International Champions Cup

Wednesday 27th July 2016

Kick off 19.30 Actual 19.35

Real Madrid C.F. 1 Paris Saint-Germain 3,  attendance 86,641

2′ 0-1 J. Ikone

35′ 0-2 T. Meunier

40′ 0-3 T. Meunier

44′ 1-3 Marcelo (pen)

@ Ohio Stadium

411, Woody Hayes Drive

Columbus, OH 43210

Admission $60 + $10.80 fees, Print at home ticket.

No programme.

The cost of doing a return flight to Columbus, Ohio was extortionate, as was flying into here and dropping a hire car elsewhere, so I flew into Detroit, Michigan, as I would be doing a game near here on Saturday anyway. Therefore, instead of just doing games on Wednesday and Saturday, it was now a 4 day trip, so I needed games to fill in the blank days. First up it was a  190 mile drive south to Columbus.

Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Ramos, Modric, Kroos, Rodriguez, Pepe…….the names roll off the tongue. Sadly, none of these played, due to a combination of injuries and being rested following the Euro 2016 and Copa America Centenario tournaments over the summer. When these big name European clubs tour other continents they are just doing it to make money and have little regard for the paying public. I would be very surprised if any of the Americans would have recognised any more than three of the Real Madrid players, although most probably wouldn’t have heard of any of the missing eight either. Yes, I know it’s only a friendly, but a real public relations exercise is missed here. Funny how all the adverts in the media leading up to the match were using the top stars to sell it, even though there is little chance of them even turning up, let alone playing.

The Real Madrid fringe players were no match for a P.S.G. side that approached the game more seriously. It was a good open first half, but dreadful second as the Madrid reserves were replaced with even lesser names, except for perhaps Martin Odegaard.

Ohio Stadium is home to the Ohio State University Buckeyes American Football team and is also known as ‘The Horseshoe’ due to its shape. It was used by Columbus Crew, of the M.L.S. for two years prior to the opening of Columbus Crew Stadium in 1999. It has a 104,944 capacity, with the record attendance of 108,975 set in 2015.

Organisation around the stadium was absolutely dreadful and despite only being 7 miles from my hotel, it took over 2 hours to get there. Once nearing the stadium there were so many roads closed off it became absolute chaos, as they tried to channel everyone towards the car parks. In the end I parked on the front of a small shop/garage frontage, where they were much more organised and only charging $20. It was about 15 minutes walk to the stadium from here, but after the game it was a case of turning right at the first traffic lights and heading north.

One thing that was impressive though, was the crowd. A new high for me for a friendly match, although I somehow think this will be short lived.

International Champions Cup

Sunday 24th July 2016

Kick off 14.00 Actual 14.05

F.C. Internazionale 1 Paris Saint-Germain 3,  attendance 24,147

14′ 0-1 S. Aurier

45′ + 3, 1-1 S. Jovetic (pen)

61′ 1-2 L. Kurzawa

87′ 1-3 S. Aurier

@ Autzen Stadium

2700, Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard

Eugene, OR 97401

Admission $30 + $3 fee + $3.50 Will Call ticket

No programme.

Eugene was a further 70 miles south on I-5 from my overnight base. Arriving early meant be able to park within 200-300 yards of the stadium at a cost of $25. The ticket office was on the corner nearest the parking, so my ticket was soon collected. I was quite surprised at the number of ticket touts milling around and even more so considering there were 30,000 empty seats, which was a really poor turnout. Not sure what sort of trade they drum up when tickets are so readily available.

Autzen Stadium, which opened in 1967, is home to University Oregon Ducks American Football team. Capacity is 54,000 seated, but holds 59,000 with standing room. The record attendance stands at 60,055 for the visit of Arizona State University Sun Devils in October 2011.

Inter were not exactly full of household names, although I was familiar with Jovetic due to his spell at Manchester City and perhaps much better known was their coach Roberto Mancini. P.S.G., on the other hand, had their Brazilian contingent and Frenchman Hatem Ben Arfa in their starting eleven, with Pastore, Cavani and di Maria coming off the bench. They always looked in control, even when Inter drew level, going on to win comfortably.

After the match I had plenty of time to do the 121 miles back to Portland International Airport. My flight was not until just before 1 am, but with the 2 hour time difference to gain back it meant I was still in the house before 6am.

Major League Soccer

Saturday 23rd July 2016

Kick off 12.30 Actual 12.58

Portland Timbers 1 Los Angeles Galaxy 2,  attendance 21,144

7′ 0-1 R. Keane

11′ 0-2 G. Zardes

41′ 1-2 Z. Valentin

@ Providence Park

1844, Southwest Morrison Street

Portland, OR 97205

Admission $35, fees included, Print at home ticket.

