, but nobody seemed to care.

I wasn't expecting a Celtic United experience or some sort of wild South American game, but I definitely hoped it would have been more lively!

The ownership are pretty smart and are looking at the long term window. They are anticipating great Hispanic population growth in the Houston area, and are working hard on a national TV contract. They're also working hard on a downtown stadium.

I think it well may work, but it's a while off.

matadorpoeta · Aug 17, 2008

Originally Posted by rnoldh

Hi,

Yes, I agree fully. To be frank this was sort of bush league. It reminded me of the WNBA, and our own Houston Comets. They were the champs 3 years in a row, but nobody seemed to care.

I wasn't expecting a Celtic United experience or some sort of wild South American game, but I definitely hoped it would have been more lively!

The ownership are pretty smart and are looking at the long term window. They are anticipating great Hispanic population growth in the Houston area, and are working hard on a national TV contract. They're also working hard on a downtown stadium.

I think it well may work, but it's a while off.

i don't see how it can work, but a lot of people are betting a lot of money that it will. hispanics in this country fall into 2 groups (imo): first, the ones who are americanized and are into baseball, basketball, and couldn't care less about soccer; and second, the ones who are actually from latin america (or 1st gen.) and bleed the sport, but only care about their home league and take an interest in the european leagues as well. i don't see either population embracing mls.

i think the money guys are betting that the soccer moms and their kids will eventually make the sport profitable here, but i don't see that happening as long as the best players and richest teams are in europe. americans don't care about a sport unless they think they are the best at it.

Matt · Aug 17, 2008

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

americans don't care about a sport unless they think they are the best at it.
you know i was thinking the exact same thing in the thread about removing sports from the Olympics, where so many guys called for badminton to be dropped. I couldn't care less about badminton, but as someone who has been living in Asia for way-too-long now, I can say that sport is huge here.

Thomas · Aug 17, 2008

Love the Dynamos and generally make a few games a season. We had season passes last year, one was the game when LA (Beckham) was coming to town - that day it was packed but Becks was a no-show. Then again we're fairly soccer-centric and took our XC student to games every chance we got.

TUspiv · Aug 18, 2008

I'm a big soccer fan and enjoy going to the FC Dallas games when I'm here in the summer, it's really a great time if the weather's just right and there's a decent crowd. But when the Mexican teams come to play, those are the games you want to go to!

overdog · Aug 18, 2008

I went to an exhibition matchd between FC Barcelona and Chivas Americas held at Reliant Stadium two years ago. The crowd was so amped up. I was surprised to see about 50% of the crowd was cheering for Barcelona, even though I'm sure most of the crowd was Mexican. When Barcelona scored 3 goals in the final 9 minutes (including a goal and an assist by Ronaldinho) to tie the game up at 4-4 , the crowd went absolutely nuts. My experience that night remains unmatched by any other game in any other sport I have been to (and the game didn't even count for anything!) If you have any interest in soccer, I would highly recommend you go see a game whenever the next Euro team comes to town.

matadorpoeta · Aug 18, 2008

Originally Posted by overdog

I went to an exhibition matchd between FC Barcelona and Chivas Americas held at Reliant Stadium two years ago. The crowd was so amped up. I was surprised to see about 50% of the crowd was cheering for Barcelona, even though I'm sure most of the crowd was Mexican. When Barcelona scored 3 goals in the final 9 minutes (including a goal and an assist by Ronaldinho) to tie the game up at 4-4 , the crowd went absolutely nuts. My experience that night remains unmatched by any other game in any other sport I have been to (and the game didn't even count for anything!) If you have any interest in soccer, I would highly recommend you go see a game whenever the next Euro team comes to town.

that match was between barcelona and amÃ

rica, which is a team from mexico city. there is no such thing as chivas americas.

the mexicans rooting for barcelona were fans of other mexican teams besides amÃ

rica. also, one of barcelona's goals was scored by their mexican defender, rafael marquez, who hates amÃ

rica as well.

overdog · Aug 18, 2008

^Thanks for the clarification. I'm still a fÃºtbol novice.

