The Blast seemed to have a point to make after being embarassed at home by the Kixx earlier in the season. Two very quick goals against Pappas and then a stiffeling defense made the game basically a party for the Blast and their fans. The team is playing in a very unselfish manner and the only thing in their way to another championship would be an injury to a key player as they have to finish the season running the thug gauntlet of Monterrey and Philadelphia. For the second night in a row the Blast have pressed to score even when the game was no longer in doubt. The playoffs will be entertaining as whatever two teams out of the three advance there will be playoff soccer in each round between teams that do not like each other. Is there a problem with Don D'Ambra's health? He barely played tonight and barely played against Rockford last Sunday. It was a big crowd tonight, I can't speculate on the size as I am not as skilled in estimating the crowd as others on this board who don't go to the games but still manage to have an opinion or only go if they have free tickets.
Official number is 8,828. Pretty damn impressive, given the overall pro indoor landscape of late. In order to save some fellow posters a little time, let me just fill in some of the inevitable responses to this number while I'm here: I was there man, there's NO WAY it was more than 5,000. The lower bowl was half empty! The Blast always inflate their numbers! The Blast give away tons of free tickets! The greatest team in the greatest league that the soccer world has ever known has done it once again! All Hail Hale! To hell with the Blast and to hell with Chuck E. Cheese. I personally wish the Kixx had shown a little more fight tonight, but they can still keep the dream of an "Any Given Sunday" win in the championship alive with a good day tomorrow in Rockford.
I really would like to see the Kixx and the Rampage in the playoffs. Mainly because I could then go to at least one of the games but nothing against LaRaza, but if it is the Kixx/Rampage then there is not the ineveitable travel lag that affects the teams when there is that kind of distance involved. Any two of those three teams would be entertaining since none of them like each other.
slickersoccer-- I think the attendance was pretty close to 8,000. Alot of those seats that you saw empty --lots of people in food lines -they closed down the one end on our side and we walked to the other side for food and the lines were long.There were quite a few fans in the upper deck.I will say that by the one goal(not the stage) there were quite a few empty seats.If you feel the way you do about the Blast and Ed Hale--why did you go???Did you get free tickets--the ones you complain about the Blast giving out?????????
I don't believe he was complaining about a lot of tickets being given away. Rather he was performing almost a public service announcement in order to save the usual suspects the time it would take them to give those responses and us the time it would take to notice and ignore those responses.
Slickersoccer, have the Kixx worn those blue jerseys prior to the game against the Blast? Of the three uniforms I've seen this year I liked the blue ones the best.
Blast look really good, a alittle rough in the second quarter. All the players seem to look on track except Healey. I feel he caught the free ride to be on the team with his father being general manager. He seems to always be out of place every game. Any how blast will win the championship again this year.
Please pay no attention to the game winning goal in OT in Monterrey that Healey scored last weekend. He must have really been out of place to score that one. He also has 16 points (6G, 4A) and 6 Blocks. He is not riding his father's coattails, he is a rookie playing well. Did you even follow his career before this season? I am glad we drafted Healey and was very pleased he decided to play for the Blast.
gotta agree with Dave K. on this one.Healey has been exceptional--I think he'd be a ROTY candidate .One thing about Kevin--he's brought great talent to the Blast consistently.
I apologize if my attempt at parody wasn't more clear. The un-sarcastic truth: I wasn't at the game, I have nothing but respect for the Blast and Ed Hale, and I have no idea about Philly's road jerseys 'cause I've never been to a Kixx road game. All those bullet-pointed phrases were just me making fun of the things that always seem go get posted around here whenever attendance (and in particular attendance in Baltimore) is discussed. Someone always seems to accuse the team in question of giving away free tickets, someone else usually claims that the actual number of butts in seats was much lower than the announced figure, and the Blast and NISL are typically either held up as examples of divine perfection or are summarily dismissed for reasons mysteriously involving Chuck E. Cheese. None of these are my opinions, but if you read enough posts on this board, I'll bet you can pretty quickly pinpoint whose they are. I was just hoping to prevent the next 15 posts from being all of those things by getting them out of the way in one fell swoop. My opinion, as stated in the post, was "pretty damn impressive." Hope I've cleared up the confusion.