International Soccer Friendly
- Thread starter Joe the Panther Fan
- Start date
That would be good...except Pulisic may be gone by then. Liverpool and Man U have been linked to him. I would love for my Blues to get involved but I’ve heard nothing.
Liverpool is linked due to the Klopp connection. And Man U is linked because they see a marketing opportunity in the US.
The only thing that sucks is that every time these games come to Pittsburgh, its right after the World Cup and the best players are still on vacation. My guess is that Dortmund thinks Pulisic will be back with since there is talk that their training camp will be in Pittsburgh. Pulisic's dad is an AC with the Riverhounds and they, of course, are from Hershey so maybe they bus trip it out to Hershey for a Pulisic Day or something like that and/or play the Riverhounds in some type of closed-door scrimmage or even an exhibition game
Mark Madden wrote an article in the PG years back about how much Dortmund reminds him of the Steelers and if you follow German football, yea, there's a lot of similarities. Colors, blue collar town, rabid fan base, not the "glamor team," but consistently a title contender every year
Wow. How did you know that? That’s what it is. I have to say that this is a disaster. I hope I am not over stating things...but Benfica is drawing no one and Pittsburgh will get a bum rap for it.
I won’t go and I probably would have if it was anyone else. Does this game see attendance above 30k?
I'll go but attendance will be dreadful. I'd estimate 15K. Don't forget its a Wednesday night also. Man City/AC Milan only did 37K on a Sunday afternoon. I think Tottenham/Dortmund would have been lucky to get to 30K.
I hope they price this right because if they price it like Man City/ACM, they may not get 10K. I paid like $120 each for lowers on what would be the 20 or 30. If they price like that, attendance is going to be just pitiful.
Shame that we don’t get a matchup like Chelsea vs David Beckham’s Juventus like we did 15 years ago. I really think the games popularity has grown significantly since then.
The Riverhounds will do what they can to promote it. But the Riverhound influence locally is minimal. A significant part of the soccer community in Pittsburgh will not support anything the hounds are involved with.
WOW! Really, I wouldn't pay that much, those are equivilant to NFL Preseason, I'd go for maybe $50 at the most. I took my daughter to Gold Cup Games in 2015, double header USA/Cuba and Jamaica/Haiti in Ravens Stadium, we had Club Seats that sell for $250/game for the Ravens and they where $47 each, access to an air conditioned bar and lounge, which was good, it was 90 degrees that day, and that was a tournament.
The original Tottenham rumor actually came from, believe it or not, a baseball web site that I read that has a small group of soccer fans that keep a thread going about soccer all year long. Someone there wanted to see Dortmund and said that it looked like Pittsburgh was going to be his best choice based on the fact that they were supposedly going to play Tottenham here and that would be a game he would be interested in. I don't know where he got the info from, but he had their other two games and venues correct, which makes me wonder if Tottenham was tentatively scheduled here and it got changed at the last minute for some reason.
The first I heard that it was going to be Benfica instead was actually from one of the PG writers at some point over the weekend.
It’s frustrating. Spurs would be better for sure. My family wants to go to Miami for the United vs Madrid game. Additionally, I noticed Miami has a 2nd game of Bayern vs Man City. I get it believe me. But I’m frustrated that they get two marquee games and we are stuck with a dud. A city that already has a marquee game should get a Dortmund vs Benfica type game.
Wasn't it Chelsea/Roma. I didn't go to that but I'm pretty sure that neither Juventus, nor Beckham ever played here.
Yeah, 2004. I took my son to the game. Chelsea's top player was probably Didier Drogba. Roma's was Francesco Totti.
Drogba is my favorite player of all time. He’s likely the reason I’m a diehard Blues supporter.
I missed that game because I was living out of state. I did go to a Chelsea vs Barcelona game 2-3 years ago at FedEx Field. There were 95K people there and probably 3/4’s of them were Barca fans. Chelsea won in pks, and it took about 2 hours after the game to get out of that place. FedEx is already a dump, too big, and too difficult to get in and out of. I’d imagine that’s what Oakland would be like if there were a 90K seat stadium, it was full, and everyone was leaving at the same time.
Benficia will draw the entire Portuguese population of Pittsburgh: all 3 of them. If they are playing here, I would bet they will have a game in Providence before or after. A place which actually has a Portuguese population.
$120 is about what it costs to get a really good seat for a La Liga match at the Camp Nou. Speaking of which, they just received permission from the Barcelona government to increase the seating capacity from 98,000 to 105,000 as part of the renovations they are doing.
It’s not that easy to get out of the Camp Nou after a game, but it takes nowhere near 2 hours. There are 5 Metro stops on 3 different lines within a 10 minute walk. Barça actually pays the Metro to stay open two hours later when it plays a night game there (which it does most of the time) and to add additional cars to the trains and more trains on those three lines. The line we take has a train every 2 minutes for the first hour after the match, then every 3 minutes for the second hour. The fact that there are nine different Metro lines in the city and that some stops have direct connections to local trains makes commuting very easy. If Leo Messi actually used mass transportation to get to his home in Castefels, he could make it in under an hour — and it’s 35 minutes outside of the city.
