possible Wizards friendly at Reliant on July 8 This may be old news to you, but it's news to us here in Houston: Soccer Notebook, Houston Chronicle.
Hadn't heard I hadn't heard this but it makes sense. Columbus is coming to Kansas City for a similar event. Chris
If so, then I'm definitly there. Thaty is a Tue., which falls right in the middle of my days off, and my bro lives 20 min. north of Houston. Rock on.
possible Wizards friendly at Reliant on July 8 I was waiting for someone else to make the first move, but I'll definitely join in the carpool of those heading down...
this should be a good game. The wizards and santos have a rivalry of sorts in the champions cup. If not mistaken they faced each other 2 years in a row (last meetings if not mistaken santos beating kc 4-2 in mexico, kc beating santos 2-0 in kansas city) kc eliminated santos and of course we all know what happened next (morelia 7 - wizards 1)
It'll be fun. Last summer, Santos played the Galaxy in Houston at Robertson Stadium in a doubleheader featuring Aguila (ES) and Olimpia (Hon) in the second game. Crowd estimates varied in the 15-20,000 range, but everyone agrees that the atmosphere was great. With the ES and Guatemala nats playing in this doubleheader, this should be an even better atmosphere. And it'll be in a great facility.
Re: possible Wizards friendly at Reliant on July 8 well, depending on flights, I'll probably be flying. Houston is a LOOOOOONG drive.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/1946482 Looks like its on. July 8 is a Tuesday. We play the Friday before and the Saturday after. Reserves game.
I admire how good of fans you are but do you really want to go all the way to Houston for an exhibition, sit with a bunch of Mexicans who are rooting against your team, and watch us lose 4-1 to Santos?
Uh.... That is what we fans do. I made it to both exhibitions in OK, and the USOC game in Milwuakee last year. I am not going to this one though. More likely to go for the USOC game instead.
I hope they get that wrotten pitch fixed. It was horrible for the US v Mex (imho). I wonder if there is an agreement that Santos (and KC) will actually bring there A team or whether that B side that showed up at Arrowhead a few years back pretends to be "$antos" that day. Sure sounds like MLS is looking to expand to Houston. Either way, do you play the more injury proned strikers in Wolff and Simu? It will most likely be REALLY hot and humid, can Preki play 90? If those three don't play it could be ugly if Santos brings the big guns.
The USA/MEX pitch was a temporary. I suspect the grass trays will be ready by the KC game. In fact, they would have to be. I really don't see them going to the expense of putting a temporary pitch for the Guatemala, El Salvador, Santos Laguna, and KC.
"I wonder if there is an agreement that Santos (and KC) will actually bring there A team or whether that B side that showed up at Arrowhead a few years back pretends to be "$antos" that day. " the Santos big guns (that i know of): Borgetti and Ruiz. we all know borgetti from the mexican nt. Ruiz aka "el pony" is a short player (maybe 5-4) but is one of those classic type players of the old days that everytime he gets the ball he is extremely dangerous, specially if given space to go forward. He is very fast and will beat the defender and send one of his dangerous crosses. He has the best crosses in mexico and he is responsible for most of borgettis goals which come from either a cross from Ruiz or a pass (that is why borgetti is so good at headers he gets a lot of practice) they are the karl malone and john stockton of mexico.
There's a good chance that most of the crowd will be rooting against Santos. At the Galaxy x Santos and Aguila (ES) x Olimpia (Hon) doubleheader in Houston last year, most of the crowd consisted of Central Americans (mostly Salvadorans, but also a fair amount of Hondurans and a vocal contingent of Guatemalans who came out to see Ruiz (who wasn't there)). They rooted against Santos because they're a Mexican club and cheered on the Galaxy because they're not a Mexican club. The two largest fan groups for this doubleheader will be Salvadorans and Guatemalans and they'll again root against the Mexican club. The Wizards should have the crowd, especially with the way they're playing entertaining soccer. Reliant has a retractable roof and a/c. In last year's event, Santos played most of their starters for about the first 60 minutes. Pony was definitely there, but I just don't recall if Borgetti played. One or two guys may have been missing, but it wasn't a reserve team. In fact, the Galaxy played more backups. Santos is done with their season and should have all their players available and won't need to rest anyone for league games. ... Btw, if you're in the area for the holiday weekend: Nigeria will play Ecuador at Robertson Stadium at UH on July 5. The promoters expect the place to be a "mini-Nigeria." But, sorry, no roof or a/c at Robertson.
Interesting thought. There was talk a few months ago about heading to Denver to catch the July 4th game. Is anyone still up for that? That will definitely change me going to Houston. (Although I'd love to go to both, the money just isn't there.) Denver is a much closer drive, and I know my way around the stadium. It's about 7-10 hours, and we can easily drown out the River Ratz section. Even with the minimal road cauldron we took to Tulsa...
I probably won't be going to either the July 4th game or Houston now, I've had a death in the family, and have used up most of my personal hours. Plus, considering my line of work, it's next to impossible to get off for a holiday weekend.
More: Doubleheader to bring fans, flavor to city, Glenn Davis, Houston Chronicle. Also: You can listen to the show online at www.kpft.org.
I hope your right but I’ll believe it when I see it. All I know is when the wizards play at home against them they don’t have the crowd supporting them.
I suppose it's always possible that I'm overestimating Central American antipathy towards Mexican clubs, but the mostly Central American crowd last year gladly rooted against Santos. The Galaxy were just the incidental beneficiaries of that predisposition. That's all I'd expect here this year for the Wizards. If this were a stand-alone Wizards v Santos game, then most of the crowd would be Mexican fans who come to root for Santos. But the dynamic changes when you add in all the Salvadorans and Guatemalans. If the Wizards put on a good show, then they should find the mostly Central American crowd pretty receptive.
Davey Arnaud - "The Pride of Port Arthur" I thought I'd just add this here instead of starting a new thread: Glenn Davis column featuring Davey Arnaud in the Houston Chronicle: Pride of Port Arthur set for return at Reliant.
Gansler, Preki, and Quill on the radio (available on-line) on Sunday, 7/6, at 5 pm central: Listen at www.kpft.org. Area starting to produce lots of pros (i.e., Quill, Arnaud, among others).