Programme free, 52 pages.

Portland Timbers are probably the only club in the M.L.S. who genuinely sell out their matches. Knowing this meant being on the ball for when tickets were going on sale. I actually phoned the club 2 days prior to the release date for this match, just to confirm the actual time they would go on sale and was surprised to be able to book a ticket over the phone immediately. Three days later I still hadn’t received my tickets via e-mail as promised, but a call to the club saw this rectified within a couple of minutes and they even phoned me back a few minutes later to make sure everything had come through ok. Excellent service. The early kick off also meant that I couldn’t rely on a morning flight arriving on schedule, so I decided to fly in on Friday evening instead, just in case.

Once again, but far worse than normal, the match eventually kicked off 28 minutes late. I don’t know if this was anything to do with a problem with the stadium opening less than an hour prior to kick off following an electronic fault with the turnstiles. No announcement was made, so not sure. As for the teams, when it came to Portland, I have to say I hadn’t heard of a single player, whereas LA had half a dozen I knew of, which didn’t include Steven Gerrard or Ashley Cole, neither of whom even made the squad.

If you only ever visit one stadium in the M.LS. then this is the one to do. A fantastic atmosphere from start to finish, a tight old stadium that has been adapted from baseball  to fit ‘soccer’ very well indeed and seemed like the fans here  actually understand the game. A lightening start by the visitors, which could easily have been doubled, set the game up brilliantly. The Timbers goal just before the break meant the match held the interest ’til the end. With all home games being genuine sell outs, the few tickets available to the general public are what we would call ‘ restricted view’ in England. Over here, the view of the pitch is of no concern to the majority of sports ‘fans’, as they are not there to watch the game, but to eat and drink for a few hours. However, the poor sight lines are easily rectified, as along the back row, beneath the press boxes, it is possible to sit on bare concrete, where the view is excellent and no less comfortable than the bench seating anyway.

The stadium was opened in 1926, as Multnomah Stadium, and has undergone renovations in 1956, 1982, 2001 and 2011, the year the Timbers joined the M.L.S. As stated, all home games are 21,144 capacity sell outs.

The stadium is well located and walkable from Downtown Portland or accessible by the very good public transport system, although I had hired a car, as I would be heading to another sporting event this evening, which was ideally situated en route to my destination on Sunday afternoon. I had parked maybe 200-300 yards from the stadium, for a reasonable $20, which ensured a trouble free exit from the city.

United Soccer League

Western Conference

Tuesday 12th July 2016

Kick off 19.30 Actual 19.36

Swope Park Rangers 0 Oklahoma City Energy F.C. 2,  attendance 1,223

84′ 0-1

89′ 0-2

@ Children’s Mercy Victory Field at Swope Soccer Village

6310, Lewis Road

Kansas City, MO 64132

$15 admission

Team sheet free, double sided.

Today started off with a visit to the Fantastic Caverns near Springfield, before heading north for lunch at a Mexican restaurant then on to the Harry S Truman Dam Visitor Center. It was then a nice easy drive to the stadium.

Swope Park Rangers are an affiliate of Sporting Kansas City of the M.L.S. They were announced as the U.S.L.’s 30th franchise in October 2015.  Swope Soccer Village is a 9 pitch complex, the main pitch being the 3,557 capacity Children’s Mercy Victory Field.

As for the game, it was pretty poor stuff, with the two late goals making it look better than it really was. Another one where they just make up an attendance and the more ridiculous the better, it would seem. I counted 402, so don’t know where the other 800 odd were hiding.

After the match it was back to the airport to drop off the hire car which finished my stint of the driving. A shuttle to our booked hotel, before the real fun started. We arrived  just before 11pm and despite having a booking confirmation, were told we had no booking, although we had missed one 3 nights earlier. The girl on the desk said she couldn’t authorise another 2 rooms for us, unless we paid again and claimed the money back. She then spent an hour and a half on her mobilephone to booking.com trying to sort it out. Finally, just after 12.30 am, we were given rooms. Not good when we had to be on the 4am shuttle back to the airport as we were all on the first flights of the day, me to Dallas, the other three to La Guardia.

Major League Soccer

Sunday 10th July 2016

Kick off 19.00 Actual 19.18

Sporting Kansas City 3 New York City F.C. 1,  attendance 19,881

8′ 1-0 B. Feilhaber

14′ 1-1 F. Lampard

16′ 2-1 J. Medranda

51′ 3-1 I. Opara

@ Children’s Mercy Park

1, Sporting Way

Kansas City, KS 66111

Admission $43 + $9.90 fees, Print at home ticket.

