Game 109-San Diego FC vs St Louis City SC

March 1st, 2025

San Diego finally got awarded an MLS team back in 2023, and at the time I told Keli that I would like to be a season ticket holder.  I know soccer is big in this city, not only because of all the youth club teams, but being by Mexico and the really high viewership of international games, it was a no brainer.  I think they would have received a team a lot earlier except we didn’t have a state of the art stadium.  Qualcomm was falling apart for years and there was no way the MLS would play at USD or something similar.  When San Diego State was able to finally put together the deal to build SnapDragon stadium a few years back that was the final hurdle.  So when the team sent out deposits requests for seats, I immediately put my name down (I honestly think it was only $10 or $20).  And about a year ago I looked at the available spots around the stadium, opting to stay away from the $20k section but still got really good seats in the 100s.  In fact three weeks before the game the team had a kick off party where we got to see our seats, picked up our Season Ticket and Founding Member gifts, even went to the team store to grab a few cool team sweater/jackets.  We were all set for the inaugural match.

 

Game day, and I was excited that Keli just recently bought an electric pedal assist bike which we took to the stadium.  Snapdragon is only 9 miles away and being able to skip the trolly lines as well as parking lot, we got there in about 35 minutes.  Now that we have the lay of the land a bit, we parked the bikes by our section, finished our drinks and grabbed our free team scarfs as we entered the stadium.  After buying some food and beer, it was off to our seats to meet our neighbors for the year.  They are a family of three with a little boy.  Seemed like a nice crew, and hopefully everything goes well the rest of the year. 

 

Before the game the team played some cool videos of the city, announced the team, and had a nice firework show which always excites the crowd.  I honestly thought they may do a bit more like a flyover, people parachuting in, something else…but that ok.  Once the smoke cleared the team took the field and we were on our way.  The play on the field was fun to watch.  Our team seemed to have gelled well over the past few weeks and in fact they beat the LA Galaxy who won the league last year 2-0, so there was high expectations in the stadium.  We had a few good shots on goal, and had possession most of the game, but star Chucky Lozzano was taken out of the game early as he pulled a hamstring so that didn’t bode well since we still have well over half the game left.  The positive as Gaucho fans, Emmanuel “Ema” Boateng entered the game, one of two UCSB players on the team.  He’s great, 5’6” and a ball of lightning on the pitch.  It’s funny seeing him next to the defenders who are easily a foot taller. 

 

I wish I had more to say specifically about scoring during the game, but neither team had a ton of shots on goal and what eventually hit the target wasn’t extremely dangerous.  At time, it was a 0-0 tie which was a bit of a let down for the nearly 35,000 people in the stands celebrating the 30^th team to be added to the league.  The most disappointing aspect of the game were the Mexican fans chanting homophobic slurs when the opponents put the ball in play during goal kicks.  It’s a disgusting and embarrassing thing the idiots started to chant.  I really hope the team, security, and stadium start to kick offenders out of the stadium.  That’s the only way to shut them up.

 

Kel and I jumped back on our bikes, turned on the headlamps, and were home probably before we would have got on the first trolly unless we left the game early.  Another benefit of having a bike,  Next game is in two weeks!

Game 108-New Orleans Saints vs Jacksonville Jaguars

New Orleans Saints vs Jacksonville Jaguars

10/19/2023

Ceasars Superdome

 

I missed our annual dudes trip last year, so when we selected New Orleans I was really excited to hang out again with my long time friends.  When we chose the location and the weekend, the football schedule was not available and in all honesty since most games are on Sunday I didn’t think I would be able to see a game.  But luckily the bucket list gods were on my side and it just happened to by Thursday night football.  So day of I was out of the house at 5am for my first flight to Vegas where I met up with my buddy Andy.  There we flew into NOLA and landed around 3pm.  We grabbed a taxi, dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and immediately met up with the other guys at Bar Tonique on Rampart.  After a few heavy drinks everyone was feeling good and were ready to go to the game.  