There is a bowling alley within about a 3 minute walk of the Camp Nou, and we sometimes go there after the game to bowl a couple of games and have a snack. The food is relatively decent. Strangely, there aren’t many restaurants and bars in the area, because the games generally end about 10:30 or 11:00 p.m., and in Barcelona that is still prime dining time. Most restaurants there don’t even open until 8 p.m.
It’s not that easy to get out of the Camp Nou after a game, but it takes nowhere near 2 hours. There are 5 Metro stops on 3 different lines within a 10 minute walk. Barça actually pays the Metro to stay open two hours later when it plays a night game there (which it does most of the time) and to add additional cars to the trains and more trains on those three lines. The line we take has a train every 2 minutes for the first hour after the match, then every 3 minutes for the second hour. The fact that there are nine different Metro lines in the city and that some stops have direct connections to local trains makes commuting very easy. If Leo Messi actually used mass transportation to get to his home in Castefels, he could make it in under an hour — and it’s 35 minutes outside of the city.
There is a bowling alley within about a 3 minute walk of the Camp Nou, and we sometimes go there after the game to bowl a couple of games and have a snack. The food is relatively decent. Strangely, there aren’t many restaurants and bars in the area, because the games generally end about 10:30 or 11:00 p.m., and in Barcelona that is still prime dining time. Most restaurants there don’t even open until 8 p.m.
They should of gotten Olympiacos, they could of drawn at least a couple hundred Greeks, I'd even drive up from Baltimore for that.
No. Almost all of the Barça players live there. It used to be a working class town, but because it is right on the beach it has become very upscale over the past 20 years. It also is very close to their practice facilities. There are very few places in the city itself where there are private homes instead of multi-unit buildings and they are in much less convenient areas as far as getting to the training facilities.
My wife and I occasionally go to Sitges, which is one stop farther west on the train that runs along the coast. But, we never have stopped in Castelldefels. The beaches there supposedly aren’t nearly as nice and the town itself discourages tourists.
So you go there specifically for these games? I've been to a few pro soccer games in Greece, but only because I was there to visit family and friends in the first place.
I have gone to Barcelona for one to three months every year since 2013. We don’t go there just for the soccer games. My wife and I both love it. It is my favorite city in the world and hers also. However, I will admit that the first thing I do after we have booked the dates for the apartment is check the schedule and order my tickets for Barça online. This year, we are going later than usual, so only one match — the season finale against Real Sociedad. And, the post-season parade to celebrate winning La Liga goes right past our apartment.
Barcelona is the low-cost airfare hub of Europe, so we always take a few trips when we are there. In 2014 we flew roundtrip to Paris for $49. In 2016, we flew into Brussels for $32 and returned from Amsterdam for $36.
We also have flown to Sevilla roundtrip for $50 (cheaper than taking the train), and to San Sebastián in the Basque Country for $60 roundtrip. Last year we went to Prague, then from there to Budapest, then to Dubrovnik, Croatia, then to Venice and then to Nerja, Spain on the Costa del Sol, and not one ticket was more than $60. You have to plan: The airline we flew from Dubrovnik to Venice, Volotea,was only $19, but it only made that trip at that price twice a week — and that fare only was available on their website. So, essentially, we planned the dates for the entire trip on being able to take that flight.
This year, we are going to Lisbon roundtrip for $70 (that flight is operated by Vueling Airlines, which is who we booked it with, but the same flights is available from Iberia, the Spanish National Carrier, or TAP, the Portuguese national carrier, for more than twice the price) and to Crete roundtrip for $121. The most expensive single flight we have is one-way from Milan to Barcelona for $66. And, that is because we are flying from LA to Milan, and going from there to Lake Como for a week with my brother and sister-in-Law, then flying to Barcelona. So, we will have checked bags since we won’t have dropped everything off at the apartment in Barcelona. When we take short trips, we only take carry on luggage and the fare is much less. Milan to Barcelona with no checked luggage is $36.
Basically, the tickets to the Camp Nou cost more than any of our flights in Europe. But, I don’t tell my wife that
She doesn’t like watching sports; she likes playing them, and only goes to the games to keep me company. And, we have a rule that probably keeps us married: The day after we go to a Barcelona match, I take her shopping.
I've been on the Steelers season ticket waiting list for over 25 years, I don't even want the season tickets, I just want to get the offers for single game tickets that come out every June, I'm content with going to one, maybe two games per year. Anyways, I just got an offer to buy tickets for Borrrusia Dortmund vs. Benfica from the Steelers. I'm not going but, thought you might be interested that the price range is $30-$299 for tickets.
