The Houston Chronicle has started some pretty good pre-game coverage of la revancha en la cancha. They have a special pull-out section in today's paper (5/4) with articles in both English and Spanish (mostly translations so far) and will probably have more as the week progresses. It's probably worth checking all week. Here's the section on-line - both the John Lopez pieces and the Glenn Davis column are great reads: Houston Chronicle Soccer Section Lopez: Mexican soccer fans are truly authentic: Lopez: U.S. vs. Mexico may be Houston's biggest fiesta: Davis: For U.S. and Mexico, it's 'game on':
Weather forecast Game time temp should be about 80 with 60-70 percent humidity. Very Japorea like. At this point no rain is predicted, although the players would probably prefer it since it's going to be saunaish out there.
I know, I just read them and I am not going ot be able to sleep tonight. I might have to bust out the video of the 2-0 thrashing last summer in Korea ah, 3 more days!!!
I just refuse to read John Lopez article after this quote. quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox fans ever turned to soccer, they probably would pull for Mexico. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excitement is building Thanks for the article links, I'm getting pumped also. I keep getting the urge to grab a flight down to Houston to be part of the excitement, but then quickly stop myself. It is better use of my limited funds to save up for the qualifiers, expecially against Mexico here and there.
Re: Weather forecast Saunaish: Roof Open Not so saunaish: Roof Closed I've only ever been to Reliant for one night game and they had the roof closed that time. It would definitely be more comfortable for most people to have the roof closed and run the a/c. In fact, if they closed the roof early enough and ran the a/c long enough, we could emulate conditions from La Guerra Fria in Columbus. But even if they open the roof for the game, I suspect they may do it like it's often done at Minute Maid Park for Astros night games - run the a/c with the roof closed all day before game time, then open the roof at the start of the game (stays fairly cool for quite a while), then crank the a/c on again from time to time during the game as it starts to get saunish again. It still gets a little more hot and humid than some people would prefer during the game, but you get the open roof and it's cool enough for most people. ... Btw, Brian McTaggart has a new article up today at the Chron's site: U.S. making inroads on world soccer stage. Major props to the Chron - so far, we've seen pieces from Glenn Davis (regular soccer columnist), John Lopez (one of the paper's four main featured columnists; he also wrote some great soccer pieces during the WC last summer that you can still access if you click on his name on the main sports page), and Brian McTaggart (now regular college sports columnist, but formerly the regular soccer columnist).
Not to mention the fact that there has already been much discussions on the typically no-soccer sports radio stations around here. From what I have heard of the discussion on the radio stations, a lot of people (many of the hosts of the shows included) are very interested in the match and are going. This should be fun.
I was thrilled to see all the coverage on Sunday. I actually had some guy at the park ask me if I was going to the game (I was wearing my South Africa team jersey, but he recognized that I was a soccer fan). I just hope there's enough Yanks there to be heard over the El Tri fans.
one more interesting piece... This article is in the Chron's Local & State section, not the sports section, so I didn't spot it earlier. I wasn't sure which forum to post, but it's written against the backdrop of the upcoming US x Mexico game and includes a lot quotes from immigrant kids about that game so I thought here would be fine. The article includes, among other things, some interesting info about American football being dropped and soccer taking over, the changing multinational demographics of the area, and views about why immigrant kids may support one nat'l team over another. Just for context - the Lee H.S. featured in the article is indeed Robert E. Lee High School, an obviously very old public school (in Houston ISD) in what is now an obviously very diverse area of urban Houston. NO FOOTBALL, JUST FUTBOL - Multinational Lee High scores with soccer team
I'll be down in Houston for the game to initiate my younger brother on US v Mexico encounters. He insists they cannot possibly be as "colorful" as I have made them out to be. He lives in the Houston area and is not much of a soccer fan, but says you just can't escape the talk going on down there about this game. Should be fun.
Tuesday's Chron articles are interesting: Pic from training on Mon at the Rice Track & Soccer Stadium: John Lopez has some very harsh words comparing Arena to Sampson: U.S. in good hands with Arena David Barron (the fourth Chron sports writer on this game so far) has run-down of the field and stadium for the game: Reliant puts best foot forward for soccer
Lopez is a dummy Since that day, the Mexican national team has installed a new coach in Spaniard Ricardo La Volpe. It has added a number of younger, more athletic players and vowed to change its style to a more attacking brand of soccer. ¿!Spaniard?! All it takes is following a little bit of what was going to know that Lavolpe is from Argentina. Just a little fact-checking Lopez, geez! At least make it seem like you didn´t get on the soccer bandwagon so you could a free trip to France and Japan-Korea..
This is the only thing I have found regarding English news stations, dont know about the Spanish ones. http://www.khou.com/news/local/khou030505_ds_SoccerAnticipation.26b42294.html Anyone know where that soccer centre is? I have never heard of it. I'd like to stop by there and check it out. Oh never mind, I found their web site. If you want to check it out, http://www.soccercentre.net/
Davis and Balboa call-in 5/7 Glenn Davis and Marcelo Balboa will apparently be on KPFT 90.1 FM tomorrow (Weds 5/7) from 12 noon to 1 pm to talk about the game and take callers. According to the station's site, the call in number is 713-526-5738. They also stream their audio live over the web. (Yes, Houston actually has a Pacifica station - go figure. )
They are well written stories - pump you up. Thanks for the links. (Now, I just hope my home town newspaper, Columbus Dispatch/Disgrace does the justice for Columbus Crew.)
The Chron is just outta control - they've used five different sports writers on this game. Soccer fans urged to come early - Duarte: Soccer dean Stewart back on U.S. soil - McTaggart: Future of sport has legs to stand on - Lopez:
Great stuff. I love Donovan and Beasley but I still don't think of them as "superstars". But if that's what people are going to call them, so be it. Houston's really donig a great job with the publicity, etc. I wonder if all this extra coverage is selling extra papers...
Probably. I seem to recall reading that the edition of the Washington Post with last year's 2-0 victory (like you have to ask over who) sold the most copies last year. Sachin