tomclare
3rd April 2006, 18:00
A balmy spring, early Sunday evening in Houston, Texas. Clear blue skies, sunshine, a temperature of 80 degrees - just the type of evening to be sat in your back garden with a cool bottle of Pinot Grigio in the ice bucket, the smell of a good steak sizzling away on the grill, and the soothing sound of Puccini’s “Madam Butterfly” gently oozing out from the cd speakers surrounding the pool area. Normally on an evening such as this, it would have been the case!
However, Sunday, April 2nd 2006, was just a little different. Instead of being sat in our back garden relaxing, Cheryl and I left home in Kingwood at 4.45 p.m. to make the 30 miles drive from the north east of the Houston area, along Highway 59, and past the myriad of interchanges surrounding the Downtown area. The huge great glass skyscraper buildings were glistening and glinting in the early evening sunshine as it bounced and reflected off them like jewels in a crown. As we passed the baseball stadium at Minute Maid Park, we came up and alongside, and past, the huge George R. Brown Convention Center, and then headed south along Interstate 45 for just a mile, before taking the Cullen Street exit, and turned right, into the grounds of the University of Houston.
Although this is a journey that I take most days of the working week, this time I wasn’t going into work! Our destination was the University’s Robertson Stadium where at 6:30 p.m., our new soccer team, the Houston Dynamos, was to begin its new life in American Major League Soccer. It was a great feeling to be once again attending “live” soccer. Although I have been lucky enough to be able to return to England several times a year to take in a game at Old Trafford, watching the action each week on the television is not the same as being at a “live” game. As we drove in I wondered what we could expect.
Houston, without doubt, can support a top team, and the potential for sell out attendances is definitely here. The Dynamos have relocated from San Jose in California, and were formerly known as San Jose Earthquakes, a team that George Best once played for. For me, San Jose’s loss is Houston’s gain, and the Dynamos will play at Robertson for the next three years. Four weeks ago we had ordered our Season Tickets at a cost of $700 each, and had looked forward since, to the season opening. As we drove in, I remarked to Cheryl that I hoped that everything would be a success at this first game, particularly the attendance and the team performance. They had to get off to a good start to stimulate the interest of a city population that is very diverse in ethnicity.
The traffic was very light as we arrived in the area surrounding the stadium at 5:15p.m. I have a permanent parking spot just by the stadium so parking was never going to be any problem. As we turned into the stadium grounds, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many cars already on the parking lots, and after arriving in my designated spot, we alighted to the wonderful smell of meats being grilled as people “tail gated” with their friends. We walked through the gates at our designated entrance, showed our ST’s to the gate people, and were presented with a nice towel and free programmes. Our next stop was at the beverage tent where we purchased two 32 ounce cups of diet Coke.
Robertson Stadium is a pleasant looking stadium with a capacity of some 38,000, all seated. The stands alongside the touchlines slope back into three distinct different tiers, and the stands at the back of each goal rise quite steeply. At the north end of the stadium the skyscrapers of the Downtown area make a lovely backdrop, and at the south end, a huge electronic scoreboard sits impressively above the seating. The stadium is completely open and has no cover. Fortunately, our seats are seats are adjacent to the half way line, 3 rows from the front, on the west side of the ground, and at this time of the evening, in the shade! It was around 5:45 p.m. when we took our seats, and there was a fair sprinkling of people already seated around various parts of the stadium. Above and to the back of us, the Cougar Marching Band was belting out its music. We sat and took in the scene and it really was pleasant.
The Dynamo’s opponents this evening were the Rapids from Colorado. Reading the Houston Chronicle earlier in the day, it was reported that the Dynamos were favourite to win their Conference this season with the Rapids tipped to be runners-up. A terrific game in prospect for a season opener! Both teams appeared out on the lush, green pitch to warm up and there was a muted response from the fans to their appearance. I was familiar with most of the Dynamo’s players, but had little knowledge of who played for the Rapids and the programme had no team sheet inside it! As I watched the teams going through their paces, one player from the Rapids team caught my eye, and in an instant, I knew who he was. Bow legged, dark hair, a cherubic face, I had seen him play a few times at Old Trafford! It was Terry Cooke the former United winger! As I took more interest in the Rapids players, another familiar face came to the fore. Thick set, dark featured, long dark flowing hair, it was Jovan Kirovski who had played in the junior and reserve teams for four years at Old Trafford, but had left because they couldn’t get the lad a work permit.
