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

WOW! So much for Raul being impressed / enticed with the fan support in Philly

Honestly, That is more then I thought would be there

supposedly more than 7000 in attendance. I don't believe it.

Mid-table EPL club? Shut em' out.
Top Scottish Premier League team? No problem.
Top Mexican Primera Division team? Got that too!
#3 Bundesliga team? Wax em'.
cRapids? CAN'T HANDLE IT!
Seattle B-squad? PWN3D by Team XBOX

Good thing we win the games that matter!

I don't know why people expect huge turnouts for friendlies against sides other than a Man U/Barca type opponent. Pretty much everywhere in the world these sorts of matches don't really draw that much. WBA drew 6k for a game against Parma, Parma drew 2,200 for a game against Levante, and Swansea drew 7,800 for their game against Celtic. There are lots of examples of low attendance friendly games in Europe and, on the whole, US teams generally draw better than their European counterparts. Bolton's biggest pre-season crowd was there game in Houston. Heck their game against Orlando outdrew their home friendly against Levante. So would this crowd impress Raul? No. But it is pretty much what you would see anywhere else in the world.

It's a weeknight, so people weren't there early when those pictures were taken (you can see the color guard wasn't even on the field yet). But it filled up a bit by game time. Not anything close to a sellout, but a respectable crowd for a rainy weekday friendly.

2-1 Union. Goals by Pajoy and Hoffman.

http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/ne...late-winner-gives-union-2-1-win-vs-schalke-04

I think 7k was about right by the time everyone filed in. Fun night. Yeoman's work by an undermanned River End.

Was there. I'd say 6-7,000 fans. More importantly, the U looked fluid, aggressive, and confident. Hope some of that carries over to this weekend.

How could they include this match in the STH package if they didn't know it was going to happen? They got this friendly due to Nowak's relationship with an executive at Schalke 04 at the last minute. On a side note: I hope this leads to more friendlies with German Teams, training/loan opportunities for our players and theirs in the future.

They didn't charge regular prices for the tickets...........STH's got a discount on them. In addition they also gave STH's who chose to purchase tix to the match, a matching set of complimentary tickets, so STH's were getting double the amount of tickets for LESS then price of matchday tickets.

The all-star game is a LEAGUE event, NOT a Union Team event.

Given the potential for bad weather, a mid week game while schools are still in session, short turn around time for tix sales, and an opponent that casual fans most likely would not know..........I'd say the turn out wasn't that bad, and the SOB's that showed up in TRE brought their A Game and were vocal and loud.

For those of us who chose to go to this match we got to see our guys play against a high quality opponent, see some of the best talent currently playing in Europe (Huntellar, Raul, Puuki, Jermaine Jones, etc), and our youngsters play a hell of a match.

I made a last minute decision to take my two sons and a friend of theirs. Ours seats in 127 were not available so we got seats in 128. Two rows in front of us were some German speaking people. Some had been before and some were new. There was a section of Schalke supporters on the other side towards the River End.

It was a fun match to watch (OK, the first 20 minutes of the second half were not the best). I will not draw any conclusions on the players since this was a friendly. But, there were some very good runs of play.

The best part was when my young son and his friend headed over to the river end. They were allowed in and had a great time. They were there for the second Union goal. I guess they will be getting River End seats in the future.

Go Union.

Yes, I was very impressed by the enthusiasm coming out of the River End. Well done.

I had a blast! Nothing else to do on a rainy Wednesday. Kind of hard to analyze anyone in a game like this but it was great to see the youngsters, back up keepers made some nice saves. Always loving seeing USMNT player like Jermaine Jones (beast), saw a shell of Raul in my lifetime. All in all worth the money and a good time. I was more excited for this one, than Aston Villa.

Adu was walking around the concourse with his girlfriend signing things for the kids, nice to see him kissing some ass.

Nowak was Mia wonder if he was busy doing some paperwork for a transfer.

Frustrating that I got stuck at work and missed the game. Sounds like the Union played an attacking style of football tonight.

Rumor had it they were playing a 4-3-3 from the start. Reading the recaps, looks like we caught a break with the miss penalty, though the Union had plenty of opportunities to score more! Gives me hope for the future, and hoping they can continue this play into the weekend.

Knew I was going to miss Sunday's match, but now really disappointed that I won't see either game this week.

Can anyone shed some light on the "Andy's mom" chant? What was the impetus for this?

Most enjoyable match of the season. Those who were not there missed a great game.
Heard only 3500 paid. Think there were another 1500 who were given free tickets.
The first picture posted above gives a false impression. This is how it was.
The RE was only circa 30% full but we bunched together and had a great time there.

