All posts by Andrew

C.F. Monterrey Rayados v TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

Dallas Cup

U19 Gordon Jago Super Group

Monday 21st March 2016

Kick off 16.00 Actual 16.06

C.F. Monterrey Rayados 3 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 0,  attendance 65

22′ 1-0

24′ 2-0

42′ 3-0

@ Richland College, Pitch 4

12800, Abrams Road

Dallas, TX 75243

No admission or programme.

Hoffenheim had managed a three goal comeback when I saw them play Fulham in the opening game, but all hopes of that, and the match as a spectacle, went following a mass brawl five minutes into the second half. Three players were red carded, two of them from Monterrey.

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Club Lobos BUAP v Placer United

Dallas Cup

U17 Super Group

Monday 21st March 2016

Kick off 12.00 Actual 12.08

Club Lobos BUAP 2 Placer United 0,  attendance 52

47′ 1-0

51′ 2-0

@ Richland College, Pitch 7

12800, Abrams Road

Dallas, TX 75243

No admission or programme.

Many of the Mexican teams had very high numbers on their shirts. I certainly haven’t seen one as high as 405 before !

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Tiro Sports v Sereno S.C.

Dallas Cup

U17 Group

Monday 21st March 2016

Kick off 10.00 Actual 10.02

Tiro Sports 0 Sereno S.C. 2,  attendance 34

18′ 0-1

64′ 0-2

@ Richland College, Pitch 9

12800, Abrams Road

Dallas, TX 75243.

No admission

Programme free, 8 pages.*

*The programme was produced by Sereno and had player profiles of the players. It was being given out to all the scouts at the match.

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Sinergia Deportiva Tigres v Everton F.C.

Dallas Cup

Gordon Jago U19 Super Group

Kick off 15.00 Actual 15.08

Sinergia Deportiva Tigres 1 Everton F.C. 0, attendance 3,000

13′ 1-0

@ Cotton Bowl Stadium

3750, Cotton Bowl Plaza

Dallas, TX 75210

$15 admission, day ticket covering 3 Cotton Bowl matches.

Programme, yes, tournament brochure at $12, so didn’t bother.

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The crowd increased somewhat for this game as people slowly drifted in. A pretty dull game where Everton didn’t really start to play until they were down to ten men following a straight red card after 58 minutes.

My ticket would have allowed me to stay and see the 18.30 match as well, but as the sun dropped behind the stand it became quite cool, although annoyingly the other 3 sides of the stadium were still in glorious sunshine, but they remained off limits. Also, I didn’t fancy buying average food and drink at rip off prices either and perhaps the one criticism of the day was the fact that the second and third games here at the Cotton Bowl were scheduled too far apart for even the keenest football follower to endure the full day.

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Fluminense F.C. V F.C. Dallas U18 Academy

Dallas Cup

Gordon Jago U19 Super Group

Sunday 20th March 2016

Kick off 12.30 Actual 12.38

Fluminense F.C. 1 F.C. Dallas U18 Academy 0,  attendance 600

79′ 1-0

@ Cotton Bowl Stadium

3750, Cotton Bowl Plaza

Dallas, TX 75210

$15 admission, day ticket for 3 Cotton Bowl matches.

Programme, yes, tournament brochure at $12 so didn’t bother.

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I had been to the Cotton Bowl Stadium to watch an American Football match back in September (see American Football section), when there was a much bigger crowd, but this was a rare opportunity to tick off the stadium for a proper football match ! Sadly, ‘soccer’ is hardly ever played here anymore , so I thought I would get this one done today. The last non youth match played here was a Real Madrid friendly in 2014 as far as I can tell.

The stadium is beginning to show its age now, although improved from when it hosted the FIFA World Cup back in 1994. Today’s crowd was totally lost in the 92,100 capacity bowl, with only the west side open to spectators.

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Fulham F.C. V TSG 1899 Hoffenheim U19

Dallas Cup

Gordon Jago U19 Super Group

Sunday 20th March 2016

Kick off 09.30

Fulham F.C. 3 TSG Hoffenheim U19 3,  attendance 100

6′ 1-0

15′ 2-0

18′ 3-0

23′ 3-1

26′ 3-2

82′ 3-3

@ Richland College, Pitch 8

12800, Abrams Road

Dallas, TX 75243

No admission or programme.

The Dallas Cup is an annual youth tournament. This year it will be hosted using three venues. The Cotton Bowl Stadium, Richland College and Moneygram Park, the latter two each using 10 pitches at their facility.

The early start gave me my earliest ever kick off time for a match. Less than 10 minutes drive from home and free parking to boot. As you would expect from a tournament of this standing, it was professionally run and the refreshment stand was open throughout the day.

A fantastic game to kick off with. Fulham were superb for the first twenty minutes with Hoffenheim getting two quick replies  after going three down. On balance a draw was pretty fair.

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Texas Christian University Horned Frogs v West Virginia University Mountaineers

National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I

Big 12 Conference

Saturday 19th March 2016

First pitch 15.00

Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 7 West Virginia University Mountaineers 1,  attendance 4,364

@ Charlie & Marie Lupton Stadium and Williams-Reilly Field

3700, West Berry Street

Fort Worth, TX 76129

Free admission *

Programme free, 4 pages.

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Two good bits of fortune here. Late Friday evening I noticed that it had been posted on their website that the game had been brought forward an hour from 16.00, something that caught out a fair number of latecomers. Then, whilst standing in the queue at the ticket office, I bagged one of the four tickets a fellow spectator was giving away free as members of his party were unable to attend. Despite only being for the grass banked area, once inside there were no ticket checks, so it was a case of wait and see where the empty seats were and ‘take your pick’. It was also nice to park in the official car park at the stadium for free as well.

The stadium was opened in 2003 and has a seated capacity of 4,500. Despite being relatively new it has undergone renovation twice in the last three years. Crowds have steadily risen here, helped somewhat by the Horned Frogs making the College World Series in 2010, 2014 and 2015. The record crowd stands at 7,383 versus Texas A&M University Aggies during the 2015 NCAA Super Regional tournament.

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