 

Walking over to the Superdome was crazy.  Our hotel was only about a mile away and the town was rocking.  The street was completely packed, everyone had drinks in hand, people were screaming, and music was blasting.  After getting through security our next goal was to figure out where our seats were located.  When I first told the guys I wanted to hit up the game I said there was no expectation anyone else had to go.  You never know if someone wants to spend money on watching two teams you have no affiliation with, but surprisingly all but one wanted to join in the fun. But that said, I wanted to make sure no one felt obligated to buy an expensive ticket so we got nosebleeds.  When we entered the stadium we quickly realized we were on the complete other side and at least 6 stories up.  It took about 10 minutes but finally we were settled in for the action.  As I said, no one had skin in the game but a bunch of us are also in a fantasy league where you can bet on the line.  So to make us cheer for the home team, all put money on the Saints.  That was a bad move…

 

All night NOLA was very lackluster.  There was little energy in the stadium and they simply couldn’t get their run or passing games going.  While the Jags QB Trevor Lawrence (always reminds me of Sunshine on Remember the Titans) threw for 20 of 29, Travis Etienne ran for 2 TDs, and when Foyesade Oluokun returned an interception for a score I thought the game was completely out of reach.  But the Saints fought back.  They were down by 7 with just a few minutes left and were driving down the field.  On a 3^rd and goal, David Carr threw a perfect pass to Foster Moreau who was wide open in the back of the endzone, got two hands on the ball, but dropped the pass.  On the final play of the game another pass to Chris Olave had no chance giving the ball back to Jacksonville with no chance for NO to stop them from running out the clock.  Final score was 31 to 24.  Oh well, the game was fun, and I didn’t have to fight for a ticket stub. Since most games are all electronic now, I was able to buy a ticket and am having it shipped to my house for $8.  In all honesty, I would rather do this than look for and beg someone to give me theirs.

 

The rest of the weekend was a blast.  After the game we got food at the NOLA cookery, Friday morning we did a fan boat tour, ate at Felix’s, crushed hurricanes at O’Brien’s, hit up the WW2 museum, and of course got some Café Dumond beignets.  What a great trip.

Game 107-CF Montreal vs FC Charlotte

CF Montreal vs FC Charlotte

June 25, 2022

Stade Saputo, Montreal Quebec

Keli and I are here in Montreal for my draft legal sprint distance Worlds Triathlon as well as the first ever mixed relays.  I qualified for the race back in 2019 and we were supposed to go to Edmonton in 2020 but because of covid it was cancelled.  Then last year in 2021 the race was moved to Bermuda, but once again cancelled just three weeks before we were going to get onto the plane.  This year, covid is still sticking around but the races were on.  In fact, I got covid just three weeks before we were set to travel…not the best timing for my race.   

We arrived into the city on Wednesday and took the bus/metro to Old Montreal.  The city has been around since the late 1600’s so there is a lot of great archetecure and our hotel was only two blocks away from the Notre Dame Cathedral.  But the weather was typical of the east coast in the early summer.  When we landed it was raining, and in fact it rained a lot on Thursday as well.  That kind of ruined the triathlon parade of nations but even more worrisome was the fact that the swim might be cancelled because of high bacteria counts in the river.  But mother nature turned on a dime and the cooler, rainy, windy 60 degree weather quickly shifted to upper 80s and humid Friday and that stuck around on Saturday for my race in the morning as well as the soccer game in the evening. 

I have been to Montreal once before, but it was in the dead of winter and there was plenty of snow on the ground with temps in the 20s.  When we explored the Biodome and Olympic Arena there was some rain which kept us indoors, but the night of the soccer game is was uncomfortably warm.  Mix that with the sun not going down until nearly 9pm and our seats were facing that ball of gas, we knew the first half would be tough.  All that said, we made our way into the stadium and rested in the shade a bit to cool down.  I let Keli chill out for a bit so I could take some pictures around the stadium as well as all of the history of the team (plenty of photos and stories about the program).  Montreal came into the MLS as the Impact, but after 28 years the owner decided to rebrand the team to Club de Foot Montreal or CF Montreal, to reflect the city a bit more.  They also changed the team shield to a snowflake, which makes sense for the winter but not the summer months when the games were played.  I don’t know if the fans truly have embraced the new name yet but there is nothing they can do.  The location of the stadium is great, easy to get to via the metro and has impressive views of the 1976 Olympic Stadium just outside the gates.   When you get to your seats, it’s a nice soccer specific field with few sections without good views (again, unless you are looking into the sun for 45 minutes).  Kel and I took our seats at midfield just before the national anthems, and then away we went. 

