The NEW King George V

[pmannion]

Ages ago some of you asked me to post pictures of King George V stadium in St. John's. Well, over the spring it has been refurbishsed, and an artificial pitch is now in use. I was at the opening match last night (A Challenge Cup game between Feildians and Holy Cross, two St. John's teams - attendance was about 1000). Still pretty humble, but should be very good for Newfoundland soccer, and I reckon that if you stuck any Central American country here in May or November the results would be very interesting. Some pictures of the new stands:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1151.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1149.jpg


Only stands on three sides. I'm off to the Canada-China women's match now, more or less as a neutral observer. Will post pictures in this thread later. Cheers!

[pmannion]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1158.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1150.jpg

[jpg75]

Thanks, let us know how the match went!

p.s. is this where Canada dismantled the US in Rugby last weekend?

[pmannion]

Thanks, let us know how the match went!

p.s. is this where Canada dismantled the US in Rugby last weekend?

No, that was at the (even more humble) Swiler's Rugby complex. Fantastic atmosphere at that one.

[pmannion]

Thoughts/pictures of the China match:

In short, not worth the price of admission. The quality of football was atrocious (the challenge Cup game the previous night was far more entertaining). Neither set of players were interested. There was no atmosphere (don't blame the impressive crowd of 5320 for this, the teams gave us nothing to sing about) - although credit to St. John's Chinese population for turning out. They are the only ethnic minority here worth talking abuot, and they were out in force on Saturday. By the end, most of the crowd had defected to cheering Chinese endeavour (they were technically a very good side). Can't say much about the players as I dont'
know them, but I can say that Christine Sinclair is apallingly overweight/unfit for an international level player. Very lazy, uninspiring performance.

The highlight of the day was clearly when my mates and I sang "A team of Gary Breens" from I-XI.

Some pictures (I'll leave player identification up to you):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1179.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1184.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1177.jpg

[pmannion]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1191.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1194.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/pmannion/Stadium/IMG_1198.jpg

[RedandWhite]

Wow! That is an awesome looking pitch!

[jpg75]

Wow! That is an awesome looking pitch!

The layout reminds me of the York U. stadium, saw the Canada-England Churchill Cup game there this summer...agree, nice looking grass. Maybe we should play a February qualifier in St. John's, freeze those CA's out of town...

[Moaca]

Just a couple of opinions. I believe that "nice looking grass" is FieldTurf and if the thread starter considers Christine Sinclair "apallingly overweight/unfit" then we could use about ten more "apallingly overweight/unfit" players.

She's the only woman player who has merited her own thread at my forum largely due to the amount of articles on the international awards she has received.

She's a big girl, yes, but I don't think we can call into question her fitness.

http://forums.soccerfansnetwork.com/showthread.php?t=36974

[jpg75]

Just a couple of opinions. I believe that "nice looking grass" is FieldTurf and if the thread starter considers Christine Sinclair "apallingly overweight/unfit" then we could use about ten more "apallingly overweight/unfit" players.

She's the only woman player who has merited her own thread at my forum largely due to the amount of articles on the international awards she has received.

She's a big girl, yes, but I don't think we can call into question her fitness.

http://forums.soccerfansnetwork.com/showthread.php?t=36974

You seemed so much nicer when you were Joe MacCarthy :confused:

[pmannion]

It is Field Turf, yes. Necessary here as we can't grow grass very well in Newfoundland.

Perhaps what you say about Sinclair is fair enough, but Saturday was the only time I've ever seen her play live and she did absolutely nothing over 90 minutes. Mabye it was a one-off, but like I said this is all I have to base my opinion on.

[Moaca]

You seemed so much nicer when you were Joe MacCarthyNaaw, the Tail Gunner wasn't a nice guy either. His good friend Dancin' Roy Cohn was a pretty nice feller though. How's that for a blast from the past, for you old timers out there. :)

[CanuckFan]

The layout reminds me of the York U. stadium, saw the Canada-England Churchill Cup game there this summer...agree, nice looking grass. Maybe we should play a February qualifier in St. John's, freeze those CA's out of town...

Well I would imagine you could play any qualifier from March through November on the rock in the evening and the Carribean and Central American opposition would be fully outfitted in toques and gloves, wondering if their stones would survive the match intact.
I am all for having qualifiers played here but the clowns at the CSA have bent over and provided MLSE exclusive rights to how many friggin National Team games per year?
Mind you, the number of times the CSA has broken promises is mind-boggling so perhaps this one promise to MLSE could be conveniently forgotten.

[CanuckFan]

Another added bonus of playing qualifiers on the Rock is that there is still a good chance the away supporters will assemble in Saint John, NB.

[canadatoworldcup]

any of the u20 world cup games being played there next year?

[jpg75]

any of the u20 world cup games being played there next year?

Nope. Games will be in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal