Not Letting Go of Soccer

My renewed love of soccer is becoming a tradition with my blogs. Every few months I experience some form of soccer, have a great time, write about how I'm going to become a soccer fan, then never follow through. It began while abroad on my spring break trip to Italy. There my friends and I went to a match between Roma and Lazio, an experience of a lifetime. Upon my return to Ireland I began to seek out matches to watch every time I was near a television, culminating in the Premier League Championship the night before I left for home, another memorable experience.

Once back in the U-S of A my soccer opportunities were limited and I quickly forgot I had ever loved the sport. A chance trip to the fantastic NBC10 10! Show left my friend and I with a bunch of tickets to Philadelphia's only indoor soccer team, the Philadelphia Kixx. It was hokie, it was mildly depressing, there was a hungover penguin...it was epic.

Around that time I learned that Philadelphia was getting a real, er, sorry Kixx....an outdoor team for the next MLS season. I was excited to join the "Sons of Ben" as the fans of this yet to be formed team called themselves. I made plans with myself to go to numerous matches and finally get this soccer obsession that I've had brewing inside of me for so long going.

My soccer fanaticism took a major hit however when I forgot to check out the important things like the schedule and completely missed the start date of the season. Whoops.

Meanwhile my friend Stacey told me that she had gotten an internship with the New York Red Bulls and told me that I should come to a match. My friend Goose, the closest I have to a soccer star friend, eagerly jumped on board and we set out to decide on a game to go to. As I'm terrible with committing we quickly missed the first 2 games and settled on the third, the Red Bulls versus the Philadelphia Union. Perfect.

Goose and I set out for the game on Saturday in her trusty red car. As we got closer to Harrison, NJ (in true New York sports form the Red Bulls actually play in New Jersey) my Cities degree began to kick in. The stadium is new and hopefully will serve as the cornerstone in a waterfront development scheme. I would like to direct the city of Harrison's attention to their sister cities of Camden and Trenton. Good luck with that one, Harrison, I'm sure it will work out great for you!

Harrison's plan does have a few things going for it that Camden and Trenton did not. The Red Bulls are a Major League Soccer team and thus have a wider fan base than the Trenton Thunder or the Camden Riversharks (wtf is a rivershark anyway?). Also, the stadium is all part of a massive bid put out by the US in order to host the World Cup in 2018. Now should this go through then you're damn right they're going to make this waterfront development work...at least until 2018. Otherwise the US better be prepared to introduce the world to the wonders of the Newark metropolitan area.

As Goose and I drove into the city we were met with glorious views of Newark, America's favorite city. We looked at parking directions from the Red Bulls website which instructed us to park anywhere we could. The Red Bulls are trying to promote sustainability (and reduce traffic through the scenic streets of Harrison) by encouraging everyone to take the train to the stadium. They've gone about this by not building any parking lots around the stadium. Instead you park in abandoned lots where local entrepreneurs will eagerly take your cash in exchange for a plot of dirt.

I get it, Red Bulls, if you can't park anywhere then you won't want to drive next time. Have fun explaining that to your world cup guests. You expect to get 25,000 people, almost all who will be staying in New York (Oh, you think they'll be staying in Harrison? hahahahaha...that's funny) to Harrison via the PATH train? It's a nice pipe dream but people are still going to drive. Then they're going to park in these fake parking lots where they will pay AT LEAST $50 for a spot and after they leave their $50 parking spot someone is going to break into their car because remember, it's parked in a lot next to an abandoned warehouse. Although maybe if this plan goes through that abandoned warehouse will have been turned into a million dollar condos by this point.

I digress. I really need to stop going off on side rants in the blogs...

Goose and I parked the car upon arrival to the lot. Literally upon arrival. The guy running the lot took our money as we entered the gate and then said "ehhhh, just stop right there". Oh. Alright then. I began to think about how exiting would be an issue if anyone wanted to leave before us but i decided to let the matter drop. This man was clearly a professional.

We walked out of the parking lot and did one of those "spin in a circle while you try and decide which direction to go" moves. Literally spun in a little circle. Behind us, the lot. To our right, a long stretch of street that ended in Newark. To our left, an overpass with another sketchy little makeshift parking lot. In front, abandoned warehouse with people walking behind it. Alright, let's just head towards people. We walked behind the warehouse to find another yet another makeshift parking lot, however this time we could see a crowd of people ahead of us. It was a walk that felt very much like the Quidditch World Cup, with people selling hats and other stuff while the fans wandered around desperately trying to find the clearest path to the stadium (luckily, very few death eaters). After making a left at the shady fence and walking along the 5 dollar car wash (half price if you get it washed at night) we made it to the crowd of people and walked along the road until suddenly Red Bull Arena (sidenote for that picture: Where on earth did they get that eagle from?) rose up out of a large expanse of what must have been more abandoned warehouses up until very recently.