I haven’t really been paying attention to the MLS for about 2 years now.  I really enjoy the games, and the play on the field is much improved over the past few years with a lot of solid talent coming to the states and our neighbors to the north.  But because the games are not regularly on tv I have to search for them now which makes it a bit more difficult.  Montreal came into the game near the top of the Eastern Conference leader board while Charlotte was in 10^th out of 14 teams, so statistically the home team should win tonight.  It didn’t take long for Romell Quioto to give the lead for CFM as he opened the scoring in the 6^th minute sending the home crowd into a frenzy.  It came from a great assist by Zachary Brault Guillard and Quioto then fired the ball from the right of the goal for the 1-0 lead. That also allowed the CFM faithful to ring their enormous goal bell which was entertaining...the smoke bombs I could do without. Charlotte was undeterred though, capitalizing off of a failed clear attempt which gave Charlotte a goal when a ball from Anton Walkes hit defender Victor Wanyama, that deflection went right to Guzman Corujo who nailed the ball into the back of the net.  It turns out it was the only shot on goal for the visiting team but that is all they needed.  In the second half, once again Quioto was a factor by sending a great pass over to Choiniere who took the ball all the way into the box and cranked a banana shot passed Marks for the 2-1 lead.  The rest of the half if was all about ball possession for Montreal and they ended up winning that game 2-1. 

Keli and I were exhausted after the game and made our ways back to the metro.  But for some reason we got stuck one stop away from where we needed to go.  Instead of waiting around, we walked the extra mile which was a nice way to end the night.  It also allowed us to people watch because Montreal was in the middle of their holiday St. Jean Baptiste day and the whole city was out

on the town.  There were several free concerts, but Keli and I decided to call it a night.  Not only did we not want to be in a crowd with Covid still lingering around, but I had already obtained over 30k steps for the day and needed to get up on Sunday for our relay.  

Great trip, another game knocked off the list, and I once again realized I could get away with only knowing how to say “Do you speak English” in French when I am up in Quebec.  Ha!

#106- Milwaukee Brewers

Milwaukee Brewers vs San Francisco Giants

8/7/2021

American Family Field

First game since pre pandemic, and it is a stadium that has been in my list for a while. I’ve been to Milwaukee three times previous but haven’t had the chance to knock out the Brew Crew, so now I’m set for the state. I’m out here for age group nationals in triathlon, which is kind of funny because this is how the bucket list started roughly 14 years ago in Kansas City. 

So far the weekend has went well. Got my hotel Friday, picked up my bike and went through registration, so I had all of Saturday to get acquainted. Did a short ride in the morning to the stadium and back heading through Marquette University (had to because of Tommy Boy). Then got a ticket for the Van Gogh Experience which was well worth it, then ended the night at the baseball game.

Even though the stadium is only 4 miles from downtown, there is no easy way to get there. I thought about an Uber but it’s $30 each way. I asked the front desk of other options and found out a bunch of the local bars offer a shuttle there and back if you get a drink. So for $4 and a Miller Lite, I was off to the game.

I got to American Family Field, former known as Miller’s field, about 45 minutes prior to first pitch. This allowed me to take pictures of the few statues in front including Bob Uecker and Hank Aaron. Inside I eventually found the Milwaukee Hall of Fame which had some cool items from the early Braves as well as the All American Girl Baseball league (think about the movie A League of Their Own) Milwaukee Chicks.  Hit up the Bud Selig experience (short movie on how the Braves moved to Atlanta and when Selig fought for the Seattle Pilots to come to MIL and the new stadium). The kids areas included sprints for time, fastest pitch, and a batting cage. Then of course I had to find the best seat in the house statue of Bob Uecker and take a pic.   After venturing around the field taking shots of the mascot slide, retired numbers, and American League penents, I headed to my seat. 

Located near right field I had a good seat. Because I was able to buy a reprint of my ticket at the ticket office I didn’t talk much to the people around me (trying to locate one for my collection), which was fine with me because I was tired. I stayed until the middle of the 7th and decided to call it quits. At that time they were tied 2-2, and it seemed as if there would be at least another 1.5-2 hours left. I was really hoping the Brewers would be up by a lot (mainly because I hate the Giants) but it seemed like a combo of pitching duals and the extremely heavy air and humidity knocked down at least 4 potential HR balls. 

So knowing the bar shuttle started in the middle of the seventh I made my way to the exit to find a torrential downpour with massive thunder and lightning. That didn’t bode well for me getting to the parking lot without getting soaked and I knew the transition area for the triathlon would be a muddy bog. By the time I got back to the hotel (grabbing some late

night food) the game was still in the 8th and finally ended with a 9-6 win for the bad guys. Overall it was a successful day and I needed to get to bed to hopefully catch some z’s. 

Only got 4 hours of sleep, race went well, 24th in my age group out of 87 and 209 out of 1859 total. I’ll take it. We will see if I come back out again next year. May need to see if I can knock out another game as a driving force. 26 of 30 teams done!