Spurs v DC United on FSW - 10/17

[asdf]

"My point, however, is that Eddie Pope just played South Korea, in South Korea, during the World Cup. He also played against Iran in France '98."

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I was at both these games and you're right those games were a gazillion times more intense then a Thursday night charity kick around in merry old England.

I thought the announcer was pretty complimentary from what I heard.

[QPR Kevin H]

Originally posted by ignatz
I was very surprised that it seated only 36K. I would have thought double that for a team as famous as Tottenham.
Jeez - 40 posts just cause a guy was filling air by saying that United were happy to be playing at Spurs. (About the same thing Ray Hudson said in his pre-match interview)

And you realize 72k would be the biggest capacity for any club stadium in the UK. Old Trafford and Celtic Park aren't that big. Plus, Spurs play in a city with 12 other professional clubs.

[RichardL]

Originally posted by ignatz




At one point the announcer explicitly referred to the SIZE of the stadium, not just the crowd and atmosphere, suggesting that the DC player were awed by it. Not likely. I was very surprised that it seated only 36K. I would have thought double that for a team as famous as Tottenham.

It used to hold 48,000 before going all-seater. Most stadia in the UK are shoe-horned in like fenway park so expanding them is always difficult, plus the fact that in the UK the club has to pay for the building work itself - there are no stadiums paid for by the city.

Who was covering this game though? Friendly matches such as this one don't ever get covered by English TV channels so I'm amazed there was any commentary at all. Apart from spurs fans and bigsoccer posters, nobody in the UK even knows this match took place.

[prk166]

Originally posted by Brrca Fan
The announcer was talking about DCU never played in front of big crowds.The MLS cup 97 we had 57,000 at RFK. This English guy sure knows how to put us down. We will get the WC before the English would.

THey won it at home in '66.

[delo_pata]

Originally posted by ignatz
I was puzzled by the several references the announcer made to how dazzled the DC players must be by the size of the crowd and the size of the stadium at White Hart Lane. That's just sloppy journalism. Perhaps there is little or no reason why he should have known the career details of a bunch of obscure American players, [snip]

But the impressive part of the broadcast was that he DID know a lot about the DC players. Given the complete irrelevance of the game, I thought it was amazing how well prepared the announcer was. And there was not an ounce of the usual patronizing, "oh isn't it cute, the US lads trying to play football with us" attitude. Quite the contrary, he was very respectful, almost too a fault, of the DC side. And he was quite on the mark, Bennie looked like he was auditioning for an English side, and quite successfully, I might add. As far as the attendance/atmosphere stuff, much as I love my MLS, you can't pretend the atmosphere at MLS comes anywhere close to and English ground.

[Kronos]

Originally posted by RichardL


...Apart from spurs fans and bigsoccer posters, nobody in the UK even knows this match took place.

Same goes here, aside form the BS posters and DC fans, this one didn't exist.

[lasoccervegas2002]

do you all know why DC won? SPURS played for fun on the other hand DC did seriously.

[Viking64]

Originally posted by lasoccervegas2002 do you all know why DC won? SPURS played for fun on the other hand DC did seriously.

Duh. Spurs played about 20 guys over the course of the game. DC didn't. No one cares if they won. It was a high-speed scrimmage and a damn fun one at that to play in, from what I can tell. What a great thing for Quaranta, Convey, Olsen, to say they played against Klinsman in White Hart Lane. What a great memory. It was DC's job to play high speed soccer without getting too stuck in. For that DC did very well. I doubt Wade Barrett was thrilled he beat the team having a testimonial.

Personally, I'd like to see MLS and the English First develop a minitournament. The US teams that played in the USOC final could play two games in England against 2 teams newly promoted to English First, in their pre-season. It would be a USOC perq, and would give newly promoted teams a competitive scrimmage to play before they went into their First Division Schedule.

