Dallas Cup
U17 Super Group
Monday 21st March 2016
Kick off 14.00
Prepa Tec Monterrey 1 Rio Rapids S.C. 1, attendance 39
20′ 1-0
90′ + 4, 1-1
@ Richland College, Pitch 10
12800, Abrams Road
Dallas, TX 75243
No admission or programme.
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 !
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Somerset United v Dallas City F.C.
North Texas Premier Soccer Association
Division 1A (Spring Season)
Thursday 17th March 2016
Kick off 18.45 Actual 18.57
Somerset United 3 Dallas City F.C. 3, attendance 15
15′ 1-0
35′ 1-1
62′ 2-1
69′ 2-2
81′ 3-2
87′ 3-3
@ The Colony Five Star Soccer Complex, Pitch 2
4100, Blair Oaks Drive
The Colony, TX 75056
No admission or programme.
Second visit to the Five Star Soccer Complex, having previously done Pitch 6 here.
Dallas Baptist University Patriots v Valparaiso University Crusaders
National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I
Saturday 12th March 2016
1st pitch 14.00
Dallas Baptist University Patriots 9 Valparaiso University Crusaders 2, attendance 606
@ Joan & Andy Horner Ballpark
3000, Mountain Creek Parkway
Dallas, TX 75211
$7 admission
Programme free, 4 pages.
Prior to this, I had only been to two baseball games before, both during holidays in the States. Firstly, to see the Florida Marlins when they played at the Sun Life Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, then to an Arizona Fall League game at Scottsdale Stadium, near Phoenix AZ. It is a much better game to watch when you understand a bit more of what is going on, which I certainly didn’t before.
The Patriots baseball team are the only ones from DBU that play in NCAA I, the others being in NCAA II. Home games are played at Horner Ballpark which opened on 15th February 2013. There are 2,000 seats and since this season they will play on a full artificial pitch, as the outfield natural grass has been replaced to match the infield. The record crowd was set on 31st May 2015 when the visit of University Texas Longhorns drew 3,242 spectators.
Orlando City S.C. V Real Salt Lake
Major League Soccer
Sunday 6th March 2016
Kick off 14.00 Actual 14.20
Orlando City S.C. 2 Real Salt Lake 2, attendance 60,147
26′ 0-1 J. Plata (pen)
66′ 0-2 J. Plata
90′ + 4, 1-2 C. Larin
90′ + 5, 2-2 A. Winter
@ Orlando Citrus Bowl
1, Citrus Bowl Place
Orlando, FL 32805
Admission $23.55 + $7.53 fees, print at home ticket
No programme.
This was high on the priority list as it is the last scheduled season at the Citrus Bowl before Orlando City S.C. move to their brand new ‘soccer specific’ stadium in 2017. The stadium was opened in 1936 and has undergone two periods of renovation. The first was from 1999-2002 and then in 2014 the bottom two tiers were demolished, with the third tier remaining in place, and the lower section totally rebuilt. The stadium now has a capacity of 61,348 and has had an artificial pitch since 2010. It was one of nine venues used in the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will host games in the upcoming Copa America Centenario this Summer. With OCSC moving out, it will be primarily used for American Football.
Now, onto the match. Disappointed not to see Brazilian superstar Kaka in the home ranks, as were well over half the crowd judging by the number of replica shirts bearing his name. I should imagine Coach Adrian Heath was just as disappointed, as his team are woeful without him. Both teams had a man sent off in the first half and RSL will wonder how they managed to throw away a two goal lead in stoppage time. Apparently, today’s attendance was only bettered by four clubs worldwide this weekend. Can’t be too often that can be said about an MLS crowd and this one was genuine, unlike some of the joke numbers that the likes of San Jose Earthquakes and F.C. Dallas claim !
We had parked in a factory yard, less than ten minutes walk away, for $10 and were on the right side of the stadium for a quick getaway to the airport and a flight home at 8pm.