Price isn’t surprising. Tottenham is playing Barcelona at the Rose Bowl in July and the prices are higher than that. I’m not going because I will be in Europe (ironically in Barcelona). I probably wouldn’t go anyway because so soon after the World Cup, both teams will likely be playing their B squads. If Messi, Kane and Suarez were playing, it likely would sell out. But, it will still draw well out here.
The presale for the Pittsburgh game has started. If anyone is interested in the presale code it's "BenficainsteadofTottenhamreallysucks".
Oh, no, wait, that isn't it. It's actually "ICCVIP". At this point they only have lower level seats on sale, so it's not like those $30 tickets are at the top of the upper deck. If you just want to see the game you can actually get in pretty cheap.
Oh, no, wait, that isn't it. It's actually "ICCVIP". At this point they only have lower level seats on sale, so it's not like those $30 tickets are at the top of the upper deck. If you just want to see the game you can actually get in pretty cheap.
Yea, doesn't even seem like they are going to open the upper decks which is a good idea. I'd estimate a crowd of 10K-15K. Its going to be bad
I'll probably get a (relatively) cheap ticket and go just because I like soccer. But damn, it would have been nice had they gotten pretty much anyone other than Benfica.
You'll still have the American vs American angle to promote the game. Of course, there is Pulisic but also, Keaton Parks for Benfica, is breaking into the 1st team. He seems to be in their plans for next season and could feature heavily in preseason. He should get a boost in recognition after the summer friendlies for USMNT.
With the exception of family coming up from Texas I doubt that anyone will be buying tickets to see Parks. I don't think Parks has ever played a game for the US at any age level yet, let alone at the senior level.
Why do you think he is good enough to break into Benfica at 20, but never made an age group national team?
I don't know, but he has trained with US teams before (for instance the U20s last year before the U20 World Cup) but not played in games, so for whatever reason the coaches felt he wasn't good enough after seeing him first hand in training.
In any event, not enough people know who Parks is to make any sort of real difference in ticket sales to the game in Pittsburgh.
When is the transfer window? with the Dortmund Manager linked to two London jobs and maybe more, there could be a possibility that pulisic is not even on Dortmund at that time.
The ablove is unlikely, but is a possibility. Other clubs covet him Tuchel(the manager) and Pulisic the player.
The ablove is unlikely, but is a possibility. Other clubs covet him Tuchel(the manager) and Pulisic the player.
Normally it's June 1. However the English screwed around with their transfer window so I think that technically in England this year it starts in the middle of May.
They supposedly differ only because of any time zone differences between the countries. That is what voided the sale by Manchester United to Real Madrid of David De Gea a couple of years back. The papers were faxed before midnight Manchester time but after midnight Madrid time. So the window in Spain had closed before the deal was consummated.
If England is starting early this year, I assume it will only be for intra-England Transfers or Transfers with South American countries that have different rules. Barça made a deal with a Brazilian club for a MF in the December transfer window where he will join the club on July 1. Brazil doesn’t allow players to move during the season but does allow advance deals for them to move after the season ends. The deal for Neymar was made a year before he actually joined the team.
If England is starting early this year, I assume it will only be for intra-England Transfers or Transfers with South American countries that have different rules. Barça made a deal with a Brazilian club for a MF in the December transfer window where he will join the club on July 1. Brazil doesn’t allow players to move during the season but does allow advance deals for them to move after the season ends. The deal for Neymar was made a year before he actually joined the team.
Not any more. The English FA decided to end their transfer window a couple days before their season starts. They are trying to convince FIFA to make that change, but so far to no avail. Because it makes way too much sense for FIFA to have any interest in something like that. But the upshot of that is that for some reason FIFA requires the off season transfer window for these leagues to last some set number of weeks ( I don't know the number off the top of my head), and for the English to get that many weeks in they have to open the window two or three weeks earlier than everyone else.
On the front end that really isn't going to matter. It's after the season is over anyway, and as you say there is nothing at all in the rules that prohibits teams from agreeing to a transfer before the window opens but it not becoming official until the window opens, so if an EPL team wants to sign someone from France it really isn't going to matter if the English window is open and the French window won't be for another week.
However, on the back end, EPL teams could theoretically get screwed. After whatever day it is in August that they switched to passes EPL teams will not be able to bring any players in, but there is nothing that stops a Spanish team from agreeing to a deal with an English team in those last couple weeks in August, except then the English team will not be able to bring in anyone to replace the player lost. My guess is that the EPL teams are going to tell their players that if they are on the roster past the English deadline that they will not sell them to anyone else no matter what until the winter window opens. But what if one of the big clubs comes by and offers a truckload of cash for someone? What if a week after the English window closes Barca goes to Mo Salah and offers to make him the highest paid player in the world by some ridiculously large margin and Salah decides he wants to go? What does Liverpool do then? Tell him too bad, you can't leave, and risk having your best player pissed off? Or let him go with no chance at all to replace him until at least January?
Thank you. Despite the Olympic failures, it seems like we are fairy well stocked with young defenders and midfielders.
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