Football American Style

No this isn't a post about what they call American Football its about the game that we know that they refer to as Soccer. Well as a fan of the beautiful game (ok I support Leeds so some may argue)I thought on one of my trips over the pond I should take a match in, they are supposed to be an emerging nation.

This happend in Seattle in 2007 when I attended a Sounders Football match to see the local team play Portland Timbers and I can tell you it certainly wasn't like visiting a match in England. The stadium called Quest Field was awesome and although it holds 67,000  I would estimate only around 12,000 there, they only actually opened on side stand. To be fair it was their 2nd division the level just below the MLS.

As I got to the ground 3 coaches arrived carrying the Portland supporters and they were all singing and waving their flags I thought there could be a good atmosphere at the match. Some of them were wearing kilts, not quite sure why, can anyone enlighten me.

I got in the stadium and the first thing you notice is that you can get served at the various bars by staff that can actually speak English and add up, don't get that at Elland road. Then you go to the toilet and it is actually clean and you don't have to stand in line for your turn to go. The facilities are as good as I've seen anywhere.

Now thats the good things about football in America, I took my seat (you even get a drink holder) awaiting the 7pm kick off as advertised. 7pm came and went and they started playing opera over the PA system leaving me confused. 7.10pm came and loads of kids lined the tunnel awaiting the players, they eventually brought the players on o the pitch, not altogether but one at a time introducing them to the crowd telling you their weight, height, inside leg measurement, etc. Each player ran out with an escort of half a dozen of the kids and they all lined up in front of the fans in the stand.
It was about 7.30pm by the time everyone was out, ok we can start now I thought, but alas no along come four members of the local armed forces and took their place in front of the players and kids. The announcer then asked everbody to stand and take their hats off, they then played the American National Anthem.

The Match eventually got underway and was just getting going but after 2 minutes the announcer then started piping up doing adverts over the PA while the game went on. This was of course until after 6 minutes Seattle got their first corner when he started playing Queens "We will Rock You" while the move was completed. It was even better when they got a Free Kick when they played a bugle playing the Cavalry charge. These things happend all the match with the announcer mixing adverts with spells of commentary of what was actually happening on the pitch.
It really was annoying.

Part way through the first half Seattle scored when Portlands goalkeeper displayed his Dracula tendancies (doesn't like crosses) and I thought this would lead to display of passion from the home support, I looked around and all we got was a polite hand clap apart from a couple of hundred with flags towards the left corner trying to match the boisterious Portland fans in the other corner.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse as the game was going on the announcer decided it was quiz time and asked they fans a question saying the first two people to give the correct answer at the stall behind the stand would get a prize. About 2,000 people then went running out of the ground, what idiots.

This was bettered ten minutes later when the cheer leaders (did i mention them) started throwing minature footballs into the crowd and everyone started jumping trying to catch one, you could see naff all of the match which was still going on. They repeated this stunt in the 2nd half this time with tee shirts.

One of the highlights for me was when the young girl with her father who had been trying to explain the game to her, and pretending to be an expert asked him one hour into the match "Which team are we supporting".

Most of the supporters seemed to be up and down all match going backwards and forwards for more food varying from burgers, chips, popcorn, hot dogs, pizza, etc it was just one big food party, not sure how many were actually there for the match

The game itself wasn't bad and Seattle deserved their one nil win, they actually played some tidy football, but the American fans have a long way to go.