Thoughts From the Manchester City/Chelsea Game

This will most likely be in The Journal-News in Center & Guard form. It's just some thoughts from last Thursday's Manchester City/Chelsea friendly at Busch Stadium. As a bonus, here are ten important tidbits that didn't make it into the column

1. Flying Saucer is apparently the family friendliest bar this side of Chuckie Cheese. 
2. Alexi Lalas and Taylor Twellman begged to have their picture taken with me. 
3. Man City goalie Joe Hart and I could be brothers. Or at least third cousins.
4. The name "Man City" makes me giggle.
5. The guy sitting in front of us was like a combination of Joe Pesci and the cast of Jersey Shore, with about as much soccer knowledge. I do admire his enthusiasm though as he almost wet himself after the game winning goal.
6. Nothing makes you look tougher than whipping your scarf around your neck before you confront the guy that just backed into your Mercedes.
7. It would be ironic if Chelsea keeper Jamal Blackman was white. He's not and I don't know what the antonym of ironic is.
8. I highly recommend the chicken stir fry at Busch Stadium. Chop sticks, not so much.
9. I applaud St. Louis fans on not wearing Cardinal jerseys to a soccer game. I only one the entire day and that was at the bar before the game, not in the stadium.
10. I'm fluent in Bosnian. And by fluent, I mean I can say "glass", "fork", "knife" and "what's up".

Center & Guard: (Something Moderately Clever That I Will Hopefully Come Up With By Monday)

I had more than my share of guilt on Thursday night as I entered Busch Stadium. After all, I am a bit of a soccer novice and here I was at arguably the biggest soccer event to hit St. Louis in a long time, one that sold out in less than 20 minutes. More than 48,000 people, the biggest crowd to ever see a sporting event at the new Busch, flooded the stands for a friendly (exhibition) between Chelsea and Manchester City of England’s Premier League, a unique opportunity for midwest soccer fans to see some of the world’s best in action.

I know a little bit about soccer. I watch the US Men’s National Team when I can and followed the last World Cup with a fervor that I usually reserve for the Major League Baseball postseason, but for the most part, my knowledge of sport is far from complete. Going into the game, I knew a little bit about both of the teams, but couldn’t name anyone on the roster with 100 percent certainty. I fully expected that the majority of the crowd would be in the same boat I was. I was certain that the stereotypical ‘Murica nature would come shining through at the game, complete with “USA” chants, schmucks wearing baseball jerseys at a soccer game, and possibly even an appearance by the dreaded wave, the scourge of sporting events across the nation.

What I found on Thursday was very little of that. I’m not going to say that it wasn’t there, but it was definitely not as prevalent as I expected. For the most part, the crowd seemed both fairly knowledgeable about not only the sport, but the teams on the field, and overwhelmingly passionate. Fans decked out in blue jerseys, whether they be royal (Chelsea) or sky (Manchester City), congregated in clusters both inside and outside the stadium, singing songs and chants that both lauded the accomplishments of their chosen team and disparaged their opponents. Conversations centered throughout the stadium not only centered around the play on the field, but also what was going on with the sport across the world. It was the same kind of knowledge and passion that you might find at a Cards/Cubs game at Busch on any other day during the summer, but just in a different form.

As for the game itself, the result was almost taylor made for the occasion. Improbably, Chelsea held a 3-0 lead just minutes into the second half, despite Manchester City dominating possession throughout the first half. Both teams would make wholesale changes to their lineups at halftime and the substitutions continued in the second half, with Chelsea pulling their goalie Petr Chech at the 61 minute mark to give 19-year-old back-up Jamal Blackman some playing time. If he would have known what would happen over the next 30 minutes, Blackman may have preferred to just stay on the sideline for the Blues. In one of the oddest sequences I’ve ever seen in sport, Javi Garcia put a shot into the back of the net just 14 seconds after Blackman took the field. My brother Daniel, a former goalie at North Central College and one of the five people I went to the game with, visibly cringed at the goal, which has to be every keeper’s worst nightmare.

And it didn’t get much better for Blackman after that. Edin Dzeko would score just a minute later off a long ball from James Milner. While much of the crowd seemed to be supporting Chelsea, Dzeko jerseys dotted the landscape in St. Louis, which has a large Bosnian population. The Sarajevo-born striker would give the fans from his native country more reasons to celebrate when he netted the equalizer with five minutes left in the game and completed the Man City comeback.

Despite my relative inexperience with European soccer, I knew that it was highly likely that the game was going to end in a tie. In a league game, the two teams would most likely just try to hang on and grab whatever points they could, rather than risk a tally in the loss column. Fortunately for the crowd, Thursday’s game was an exhibition and the offensive pressure continued. Just a few seconds into the two-minute stoppage time, Garcia headed a ball to the far post, where Micah Richards lunged forward to get a foot on the game winner.

While it may have been slightly atypical of your normal Premier League match, the exhibition was a perfect showcase for the support in America, giving the fans a fast-paced contest that had more than its share of drama, despite the fact that nothing but pride was at stake. It also gave the city of St. Louis the opportunity to showcase itself to Major League Soccer, which has passed over the several times for expansion teams, most recently two days before the exhibition game, when it was announced that Manchester City and the New York Yankees had joined forces to bring New York City FC to the Big Apple at a $100 million price tag.

That last number is one of the major stumbling blocks for soccer fans in the Gateway City hoping for an MLS team. St. Louis businessman Jeff Cooper tried unsuccessfully twice to bring a team to the Metro-East, but concerns with funding caused the MLS to reject the bids. While some have pointed to Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who also owns the Colorado Rapids of the MLS, as a possible owner, no one has really stepped up to put out a competitive bid for a team in St. Louis. The one thing that MLS doesn’t seem to have to worry about is fan support in the city. While there is a big difference between drawing 48,000 people to a one time event and consistently drawing 15 to 20,000 people throughout a season, the passion for the sport seems to be alive an well in St. Louis.

And while I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to list every member of a Premier League team or repeat the La Liga standings from the top of my head, my appreciation for that caliber of soccer has definitely increased after Thursday night’s experience. Hopefully it won’t be my last.