Some more stuff - pictures and fan interviews: http://www.examiner.com/x-4801-NY-Soccer-Examiner~y2009m4d6-Sky-Blue-FC-inaugural-day-A-fans-perspective-with-slideshow pasoccerdad, do you plan on being at all of the Sky Blue home game? And what kind of camera are you sporting with such quality photos?
I can't believe they didn't take the baseball netting down. That's just awful. Who plays there anyway?
Thanks for the pics. Where did that screenshot of ESPN2 come from with the girl holding the "Go Abby" sign?? ESPN doesn't carry WPS. Also, there is girl there posing for a pic that looks like Hope Solo. Who is that?
The Somerset Patriots, a minor league team. It is actually a very nice stadium...the crown jewel of the Atlantic League, I believe it is called. I was surprised that they didn't take the net down, but I also don't know how much of a hassle that would have been.
I didn't think it was a sellout, but if you go based on seating I guess it is. They've had bigger crowds for baseball (not many), but maybe that was with added seating. In any event, Sky Blue will be thrilled with the turnout, though they can't get to Rutgers quick enough.
This stadium is known for great support no matter what event is held there. I was not surprised at the great turnout yesterday. This area is rich with footy fans and I can see them having a good turnout next Saturday as well---possibly a sellout. Rutgers is only 10 minutes away and generally has the same amount of seating there. Here is the local paper's coverage of the game. http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090405/SPORTS05/904050330/1126
Sorry, I just threw the pics up with the rest of my shots from the past few years... Posting to my WPS blog and putting up the Pic page now.. the girl is my Daughter and that was from one of the USWNT games we went to - I am a soccer junkie
Has anyone found any video yet? I looked but didn't see any (but could have easily missed it) pasoccerdad, thanks for putting your pics online.
I have been told that Sky Blue is having some technical problems with the video that are holding things up....
The league should've tested all this out before the season started. Having a video or video link to Marta's 2 goals on the front page of the WPS site is exactly what WPS needs to showcase their best player.
I second that real. Also is it just me or do others have trouble navigating their website? Took me forever to find the photos, and the who separate fan corner is a pain. I have like 8 bookmarks for the wps between the home page, the fan corner and the teams. I really wish they had a decent message board too. It's just a very confusing layout...at least to me.
You are absolutely correct. Whoever did the site could've done a much better job. These days you can get some very attractive websites done for not a lot of money. They should have a video section up front to watch highlights of recent games along with the current standings and upcoming comes which aren't even on the home page.
I'd be ecstatic if all teams could actually manage a decent match report. This, for instance, is way below what I would have expected. Not even line ups or anything. It's a bit stupid that you have to check BS threads afterwards to piece together who was actually playing, unless you happened to be sitting with various twitter thingies, Matchtracker (which was appalling) and checking threads during the match to get a rough idea of what was going on.
While I agree with all of you, the league and teams are still in "start-up" mode and certain problems are inevitable. If it wasn't video or web design problems it would be something else. It just takes to to sort everything out and establish a rhythm of consistency in everything. Let's just be thankful the on-field product is solid, the rest will work itself out in time.
To develop my point about the match report: how are people not at the match supposed to know anything about the quality of "on-field product" if there's not much info available?
That is fair, but I personally don't believe in determining the quality of a match by looking at a match report. We all know a nil-nil game can be a thriller. With that said, the basic box score really should be in there, and you are quite correct on that. Hopefully things progress as the season goes on (we can find out in a little over 48 hours for game two!
And yes, that's what the match report (rather than just dull statistics) is for, surely? I see absolutely no contradicition in terms there, so is this a language problem? Because what I want to know about is the match, who was in it, how it progressed... If you look at the Sky Blue match report, you'd think it ended at half time once the goals were scored. How did they shape up in the second half? Who were the most active players? Who was shut down by what defenders? Was there anyone there at all?