As the players warmed up the stadium began to fill up and the Dynamos had said that they were confident that they would get 15,000 fans to attend the game – their average attendance in San Jose had been a poor 13,000 and was one of the reasons that they decided to relocate. From my point of view, one of the good things that I was seeing was that there was lots, and lots of kids in attendance. The kids are the future of the game and even in my short time over here, the game really is exploding at all levels – schools, colleges, universities, and they now have the structure right for growth and expansion.
The players returned to the dressing rooms and we then went through several presentations to local dignitaries belonging to the various football organizations within the Houston area. Fans were still pouring into the stadium when the two teams, accompanied by schoolkids emerged from their respective dressing rooms – the Dynamos from the north end of the stadium in their tangerine shirts, and the Rapids from the south end in their green shirts. They met in the middle where the match officials were standing, and we then stood for the national Anthem.
The game kicked off some 10 minutes later than scheduled, and it began at quite a pace, and was quite open for the first 10 minutes or so. In the 13th minute, U.S. international striker Brian Ching managed to get a toe end to a ball played in across the six yard area and managed to divert the ball across the goal line to open the score for the Dynamos. Just 90 seconds later, Kyle Beckerman the Rapids chunky midfielder, picked up a loose ball inside the centre circle and drove forward. The Dynamo’s defence made the mistake of backing off him and as he got 30 yards out, he unleashed a tremendous right footed shot that flew into the net, completely beating Pat Ostendad in the Dynamo’s goal. 1-1 and game on and a terrific goal as well! It proved to be quite a ding-dong of a game with both teams playing open, and attacking football. It pleasantly surprised me and is of a very high standard. In the 37th minute, the Dynamo’s right midfield player, Mullans, worked his way down the touchline even though the Rapids full back was jockeying him. Mullans sold the full back an outrageous dummy, completely wrong footing the fullback and this allowed him to whip in a terrific cross from the right which found the big striker, Ching, getting on the end of it and bulleting it into the net with his head. 2-1 Dynamos. In the 44th minute, Mullans again weaved a little magic down near the right corner flag – another inch perfect cross and the same end result – Ching on the end of it, another great header – Dynamo 3 Rapids 1, and a first half hat-trick for Brian Ching and the crowd were in raptures!
It was a dream start for the new team, and the stadium had really filled up throughout that first half. During the half time interval we had the inevitable “Mexican Wave” going around the ground – the big electric scoreboard showed highlights of the first half, and the vendors were up and down the aisles selling drinks etc. I visited the men’s place and what a difference from Old Trafford. People stood in orderly, organized lines – no pushing, no shoving, and no getting the backs of your trousers wet – although in this case I was wearing shorts!
The second half began with a bang as the nighttime descended and the floodlights illuminated the stadium. In the 47th minute, a bad challenge by the Dynamo’s skipper and full back, Barret on the edge of the 18 yard line, led to a direct free kick. Over the ball for the Rapids stood Cooke and Kirovski. The defensive wall was moved back the mandatory 10 yards by the referee, and Cooke feinted to take the kick only to pull away to allow Kirovski to unleash a bullet of a shot over the top of the wall and into the top right hand corner of the net. 3-2 Dynamos and game on! Fabrice had a glorious chance to pull the Rapids level when he got through one-on-one with Ostendad, only to tamely fluff his shot straight into the big ‘keeper’s arms. This proved costly as in the 67th minute, Dynamo’s won a corner down on the left hand side. Once again Mullans came across to deliver with inch perfect accuracy and who else but Ching was on the end of it again to bullet another header into the net. 4 goals for Ching, 3 of them headers. The crowd were delirious, but the biggest roar came a few minutes later when the attendance was announced as 25,462 – beyond the Dynamo’s wildest dreams! The match was brought to a wonderful end in the 89th minute when again, following a left side corner, the ball bobbled about in the Rapid’s goalmouth and Moreno, the other Dynamo’s striker scored with a well executed overhead kick to make the final score Dynamos 5 Rapids 2.
