We just sat down after a full day in the city (pick up this morning in some serious heat on the Nike Fields in the LES, followed by dim sum at Ping’s (22 Mott, on the recommendation of the Singaporean who organizes the aforementioned pickup game–good call), followed by an early beer at Der Schwarze Kolner back here in the neighborhood for a friend’s birthday); just in time to see the New York Red Bulls kick off against Man City in the final game of the Barclays New York Challenge.
(Unfortunately we missed seeing Sporting Clube of Portugal play both Fri night v Man City and in the first half of today’s doubleheader in Harrison v Tottenham–of the Portuguese clubs, we’re partial to SCP, just by fact of having visited their stadium last Oct in Lisbon, and having bought a jersey at said store.)
This being only the 2nd Red Bulls game we’ve watched–after Thursday night’s game v Tottenham, we’re only starting to get familiar with their roster. We should also start getting familar with Man City’s roster, as they’ll no doubt be looking to break into the top tier of the Premier League in this upcoming season
See below for some notes on today’s game and on the rosters of the two teams.
Here comes the last game of the quarterfinals, and having seen the results be somewhat unpredictable so far, I’m going to go with what my wife tells me. She’s picked Holland and Germany already, so let’s see what she says…”I don’t know.” Well I guess we’re S.O.L. for this one.
A matchup of true heavyweights in this morning’s quarterfinal. There’s history between the sides—the 1986 final in Mexico where Maradona’s side put down the West Germans in a 3-2 display of beautiful attacking football comes immediately to mind. Never one to avoid the spotlight, the tournament’s most valuable quotable is stirring the pot before the match:
We’re all over the place today what with the holiday weekend upon us, so let’s just get straight to the point: