Interesting things are afoot here in New York City. After nearly two decades of minor relevance, it seems that soccer culture in America has reached a bit of pre-adolescence. Nothing is more evident of this than the popularity of the International Champions Cup. The competition, which is only 2 years old, is designed to act as a preseason for popular European clubs. This group of friendlies features clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan, AS Roma, and Olympiakos. On Thursday night, Yankee Stadium became the site of a spectacle that doesn’t happen often on this side of the Atlantic Ocean; it became a soccer stadium filled to the brim to witness two English Premier League rivals square off in what was supposed to be a “friendly” match.
Let’s first state the obvious. This match was anything but friendly. EPL Champions Manchester City took to the pitch to face Liverpool in front of 49,635 rabid soccer fans. By the way, that is the biggest crowd Yankee Stadium has seen in 2014, with the Yankees drawing 48,000 as their largest crowd this season. If you need more proof that people were genuinely excited for this match, Photographer Bill Twomey and I set out to beat the traffic that sometimes collects around the maze of intersecting highways in the Bronx, arriving at the House that Replaced the One that Ruth Built almost 4 hours prior to kick off. Both of us have already cut our teeth as soccer nerds, spending 17 days across the Hudson as Red Bulls season ticket holders. We were compelled to this specific match to see, with a bit of morbid curiosity, where insta-rival NYCFC will ply their trade and sell their wares starting in spring of 2015.
As we wandered the streets outside of Yankee Stadium, we both noticed that instead of Manchester City sky blue, there was distinctly a red colored presence about the streets. We saw a vast number of Liverpool supporters gathering around the stadium; red outnumbered blue by about 5 to 1 and doors had not even opened yet.
We wandered into the New York Yankees team store, with a sole curiosity. Considering that one co-owner of NYCFC was playing in the match, and the other partner was hosting the match we were about to see, one would think that there would be even a sliver of Yankees pinstriped space in this branded store set aside for the subway token logo of NY City FC. Much to my surprise, there was no sky blue merchandise to be found. When I pressed a clerk about NYCFC merch, he uncomfortably stated that he didn’t know if there EVER is a plan to put merch in this location, and there is a giant merch booth inside the stadium once the doors opened.
Once Bill and I entered the stadium, we were greeted at the VIP/Press entrance with NYCFC swag that was being handed out in the luxury boxes – a fairly high quality tumbler, and a snap back hat. But that was really it. There was a booth, however, behind the right field bleachers. And the occasional mention of season tickets being on sale by the public address announcer.
Past that, it was all about the EPL rivalry.
The stadium had a distinctly Anfield bend to it. Never mind that the infield was covered a little shoddily by something that looked like it could have been grass at one point. Forget the fact that the giant Yankees presence was ubiquitous throughout the stadium. People were here to enjoy some magical soccer on a beautiful summer’s eve in New York City. The ceremonial coin flip was performed by NYCFC striker David Villa and manager Jason Kreis was also on hand with the City crew, clearly learning about their program. He even was rocking a MCFC polo.
City largely dominated the first half of the match, holding the ball 56% of the time, and Liverpool living and dying on the counter. Even with the strong starting XI, that include Lambert, Gerrard, and Sturridge, it seemed that the Blue team was the dominant side. The Reds were very lucky to get out of the first half scoreless.
Throughout the first half the atmosphere stayed solid, and for a smaller group, the City supporters were loud enough to be heard, although the Reds supporters sang songs that most of them only heard on television from a broadcast based half a world away.
Recently there has been a great deal of talk about how MLS 3.0 will have to take advantage of these supporters if we are to draw people to our game and make the MLS experience as well-known as the EPL’s. I disagree. Regardless of how electric the air at Yankee Stadium was, MLS will need to find its own way into the hearts of sports fans in America and that will have to be to appeal to the passion shown here. American fans are drawn to quality, and unfortunately, MLS has this stigma of being of lesser quality. As we sat in the press box, myself and two gentlemen and a lady from other publications got to talking about how important NYCFC will be to bringing EPL supporters to MLS, and whether that model is correct.
Here’s the trick. Arsenal sent their B- team to face Thierry Henry’s Red Bulls in a friendly just a few days prior to this match, and the match sold out with mostly Gunners filling the arena to watch the club they support play in the US for the first time in 25 years. It was a nice affair, but what puzzles me about it is why these same fans can’t be bothered to come out to Red Bull Arena to see their all time leading scorer play in games that actually mean something. Apparently, this also puzzled Henry as well, as he made snarky comments about it in post-game.
So here we are, back to our beautiful game on a beautiful evening in the Bronx.
The second half was played at a much higher pace featuring 4 goals, two by each side, and players like Henderson and Sturrdige for Liverpool, and Jovectic and keeper Joe Hart lighting up the night sky with their brilliance. And as if the magic was not yet destined to end, the match went to penalties, with Mingolet making a gorgeous save, and Liverpool converting all but one of their pk’s to earn a victory in what was the most unfriendly matches of this “competition. ”
The magic was destined to continue, and as Bill and I left the stadium, off in the distance, we saw a parade of Liverpool supporters marching to the sound of song. Anfield alive, indeed.
Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
