Portland is know as Soccer Town so only having 3500 when the place should have been packed is a huge slap in the face of the National Team
"Slap in the face" seems a little harsh; I doubt anyone said "lets go to the mall to insult the USWNT..." As Yogi once said, "If they don't wanna come out, no one's gonna stop 'em." But it was really disappointing. Rain, short notice, new players, no draw in the opponent; I'd have thought 5-6000 was reasonable... 8000 very pleasant. But "hometown girl going for #100" makes 3500 pretty flat...
They are all great seats. The game was advertised for quite some time with Tiffany in the add. Articles were written each day in the Oregonian and the game day was without any rain. In fact, it was a perfect day for soccer. It was at the University both Tiffany and Shannon attended. No one cared!
It's nice to know the game was promoted. It is hard to get a bead on that if you don't live in the community in which they are playing. I traveled to the Canada match a few weeks ago and noticed one small ad in the sports section onSaturday. Nothing on Sunday. There were almost daily stories on the team from training camp in the sports section the week prior.
Is that attendance figure based on actual people there or number of tix sold? If it was based on the tix sold, then count me in among the 3500 or so that were there, BUT I wasn't there. When this game was first announced I immediately started making plans on making the 8 hour drive from Idaho. When tix went on sale I bought mine the next day. Already booked a room through Priceline. The weekend that the game was held was perfect since we had a mandatory 4 day weekend at work. So I was hell bent on getting my butt to Portland. Over the past couple of years I had attended a handful of games in Portland... 2001 or 2002 WUSA All-Star 2003 WWC University of Oregon v somebody (2003) Portland v somebody (2003) 2004 FCT Uhhh I think that's it??? The two college games were held during the same time of the WWC so it was a no-brainer to go to those as well even though I didn't give a rat's ass about all 4 schools involved. The other 3 games were pretty significant and that is why they got great turnouts. They were major "events" in women's soccer in the US and in Portland. You just "had" to be there regardless of your geographical location. As the weekend of the match grew closer and closer three things were working against me... 1) Low on $. 2) Extremely low appeal of the match. Not to slam Ukraine or the new look USWNT...but in the whole scheme of things...this match just didn't have the "WOW!" factor that other Portland games have had. 3) I much rather spend the weekend doing something fun and exciting (like mountain biking which I eventually did instead). I can't speak for the people that actually live alot closer to Portland than I do, but I really do think #2 had alot to do with the low turnout. Other than the "Millie Goal #100/Millie Returns to the USWNT in Her Hometown" factor, this match just didn't have alot of oomph behind it. The team is in a transitionary phase with alot of new faces. The old guard (Mia/BChaz/Fawcett/Foudy/Bri) is no longer around...whether you want to accept it or not...several of those names really helped give an identity to the USWNT and in turn helped drive ticket sales for the casual USWNT fan. The hardcores are always going to be at a USWNT regardless of who is on the roster and who they are playing, but how big of a % are the hardcores in the total attendance mix? I think that the casual fans "need" a reason to go to a game. Unfortunately, the Ukraine game didn't really give them any. Oh yeah...the prior weekend, Boise hosted a huge youth soccer tourney that had over 3,400 players and 186 teams from nearly every western state (including Oregon and Washington) made the trip. The tourney began on the 3rd and finished up on the 5th. As most parents of youth players know...traveling to various tourneys can really put a dent in your bank account. Could it be possible that the players and parents from western Oregon and Washington were broke and tired from the previous weekend's trip and didn't want to make the trip out to Portland? And let's not forget that the Gold Cup was being held several hours north at Seahawks Stadium around the same time as the Ukraine game. Just my take.
I think you are right Fear. The Stars everyone came to see are gone. They were there and then the next day, they were gone. If there had been a gradual retirement of the 91er's, it certainly would have been better. Foudy should have gone first followed by Fawcett and Chastain over a period of a few years. It should have happened that way but athletes just don't seem to want to give it up. I don't blame them. Oh by the way, I think Mia and Lilly should still be playing. They still have it!
Makes sense to me-- our 16000 in Albuquerque included families from Texas and Colorado as well as New Mexico... it doesn't seem unreasonable to think that the Boise tournament would drain the "regional interest pool" by 10000... and I hadn't even thought about how close the Gold Cup game was... So maybe 3500 wasn't so bad after all... As far as you going mountain biking instead goes, its a fundamental rule of living-- "Never skip your own game to watch anybody else's." Good for you.
The US played Cuba and Canada on the 7th and 9th while the Ukraine was sandwiched in between them. Not sure of how much of a crossover there is between USWNT and USMNT fans. The USMNT both drew over 15,000 each. But I'm gonna guess that a somewhat dedicated US fan in Portland or Seattle is gonna be more inclined to hit up the Gold Cup than Ukraine. Let's not also forget that the USMNT and a good chunk of it's fanbase is building momentum to Germany next year whereas the USWNT is looking ahead towards ICELAND! Yeah...can't beat riding miles and miles of SUPERB singletrack instead of driving 8 hours on I-84 towards Portland...
Here's Beulah's report. It's a little late, but, as she explains, her regular job kept interfering. But she's always a pleasure. http://www.beulahsports.com/arch_7_10_05.html
So someplace between Twin Falls and Boise depending on how fast you drive-- Mtn. Home? Gooding? Thanks for the pic-- reminds me of my childhood...
Belah's comments on Tina Frimpong. Frimpong - I wanted so much to love and adore every single touch she made - I wanted so much for something spectacular to happen for this young woman. There is no NCAA women’s player that I saw last year who impressed me more or who was singularly more dominating than Tina Frimpong. That indescribable "it" I talk about sometimes? this is a player who has it - who oozes it. And because there is no league, and because she was not a featured youth star, there is no place for her to develop that "it" further. So she has to take that "it" and figure out how to use it on the backline - which means learning a new position and not using her tremendous 1 v. 1/take on ability in the same fashion to which she is accustomed. Now, I certainly think she could make the change, and this wasn’t a bad start in that direction, but I just don’t know if there’s time with as few games as they’re playing. Maybe she needs to hook up with a W-League team on the condition that she plays on the wing on the backline to develop some instincts/ability to read the game from that position. She looked OK getting forward and had some very nice dynamic moments while she was up in the midfield, but that she just has no instincts about where she should be at times is painfully obvious, even against the Ukraine. I think this young woman could be a remarkable weapon if she can learn to play the position . . . However, I also think I’d rather see her getting the time at forward that’s being given to Danielle Fotopolous, because looking at the forwards not named O’Reilly, Wambach or Welsh, from what I’ve seen of Frimpong, she’d be able to compete with any one of them. But Ryan has other plans and I guess all anyone rooting for this kid can hope for is that he’ll give it enough time to figure out if this switch even has a chance at working. I agree that she should be up there instead of Fotopolous. If Ryan is serious about making a youth movement then Tina needs to move to the front line. Tina is no Charmain Hooper who can play anywhere. It would take her at least a couple of years to learn the outside defense position. She will not learn it against Iceland and Ukraine. Danielle Fotopolous is soooooo slow. Granted a great finisher but why not have a complete player like Tina on the front line. You cannot teach speed.