Tuesday, March 9, 2010

on the (personally) awesome soccer month of march

This month is shaping up to be an excellent month for me on the soccer front. MLS is (supposed to be, at least) starting up again, and that makes me happy. But it's not just that. Let's start at the beginning.

I got the new USMNT away jersey in the mail last Thursday (along with a free Jabulani mini replica ball!) and honestly, it is a good looking jersey. I know a lot of people think it looks like a ~beauty pageant sash~ or whatever, but I think it looks awesome, especially against the navy. Adding to my jersey collection is always exciting. I have quite a few, and maybe one of these days I'll go through and talk about them individually. Actually, that would be a really good post. So I'll do that eventually.

I spent a decent amount of time the last few months trying to convince my parents that we should go up to Columbus for a Crew game. Unfortunately, that didn't really pan out. But when US Soccer announced the send-off series finale against Turkey in Philadelphia on May 29th, I decided this was the game that I wanted to go to. So as soon as the game was announced, I set out to convince my parents that we should go. 11 hours in the car won't be that bad, we can extend our trip and do some sight-seeing up north since we've never been there, and most importantly, it'll be the last game before the World Cup so the atmosphere should be great. They were iffy at first, but on Saturday my mom caved and bought us all tickets. I'm a bit disappointed we won't be sitting with the American Outlaws, but we're supposedly right along the tunnel where the players come out, so that should be pretty awesome. Regardless of where I'm sitting though, I'm finally getting my first cap!

Finally, I will be going to my first "MLS" games in 10 days! I say "MLS" because it's just preseason, and only one of the games will feature two MLS teams (Toronto FC vs. Real Salt Lake, then DC United vs. Charleston Battery), but it's still just as exciting. Especially since it's the last weekend of preseason and the teams should be pretty much full strength. I can't wait.

The Crew play tonight in CONCACAF Champions League, so I have a couple extra weeks of excitement to get me pumped up for First Kick on the 25th. I'll still be home for Spring Break so I'll have people to watch the games with (my family, but it's better than nothing). Basically, March is shaping up to be exactly the kind of month it needs to be to get me back into soccer after I spent most of February obsessing over the Winter Olympics.

February Jersey Count

In January, I added another jersey to my collection- the 2008-2009 Columbus Crew jersey! Unfortunately, it wasn't ever warm enough to wear in January once I got it, so it made its debut in February. Also of note: the Ronaldinho Barcelona jersey was spotted playing soccer in the snow on the SAC fields. Pretty cool.

USA 2 (Bradley 1, all me)
Chelsea 2
Liverpool 1
Barcelona 1 (Ronaldinho 1)
AC Milan 1 (Pato 1)
Real Madrid 1 (me)
Columbus Crew 1 (me)
Manchester United 1