[mikesterw]

Exactly Viking 64. It was a charity match. It didn't matter who won or lost, all that mattered is that the fans enjoyed themselves. DCU I'm sure had a great experience, even if they had lost. On the other hand, I thought Benny looked good.

[andylovesoccer]

Originally posted by lasoccervegas2002
do you all know why DC won?

Because DC scored a goal and Spurs didn't ?

[LoveFifa]

I thought it was a very entertaining game. I didn't find any of the commentators comments condensending. In fact, I thought he was extremely well informed on the DC players. Other than his mix up with MSL, I believe he did a fin job. And, really, regardless of you status in the soccer world, would you not have been excited to play against some of the greats in a charity match at WHL? I know I would. I really enjoyed the game.

[RichardL]

Originally posted by cosmosRIP
10 mins in and the British announcer has said "MSL" twice already.

Is that worse than saying "the EPL"?


English teams are notoriously half-hearted in friendly matches but it's still a good result. I'm sure Spurs didn't want to lose though and it's a shame DC didn't score earlier or it could have been a more realistic contest. Good result though.

[Cantona]

i hear your regarding the "EPL"...

i cringe everytime i hear that...

the intro for the Leeds v Liverpool game
had an english lad.. stating the "prem"
and calling the liverpool the "pool"...

he would be stoned if he said that back home...
but i guess he's doing it for his audience....

that said.. im not going let it interfere with
my enjoyment of the match...

Cantona---

[superdave]

Originally posted by RichardL
Who was covering this game though?
Spurs TV

[superdave]

Originally posted by RichardL
English teams are notoriously half-hearted in friendly matches
English teams only, right? Everyone else in the world is blood'n'guts in friendlies, right? :rolleyes:

Please be careful to understand that just because you can't see over the horizon, that doesn't mean there's nothing there.

[Cantona]

I wouldnt blanket that statement... but
definitely in this game.. its was taken with a
grain of salt by Spurs... their season is ongoing,
they had a host of guest and (over the hill) guest
players...

DC United had more to prove in this match.. and
they did a pretty good job... considering the
opposition... and i dont mean that in any negative
sense...

British teams in testimonials though usually dont
play with the "blood and guts mentality".... just
on the odd occasions... most memorable was the
testimonials that had Man U and Celtic... it was
like the battle of britain.... but in testimonials
its all good spirited fun... for a cause... as was
this game..

Cantona--

[lasoccervegas2002]

Spurs without Keane, Ziege etc but, i'm as happy as Hudson and the rest of DC fans.

[Elninho]

Originally posted by Cantona

most us players are used to playing in 50k stadiums
with a crowd of 2-3k... all blowing boat horns and
banging a drum.... i would say the commentator
got it right... even the dc coach mentioned the
atmosphere...


2-3k is an A-League attendance average. No MLS regular-season match has EVER drawn less than 4k, and this season they have rarely been under 10k.

[RichardL]

Originally posted by superdave

English teams only, right? Everyone else in the world is blood'n'guts in friendlies, right? :rolleyes:

Please be careful to understand that just because you can't see over the horizon, that doesn't mean there's nothing there.

Thanks for correcting me as you clearly fully understood what I was trying to say.
Tell me, is it easy to type whilst balancing that large chip on your shoulder or does it fall off now and then?

I didn't see the game and as it was on Spurs TV (I'd never even heard of Spurs TV) so I can't tell how committed the DC team were, but I'd risk at guessing they felt it was a good chance to pit themselves against premiership stars, old & new, and were looking foward to it as a contest. The spurs players, all 137 of them so it seems, would have regarded it as a chance to showboat a bit in a fun kick-about.

[andylovesoccer]

and it seems you find it just as easy to read the Spurs players minds as Dave does to type with that large chip on his shoulder.... I'm not saying that they took the game as seriously as they would a league match, but do you think they wanted to lose to the last place MLS team in front of their home fans? I think there was a desire to win in both teams, but in the end they both realized that the result really didn't mean anything.