Not sure where everybody went after the game but most certainly didn't go the post-match party. Your loss, because while you guys were off elsewhere, I was drinking beer with John Harkes who did show up for the party
FWIW, the Sam's Army / U.S. Supporters' section both looked and sounded great on TV. Kudos to all! The Magpie
Big thanks to Jarrett for all your effort and organization. Now i'm really sorry i missed the afterparty. Anyways i had a terrific time with Sams Army last night. While they're in Cary will there be any open practices for the public to watch or do we know that yet?
Great pictures guys. Special thanks for all the supporters section photos. Where did the "Show All" button go on the website? (I'm lazy). BTW, I hate the new watermark!
Problems with our ISP made the show all feature problematic So do I. Unfortunately, it's the actions of a few people that punish everyone. Anyone that scopes out images at other agencies like ISI, Getty, WireImage, Icon, Empics, etc... will notice that the amount of watermarking has gone up greatly over just the last six months. The amount of image theft and abuse is out of control. The fact that we're now watermarking the small thumbnails is a sad statement on the current state of the internet. Frankly, if the current watermarks don't cut out most of the abuse, we'll probably have to stop offering public websets.
Ya'll made my trip to the Triangle great. Thanks. Meeting Harkes didn't suck either. Nice guy. As are you all. Bill PS. I still have 36 ice cold Red Stripes. Guess I'm going back to the Island!
Just got back to Ohio from the trip...well worth it and SAS Soccer Park is outstanding. Would like to see SAS get more US games; especially the small qualifiers against CONCACAF minnows.
Agreed. Great facility. The right size for when play the minor qualifiers...if there's such a thing. They do need to work on the traffic, parking, and ticket gates. Cops need to be working the intersections along Maynard and Chatham. The lights were poorly timed. The parking attendants need to tidy up the lines a bit. There was one time where they were sending cars all the way to the end with nowhere to go. People were getting jammed up having to turn around. And you need to open more than two ticket gates. The lines outside were too long for a such a modest number of people.
The good news is that now that there is finally a professional team in place at SAS, the event staff will be doing this on a regular basis and not just one off events. This will allow them to learn some of the shortcomings that you pointed out. Practice makes perfect, right? The rumor is that the Town of Cary is going to cut a new road into the park from the south side (connecting to Cary Towne Blvd.) and that will be HUGE for traffic relief because you'll be able to roll off of I-40 and straight into the back gate. Of course, you could do what I did and arrive at 11am. I had no traffic problems at all
After the game my 8 year old son and I waited outside the locker room area and he was able to snag at least 11 US autographs. Most of the players (Jamaican and American) took time out for the kids with photos and autographs. Overall a great trip. Great park to watch soccer. The hotel you guys recommended was nice and within walking distance of the park. Those Cary streets get very quite around 11:00. Thanks again for all the trip support from the Tri Soccer Fan's!
The traffic situation was shameful, and the way it was handled was bush league. Going into the stadium there was one (1) lane of traffic and zero (0) policemen directing it. 8000 fans should not have caused such a jam. I ended up parking on somebody's lot half a mile away and running to the stadium, and even with that missed the first 15 minutes. The traffic/parking in this facility is totally inadequate, and for a new facility built in this kind of location where there's plenty of room, that's absolutely inexcusable.
Agreed and at least for people like me w/ gen. admin. tickets that left us standing at one end of the field I didn't feel like I was at a nat. team match. The place lacked atmosphere which I think was the facility's fault rather than the fans.
I just don't get comments like this. I thought the atmosphere was fantastic. I'm curious what you are comparing it to.
Maybe because the stadium is "low-slung" in relation to the pitch, or the fact that there are "only" 8-10K at the game some folks might feel like there was a lack of atmosphere. I didn't get that feeling, but oh well. Some folks might not feel comfortable tailgating, drinking, chanting, or singing with so many kids and families around. That's a blessing and curse of SAS and the triangle. I thought it was a great night, and the 9 folks (6 had never been to a USMNT game) who came with me had a blast. We knew that the traffic would be bad, so we got there about 3:30 PM started eating and drinking, and then continued the tailgate for about1 hour after the game to avoid the traffic. I hope the team has an open scrimmage like they did in 2002. And bring more games back to Cary.
I also think because those watching on TV couldn't hear us. The crowd was mic'd very poorly I thought when I watched the game later on TV. There were times I know we were singing in full voice and you couldn't hear a thing but the whistles on TV.
The Cary News has put together a pretty nice audio/video slideshow from the game over at http://accessnode.net/andy/us_soccer/
Actually, Sam's Army was well miked. I'm guessing the crowd mic was turned off. As I shot the game from directly in front of Sam's Army, I will attest to the fact that there were a few drunks leaning over the railing basically cussing at the top of their voices the entire second half. "F--- Jamaica" isn't the least bit original or appropriate once, but after about 30 minutes it really gets annoying.
The guys on the rail were pretty annoying, agreed. We couldn't get them reigned in to work with the "Army proper" all night.
Not if they were truly picking up audibly obscene chants. When I re-watched the game, I don't recall hearing any obscene chants so I'm skeptical that this is why the levels were down or off on that crowd mic.
Does anyone have any other pictures of this crazy guy? http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2006b/0411_usa_jam_sab/web_099_sab.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2006b/0411_usa_jam_ajm/web_020_ajm.jpg