Massive props to San Jose fans!

Good crowd, bad field. I guess it's a trade-off.

 

I was also impressed with the crowd, but more importantly with the team. The boys tore it up today, giving China more than they could handle. We could have easily added another 2 goals. I'm excited to see what's to come in the June and July.

 

Uhhh perhaps I missed something. I streamed the game through Galavision and heard birds chirping throughout the game. I didn't think the crowd was that great at all, at least nothing more than the past friendlies.

 

Numbers - excellent

Noise - not so much

 

Spartan Stadium never sounds particularly loud on TV. Perhaps it is the extremely small broadcast booth where the TV guys sit, I don't know. But I do know that if you are there in person, then see a replay of the same game on TV, you will notice the difference. The bottom bowl of the stadium was mostly full, so I know it was pretty loud...it always is.

That may be one of, if not the last, times that a soccer game will be broadcast from Spartan Stadium, at least a game involving a US team of any kind. Should the Quakes return in 2008, as was mentioned during the game, they will not be playing there. If they return, there will be a new stadium within a year or two, so any future USMNT games would probably be played at the new stadium (or other Bay Area venue...just not Spartan).

 

I'd agree that games at Spartan Stadium don't sound as loud on TV as in person ... at least from watching them live (in the sad, sad 'Quakes past) and seeing the game later on TV (tivo/direct kick). So what was the attendance? I guessed 22K ... saw that upstairs west was open, but only a few people up there. Not bad for a training game ...

 

I was there and was shocked by the attendance. How often does the USA get 20,000+ for

- our B team;
- playing a meaningless friendly;
- against an uninteresting opponent;
- in a game that wasn't even well publicized;
- with essentially NO ONE there to support the opponent?!?!

No it wasn't particularly loud but not that quiet either. Lot's of people seemed to get there early. The parking lots were full of people kicking balls around, drinking, etc. hours before the game. (The parking lots are most grass there.)

I was really impressed.

 

I have to say that was a great crowd in Spartan Stadium for this US Friendly and once again it's jerks and arses like the San Jose State people that will always try to find ways to make soccer fans feel like they are not wanted or this sport shouldn't be allowed to make great progress.

I hope San Jose will get the Quakes back qucikly and that new stadium gets built near the airport from the past posts in the MLS forums that I read.

 

Announced attendance was 20,182 I believe, and it was the second best attended USMNT match in San Jose. Sam's Army was in full force and took up most of the south end. Parking and getting to the game was hell, but it was well worth it in the end.

 

If MLS isnt in San Jose by 2008......

 

i was sitting with Sam's Army and i thought the entire crowd was good. it was bittersweet knowing that i was able to sit/stand in my old seat at Spartan and not be able to do it again two Saturdays from now. Still i feel we got MUCH more people then the rest of the country thought we could get, but everyone in the bay area knew we could get a good showing. Maybe if we could get a small European team to scrimmage in Spartan during the summer, and maybe a u-21, u-19 friendly in the near future so the fans in San Jose are not completely deprived from a sport we all share an immense passion for. It was a great game and hopefully next June i can the same thing about a SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES GAME!!

 

Yes! Comparing this game to the previous one against China at the Oakland Coliseum speaks volumes of how far soccer has come in the US in six or seven years.

There were perhaps 4,000 in attendance then, and most of them were there to cheer China. As the whistle blew to start play, the Chinese supporters undraped banners from the rails of the second deck, all laid out in large red Chinese characters. It was slightly freaky, the way the atmosphere suddenly changed to a place seemingly in support of China.

I remember leaving the stadium, we walked in between two crowds of Chinese fans yelling and shouting at each other. One was PRC friendly, the other Taiwan-friendly.

It's amazing how different it was at Spartan, with most of the crowd pro-USA, and with none of the banners supporting China.

Having said that, as a 10 year Quakes season ticket holder, I was not surprised to see how poorly Spartan was prepared to handle a large crowd. Anytime the Quakes pulled a crowd in the high teens, the poor infrastructure of Spartan showed itself.

On to a new stadium!

 

The fact that we were playing China in an area near the bay area helped solidify the crowd, without any of your above items coming into play.

 

Nothing.

 

It was a large crowd. Not particularly vocal though (compared to other US games I've been to in the Midwest). This was our first visit to Spartan Stadium. Not a whole lot of Chinese supporters.

 

except for I don't remember seeing any Chinese fans/supporters except for three people who were moving around he stadium to get their flag on TV.
the large Chinese population had no real impact on the numbers from what I could tell (I was at the game).

 

Not true. I literally saw zero Chinese supporters at the game. None.

 

There was a group of 4-5 Chinese supporters behind us in section N2. They arrived at their seats literally seconds before China scored their only goal. I also noticed cheers from people scattered around the stadium after that goal. There weren't very many Chinese supporters but they were there.

 

yup, if i had to guess, i would say MAYBE 500 Chinese people came to support China. Had the game been marketed better to the Bay Area Chinese community, i could see 26,000- 28,000 people at Spartan. Oh well, 20,000 was good enough to show we care.

 

Glad to see a good turnout and the nice crowd. And, honestly, while narrow, I think the stadium has character and makes it interesting and entertaining. That said, what was San Jose averaging when they dropped out of MLS? Is there a reason to give a community that couldn't swing it once before a second chance ahead of other communities that haven't even been given one shot yet? If they get a stadium signed, sealed and delivered I can see why they'd go to the top of the line, but just "We're San Jose" seems like a pretty lame reason to give them a team again over several other candidates.

 

We're San Jose.

 

You can probably find the stats on the MLS website, but we were officially middle of the pack. However, when you net out big national team and Euro club team doubleheaders at other stadiums and also if you add in the fact that SJ appeared to be one of the few stadiums where official attendance #s weren't padded and the fact that the stadium location and access are so poor we were actually very solid.