Game #21-San Jose Earthquakes

San Jose Earthquake vs Los Angeles Galaxy
Oakland Stadium
June 20, 2009

Completely different weather than the Giants game last night. I was freezing during the night game, but after an interesting late night party in the Haight district with Greg’s artistic friends we finally got to bed around 3:30am and I passed out on the couch since the aero bed pump was out of juice. With a hangover and lack of sleep we headed to the yacht club Leslie’s dad is a member of and had some food before heading over to the game with Eric (one of Greg’s really good high school friends). Oakland stadium…a dump. Looked as old as Yankee stadium except it is about 50 years younger. The soccer game was really sloppy, be it the MLS’s lack of good players or the fact that the best players on both teams were in South Africa for the Confederation Cup. The Galaxy were without Donavan and Beckham but overall it was a close affair. The Quakes had a PK in the first half and put the game away with an early goal in the second to pull away with a 2-1 win. The most annoying part of the game were the vuvusela’s, or as we came to know them as “herpe horns”. They are the long plastic horns that sound like dying elephants. We call them “herpe horns” because the dudes selling them were blowing on them before selling to the fans. We could only imagine how many mouths were on them before the poor unsuspecting kid received it from good ole mom and dad. When we finally left the game we thought we were free of the horns but alas about 4 miles from the stadium we pulled up next to a truck and a kid in the backseat was hanging out the window happily blowing away….BLAH!

Notes on the stadium: I know, I know, Oakland Stadium is not the true home of the Quakes, but they do play here a couple of times a year so I am using it. I will probably make it to a game in San Jose, but just in case this will do. Oakland Stadium is a mess. The nasty green is fading all over the place and in general it looks run down. The stadium doesn't allow for any good views of San Fran or surrounding Oakland because of the absurdly high walls and the corridors stink. This does not bode well for me because I have to come back for an A's and Raiders game. The only cool thing I liked is that in the upper decks they have retired numbers of some of the A's, a big "Athletics" logo, and championship years.