We found it an exhilarating experience. If I do have one gripe, it is that the infernal stadium announcer never stops and loves the sound of his own voice. I thought that it was probably me, but it was a general concensus of the fans sat all around us. We did find out that due to the attendance being far larger than the Club expected, there was a lot of problems for fans arriving late. Lines built up around the gates and some didn’t get in until almost half-time. Teething problems really and they will be addressed I am sure. The drive home was pleasant and trouble free and we reflected on what we had seen and are convinced that the Dynamos will go from strength to strength. Our next game is this coming Saturday at home to Kansas City Chiefs and we are both looking forward to it again immensely. “Live” football again – couldn’t be more perfect!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/tomclare/ching.jpg
Brian Ching celebrates
However, Sunday, April 2nd 2006, was just a little different. Instead of being sat in our back garden relaxing, Cheryl and I left home in Kingwood at 4.45 p.m. to make the 30 miles drive from the north east of the Houston area, along Highway 59, and past the myriad of interchanges surrounding the Downtown area. The huge great glass skyscraper buildings were glistening and glinting in the early evening sunshine as it bounced and reflected off them like jewels in a crown. As we passed the baseball stadium at Minute Maid Park, we came up and alongside, and past, the huge George R. Brown Convention Center, and then headed south along Interstate 45 for just a mile, before taking the Cullen Street exit, and turned right, into the grounds of the University of Houston.
Although this is a journey that I take most days of the working week, this time I wasn’t going into work! Our destination was the University’s Robertson Stadium where at 6:30 p.m., our new soccer team, the Houston Dynamos, was to begin its new life in American Major League Soccer. It was a great feeling to be once again attending “live” soccer. Although I have been lucky enough to be able to return to England several times a year to take in a game at Old Trafford, watching the action each week on the television is not the same as being at a “live” game. As we drove in I wondered what we could expect.
Houston, without doubt, can support a top team, and the potential for sell out attendances is definitely here. The Dynamos have relocated from San Jose in California, and were formerly known as San Jose Earthquakes, a team that George Best once played for. For me, San Jose’s loss is Houston’s gain, and the Dynamos will play at Robertson for the next three years. Four weeks ago we had ordered our Season Tickets at a cost of $700 each, and had looked forward since, to the season opening. As we drove in, I remarked to Cheryl that I hoped that everything would be a success at this first game, particularly the attendance and the team performance. They had to get off to a good start to stimulate the interest of a city population that is very diverse in ethnicity.
The traffic was very light as we arrived in the area surrounding the stadium at 5:15p.m. I have a permanent parking spot just by the stadium so parking was never going to be any problem. As we turned into the stadium grounds, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many cars already on the parking lots, and after arriving in my designated spot, we alighted to the wonderful smell of meats being grilled as people “tail gated” with their friends. We walked through the gates at our designated entrance, showed our ST’s to the gate people, and were presented with a nice towel and free programmes. Our next stop was at the beverage tent where we purchased two 32 ounce cups of diet Coke.
Robertson Stadium is a pleasant looking stadium with a capacity of some 38,000, all seated. The stands alongside the touchlines slope back into three distinct different tiers, and the stands at the back of each goal rise quite steeply. At the north end of the stadium the skyscrapers of the Downtown area make a lovely backdrop, and at the south end, a huge electronic scoreboard sits impressively above the seating. The stadium is completely open and has no cover. Fortunately, our seats are seats are adjacent to the half way line, 3 rows from the front, on the west side of the ground, and at this time of the evening, in the shade! It was around 5:45 p.m. when we took our seats, and there was a fair sprinkling of people already seated around various parts of the stadium. Above and to the back of us, the Cougar Marching Band was belting out its music. We sat and took in the scene and it really was pleasant.
The Dynamo’s opponents this evening were the Rapids from Colorado. Reading the Houston Chronicle earlier in the day, it was reported that the Dynamos were favourite to win their Conference this season with the Rapids tipped to be runners-up. A terrific game in prospect for a season opener! Both teams appeared out on the lush, green pitch to warm up and there was a muted response from the fans to their appearance. I was familiar with most of the Dynamo’s players, but had little knowledge of who played for the Rapids and the programme had no team sheet inside it! As I watched the teams going through their paces, one player from the Rapids team caught my eye, and in an instant, I knew who he was. Bow legged, dark hair, a cherubic face, I had seen him play a few times at Old Trafford! It was Terry Cooke the former United winger! As I took more interest in the Rapids players, another familiar face came to the fore. Thick set, dark featured, long dark flowing hair, it was Jovan Kirovski who had played in the junior and reserve teams for four years at Old Trafford, but had left because they couldn’t get the lad a work permit.
As the players warmed up the stadium began to fill up and the Dynamos had said that they were confident that they would get 15,000 fans to attend the game – their average attendance in San Jose had been a poor 13,000 and was one of the reasons that they decided to relocate. From my point of view, one of the good things that I was seeing was that there was lots, and lots of kids in attendance. The kids are the future of the game and even in my short time over here, the game really is exploding at all levels – schools, colleges, universities, and they now have the structure right for growth and expansion.
