If you see a tall lanky bastard in dark pants and a dark blue shirt be sure to say hi to him. See you at Mia Hamm's table.
You mean the table that I blew chunder on!? Nice to meet you tonight caddisfly. Too bad about your camera though. Gimme some time to get the pics developed and I'll get 'em to you. In a nutshell...All-Star Gala was OFF DA' HOOK!!!! Now I either need to gain 50 pounds or shrink those kickass NIKE WUSA All-Star fleece pullovers so it will fit.
I did get into the practice yesterday and also stayed for the clinic the South Team put on for about 300 youth soccer players. Today the teams are headed for the Nike campus for some more practice time and media stuff. I also got my fleece shirt. The weather in Portland today is great and tomorrow the forcast is for 75-80 degrees. The players are very accessible and friendly. Great place to be this weekend. The dinner last night was packed and fun. See you at the game.
Mia, Abby, and Lorrie Fair were at the Nike campus early this morning and did interviews with the weather guy. Lorrie Fair was able to notch two PK's against said weather guy.
Damnit. I knew they had practice at the NIKE campus this afternoon but I thought it was closed. On Fox 12 they just showed highlights of the practices and there were several hundred people there. I wonder if it was by invite only? Crap either way I missed it. It looked like they had a big autograph session afterwards and Brandi gave a real short interview. And another thing... Central Catholic played Gresham today in HS football at PGE. I wonder if they are in the process now of switching it over from a football to a soccer field or if they will do that first thing in the morning. Hell I should go drive over there and find out.
From today's The Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...tandard.xsl?/base/sports/1032609447136440.xml
Just got back from PGE... They are almost done washing away the football lines. Now it looks like a soccer field. Oh yeah yesterday a number of players visited a hospital and handed out stuff to the poor kids staying in there.
session afterwards and Brandi gave a real shor Umm, in the past, wasn't it just open to Nike employees? maybe?
Looks like Meinert then??? In place of Lilly in the middle today? Hope everything turns out all right for Kristine. Paul
I was just wondering about that cuz Meinert was not at practice on Thusday and wasn't at the Gala either.
Maren had to return to Germany after last Saturday's tribute to Akers. She should have arrived in Portland yesterday. She is not the same midfielder as Lilly. More of a withdrawn forward. Her tackling can be suspect, but her passing vision is sublime.
Did See the practive yesterday and talked with a bunch of the players including Millie, Lorrie, Brandi, Kylie, Sawa, Charmaine, Mia and a few more. They gave us great access to the players and everyone seems in a great mood for this game. Leaving early to get seats in the Widmer Beer Garden. Those seats are within six feet of the players on the field. Temperature in Portland are around 70 degrees. Great soccer weather. Enjoy the game.
Great game so far. Mia is looking good with 2 sweet assists. Kylie Bivns of Upland, CA had a nice header off a Mia setup. I guess I'm rooting for the South now, but it is tough to choose sides. Looks like a great event for WUSA and who knows, maybe Portland will get a team after all?
Awful broadcast. They won't break away during an interview for Riise's goal, then they completely miss the Hooper goal because the kept a trivia graphic up on the screen. pathetic.
I missed Millie. She seemed to be dialed out on this game. I hope she gets her enthusiasm back in time for the Gold Cup.
I thought they were showing Sissi (on the sideline) at the time of the Hooper goal (as the answer to the AFLAC trivia question), not that that's much better. I was also annoyed that they never bothered to announce the second-half substitutions. I mean, isn't this supposed to be about the players? If so, tell us who they are!
The game, such as it was, was HIDOUSLY boring and that was made worse by the complete absence of any meaningful play by play. There were virtually NO sections longer than thirty seconds where the players that were passing the ball or receiving it were even named. This broadcast made me miss Dorance. Dicicco was, and is, a GREAT coach but he, more than anyone else the WUSA has used, should stay OUT of the box. The only good thing is that this broadcast was seen by virtually no one that might be a new WUSA viewer so no one that might be a potential fan was turned off by the ineptitude of the broadcast crew and the lack of quality soccer on the field.
Having the commish do color commentary is a bit weird. It's not like he's in any situation to say anything speculative or critical.
I just got back and I'm ready to puke cuz of the damn perfume some chick was wearing in front of me. 1) Who was the broadcast crew? 2) It looked like the production crew was out of Arizona..SWTV? I have yet to see the broadcast. Could this be the reason behind some of the complaints? 3) PAX had a booth set up at Fan Fest. Some random comments that I heard... "I don't know if this game is on TV or not." --- A mother talking on her cell phone to some one. "I've never even heard of PAX." --- Teen soccer player. "Oh it looks like several stations are carring this game." --- The same mom. And when I was down at Fan Fest...the PAX booth wasn't getting much love. Oh well.
The announcing crew was Beth Mowins and Tony Dicicco. They were horrendous. I would say it was the worst broadcast of the year by far.
I am suprised no one has mentioned the fact that the game was only 80 mins long. Was this suppose to be 10 mins short? When the 40th minute rolled around the announcer said..10 seconds left in the first half.
There's comments about that in FCM. I thought that sucked, almost like we were cheated out of something.
Well it's not like the 10 mins in both halves woulda helped the Charge...errr I meant North . I posted something similar in the KK thread... From what I have gathered from some random folks at the Gala, standing in line, and sitting around me is that the league is pretty much unknown outside of their home markets and their hardcore fans such as us. I talked to several folks that didn't know a league existed. I heard one too many comments like "PAX??? What is that?" There were even some kids asking if there was a Portland team.