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Stadium Review: StubHub Center

I'm in LA for a few weeks and last night I got to take in an LA Galaxy game. The home team won by the score of 4-0 against Toronto FC and I can't say that the game was particularly competitive. A Robbie Keane hat trick along with Steven Gerrard being introduced as a Galaxy player was the two highlights of an otherwise nondescript night. The stadium itself was quite simply not at the level that a venue holding major sporting events should be at. There are minor league baseball stadiums better equipped than StubHub Center. Perhaps it was viable when MLS started, but with soccer growing it is simply not acceptable as a venue. As always, if you need a refresher on the grading system, go to the 'Stadiums' category and scroll down.

Atmosphere: 3.5/10: Although the StubHub Center was loud, 98% of the noise came from the two designated cheering sections. The rest of the crowd seemed bored for the rest of the game outside of when the wave was going on. On top of that, parts of the stadium were half full at best and even the cheering section died down in the second half. The only person in the entire crowd who remained interested in the game for 90 minutes was the one banging on the drum. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not well-versed in MLS and that fan interest for the league isn't at the level of other sports. However, you would expect more from one of the league's most successful franchises, and one that's bringing in the marquee addition of the summer. Unfortunately, the crowd was mostly composed of people who seemed to be waiting for the game to end with no interest whatsoever in the game. It was not loud; as a matter of fact the noise level was below what you might expect at a Little League game at times. The crowd was between disinterested and not even present, and the game itself promoted boredom.

Quality of Facility: 2/10: Outside of the fourth of the stadium that was mostly empty, most of the stadium is composed of bleachers. That, along with barely 2 levels of seating and a location about a half-hour outside of Los Angeles makes the StubHub Center resemble a minor league ballpark more than anything. I find it somewhat disappointing that venues of this level still exist in the MLS which wants to consider itself a league on par with the rest of American sports yet cannot find the money for stadiums that are fit to house teams that play at a high level. The fact that nothing has even been brought up about this only reflects the low level of interest. Despite an uptake of fandom in soccer, whether it is through the success of both the men's and women's national teams or through the Premier League, the MLS itself has continued to toil in anonymity. And this is Exhibit A as to why.

Quality of Game: 1/10: If the stadium itself can be considered Exhibit A as to why the MLS hasn't thrived, the gameplay itself can be considered Exhibit B. Not only was this game noncompetitive, the buildup was not exciting and nondescript. Outside of the goals themselves, chances were few and far between as both teams struggled to string more than a few passes together without kicking the ball astray. The teams themselves seemed bored by the action as even Steven Gerrard, who was introduced at halftime, struggled to find anything beyond standard to say about joining his new club. The goals themselves weren't memorable whatsoever and with few chances in between, there was a lot to be desired. From a standpoint of competitiveness, this game had none. Toronto had next to zero chances before the score was out of their reach and once it was, they seemed to stop caring about anything other than what time the game was ending. Luckily, they were joined in that mindset by both the other team and the fans.

Other Things to do in the Neighborhood: 7.5/10: Although StubHub Center is located in Carson, that's only a short drive away from downtown LA. The drive of course can be rife with traffic which is to be expected but nonetheless, StubHub's proximity to the city is its only positive aspect.

Total: 14/40: If you're in LA, don't bother with this. There is so much to do there that spending 2 hours of your time watching the Galaxy is a ridiculous waste.

Stadium Review: Old Trafford

I made it to Manchester and today I saw United take on Aston Villa. It was my first time at the Theatre of Dreams and of course, I'll be reviewing it. It's been a while since I've written one of these, mostly because I haven't been at any sort of game since December. I'm hoping that Stadium Review undergoes a revival this month, because next week I'll be at a Knicks game and I'm looking at Yankees-Red Sox tickets next week as well. Also, I really enjoy writing these. If you need a refresher on the grading system, just scroll down to the very first one of these (which is not that far down because there have only been two written other than this one) and read the intro. Anyways, a very quick and abbreviated recap of the game (of which I'll get into more detail later on): United took it by a score of 3-1, Ander Herrera scored a brace while Wayne Rooney scored a very nice goal in between Herrera's two. United were fairly dominant holding 77% of possession per whoscored.com and they also had 19 attempts to Aston Villa's 4. There's the quick version, now let's get into the full review of Old Trafford.