Team sheet free, single card, printed double sided.

It was a comfortable drive from the baseball, with free parking across the road at Kansas Motor Speedway, no more than 5. Minutes walk from the stadium.

It has to be said, even by American standards, this is an awful name for a stadium, having originally being named Livestrong Sporting Park, then plain old Sporting Park, since it opened in 2011. Then again, as long as a large enough chunk of money is thrown at the club, then there is no interest whatsoever in what Sponsors name it is given.  How long before we see a Hemorrhoid Stadium or Viagra Park ? The stadium actually seats 18,467, but capacity is set at 21,000 for SKC matches with standing room. There certainly looked less than the quoted crowd for tonights game.

It started off pretty well, but tailed off badly in the second half. Before the game, I have to say I didn’t recognise any player listed for SKC and despite having the misfortune of seeing NYCFC a couple of times previously, it was still only Pirlo, Villa and a slightly less overweight than last time, Lampard that rang a bell. I still don’t know how  the visitors are challenging for the title, as once again they were dire. Then again, the M.L.S. as a whole is of a very poor standard anyway, so a team wouldn’t necessarily need to have any quality to finish top of the pile.

After the match we headed east, to Independence, MO, as a couple of our party liked the sound of the place. At night, it looked deserted and unwelcoming, but we booked into a hotel and found somewhere to eat, so at least it ticked a couple of boxes. Perhaps it would look better in daylight.

Friendly Match

Saturday 9th July 2016

Kick off 19.00 Actual 19.20

Club Leon 1 C.A. Monarcas Morelia 2,  attendance 6,062

45′ + 2, 0-1

81′ 1-1

85′ 1-2

@ Dell Diamond

3400, East Palm Valley Boulevard

Round Rock, TX 78664

$55  Admission +$ 1.50 fees, Print at home ticket *

No programme.

I had called in here en route to the afternoon match as it was only 8 miles out of the way. I needed to suss out the car parking options as I wouldn’t have much time to spare. As it turned out it was half an hour, as despite only arriving here at 6.50pm, the game kicked off 20 minutes late.

One thing that is certainly worth a mention. The cost of printing the ticket at home was just $1.50, unlike the total rip off prices charged by most ticket agencies, especially Ticketmaster, who are one of the worst for this. When printed off, the ticket size was minute. Whilst walking round the stadium in the morning I was surprised to see the ticket office open so early, so thought I would just make sure that the ticket barcode would scan correctly. Without even asking, the girl on the desk offered to print a replacement for me, actually producing a proper ticket instead. Always nice to have a real ticket to keep as a souvenir.

As was the case this afternoon, it was another game, played in a manner not expected in a friendly. Good atmosphere too, Leon being the better supported of the two sides.

Dell Diamond is home to the Round Rock Express, the AAA M.i.L.B. team who are affiliated to the Texas Rangers of M.L.B. It was opened in April 2000 and has a capacity of 11,631.

Friendly Match (Interjet Cup)

Saturday 9th July 2016

Kick off 15.00 Actual 15.06

Club America 1 Club Santos Laguna 1,  attendance 15,000

85′ 0-1

86′ 1-1

@ The Alamodome

100, Montana Street

San Antonio, TX 78203

Admission $54 + $8.01 fees (resale) Print at home ticket

No programme.

Just like the Mexican National team, many club sides play friendlies here in U.S.A. to give their fans now living north of the border an opportunity to see their teams in the flesh. Tickets were only available through a resale website, which seemed odd, but no problem purchasing one. Even better, from my point of view, was the fact that it was an afternoon kick off which opened up the possibility of a double.

The Alamodome is home to the University Texas San Antonio Roadrunners American Football team and also hosts the annual N.C.A.A. Alamo Bowl game. It has previously been home to San Antonio Spurs in the N.B.A. from 1993 to 2002, hosted a couple of the N.H.L.’s Dallas Stars games, back in 1994 and 1995 and even hosted the New Orleans Saints, of the N.F.L., for 3 games, after Hurricane Katrina had damaged their own stadium.

The stadium holds 65,000, although the record attendance for a sporting event was 66,166 for the 2007 Alamo Bowl game between Penn State and Texas A&M.

Despite being a friendly, it was anything but, and seemed very niggly throughout. Club America had a man sent off after 38 minutes for an over the top challenge and this didn’t help the flow of the game and just as it looked like ending scoreless, we somehow managed two goals out of nowhere. I had parked in the car park right outside the stadium for $20 , as I needed a quick getaway, although with the stadium being close to Downtown San Antonio, then it would be difficult to park for free anyway. Luckily, the game didn’t overrun too badly and I was heading back north by 5pm, on my way to the second match of the day.