David Beckham and Manchester United

New York hosted this years MLS all-star game.  The MLS (Major League Soccer), is the US's best soccer league, but pales in comparison to the European leagues in regards to quality.  The biggest soccer stars in the world play in Europe, however the US has the biggest soccer star of all time in David Beckham (though he is in the twilight of his career).  This year the MLS all-star game was between the MLS's all-stars and the most popular/richest sports team in the world Manchester United.  I would be lying if I said I was more excited to see the MLS All-Stars.  As a supporter of Manchester City, their longtime rivals from the same city, I was definitely rooting for the All-Stars.

So even though the All-Star game was hosted in New York, the stadium was in New Jersey so I made my way to the PATH, which is the subway that takes you to the various New Jersey cities.  Very shortly my intuition was correct, this was going to be a Manchester United game, and their opponent was going to be the All-Stars.  As I made my way into the subway, all I saw were Manchester red jerseys.

But once I got inside, I got some flashbacks of South Africa... Wavin Flag was blaring and probably be part of every soccer game from here on out...

It was a pretty nice stadium.  Only 20k capacity, but intimate enough that almost every seat you felt close enough to the action.  I was lucky enough to get pretty good seats at the corner flag.  I saw a ton of the action in the first half.

Even the announcer crew was set up not that far away.

The All-Stars, or David Beckham's team didn't play very well.  And approximately 90% of the stadium was rooting for Manchester United.  Secretly I believe 100% people were rooting for David Beckham.  Or at least that's what it felt like with all the girls sitting next to me yelling, screaming, and squealing each time the big screen focused on Beckham (and it was a lot).  

The second most popular player on the field was Wayne Rooney.  He didn't do anything spectacular during the game (actually no one did), but it still was pretty cool to see him in action.

All in all it was a great experience, but it was a really boring game.  And since it wasn't a huge stadium there wasn't really much else to do other than watch the game.   It was a little weird going to a game like this myself.  Maybe next time I can convince T-Mike the biggest Manchester united fan I know, to come join me.