Props to Utah [R]

[capitalist]

USA vs Costa Rica
June 04 2005
Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, Utah from ESPN2 broadcast
320x240 XviD


First half: 9898 (http://tracker.bittorrent.to:9898/torrents/627822d18e9e1495033b34159a34356f25b4877d.torrent) TPB (http://static.thepiratebay.org/torrents/3339946.torrent)
Second half: 9898 (http://tracker.bittorrent.to:9898/torrents/5f31de6d191fca8f94c32806e1c1436bfd1c2165.torrent) TPB (http://static.thepiratebay.org/torrents/3339980.torrent)

Please seed after you have finished downloading.

Enjoy!

[NGV]

I don't know, I'm sick and tired of being outnumbered by Hondurans and Guatemalans. You won't get any of that in SLC. Every major city would yield 50/50 crowd. Not in SLC.
I've posted on this subject before, but just to reiterate - I think some people are misundertanding the reason why the US has friendly crowds against Costa Rica. It has relatively little to do with the choice of location, and a lot to do with the fact that there aren't very many Costa Ricans in the US. See these census estimates:

http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/foreign/ppl-145/tab03-4.pdf

Remember, we also had overwhelmingly pro-US crowds for the hex games against Costa Rica in Kansas City in 2001 and in Portland in 1997.

This isn't intended to take anything away from the Salt Lake City crowd, who looked great, and I'm sure sounded great too (watched the game in a bar with no sound).

[jamison]

Whatever the reason, it was a very full stadium and a pro-US crowd. Having been to 10 or so US games on the east cost from Boston to NY over the years, it was nice to see the red shirts and pro-US fans. I was in Birmingham for the Guat game, and while the US had more of the crowd it wasn't an overwhelming case of home support. I was at the USA-Hondo game at RFK (9-1-01) and it was an embarassment. Not DC's fault, just too many guys rooting for the other side. Same would happen in NY if we got more games, and has happened (to a lesser extent) in Boston as well.

Bruce talked about the game in SLC being a chance to test that home advantage, and hopefully they've found it.

If SLC can get that crowd repeatedly for US games, I'd be cool with that stadium getting the same number of games that RFK & Foxboro got over the last 4-6 years (which is a lot).

Good job by the fans and organizers, and especially to those that travelled out to the game (I know guys from Jersey & DC that went out, so kudos to all that made the haul- wherever you came from).

[Saltenya94]

Salt Lake City home of the national team from here to eternity :p
seriously though, a great job. nice to see a sea of red jerseys. Great stuff.

[seahawkdad]

Soccer being a game of emotions, mine started early, seeing the crowds of almost solely US supporters walking from the parking lots to the stadium.

Huge props to Utah fans.

Here, from the US Soccer piece (http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=181749) about the match, is Arena on his Utah experience:
“It was fantastic. I've never been in a more comfortable setting as the manager of the U.S. team,” said Bruce Arena about the state of Utah’s support of the U.S. team. “The whole week, Provo was brilliant, the people were great, everything was great there. Then, even today, I went to get a haircut and walking down the street, people were coming out of stores and saying, ‘Hello,’ wishing us good luck. I think the crowd was fantastic and I'm happy that our guys were able to respond. When things were tough, the crowd helped us. It was a perfect setting to play an important game in. I don't speak for U.S. Soccer, I speak for myself, but I'd love to come back here some day.”

[Roehl Sybing]

Sorry, I thought this was about props in Utah. "Please do not throw objects on the field"? Streamers. They're just streamers. What a killjoy.

No no, that's honestly my only criticism. The crowd looks great (watching the first half right now), and they sound like the fanbase the US team deserves.

[seahawkdad]

One more item...a Salt Lake Tribune article (http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_2780317) showing that the love expressed by the US Nats for their Utah experience is returned in kind.

It has this closing comment by Donovan:

"I wouldn't necessarily say I loved Provo," he said with a wry smile, "but Salt Lake was fun."

Those who know Utah will understand.

[sounderfan]

Here are some comments more from www.USsoccer.com:


U.S. midfielder LANDON DONOVAN

On playing in Salt Lake City:
“On behalf of all of us, I’d like to say, ‘Thank you.’ The crowd was tremendous. They were passionate, they were loud, they knew what was going on in the game and I really hope we can come back here. It was incredible.”

