SheffWed- Make sure to say hi when you walk into Chukchansi Park. I will be at the entrance handing out registration cards to WIN a Fuego Authentic Jersey!!! Courtesy of MC Mortgage... I'm as excited as a kid in a candy store for this weekend...
I most certainly will! I'll likely be with the official Quakes delegation, so I'll be around the stadium quite a bit. My real name's Jon, btw, and I'll probably be VERY easy to spot - a 6'5" English man with a beard and glasses!
Just wanted to send a quick note of commiserations to the Tacoma guys - I thought you guys played really well in your playoff semi, even though the 4-1 scoreline was rather emphatic by the end. Fresno did play extremely well, but I was impressed by my first ever encounter with your team, and I thought Machael David and Ciaran O'Brien especially had excellent games. I also thought that Steven Schomaker's red card was completely bogus, and spoiled what was otherwise a very good and enjoyable game I was able to talk to Fran O'Brien and Mike Jennings several times over the course of the weekend (we were all in the same hotel), and I came away with the impression that you're all a very decent bunch of guys, and I wish you all the success in the world in your future PDL campains - lets hope we can meet up again in the playoffs in 2008!
It is always a pleasure meeting people with the same interests. Tacoma definitely left a great impression on our staff, team and organization as a whole. They played their hearts out... Ciaran, Schomaker, Jennings and Agu lived up to my expectation... We hope we honored your franchise with good hospitality and send a special thanks for being a great group.
More props to Tacoma. You should have much pride in your Tide! They played a terrific match. Your keeper had the best match I've ever witnessed at the PDL level. He must have made about five or six one-on-one saves including one dandy where he stunned Campos by plucking the ball right off of his feet as Campos thought he would be waltzing in on goal and was probably already pondering his next post-goal celebration. It's a shame when a terrible decision by the referee changes the entire course of the match. The sending off of O'Brien with a second caution in the 74th minute, for basically being nothing more than the recipient of an American football tackle by a Fuego player, was completely ludicrous. After that, the Tide were merely trying to hold on for PKs, which is next to impossible what with the incredible strike force that the Fuego have in their arsenal.