News: Union vs FC Schalke 04 @ PPL Park - May 9th @ 7:30 pm

I think Schalke is a fantastic opponent to bring in, I just do not understand these long end-of-season trips these European clubs make. Would be cool to see Jermaine Jones if he makes the trip--he's always interesting to watch club or country.

That's valuable midweek tailgating time your scoffing at.

Makes a difference in terms of those of us with a longer weekday commute.

I got my two tickets. Going to bring my girl to her first Union game. Any idea if this will be close to a full house? It's a Wednesday night so I have my doubts.

Also any idea if the loyalty points will count for this game?

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think it's going to sell well. It's a weeknight during the school year and it's not included in the season ticket package like the Villa game. Many of the STH that I spoke with on Saturday at the game told me that they were not going to purchase tickets to this game for one reason or another.

If the team can win the next few matches, odds are much higher for a sellout. Otherwise, crickets

I can't imagine it selling well, too many factors working against it: First, it's not in the season ticket package, so that means all the seats need to be individually sold for this game. Schalke isn't a name team which will draw in casual fans -- while German soccer is actually quite decent, the league just doesn't have a lot of sex appeal. Bayern Munich is probably the only real "name" team in the Bundesliga and even they aren't anywhere near the name of a top EPL or La Liga team (or even the likes of AC Milan or Inter). And there's only a relatively small window of time to sell the tickets.

Plus, they are hurt by the other friendlies (Chelsea and Aston Villa) which will have more appeal to the typical "Eurosnob". The Schalke announcement kinda got buried over that news.

On the plus side, the tickets are fairly affordable, so it would be a good way to see a Euro team for someone interested.

I'm guessing around 8,000-10,000 for this game.

Nothing else to do on a Wednesday, plus a chance to see the youth play, which is better than the first team at this point.

It's a Union game. I bought my four. I will be there.

Quite right. If the Union is playing at home, I'll try my darnedest to be there.

I'm really hoping we get at least a 3rd Round US Open Cup tie at home this year, and hopefully at PPL Park. I know ticket sales for such a game will be sluggish, but I'm really looking forward to it.

I found it hard to justify missing the Union. My brother can't use his seat so I hope my girlfriend is excited for Schalke.

This would be really cool. I am tired of travelling for all of the (all 2 of 'em, lol) one and dones! How 'bout a home game this year and maybe a run. It is such a shame the the US Open Cup isn't more respected. It has such potential.

As for sluggish ticket sales, make them cheap. I will go even if my tix are regular price. However, if they were in the $10 range, I'd probably buy 10-12 rather than my 4, and take some family to the game. If others would do the same, we could get a fair size crowd.

$10 charge to batch up a parking pass to me and put the data on the card. thats fine.

I bought my tickets as well and wouldn't miss it. However, the added $10 bucks is a little out a hand.

Raul switches sides at half time?
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1050883/raul-to-leave-schalke-at-end-of-season?cc=5901

[LINEUP-4-4-2]Raul, Martinez, Adu, Gomez, Carroll, Herdling, Farfan, Valdes, Califf, Williams, MacMath[/LINEUP-4-4-2]

Bench
Mwanga
Pajoy
Torres
Farfan
Lopez
Albright

Gaddis
JacMac

If we hadn't just signed Kai, I would actually be someone convinced about this possibility, especially with having the (now filled) open international slot.

It would be worth jettisoning Lopez to open the spot and salary for Raul (hypothetically anyway).

Are we getting loyalty points for this match?

I can't even get points for the matches I watch. Unless I want to walk away from the game, log into my account, enter the code.