TUspiv · Aug 18, 2008

Maybe it was Chivas USA? That seems unlikely in Houston though....

mr. magoo · Aug 18, 2008

Originally Posted by rnoldh

The "Crowd", which was about 4500 people:

Actually, there were 13,500 people at the match.

http://web.mlsnet.com/scoreboard/gam...8162008_RSLHOU

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

i would love more people here to appreciate the sport, but the local league is not going to inspire anyone. i hope you attend another match someday when you are on vacation in another country.

Depends what you mean.

US atmosphere tends to be quite a bit less than very popular foreign leagues, but the quality of play is relatively high. MLS teams compete favorably with Mexican teams with about 1/10th the budget. MLS is tactically naive, a problem with all American soccer, but it's an incredibly athletic league where some top world players have difficulty keeping up -- ever notice how Beckham has always been gassed at about the 75th minute?

Originally Posted by rnoldh

I wasn't expecting a Celtic United experience or some sort of wild South American game, but I definitely hoped it would have been more lively!

As compared to...? The crowd, I'm guessing here as I don't attend sporting events in Houston, was far "livelier" in terms of crowd participation than any Astros, Rockets or even Texans games.

The game is 90 minutes of action with no TV time-outs, no coaching time-outs, so it's naturally a lively sport. My guess is that you haven't watched enough of the game to know what's happening when -- it appears nothing is occurring but it is.

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

i don't see how it can work, but a lot of people are betting a lot of money that it will. hispanics in this country fall into 2 groups (imo): first, the ones who are americanized and are into baseball, basketball, and couldn't care less about soccer; and second, the ones who are actually from latin america (or 1st gen.) and bleed the sport, but only care about their home league and take an interest in the european leagues as well. i don't see either population embracing mls.

i think the money guys are betting that the soccer moms and their kids will eventually make the sport profitable here, but i don't see that happening as long as the best players and richest teams are in europe. americans don't care about a sport unless they think they are the best at it.

The money guys were first betting on immigrants who'd embrace the sport, and then bet on soccer moms, who will only go to a couple games a year.

These days they're trying to attract Americans who are into soccer, be it immigrants or native borns. Some places they do well -- for instance, the TV viewership of DC United is greater than the Washington Nationals and the LA Galaxy get a better turn out than the Clippers, Kings or Lakers -- but it's a constant struggle for the league.

mishon · Aug 18, 2008

I am a lifetime fan of the Dynamo, but not the crappy U.S team; there can only be one Dynamo, Dynamo Kyiv.

matadorpoeta · Aug 18, 2008

Originally Posted by mishon

I am a lifetime fan of the Dynamo, but not the crappy U.S team; there can only be one Dynamo, Dynamo Kyiv.

their intention was to remind us of dynamo kiev and dynamo moscow. one thing i don't like about the league, and about american sports in general, is the childishness of the team names. "real" salt lake? chivas usa? wth?

mr. magoo · Aug 18, 2008

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

their intention was to remind us of dynamo kiev and dynamo moscow. one thing i don't like about the league, and about american sports in general, is the childishness of the team names. "real" salt lake? chivas usa? wth?

Yeah, that'd never happen elsewhere like Ecuador (http://www.barcelonasportingclub.ec/), Argentina (http://www.celesteyrojo.com.ar/Pagin...Principal.jpg), or Chile (http://www.rangers.cl/).

As for Chivas USA, you do know they're the same owner, right? Vigera wanted to own a club in the US and thought that he'd call it the same name as the Mexican team.

Who knows why fans picked Dynamo, but it was named that based on a fan vote. For my money, naming yourself after clubs affiliated with the secret police in totalitarian nations isn't particularly savvy, but it ain't my team.

I agree that Real Salt Lake is dumb.

So, I went to a soccer game

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