WWTBAM Bored

Last night we finally ended the "longest game ever". A completely unofficial and unrecognized title but one that Houston Dynamo fans will remember.

On June 4, the Dynamo were supposed to play a game against DC United at RFK stadium. 5 minutes into that game it started pouring down rain. Normally soccer plays through rain but this continued to the point where the field was completely underwater. So they suspended play to wait it out. Then lightning started striking around the stadium. Which is the the one thing that will definitely stop a soccer match. So after waiting around for a couple of hours they decided to postpone the match to July 22. Houston would already be in DC for the SuperLiga tournament on July 19 so the team would just hang around to play the league match on Tuesday night.

July 22, thunderstorms knock out power in DC including the stadium area. After a couple of hours they decide the power will not get brought back in time for the game so it is postponed one more day.

July 23, the game gets underway again from the beginning. If you have to postpone a soccer game it starts all over again. Houston takes the lead and dominates play. But the announcers say there are big thunderstorms headed for the stadium. During halftime, the thunderstorms arrive. The second half starts with heavy, heavy rain. But they play on. The rain is coming down like it is being poured out of buckets but they play on. Areas of the field start to submerge but they play on. Then about 10 minutes into the second half the lights go out again. The referees stop play and pull the teams to the sideline.

And lightning starts hitting the area around the stadium. And it is still raining heavily. Of course by now we are hearing about this on the radio because the TV signal has been lost. So they decide to wait and see if things will clear up. Or the power will come back. Or if the lightning will stop.

The lights come back on but the field is completely under water.

So for the next three hours we sit in our bar waiting to see if the game will be resumed. Finally at 11:00 pm they restart the game. The are still big areas under water and at the Houston end of the field the ball won't even roll as it gets bogged down in the water. But Houston scores again and we hang on for the 2-0 final in a game that started on June 4 and then lasted 5 hours on July 23.

We were starting to think this game was cursed but now it is over and done with.

LOL! I wonder how many fanatics stayed to the end.

It does remind me of likely the funniest game that I ever played. It was my Freshman year of college. Last game of the year. Within ten minutes of starting the game, a huge thunderstorm hits. The grass field is deluged with rain. Because of the grading, each penalty area had a couple large low spots. There also were low spots in other areas of the field. (I forgot to mention that this was not a lush grass field. There were many bare spots that became mud pits.)

About 30 minutes into the first half, lightening strikes very close by the field, so we take shelter. (Shelter being an equipment shed for our team, and the team van for our oppnents.) After maybe 30 minutes, we got started again. Right before the end of the 1st half, one of our defensive midfielders took a shot from probably 35 yards out. It hydroplaned off of a big puddle near the top of the area (maybe 15-16 yards out), taking a wicked 60 degree skip towards the lower left corner. 1-0, good guys.

The second half was filled with continued rain and couple more breaks for lightening. We had to play a full game because the outcome of the game would change the seeding for the regional playoffs. It was nearly impossible to do anything of consequence with the ball in the second half. Dribbling was slowed to a crawl as the ball got stuck in puddles. Punted balls landed with a huge splash most of the time. If you did get close enough to shoot, somehow, you had better get the ball into the air, because it immediately stopped as soon as it hit the ground. It was a comedy of errors, with players slipping regularly because of the lack of traction when one needed to stop or change directions.

At the end of the game, my team decided that we already were soaked, so we would take running starts and then slide through the penalty areas, like a slip-n-slide.

I later wondered if they had to replace those jerseys with new jerseys for the next year because of the way that we destroyed them during and after that game.

There were about 100 of the DC supporters groups visible on TV when they started back up at almost midnight Eastern time. Several of them were shirtless but wearing orange life jackets which I thought was a nice touch.

I don't know how many fans were on the camera side of the field. That's where most of the fans are normally but I'd be surprised if there were very many left.

I forgot to add that the MLS All-Star game is tonight in Toronto. MLS does their All-Star a little differently. For the last few years they have invited a big team from around to world to play the All-Stars. The MLS All-Stars have won the last 4 times they have done this against Celtic, Chelsea, Fulham, and Guadalajara. This year is West Ham United from London.

The MLS All-Stars include David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, and Juan Pablo Angel. There are two Dynamo as reserves but I don't know if they'll play after the late night last night.

The game is at 7 EDT on ESPN if anyone is interested.

The blog du Nord gave a figure (below) for post-rain attendance, perhaps someone did a head count! I suppose the pre-rain attendance was the night of the 22nd or total paid tickets. My father was watching the MLS Direct Kick TV package and told me there was a very sparse crowd on the 23rd while he was watching, which was before that night's deluge.



http://dunord.blogspot.com/

Week 18
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 22
DC 0-2 Houston - HD goals by Brian Mullan & Brian Ching.
Attendance: 14,660 (before rain), 174 (after rain)
Venue: RFK Stadium, Washington DC

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The MLS All-Stars win again! 3-2 over the Hammers last night.

Dwayne De Rosario, a Toronto area native, scored the game winner on a PK in the 2nd half. He was fouled in the penalty area and was then allowed to take the penalty kick. Remarkable especially since he had played the entire 90 minute game the night before in the Dynamo win over DC. He came on as a sub in the 60th minute last night.

Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire was the MVP. He had an assist on the first goal with a nice back-heel pass and then scored the 2nd goal himself on a swerving shot. He deserved the award.

MLS league play gets back underway on Sunday. Most teams have 13 or 14 league matches left before the playoffs in November. The New England Revolution, the current league leaders, will be especially busy. They are still alive in the U.S. Open Cup and SuperLiga and will soon start play in the CONCACAF Champions' League along with their league matches. Soccer teams typically play one game a week and occasionally two. New England has a minimum of 9 matches between July 30 and September 2 with the possibility of 11 total. And if they are successful in their two game series against Joe Public FC of Trinidad & Tobago in the CCL during that time they will get an additional 6 games in September and October. They are going to be very tired guys by the end of the season. DC United, Houston, and Chivas USA are in a similar situation if not quite as congested as New England.


MLS also made it official yesterday that two more teams will be joining the league by 2011. The potential cities are Atlanta, Las Vegas, Montreal, a second team in the New York area, Ottawa, Portland, St. Louis and Vancouver. That would be in addition to Seattle who is joining in 2009 and Philadelphia in 2010. This is a lot of expansion in a short period of time. On the other hand it is different than expansion in most U.S. sports since there is a much larger pool of players around the world to fill those teams. We'll see how it works out.