On whether the crowd surprised him:
“I was saying yesterday, or Thursday, that they are very knowledgeable here. Even outside our hotel walking to the game today, there were probably 50 to 100 people clapping for us outside the elevators. They were just excited. As a soccer player, that’s where you want to play. You don’t want to play in front of 40,000 Costa Ricans. You want people there cheering for you. Everyone who came out today did a great job. They did their part today.”

[MrSparkle]

Sorry, I thought this was about props in Utah. "Please do not throw objects on the field"? Streamers. They're just streamers. What a killjoy.

No no, that's honestly my only criticism. The crowd looks great (watching the first half right now), and they sound like the fanbase the US team deserves.

I thought the ref might have been the one who warned the crowd against throwing streamers; at least that was the impression I got since he made Donovan and Co. clean the pitch.

[Blitzz Boy]

We Utahrds could not have done it without you.

Salt Lake City is, let's face it, in the middle of nowhere.

But a lot of US supporters came in from other states, and that helped. We also were helped out by "Sam's Army Irregulars"......(guys in El Salvador hats and a US jersey, guys in Guatemala jerseys but carrying a US flag) And Mexico fans still mad about their WCQ home loss in 2001.

[ZeekLTK]

Whoah whoah whoah. IT was a great crowd, pro-usa, but the people are still learning soccer culture. Hopefully this event will serve as a good starting point. But let's not go crowning SLC as the home for the national team. We are too big of a country to have a single national stadium.

I noticed in one of the USA-England threads someone said they were talking to some British fans and they asked him (something like this) "what? You mean you don't have a 'main' stadium where the majority of your national games are?" Every other nation in the world has a home venue that they go to for the big, important games, I think it's about time we did too. As much as I'd hate to see it be way out in Utah (since I would most likely never be able to make it to matches there), I think at the moment SLC is our best bet. Like someone else said, put the smaller games and friendlies out across the country, but when it comes down to it, when we need a result, when we're playing in the hex, etc. Put the game in SLC. England plays their big ones in Wembley, Mexico has a ton of other stadiums but I would highly doubt any of their hex games will be outside of Azteca... we need something similar, I think SLC could be our "home field".

[NGV]

Every other nation in the world has a home venue that they go to for the big, important games...
That's not true.

And in the countries for which it is true, I think usually tends to be because a large percentage of the population lives relatively close to a single city (or in the case of some countries, there's only one stadium that's big enough or in good enough conidition to host major games).

Anyway, if we played Mexico in SLC, I imagine the atmosphere would be pretty different - there's a large Mexican-American population in Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado, and LA is only about 700 miles away. Again, almost any city in the country could get a pro-US crowd for a qualifier against Costa Rica.

In general, I'd say the only opponent for which finding a homefield advantage should be a challenge is Mexico. In almost every other case where US fans have been outnumbered, it's because the USSF chose a location that promoted that (either through incompetence or by design).

[Boz]

Very well done. The crowd was great. Maybe this helps seal the deal on a SSS for RSL.

We already have three different cities along the Wasatch Front mountain line fighting for the venue. Whether this WCQ happened or not, SLC was already on it's way to a SSS.

[Boz]

Whoah whoah whoah. IT was a great crowd, pro-usa, but the people are still learning soccer culture. Hopefully this event will serve as a good starting point. But let's not go crowning SLC as the home for the national team. We are too big of a country to have a single national stadium.

Still learning soccer culture? SLC has the most youth in soccer per capita in the US. We know soccer culture, embrace it, and showcase that fact as we proved it at Rice-Eccles.

[FearM9]

It has this closing comment by Donovan:

"I wouldn't necessarily say I loved Provo," he said with a wry smile, "but Salt Lake was fun."

Those who know Utah will understand.

They played that part on one of the TV stations in SLC and I was LMAO at that comment!

[FearM9]

This was my first USMNT game...been to a number of WUSA and USWNT games...all I can say is WOW!!! I'm by far more of a women's soccer fan than a men's soccer fan, but holy cow...if Saturday's crowd is any indication of what USMNT crowds are normally like in person....I'm truly embarrassed that USWNT crowds are not passionate like the USMNT crowds. Don't get me wrong...I think has their fair share of passionate fans. But the passion showed by the crowd in Rice Eccles and especially in the Sam's Army section (where I was)....was by far superior to what I've experienced at USWNT games (including the several during the 2003 WWC).

