SBG Field Trips: USA vs. Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Qualifier

Last Wednesday, I met up with Will Young (no relation to Delmon) in Chicago to see the USA take on Trinidad & Tobago in a qualifier for the 2010 World Cup.  The car I was in got to Toyota Park about 15 minutes after the parking lot opened.  We were about the 10th car there.  We immediately got our table and grill set up and cracked a few beers.

Within an hour or so, Will arrived.  Will and I teamed up against Adam and one of his friends in a game of Bags (not Baggo or Cornhole, it's Bags). There were brats, burgers, and beer and plenty of each to go around.

So, with game time approaching, we quickly downed a few more beers [Not Pictured here - I do have a picture, but I don't necessarily want pictures of me shotgunning beers on the internet] and headed towards the gate.  I did get a picture with Will before we went in.

Once inside, Sam's Army was there in full force, as always.  But sadly, they comprised a large proportion of the crowd.  Toyota Park holds ~20,000 fans, but the announced attendance was under 12,000.  I've been to two other US National Team games in Chicago, both at Soldier Field and both with 65,000+ in attendance.  I don't know if it was the opponent (T&T vs. England and Brazil) or the venue being waaaay the hell out in Bridgeview, but the support was definitely lacking and a bit disappointing. 

The US opened the game attacking towards our seats.  We had pretty good seats about 20 rows up right by the corner flag.  The scoring started in the 10th minute with Michael Bradley's finish off of a Landon Donovan free kick.  DaMarcus Beasley was fouled about 20 yards out right in front of our seats.  Landon took the free kick and served a nice ball into the six-yard box.  Bradley (who is the son of current head coach Bob Bradley) stuck out his right foot and redirected the ball past the T&T keeper.   Will pointed out that Gooch was offside on the kick and while putting himself back on, actually set a pick for Bradley to get open.  Through most of the game, Will watched with his referee eyes, dissecting the calls and non-calls while I was watching as a unabashed partisan. Interesting Fact - Will is a highly qualified soccer referee.

In the 18th minute, Clint Dempsey - my favorite player since His Holiness has retired - took a through ball from DaMarcus and raced in on goal alone before calmly slotting a shot into the lower corner of the far post. 

At halftime, Adam and I went up to the concourse and met the one, the only Bruce from duNord.  If you are a soccer fan and you don't read DuNord, you need to change that.  Bruce puts out daily posts collecting news from all over the world - MLS, EPL, La Liga, National teams, Asia, Africa, everywhere.  If there is soccer being played there, Bruce will have news about it.

T&T opened the second half with a lot more intensity than they showed in the first half. They won themselves two corner kicks in the first 5 or so minutes of the half. They nearly scored on one, but Steve Cherundolo cleared one off the line. The USA put one more on the board in the 57th. DaMarcus sent in a long free kick and Gooch and the T&T keeper met at the ball. Gooch got most of the ball and sent it in on net. The ball appeared to be going just wide before it was met my Brian Ching who nodded the ball into the open net.  The US would hold on through a few more T&T advances to win by the final of 3-0.

After the game, Will had to take off, but the rest of us stayed around the parking lot for a bit finishing off the beer.  Then some rent-a-cops told us we had to leave.  Of course being the nice people semi-drunk assholes we are, we complied immediately stuck around until the real cops told us we had to leave.

We headed back into the city and went to the Globe Pub.  The Globe is an official US Soccer pub, so we figured there'd be a party going on.  Nope.  Adam and I were the only ones in the bar with a US Soccer jersey on.  There were maybe 15 people total at the bar.  We did meet the owner of the St. Louis Lions, a PDL team and rival of my Des Moines Menace.  That aside, he was a really cool guy and we had a nice conversation.  Then I took the 3' x 4' poster of Landon Donovan announcing the game we'd just come from from the wall of the bathroom and Adam's cousin took a pint glass touting the Globe's status as an "Official Soccer Bar of US Soccer". 

This was definitely a great day.  Next time the US National team is anywhere you can reasonably get to, by all means GO!  Get there early and tailgate.  Meet new and interesting people while meeting up with old friends.  It doesn't matter if you can't tell a soccer ball from a tennis ball.  The atmosphere and the people are what make the game.  And if your team ends up winning, then all the better.