Travel/Tickets: USA versus Antigua/Barbuda on some island 10/12/2012

Oye, tropical system headed to AB...even if just some rain and wind...looks like it arrives.. on ...hold it...hold it.... FRIDAY. Bring your rain gear boys.

Coincidence. I was at the USA/AB match in Tampa last summer. Rained the whole time.

Me and three others arrive on that Miami flight Friday around 2:30. Staying at Halcyon.

 

arrived here at at Cocobay Resort last night. Locals are fighting back by putting us in a lesser room than we reserved and paid for. We shall overcome.

 

Props to the crew for making it down there. Great destination for a game and looks to have a decent AO crew. Please send pics and review of pre/post game.

 

Matt you're right next door to me. Interested in sharing a cab home?

 

TimBoston,

I'm at the Jolly Beach, I plan on heading to the B-Hive early, not sure what time you were thinking. I plan on being in the lobby with a jersey on at 2pm, will wait about 15 min. If you're interested.

Mark

 

TIm at Jolly Beach.

My wife and I are at Cocobay, right next door. We have a cab taking us to St. Johns at 3, then on to the game about 5, then taking us home post-game.

You could share that cab with us. I will check back on here about 230.

 

Don a texted you but either way ill see you in town.

 

I didnot get a text.

 

As you may realize many of us USMNT supporters who want to travel to away matches but
can't go loyally read these sections so could one of you be so kind as to wrap up the post-match party and not leave us hanging? Twenty people went to Azteca in August and were never heard from again.

 

Well in short the Antiguans are great people. Very friendly and thrilled to host people, especially as this is the off season so a lot of the taxi drivers and restaurants etc struggle through it. The added boost of a few extra tourists helped a lot of them.

Gameday started at a nice open air bar in the only place resembling a town on the island. It was blowing 20mph by evening and the rains started due to tropical storm Raphael and the place was soaked completely.

The cricket ground is a terrible place to hold a soccer game. You're probably 50 yards from the sideline and I could barely tell who was who. This sounds horrible but the only way I knew it was Eddie Johnson who scored was because he is black. I couldn't see numbers or anything. The stadium itself was quite nice and modern and had delicious chicken and beer. It's seperated into two distinct sections with empty ends on each end zone. Most us fans sat on the north side which was the smaller one. Most of the stands behind us of we're Antiguan fans but we had our own little section. No separation and no need for it. Stadium was probably 70% full. After the game I got totally drenched from the storm waiting for a cab but eventually got home.

Overall a Unique experience and Antiguans are wonderful people but the stadium sucks to watch a game in.

Wrote this on my phone which limits my articulation but if you have any questions feel free.

 

wanna thank everyone for coming down and was a good match. antigua is in the process now of building a football only stadium in the capital. attendance for this game was reported to be 8,000. the antigua vs jamaica game had 10k, probably because antigua has a large jamaican population here. im heading back to ny on tue. but stadium was a nice atmosphere

 

A football only stadium would be a huge plus

 

Gdawg, stadium looked empty, but heard it was sold out weeks before. Was it the weather?

 

Gdawg. Thanks to the Antiguan's for being such a great host. Here's to the growth of A & B football.

 

Looked 75% full from my vantage point. Can't say for sure but weather was likely a factor.

 

Deuce face was awesome by the way.

 

Yeah that was us... We finally made it back to STX alive. Rooting for Panama, thats the easiest game for us to get to from STX for an away match. (actually probably the easiest game to get to period)

 

stadium holds 10,000, attendance was 8,000, but rain was a factor, it rarely rains in antigua like that so it put a big damper on the weekend there. Im sure you guys see the basic infrastructure in antigua, especially conditions of the local fields, so its a huge acomplishment so far to have played usa in antigua.

lol ive never heard a stadium so quiet when johnson scored that 2nd goal in the 90th, i walked out. lol

 

I saw that every football field had people playing on it.

 

We stayed at the Halcyon. Turns out the AB team stayed there too. We drank at the bar post-game and the team and gaffer eventually joined us. They were very cordial and nice to talk to. Gave us some scoop as to what was going on on the field...who was saying what...etc.... They were a little impressed (awed) by playing some top players like Dempsey. Gave kudos to the players. They didn't feel screwed by the result but knew they gave a great effort and had a chance to pull off an upset.

The coach who is English and looked a lot like Jason Kries looked real bummed out...crestfallen..like his chance at glory had passed him by.

it was nice to meet everyone at the Bee-hive pregame.

the locals were nice folks.

not much to do in the constant rain on Saturday, so we had a driver who pretty much showed us the hole stink'n island. Hit every tourist spot. But, at our driver's suggestion, the first stop was a story (Jolly Harbor) to get two bottles of English Harbor Rum, some ginger ale, ice and cups..off went.

He even got us into The Carlisle where the US boys stayed...they had left already, but the place was clearly 4-5 star. Sweet.

Bummed that the weather sucked but it was part of the experience. Looking forward to re-visting Panama City in the Hex. I highly recommend it.

GDawg, thanks for the tips on your island. I think we left nothing but footprints and some empty bottles.

 

no problem I live in NY, but my family is from antigua, im good friends with some of the players so we all hung out friday after the game. right now they are preparing for the caribbean cup so they can qualify for the gold cup. yeah the people in antigua love football but they are not fanatics like in central america.

just remember besides the players that play overseas, the players play in the local league maybe get paid $3000 usd for the season. Some even work regular 9-5 jobs.