Eli of www.phillysoccerpage.net had great live commentary from PPL Park. See his comments (if they are still up) otherwise read his reports tomorrow.

I'm sure you did your part...eh?

Andy's mom, and the fact that we were fcking her. I don't see what's to miss...

We've done that one before. It's a chant for Andy Pace about his wonderful mother.

For someone who doesn't work for the Union you should do the party line. I'll break it down for you since you are either oblivious or dense.

1. How could the add it to ticket holders? easy, adding it to the season ticket holder's card. its nothing but computer programming and probably not that hard to do since I'm sure they have a list of full season ticket holders rather than season ticket holders pay for a game that could have easily been added.
2. they gave the season ticket holders extra tickets for those purchase because they weren't moving tickets. Tickets were full regular price on the website where they sell the tickets. you know. philadelphiaunion.com I'm glad you are happy you got a discount for being a season ticket holder. what I say is that it should have just been added to the card for all those that are full season ticket holders and maybe a discount 50% or so for partial season ticket holders. I was addressing general public that might have never gone to a union game, they knew the tickets were going to sell out so it was a missed opportunity to adjust the prices for a friendly to get newbies to the game. Other leagues and teams do it for friendlies or tournaments such as concacaf and libertadores.

3. The All-star game while not a UNION event did have presale for season ticket holders and sons of ben members before general public. These tickets when on sale around the same time as the friendly tickets. You said it yourself the late announcement. I contend that the All-star presale could have been held by a week or two (so maybe around this week) to give people a chance to go to both even if money was tight because there would have been enough time in between to enjoy the benefits of a pre-sale. if people on a tighter budget that work for bimonthly wages.

Not sure if it was a 4-3-3, but they were definitely attack minded, as was Schalke. Josue Martinez played VERY well in the first half. He needs to be on the field more. Mwanga...........was mixed. Some bright moments, but also some brain cramp moments where he took too long to make a decision. Pajoy looked decent tonight too, probably due to the less physical play. Keon or Gomez should take all of our free kicks! Keon's FK was on placed on a platter for Pajoy to nod home. Valdez is a stud at CB (we knew that). Carroll looks fully recovered, and was solid as usual.

Second half: The kids looked good. Gaddis just keeps getting better each match. Pfeffer looked decent, Hernandez is going to be REALLY good, and he played well. Especially at the end where he dribbled to the corner flag, kept possession, killed the clock and earned a throw in. Jack Mac looked dangerous. Okugo was steady. Both of our Backup Keepers played well, and were aggressive controlling the box. McLaughlin looked good, and fast. Hoppenot is just a good player, I hope he sticks but he has a lot of guys ahead of him. Hoffman looked good/dangerous.

Schalke: Man those guys have SKILL! I think we knew that though. Just watching them receive and settle long 30-40 yd passes was amazing to see in person. It sucks Huntellar was injured and had to come off in the first half............dude is filthy. Watching him in warmups......the ball just comes off his foot like a rocket, and is on the money too.

In all honesty we should have lost this match 5-2, if not for some heroic defending by our guys and good goaltending. And also some unfortunate finishing by the German club (hit the cross bar on a PK, and a chip). But the guys looked much better building an attack, it reminded me of our first season. We had more chances and shots this game then we have the past 3-4 games combined, at least it seemed that way!

How was Lopez? (not sure if I should put on red)

Am I reading this right? Two people complaining about turnout who weren't at the match?

So apparently common sense is "the party line?"

1. Really? they were just going to GIVE tickets away?(at first anyway...) They had already settled Aston Villa as the season's bonus game. What were they gonna do, say "oh, well, we think you guys would actually buy tickets to that one, so the bonus game is this one, have fun, and we'll take your money anyway!"
2. THis isn't really a point. just a continuation of your first "argument" of not getting stuff for free and being butthurt about it.
3. The All-Star Game also was announced more than 3 weeks before it was going to happen. People have time to plan time around a weekend match 2 months from now than they do a wednesday night in the middle of college finals only given 3 weeks notice.

Yup. It's a shame, probably the most exciting match by the Union all season. I need to see the replay of that collision with Chase vs. Huntelaar. At full speed live, it looked more vicious than the Monday Night Football helmets clashing together. Pajoy was listed as a midfielder in the introductions, and I think he actually played better from that spot. More hustle and a better touch than what I've seen from him. Hopefully some of the things they tried tonight that worked (i.e. shooting the ball) translate to Sunday's match.