Atmosphere: 7.5/10: Any soccer game in Europe should have a great atmosphere. Old Trafford, as well as most other big stadiums across the continent, is notorious for its atmosphere. Today, it was good but far from great. The fans were clearly into the game but there were times when the away fans made most of the noise. Throw in a few chants of "This is a library" from Villa supporters and you may have thought the atmosphere was a bit lacking. However, there was frequent level of noise from the home crowd which counts and although as the game went on the crowd got quieter it was still an experience to be there. Having never been to a soccer game in Europe before, I would say that the atmosphere was probably about what I expected. Another plus was what at least looked like and sounded like, a sellout crowd. That is a regular occurrence but there is a certain stigma that comes with it that you rarely see in America. Back at home, it has to be an important game if you want a sellout crowd. A lot of times there may be a sellout crowd reported but all it takes is a quick look up at the stands to disprove that. Here, I didn't spot an empty seat. And this was a game against a relegation-threatened team that United were all but guaranteed to win. The Yankees will probably have a non-sellout crowd on the first weekend of their season. Even if they don't, their atmosphere won't be half as good as this one. The biggest reason the score is only a 7.5 is because it was, almost exactly, what I expected. Nearly everything you hear on television is at the match save for a few chants that are probably muted due to language. I think that 7.5 is close to the minimum for a game played in a major European soccer stadium but that doesn't reflect badly on United as much as it reflects well on the rest of Europe.

Expectation: 6.5/10: This score comes mostly from two categories that were either above or below expectation. Other Things to do in the Neighborhood was above expectation and Quality of Facility was below (more detail later). The other categories were essentially what I expected. If you'll remember, Expectation is one of the toughest categories to score high in because if a stadium is exactly what I thought it would be then it gets a 5. With all two categories being very close to my expectation, it's hard to place it much higher than this. The reason it's higher than five when the other two were split between below and above my expectation is because the Other Things to do in the Neighborhood was much higher than my expectation. It's safe to say that I really didn't think anything of Manchester before coming here so it probably would have been hard not to get above my expectation.

Quality of Facility: 7/10: The outside of Old Trafford is beautiful. The museum was decent, and I got to watch Arsenal-Liverpool in the concourse before the game started. So why the low score? Well, the stairwell that you go up to when getting to your seat isn't very nice. My dad commented that it "felt like a prison" and I can't say that he was fully wrong. It irked me that you had to go in at the specific gate that your ticket applied to and I didn't like that the stairwell was separate from the rest of the stadium. The other thing that was probably an overall negative was the lack of a Jumbotron. I weighed whether or not this was a good or bad thing but I think it loses points on that because of a multitude of reasons. Not having a Jumbotron can be nice because it lets the fans focus on the game itself. Also, I will admit that there isn't exactly a great place for one at Old Trafford. However, Rooney's stunning goal was scored at the end opposite to us. When it happened, it was hard for me to tell exactly what had happened to cause the ball to go in the net. I knew it was Rooney and that it looked like a volley but I really couldn't see much more than that. So, without the benefit of a Jumbotron, I had to wait until I got back to my hotel room and the GIF of the goal loaded on the terrible hotel internet to see the goal again. Maybe you don't necessarily need the biggest screen in the world, but it would have been nice to see that goal again when it happened and not an hour or two later. That being said, not many points were taken off for that because, as I said, it did cause me to pay more attention to the game itself. It wasn't like going to an NBA game where the Jumbotron is distracting you with a FanCam or trying to start a chant or anything like that. This was pure, unadulterated football. There's something to be said for that.

Quality of Game: 9/10: I'll admit that this score is entirely influenced by my rooting interest in Man United. However, it was certainly an entertaining game. United were very dominant, especially in the first half. They controlled the wings and a lot of their possession came in the offensive third. Rooney's goal was pure magnificence and both of Herrera's were good finishes in which he was at the right place and did what he had to do. The only time that there was even slight unease over the result was right after Villa scored. It was immediately after the second United goal and it took the air right out of the crowd. However, within a few minutes it became clear that Villa couldn't attack. They weren't very close to goal, even when they had the ball. The only thing that most of their chances, especially after their goal, led to was a United counter. One of them led to Herrera's second goal which sealed the outcome. This was another win on the great run of form that United have been on. It's been brilliant to see this side finally click-not just in this game but in the last few. They're finally fun to watch and I can look forward to it without dreading that [insert team] will win their first game at Old Trafford since [insert year before 1985] for the first time since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. United's next three games are against City, Chelsea, and Everton. Last year, that would have been the death of any good form. In 2015, it's a chance to throw ourselves right into the title race. United haven't lost in the league since February against Swansea and playing like this they may not lose again. One can only hope.