While the initial sight of the stadium is exciting, it quickly gets aggravating. Right when you see the stadium is right when you meet up with the exiting crowds from the train station. The result in absolute gridlock on the sidewalk while everyone waits to cross the street. Once across the street you're staring at the equivalent of at least one block of abandoned lots to walk by before you reach the stadium. We were more than a bit frustrated by the time we reached the stadium but determined to have a good time.

Once inside the stadium our moods changed. It's really a fantastic building. We took a lap around the concourse and found our friend Stacey working some kind of table before making our way to our seats in the upper deck near the Philadelphia Union fans. Our seats were right behind the goal about four rows up from the edge. Since the upper deck seats jut out almost completely out over the lower deck seats we were actually super close to the action. My favorite part of the stadium is the roof, which covers the stands but leaves an open rectangle in the middle over the field. On a gorgeous sunny day like Saturday the rectangle surrounded the sky like a picture frame. When looking at the sky through such a defined area you can really tell how it changes throughout the day. While I enjoyed the soccer game, I was just as happy watching the sky go from bright blue to grey in a matter of hours.

Our seats were near the Union fans but included a mix of Red Bulls fans as well. I know I had said that I wanted to be a Union fan but I was willing to give the Red Bulls a chance as well. The trials of living directly in between New York and Philadelphia are hard. You are forced to choose a city for loyalty purposes and stick with it. I've gone with Philadelphia for every sport before, mainly out of a hatred of New York sports teams, but soccer provided me with a new plate, a new opportunity to pick a team. I decided to let the teams battle out for my love and would pick a team after the game.

In my other soccer entries I've always talked about how gripping the game was, how it got my adrenaline going. I'm not going to lie, there was none of that. It was a well played game eventually won by the Red Bulls. It surprised me that what I liked about the game wasn't the rush of adrenaline that soccer usually gives me, but how relaxing an afternoon at the park was. Since soccer doesn't have timeouts or any stoppage before halftime or the end of the game everyones attention was on the game for the whole time. People sat down in their seats at the beginning of the game, maybe left at halftime maybe didn't, then stayed until the end of the game. There was no wandering off during the middle of the first half for a few plays, or people who had clearly just come to the game to be seen. People came to see soccer and as anything could happen at any moment people were going to watch the damn game. I liked that. I liked that a lot.

The game ended 2-1 Red Bulls, but I think I'm going to stick with my Philadelphia loyalty. Both teams had fun fans, but the idea of rooting for a New York sports team makes me a little queasy. We stopped by Stacey's table-o-fun or whatever and said goodbye before making our way back to the "parking lot".

After walking by the car wash and turning at the sketchy fence we found that not only had Goose's car NOT been broken into but the parking lot had managed to clear out despite the fact that our car was in the middle of the entrance. Hey, I did say the guy who ran the lot was a professional. We navigated the lot and found that the exit was just an area where the fence surrounding the lot had been removed and after driving over the curb we made it onto the street.

Goose was going to spend the night in Hoboken so she volunteered to drop me off at the Newark train station so I could get back home. While I was thankful for the ride so I wouldn't have to take the PATH with the rest of the fans, I was a little worried about driving into Newark. By the way, Newark, congrats on your first murder free month since 1966! As I tried to figure out where on the mapquest map we were (dammit, Goose, get a GPS!) I ended up directing us the wrong way and into the city center of Harrison...which wasn't nearly as bad as the abandoned warehouses would lead us to believe. It was actually kinda lovely with a woman hanging her laundry out on a line strung between two houses and lots of dog walkers. We couldn't stay, though, we had a date in Newark to get to.

After turning ourselves around we managed to get across the river and into Newark and spotted the train station straight ahead. The problem lay in finding a place to pull over and let me hop out. When a parking lot or pull off failed to materialize we settled for under the railroad bridge while Goose was stopped at a light. Not exactly my favorite place in Newark but it worked. I bid goodbye to Goose, set my sights on the main door of the train station and set forth determined to get there without getting shot or hit by a bus. I succeeded...although I did come disturbingly close to failing at the latter goal.

My first Major League Soccer experience was different than that of European and indoor soccer. It lacked the fireworks and angry guy in a penguin suit antics that those provided, yet it's simplicity proved just as enjoyable. I'm eagerly planning a trip to the new Philadelphia stadium and promise to not give up on my goal of being a soccer fan. I'll just need someone to remind me of this come June.