[UPinSLC]

Still learning soccer culture? SLC has the most youth in soccer per capita in the US. We know soccer culture, embrace it, and showcase that fact as we proved it at Rice-Eccles.
people are always going to think this because....well because we are utah. being "utah" means that we have to learn things like soccer culture and such. utah doesnt need to learn soccer culture. hell we get thousands out for high school games. i have played in a full high school football stadium for soccer, in front of probably 4k people. best game i ever played in. and this is not some rare occasion. the people of utah are just as much part of soccer culture and understand it than most other places. its just since we are "utah" people think we dont know soccer. soccer in utah is huge, people just dont realize it. this game helped serve as an example to just how much people in utah understand soccer culture. nobody can doubt that anymore.

heres a small example: how many other places in the US have 3 cities fighting to build a SSS. i dont know any, does anybody else? nobody can claim that utah is not soccer knowledgable dont know what soccer culture is anymore. the country just hasnt been exposed to utahs soccer knowledge. i mean we drew 25k+ for the uswnt game against ireland a couple years ago. before we had a mls team. that game wasnt advertised and marketed nearly as much as this game was. and now our mls team is averaging over 21k a game. just give it time before people start accepting utah as a soccer culture. i think we have really opened a lot of peoples eyes as far as understanding utahs soccer knowledge and passion goes. we did a great job yesterday and NOBODY can take that away from us. anybody who thinks we couldnt duplicate that success in the future is just jealous (and ignorant/stupid) ;).

a HUGGEEEE thank you for all the people that came out to our little town in the middle of nowhere for this game, especially sams army. you guys were awesome and amplified everything we did. and of course, im incredibly grateful we even had the opportunity to host the WCQ, it will probably be the greatest soccer game i will have ever gone to. until next time that is :)

[Gioca]

I just hope they are willing to roll in the grass for future matches. Was the field OK? You could see the lines from the rolls of turf, but it looked ok. Also, Salt Lake City needs to ease up on their alcohol laws first. I wasn't there so I don't know if they cracked down on any fans.

But all in all, the atmosphere looked fantastic on TV.

[UPinSLC]

I just hope they are willing to roll in the grass for future matches. Was the field OK? You could see the lines from the rolls of turf, but it looked ok. Also, Salt Lake City needs to ease up on their alcohol laws first. I wasn't there so I don't know if they cracked down on any fans.

But all in all, the atmosphere looked fantastic on TV.
the alcohol laws really arent that bad, they are just weird and HEAVILY over exagerated by the people who live elsewhere. hell during the olympics the laws were pretty much thrown out. im sure it wasnt an issue and i didnt hear any complaining. you can get all the same alcohol you would get anywhere else, it just takes a little more effort (but really not that much) to get it. people over play it way to much. especially the "weaker" beer thing, but what they really dont take into acount is our elevation. drinking beer at 4800 feet is NOT the same as drinking it at sea level. trust me, i go to college in portland 8 months out of the year, i come home and party with friends here and even though the beer is weaker i still get drunk just as quickly off of almost the same amount of beer. *cough*icehouse*cough* highest alcohol content of any beer.

as for the field, it was so-so. the chicago-rsl game the week before really had me wondering because it looked like sh!t. it looked a little firmer and guys werent sliding and slipping around as much this time around. the week before none of the guys could keep their footing it seemed. i have never seen so many professionals on their asses, backs and stomachs in a game before. in the future im sure we wont have to worry about it when we get the SSS built. i doubt there will be another usmnt game here until we get that done, which should only be a couple years away. '07?

i hope slc becomes a fixture for the usmnt, the atmosphere was amazing and you could really tell it helped the guys. the crowd was the 12th man out there for them. the entire north side of the stadium chanted Kasey Keller throughout that 20 minute stretch of the second half when he made those amazing saves. it was awesome to hear, im sure he loved it. torwards the end of the game when the entire stadium was chanting USA it sent chills down my back. i have never heard anything like that, really made me feel proud. i hope to experience something like that again.

[Q Exp]

I've been watching US Nats games since '94, and yesterday was the closest thing I saw to a pro-US "sea of red" at a US home soccer game! It helped that both Real Salt Lake and the Utah Utes wear red.

I wound up watching the game on Telemundo and except for our hardcore fans, the stadium still seemed generally quiet even though the US dominated Costa Rica. Still, I'll take one out of two anyday. I hope Salt Lake gets more World Cup Qualifiers.