All the marbles on the line, lots of folks have LA already having won the game, and yet they're going to play it anyway, so here we go! Sunday 20 November 2011 Houston at Los Angeles, 9:00 pm EST @ Home Depot Center; ESPN, Galavision, TSN2 As always, keep it friendly here in the neutral PBP thread.
... Two Teams, One Cup ... Bad news, Houston! I'm backing the Dynamo in this one. As such, I am at this time offering Los Angeles a grudging and spiteful congratulations for winning a third MLS Cup. (But before you all go off gloating, just remember that you still don't have as many MLS Cups as my United!)
I'm going up for MLS Cup (staying at Residence Inn in Torrance), but I'm officially neutral. My first, second, and third choice teams are not part of MLS Cup. Might have to score knit caps from both teams.
Chad Barrett dislocated his ankle and will miss the final, for those who missed that news. Will be interesting to see how much playing time Robbie Keane gets Tuesday against Estonia. They don't really need him out there at all (up 4-0 on aggregate) and Ireland has Kevin Doyle back from suspension, a guy who would likely be a more effective 'kill the game' type with his tireless running and ability to hold up the ball.
I bet Keane is on the bench to start the game and then he comes in late to make sure his goal celebration is in top notch form for MLS Cup.
I've read they've "brought in extra capacity" at the Home Depot for this one. What does that mean? Besides the extra seating on the grassy knoll below the scoreboard, I'm not aware of any extra capacity arrangements at the HDC. I guess we'll find out.
The place is going to be jam-packed. They've put in temporary seating and also sold standing-room-only tickets. The demand is so great, people are selling their tickets for up to 10X face value.... I'm getting there nice and early...
Not this G. It's strictly nail bitin' time. And speaking of G's... ... in honor of the game being played in LA, and seeing as we're still a few days away, allow to me dust off this special version. Nothing could be more SoCal. (NSFW) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4AC5GnS70g"]Gin And Juice RARE VERSION - YouTube[/ame]
From what I understand there will be small grandstands built above the corners on the TV side of the stadium (i.e. above the Riot squad in 138 and above the NE corner. Not sure where else they are cramming people but I heard they added 4,000 to the 2,500 (or so grass seats) and the 27,000 regular seats. So we might have 33k+ for the final. Announced as 27,000. Those extra seats will make up for all the previous MLS Cups that had empty seats and were announced at 27,000.
For all the ESPN haters, I just saw a full commercial for MLS Cup on ESPN, during the MNF pregame, not 5 minutes before Monday Night Football itself starts.
Dom might as well start Carlo Costly alongside Ching. That would be--could be--a tough matchup for De la Garza. If Costly shows. Calen Carr is nothing special and there's always that 1% chance that Costly sees the H on his jersey and thinks he's playing for Honduras and lights the place up.
I thought the "27,000 regular seats" included when the grassy knoll was filled up, and that in reality there were more like 25,000 regular seats in HDC proper. Am I wrong about that? In any case, a packed to the brim HDC should make a for a great spectacle.
Im going to root for the Cup to be decided by some colossal Ref mistake.... one that leaves massive butthurt thru the Internet... That or a meteor... Im not fussy about which one
Let me tell you something I learned recently. Rooting for a meteor is more disappointing than rooting for Chivas USA.
My understanding was that 27000 was basically the number they tell the Fire Marshal about. When Madrid came through with Zidane, they supposedly squeezed something close to 30000 in there.
I don't disagree with your general thought that the upside of Costly > than the upside of Carr. That being said, Ching and Carr have started to develop an understanding together in terms of making runs off of each other, etc. I would think that Kinnear continues to tap that to start, but is not afraid to pull the trigger on Costly or Bruin early if needed.
You really need to think about the words you choose. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5posU08HjXg"]Best of Tobias Fünke - YouTube[/ame]
There are 24,000 seats at the HDC and a lot of boxes. Each box can theoretically hold 19 people, so when a box is sold, they count it as 19 people. In the add it adds up to ~27,000. I've noticed that the Galaxy has never announced something like 26,500. I have a feeling that they round up a bit.