Other Things to do in the Neighborhood: 7/10: Manchester, as a city, certainly beat my expectation. The weather was actually good and so was the food. I enjoyed walking around the city as well, although there wasn't a ton to actually do in it. Most of this score comes from the food which is of a much higher quality than you would expect. If I were to grade every meal I've had here on a 1-10 scale they would probably all be between a 7 and an 8.5. That's really good no matter what, especially so in a country notorious for bad food. The city itself was fine. If you really wanted to fill a schedule, there are a few museums but I didn't go to them so I won't speak to their quality. What I did have fun doing was just walking around the city. Although we did get lost once, the buildings and architecture was cool to look at. The shopping center (which I believe was called Market Street), was great to walk through. Another plus for the neighborhood was that United dominated the football landscape. Every person I talked to was a United fan. Not counting Old Trafford, I can't count the number of people I saw in a United shirt. I saw one person in a City shirt. There was also a group of drunken people singing what sounded like a City song but I don't think that counts for much. I thought much of my experience outside of the game would be sitting in a hotel room laughing at the city but I really thought Manchester was nice.

Total: 37/50: This was great. I'm a harsh grader, but I had an amazing amount of fun not just at the game but on the trip as a whole. This was a great experience and I hope that one day I can come back and do it again.

Reforming Sports: European Championship Qualifiers

    International breaks are the bane of every soccer fans existence. Going 11 days where the only games on are friendlies and European qualifiers that don't even matter because the games are usually terrible and the qualifying system is so flawed that no one really needs to worry about doing badly. Despite these breaks being necessary, they need to be fixed because they're purely awful.

 

    So how can we fix this? Well, there are 53 countries involved in the qualifying tournament making up 7 groups of 6 teams (except for Group I which has 5 teams). Since France is the host, they are already qualified. In every group, the top two teams automatically advance to the tournament and the highest ranked third place team also automatically advances. The remaining third place teams will go to a playoff in which 4 teams will advance. This means that there will be a total of 24 teams in the tournament making up 6 groups of 4. The reason that the qualifying tournament means nothing us because even though some bigger countries such as Spain and Belgium aren't doing very well, it's so easy for them to get into the tournament that it doesn't matter. As for the smaller teams that are doing well like, Israel and Romania for instance, it's not as if they'll do anything in the tournament even if they qualify which is still pretty unlikely.

 

    Here's my solution to this unwatchable conundrum. Make the qualifying tournament the group stage. Instead of slogging through a year of boring matches that federations and fans alike have to force themselves to care about, make it actually matter. This would mean a 54 team group stage since the host would have to participate resulting in 9 groups of 6 teams pretty much like we have in qualifying now. In this group stage, the top two teams in every group would automatically go through to the knockout round (this would be 12 teams) and the top four third place teams would go through making it 16 teams in the knockout round. The effect this would have is that despite being pretty similar to the current format of qualifying, it would force people to care. All of the sudden, Belgium is legitimately worried that they won't make it. Israel can be excited because they really have a chance. And these games are finally worth watching.

 

    Of course, the obvious thing wrong with this is that it takes out the host country since the group stage would be played the same way the qualifiers are now, a double round robin with one match in the home country and one match in the away country. However, Euro 2020 is going to be played in multiple countries anyways. Why not make it a regular thing? After all, it'd certainly result in livelier crowds since home fans wouldn't have to pay for travel. As for the knockout rounds, you could still pick a host country or city to cut down on travel for the teams. There would be two legs for the round of 16, quarters, and semifinals with one match for the final (with no away goals rule). This would be a lot more fun than the current format because it allows for smaller nations to have nice runs in the tournament more often. Since the group stage has 54 teams in it, there's a bigger chance for upsets and once you're in the knockout stage anything can happen. This change would take international breaks from the most boring time in soccer to one of the most exciting. The crowds at games would go from pitiful to sell out, and people would actually care. Quite unlike they do now.