Soccer Thread

[KenFSU]

Kind of a weird lack of buzz for tonight's game, no?

[Adam White]

Kind of a weird lack of buzz for tonight's game, no?

What game is that?

[pierre]

Kind of a weird lack of buzz for tonight's game, no?

I was pretty impressed by the last two USMNT games in Jax (v. Scotland in 2012 and v. Nigeria in 2014).

The three biggest differences I can think of with this one.

The last two were in May and June. This one coincides with the start of football season, so it has gotten lost in the shuffle.

This is against a much less notable opponent. While more meaningful, I don't think the opponent does much to excite casual fans.

It's on a Tuesday. The other two were on Saturday nights. The Scotland game being the Saturday of a holiday weekend.

[TimmyB]

Kind of a weird lack of buzz for tonight's game, no?

What game is that?

I don't know if you MEANT this to be as funny as it was!!! 

Switching gears, what's the buzz over there regarding Rashford and Rooney?  How the **** can Big Sam NOT have Rashford on his team and at the same time, basically guarantee Rooney a place in the XI???  It's insanity, to me.

[Adam White]

Kind of a weird lack of buzz for tonight's game, no?

What game is that?

I don't know if you MEANT this to be as funny as it was!!! 

Switching gears, what's the buzz over there regarding Rashford and Rooney?  How the **** can Big Sam NOT have Rashford on his team and at the same time, basically guarantee Rooney a place in the XI???  It's insanity, to me.

Unintentional, I swear! I ended up Googling it - I had no idea there was a match in Jacksonville today. I think it's great that the powers-that-be really seem intent on staging games in Jax. And World Cup qualifiers are always fun.

TBH, I haven't heard too much about the England team. I've seen a couple of articles questioning a) why Rooney started and b) why Rooney didn't retire after the Euros. I watched about half of the Slovakia match and was really disappointed. If anything, I thought they looked worse than they did under Hodgson, though it was only one match and he had plenty of bad results, too. But it seemed like they'd not manage anything and only really started to look a lot better once Slovakia were down to 10 men.

I agree about Rashford.

[Todd_Parker]

Kind of a weird lack of buzz for tonight's game, no?

I was pretty impressed by the last two USMNT games in Jax (v. Scotland in 2012 and v. Nigeria in 2014).

The three biggest differences I can think of with this one.

The last two were in May and June. This one coincides with the start of football season, so it has gotten lost in the shuffle.

This is against a much less notable opponent. While more meaningful, I don't think the opponent does much to excite casual fans.

It's on a Tuesday. The other two were on Saturday nights. The Scotland game being the Saturday of a holiday weekend.

Watching the broadcast of the match. While I'm sure those new club seat areas are nice, when people aren't sitting in the seats, it sure makes it seem like there is a sparse crowd.

[TimmyB]

Kind of a weird lack of buzz for tonight's game, no?

I was pretty impressed by the last two USMNT games in Jax (v. Scotland in 2012 and v. Nigeria in 2014).

The three biggest differences I can think of with this one.

The last two were in May and June. This one coincides with the start of football season, so it has gotten lost in the shuffle.

This is against a much less notable opponent. While more meaningful, I don't think the opponent does much to excite casual fans.

It's on a Tuesday. The other two were on Saturday nights. The Scotland game being the Saturday of a holiday weekend.

Watching the broadcast of the match. While I'm sure those new club seat areas are nice, when people aren't sitting in the seats, it sure makes it seem like there is a sparse crowd.

A problem in ANY sport.  When the venue is far too big, it makes it far less attractive and far less exciting.  20,000-ish was the announced crowd, and if that were in a stadium built for soccer which housed 30,000, it would have been rocking.  In that place, it could have been very bad.  Credit to the USA fans, though; they cheered loudly throughout and if you couldn't see the empty seats on the screen, you wouldn't have guessed that was the case.

[jaxjaguar]

In all fairness we got spoiled with our previous opponents. If we were playing a more high profile team than TNT we would have had a larger crowd.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Watching the broadcast of the match. While I'm sure those new club seat areas are nice, when people aren't sitting in the seats, it sure makes it seem like there is a sparse crowd.

And that was pretty much the impetus on getting the club section remodeled.  During Jag games, I'd say anywhere from 40-60% of all of the club fans are wither in the inside bar or on the way to or from the bar which made it look worse than it was when the cameras would pan across midfield.

The solution was to bring the bar crowd back outside. 

I can't wait to see it on TV this Sunday, but during the preseason, it looked like somewhere people will hang out.

[Todd_Parker]

In all fairness we got spoiled with our previous opponents. If we were playing a more high profile team than TNT we would have had a larger crowd.

True, but the other matches were international friendlies/warmups. I believe this was the first match with actual tournament implications. Will be curious to see how attendance will affect attempts to host future games.

[TimmyB]

In all fairness we got spoiled with our previous opponents. If we were playing a more high profile team than TNT we would have had a larger crowd.

True, but the other matches were international friendlies/warmups. I believe this was the first match with actual tournament implications. Will be curious to see how attendance will affect attempts to host future games.

It had implications, but they were very limited.  There was about .0000001% chance of the USA not qualifying.  The only question was 1st or 2nd in the group.  I hope that Jax is not punished due to this, especially when ALL factors are considered.  It was a virtually meaningless game, on a Tuesday night, with school in session the next day, during the fall when the college football season had already begun.  I think 20K is a reasonable crowd to expect, given those.

[Adam White]

In all fairness we got spoiled with our previous opponents. If we were playing a more high profile team than TNT we would have had a larger crowd.

True, but the other matches were international friendlies/warmups. I believe this was the first match with actual tournament implications. Will be curious to see how attendance will affect attempts to host future games.

It had implications, but they were very limited.  There was about .0000001% chance of the USA not qualifying.  The only question was 1st or 2nd in the group.  I hope that Jax is not punished due to this, especially when ALL factors are considered.  It was a virtually meaningless game, on a Tuesday night, with school in session the next day, during the fall when the college football season had already begun.  I think 20K is a reasonable crowd to expect, given those.

20k people showed up in Jacksonville to watch the USA play Trinidad? If so, that's pretty great.

[Tacachale]

http://www.ussoccer.com/mens-national-team/tournaments/2018-fifa-world-cup-qualifying-semifinal-round/160906-mnt-v-tri#tab-1

Looks like the official attendance was 19,410. Not bad for a Tuesday night against Trinidad and Tobago. Especially given the attendance problems/ticket price issue USMNT has had all summer.

[Adam White]

http://www.ussoccer.com/mens-national-team/tournaments/2018-fifa-world-cup-qualifying-semifinal-round/160906-mnt-v-tri#tab-1

Looks like the official attendance was 19,410. Not bad for a Tuesday night against Trinidad and Tobago. Especially given the attendance problems/ticket price issue USMNT has had all summer.

I agree - not too shabby at all.

[TimmyB]

Wow, West Ham fans in trouble, again.  Who'd a thunk it, eh Adam?

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/37332919