The players returned to the dressing rooms and we then went through several presentations to local dignitaries belonging to the various football organizations within the Houston area. Fans were still pouring into the stadium when the two teams, accompanied by schoolkids emerged from their respective dressing rooms – the Dynamos from the north end of the stadium in their tangerine shirts, and the Rapids from the south end in their green shirts. They met in the middle where the match officials were standing, and we then stood for the national Anthem.
The game kicked off some 10 minutes later than scheduled, and it began at quite a pace, and was quite open for the first 10 minutes or so. In the 13th minute, U.S. international striker Brian Ching managed to get a toe end to a ball played in across the six yard area and managed to divert the ball across the goal line to open the score for the Dynamos. Just 90 seconds later, Kyle Beckerman the Rapids chunky midfielder, picked up a loose ball inside the centre circle and drove forward. The Dynamo’s defence made the mistake of backing off him and as he got 30 yards out, he unleashed a tremendous right footed shot that flew into the net, completely beating Pat Ostendad in the Dynamo’s goal. 1-1 and game on and a terrific goal as well! It proved to be quite a ding-dong of a game with both teams playing open, and attacking football. It pleasantly surprised me and is of a very high standard. In the 37th minute, the Dynamo’s right midfield player, Mullans, worked his way down the touchline even though the Rapids full back was jockeying him. Mullans sold the full back an outrageous dummy, completely wrong footing the fullback and this allowed him to whip in a terrific cross from the right which found the big striker, Ching, getting on the end of it and bulleting it into the net with his head. 2-1 Dynamos. In the 44th minute, Mullans again weaved a little magic down near the right corner flag – another inch perfect cross and the same end result – Ching on the end of it, another great header – Dynamo 3 Rapids 1, and a first half hat-trick for Brian Ching and the crowd were in raptures!
It was a dream start for the new team, and the stadium had really filled up throughout that first half. During the half time interval we had the inevitable “Mexican Wave” going around the ground – the big electric scoreboard showed highlights of the first half, and the vendors were up and down the aisles selling drinks etc. I visited the men’s place and what a difference from Old Trafford. People stood in orderly, organized lines – no pushing, no shoving, and no getting the backs of your trousers wet – although in this case I was wearing shorts!
The second half began with a bang as the nighttime descended and the floodlights illuminated the stadium. In the 47th minute, a bad challenge by the Dynamo’s skipper and full back, Barret on the edge of the 18 yard line, led to a direct free kick. Over the ball for the Rapids stood Cooke and Kirovski. The defensive wall was moved back the mandatory 10 yards by the referee, and Cooke feinted to take the kick only to pull away to allow Kirovski to unleash a bullet of a shot over the top of the wall and into the top right hand corner of the net. 3-2 Dynamos and game on! Fabrice had a glorious chance to pull the Rapids level when he got through one-on-one with Ostendad, only to tamely fluff his shot straight into the big ‘keeper’s arms. This proved costly as in the 67th minute, Dynamo’s won a corner down on the left hand side. Once again Mullans came across to deliver with inch perfect accuracy and who else but Ching was on the end of it again to bullet another header into the net. 4 goals for Ching, 3 of them headers. The crowd were delirious, but the biggest roar came a few minutes later when the attendance was announced as 25,462 – beyond the Dynamo’s wildest dreams! The match was brought to a wonderful end in the 89th minute when again, following a left side corner, the ball bobbled about in the Rapid’s goalmouth and Moreno, the other Dynamo’s striker scored with a well executed overhead kick to make the final score Dynamos 5 Rapids 2.
We found it an exhilarating experience. If I do have one gripe, it is that the infernal stadium announcer never stops and loves the sound of his own voice. I thought that it was probably me, but it was a general concensus of the fans sat all around us. We did find out that due to the attendance being far larger than the Club expected, there was a lot of problems for fans arriving late. Lines built up around the gates and some didn’t get in until almost half-time. Teething problems really and they will be addressed I am sure. The drive home was pleasant and trouble free and we reflected on what we had seen and are convinced that the Dynamos will go from strength to strength. Our next game is this coming Saturday at home to Kansas City Chiefs and we are both looking forward to it again immensely. “Live” football again – couldn’t be more perfect!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/tomclare/ching.jpg
Brian Ching celebrates