Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd And they witnessed their team get beat in a pretty humiliating fashion. For the people angry about today's crowd (and I was one of them), I think the final result really should quell that anger.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd The games were in Giants Stadium, because no matter what teams play, they'll get at least 20-30k at the gate. To borrow the tired line, the Copa de Oro is about the Oro and nothing else. The venues are decided before the teams are selected. CONCACAF/USSF try their best to hedge their bets to pick venues that will make money. Why are the Semis/Final not in LA? Because they've been burned when Mexico doesn't make it that far. Remember the epic crowds at the Rose Bowl/Coliseum the year Canada won? Next time we'll schedule the Semis/Finals in Kansas City or Salt Lake and when the US doesn't make it, we'll see what kind of crowd Panama-Colombia draws.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd No, apparently CONCACAF schedules the Semis/Finals. So that won't ever happen.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd Get off it. Soccer isnt that popular with the average person in the USA and the media virtually ignores it. If it is not part of an MLS doubleheader this scene happens at any major city in the country. They will never play a meaningful qualifier in NY for this reason. Its only the gold cup. Relax. As others have mentioned, they scheduled it here because there is such a diverse group of people from all over the world here. No matter what teams made it to the semifinals they knew they would get a good crowd.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd It looks like most American fans took a pass on this game. I certainly did. Most if not all of the people complaining didn't go. I don't know about you guys but I'm saving my money for the WC. I'm betting many others are in the same boat. For the Hondurans this was practically their World Cup. Do they have anything else to look forward to until 2008? Not really. Of course, it would be seen as more important for their fans to try to make it to this game. When you and I are cheering in Germany, they'll be watching it on TV. I'll take that over a Gold Cup Semi everytime.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd so i guess you are prepared to right off all us mnt matches in miami, houston, and la too? others are saying it, so I won't belabor the point, but this is not a New York problem. it is a big diverse city, and it is an American city. between the two, you get low local intersest in soccer and high immigrant interest. this new yorker was glad the game was played here and is only sorry that I couldn't make it tonight.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd Salt Lake would have turned out 50k for this game. I hate to make this a geopolitical issue but...
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd Ok, forget about it who scheduled it, that this is a nation of immigrants (all my grandparents got off of boats so fret not), and that we won. These are facts: the title of this thread is "Pro-Honduras Crowd", that crowd was a disgrace to the USMNT, and NYC is a place for WCQs only under extremely unusual circumstances.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd Soccer is still a marginal sport in this country. American sports fans are generally not into international competitions in ANY sport, except for the Olympics. The richest sport in this country, American football, is not played in any other country. The media ignoring the Gold Cup in NY doesn't help. And this was the WC for Honduras so they will show up for their big day out. What else do they have for sports to support? It sucks, but that's life as a US Soccer supporter: swim against the stream of the crowd in your own country (esp vs. Central American sides)
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd Actually, there were nice roars for all the teams in both games tonite for goals and called-back goals.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd If it makes y'all feel any better, lots of Colombianos were cheering for us and although it looked there weren't very many US fans, when we scored you realized there were more than it seemed -- we were just scattered throughout. I was (a little naively) surprised how many Hondurans showed up and how enthusiastic they were, but it made the game a lot of fun especially after the result.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd our clan had trouble with the hondo crowd all evening...but it never escalated... i was there to support the US team and watch a fun game and was disappointed in the home crowd support although they were scattered in this giant stadium... the 6pm start on a humid weekday night didn't make matters any better... i'm expecting a better representation on sunday...and a US win. hopefully colombia goes through...the women alone are worth the price.
I think most people didn't want to come in from outside the area on a thursday. Most people just asumed they could come for the Sunday game. The group might have been small, but we were vocal. It's just hard when the honduans were sitting in our section. couldn't even get together to do something.
why is a largely honduran or colombian crowd at giants stadium surprising or disappointing? I talk to many colombians in my area (morristown, madison, chatham) and not ONE didn't know about this game and were excited about it. Of the white suburbanite crowd that populates the support of the US National team.. well.. no one knew about this game. Only a few friends of mine who play in a local pick-up league (some white american, some european immigrants) knew about this game.. and those that did wouldn't have bothered to have gone to it. Again, why is this surprising?
Exactly. The spanish language media in the NY area has been pimping these games for 2 months. I didnt see one article in the NY English language papers til Tuesday. That being said, I can guarentee a nice USA following Sunday. Many people including myself couldnt make it to this game because of work. Everyone I know is going Sunday.
I hope you are right. One thing we know about New Yorkers is that they are a resiliant bunch. Now get to the damn final.
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd I beg to differ. Where in SLC holds 50k? Rice-Eccles weighs in at 45k. http://www.stadium.utah.edu/stadium.html
Congrats to the Honduran fans who came out and supported their team - They were always cheering during their game - And the following game - I have no complaints about their presence and cheering and support for their team
Re: Pro-Hounduras Crowd 'Most' other countries don't have the shear size (land mass) or diversity that the U.S. does. It's really that simple. There's no science that needs to be applied, no formulas to decipher. It's just as simple as: - Diversity of many different cultures... - Those cultures happen to have 'soccer' as the historic 'pasttime' or national sport... - While many who 'would' potentially be USMNT supporters are fans of other sports first.
I was 1 of maybe 15 to 20 pro US crowd (Sam's Army?) in the 101 section... and it was pitiful! My friend and I couldn't get over at the fact on how so many few pro US people went to the game... I mean, I understand if out of state peeps dont come, but for New Yorkers and New Jersey peeps not to go, there's no excuse for that! It was sad. But, it was sweet how the stadium just went silent when the winning goal was scored in the last second.