What a GREAT match!! Vicky and I had one heck of a good time supporting Bolivia. Too bad my brother Chico had to miss this one. Great football, great atmosphere, and NO CSC in sight!
what was the official attendence? The part bout no fights rocks again, just like with the El Salvador - DC United friendly..... sometimes makes you wonder why ppl are so quick to be negative.... then again.... I was wondering though, because if you look at the match reports from everything from Eldiario.com to washingtonpost.com everyone gives a different figure for attendence, from 20,000 with heavy bolivian support to 30,000 with heavy Hondurian support and everything in btw.... I can't deny it, i'm a numbers guy.... (((it's a curse))))
the entire lower bowl was FILLED.. and later people spilled over into the top deck (what did it cost to run that f-ing part of the stadium if they used no ushers or security all night?!) anyway, does anyone know what the stadiums pseudo capacity is for the lower bowl? That would give us a decent guess at attendance or which numbers are closer.
The Majority was definantly Hondurans. The population of Hondurans and Bolivians in the metro politan area are not that much different. Im assuming many Bolivians didnt show up for the same reason many of my friends and family didnt go, depleted national team. Who in the right mind would have thought Bolivia would have won this match? I didnt. I went there to sing, I didnt even bother to watch the game.
Speaking of the upper deck. I went to the game with me brother, dad, and other friends. Since the lower bowlwas packed, I tried to get into the mezzanine sections but found ourselves in the 400s. So we went in. CSC guy was trying to kick us out, threatenned to bring the cops which he did. Argued with officer 1243 then talked to his superior. After five minues of arguing about security and trying to fil everyone in the lower bowl, he turned and took his officers and CSC crew out of the area. As officer 1243 walked away, I yelled at him..."have a great day. Only a moron would have number 1243." He was pissed but I didn't do anything wrong. The hondurans was pretty cool, and the game was a lot ofun. Had it been against El Salvador, it would have been ugly.
I couldn't believe the Post called it an estimated 21,000. I was in the last row of 317 (or 318) and 10 minutes or so into the match, there were no seats in the end and people were still coming in. With the folks that ended up sitting in the upper deck outnumbering the few empty seats in the bottom by a good many, I figured the attendance was above the bottom/mezzanine max of 24,603 (the mezzanine doesn't seat that many, does it?). It was definitely a pro-Honduras crowd -- at least 2-to-1 but probably 3-to-1. FYI, the 24,603 capacity came from here and includes the lower bowl and mezzanine: http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=main&cont_id=161298 As for the match, it was all Bolivia for the first 10 minutes or so, but Honduras slowly but surely began to assert itself and looked the much more likely team to score in the second half. Bolivia was caught out defensively quite a few times, but excellent individual defensive stops (quite a few well-stolen balls) kept the clean sheet for them. As for fights, there were two occasions where you got an "everybody stands up because there's a fight" thing going, but I didn't see the fight in either instance. One seemed to be near midfield on the side opposite the Barra/SE side (saw some cops going up into the stands from field level on that one) and one was in the end, but my view of that was blocked by the stadium setup. If they were both fights, neither seemed to last long or come to much. Overall, once you got through the over-long line to get in, the atmosphere was great. A few beers, some pretty good national-team soccer, and a good vibe -- nice way to spend a Saturday night.
Stadium folks still do not have an official count, but continue to estimate it was around 21K. Many of the fans in the upper deck were people who moved up there at halftime. If I get an official number this week, I'll pass it along.
Honduras deserved the win, sad to say. Acosta called up 2 exp defender vets who I thought would never play again, due to their age. The defensive vets, and Pena saved the day. This could have very easily been a rout. Midfield was non existent, as expected. The fight never broke out behind La Barra Brava/La Norte. 2 Bolivians were argueing about who knows what, and didnt start the pushing till after their friends braced them to take them away. Weak, but smart. THe atmosphere was pretty good. The problem with standing in the middle of the field is that people want to see the game. When people are situated behind the goal post, no one can really see the game, so no one has any choice but to sing. I loved how things worked out between La Norte and La Barra Brava. I like to look at it like this: La Barra Brava is the big ass radio, La Norte is the battery. Put them together, we got something everyone can hear. I'm definantly looking forward to the day when it's decided that La Norte and La Barra Brava will sit in one section during one half, and in the other section the second. Screaming eagles can make us look pretty on TV while La Barra Brava is with La NOrte during the second half (vice versa).
Had it been against El Salvador, it would have been ugly. [/B][/QUOTE] oh yeah it would have been chaos
This game really had a great atmosphere...better than 95% of the MLS games I've been to. These people knew their futbol and they sounded like it and reacted well to the game. MLS needs to market to the people who already know the game. The Bolivia/Honduras game is a perfect example. I want MLS games to sound like that and look like that. It was great seeing La Barra Brava and La Norte members join together. I was solidly behind Bolivia, but I also have many Honduran friends. Classy yet passionate supporters all the way round. Fun game. Hopefully many of the first time vistors will return some other time to support United's stars from both nations.
Sorry I missed it. La Norte and La Barra started out as one, and we remain UNITED in our belief. Hey Vato, you got my flag?
What flag? I'm a Bolivian/Scots/Gringo now... it's flying at my house. I'll unfurl it this weekend at the tailgate. Yeah I remember when we had those jokers in the Barra.