Game #47-San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers vs Pittsburg Steelers
December 19th, 2011
Candlestick Park

Off to my first Monday night football game. I am in SF with Keli to catch a couple games and take a mini vacation. We have been hanging out with my college buddy over the past day but Monday we had time to explore the city. We checked out the Peirs, walked by Coit tower, viewed Alcatraz from afar, got some great pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, and headed over to Garadehli Square. The one consistant at each place...a million Steelers fans. They have completed flooded the city and are out in force prior to the game. So needless to say, the public transportation to the game was out of hand. I met up with Greg to hit up the local 79X bus but noticed everyone was completely packed. In fact, about 4 hours prior to the game I noticed a ton of people waiting for a bus but had no clue the lines would still be there 30 minutes prior to game time. When we finally got onto the MUNI it took 1.5 hours to go 5 miles. We litterally could have walked to the game faster, that is if we didn't have to go through the ghetto to get to the park. The only saving grace for us is the fact that Candlestick is a piece of crap and the transformer blew causing a 20 minute blackout. So instead of missing the entire first quarter the bus was pulling up just as the fireworks were going off.

The game was actually pretty exciting, not a lot of points to start off but tons of good plays on both ends. Alex Smith, the QB for the 49ers is definately getting better and having Frank Gore as running back gives them some options. On the other end the Steelers have a broken Ben Rothlesburger (injured ankle) but you can never count them out with defeners such as Troy Polimolu. As the game heading into the second quarter with the 49ers up 6-0, the stadium went black again. Another power loss for about 20 minutes halted the game but did not damper the crowds enthusiasm. For the first time in years SF has a winning team and the fans were out in full force. With 10 minutes left in the 4th Quarter Frank Gore took the ball in for a TD to give the home team a 20-3 lead and that was our queue to jet out of there to get a bus back to the city (the game already took over 4 hours becuase of the blackouts and TV time outs, plus I had a 4am wake up call to get to my plane flight).

My only take away, and this is pretty surprising, the SF locals are Ga Hett Toe! Maybe it was just the area where we were but all the fans seemed like they wanted to fight every Steelers fan. I lot of yelling, cussing, middle fingers...who would have thought the Raiders game would be more civilized?

Game #46- Oakland Raiders

Oakland Raiders vs Detroit Lions
December 18th, 2011
O-Co Coliseum

Wow, I am back to the Oakland Coliseum with my college buddy Greg Kopotic. The first time I was here was for a San Jose Quakes soccer game and now I am back for the Raiders. Raiders fans are "different" bunch. Yes there were the guys dressed in skeleton masks, spiked shoulder pads, painted silver and black faces, but the truly scary fans were just about everyone else. Not scary as in behavior, in fact they were surprisingly friendly. Actually the more I think about it, it felt safer at the Raiders game than at some of the Charger games (mainly because the fan base in SD is half and half at each game causing a lot of fights). The scary was the women with big 1990's "gansta" bangs and black lipstick/eyeliner. The dudes wore shirts that said "If you don't bleed silver and black take your bitch ass home"...interesting. At this point in the year the AFC west is still up in the air even at week 14. The Bronco's were losing and if the Raiders win today they will be tied for the lead (Raiders started to make a big push after long time owner Al David died in October) All was going well for the home team, they were leading the entire game with Carson Palmer at the helm. When Darrius Heyward-Bey caught a 43 yard pass for a TD, doing a Coliseum leap into the stands, I thought the game was over. But there was one person on the field that decided to take things into his own hands, that was Megatron Calvin Johnson. He had one of the best games ever for a wide receiver with 9 receptions for 214 yards and two touchdowns, his final score just 39 seconds left in the game to give the Lions a late 1 point lead. But the Raiders have a not so secret weapon in Sebastian Janikowski. The huge 6'2" Polish placekicker and crush the ball, so when the Raiders lined up for a final 65 yard field goal for the win they really had a chance to steal the lead and game back. But second year Ndamukong Suh had different ideas and blocked the kick preserving the Lions 28-27 win.

As for a couple of fun take aways. The dude in front of us that was going bald, but tried to cover up the bald spot with a mohawk...nice effort. The Lions fan that was doing the robot everytime Megatron caught the ball as well as the Raiders fans who also did the same dance when Oakland made any play...hilarious. But the highlight was the group of about 200 teenagers who started a flashmob to Missy Elliot.

Game #45- MLS CUP finals

LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo
November 20, 2011
Home Depot Center

Well after several years of my sports adventure I am finally able to go to a championship final. In the 2010/2011 NBA season I attempted to go to the game 7 finals between the Lakers and Celtics but I was on the east coast that same day, so I would have to fly home and immediately get into my car then hope for no traffic to get to the game ontime (not to mention the single game ticket was $700). The MLS cup on the other hand was much easier to come by. Once the tickets were available 4 months prior to the game I picked up some awesome seats only a couple rows from the field. Then the stars lined up and my home team LA Galaxy made it to the Cup playing against the Houston Dynamo.

The week of the game I was checking the weather forecast about 5 times a day. One day it was 90% chance of rain, then the next day it was suppose to be windy with no clouds. When game day finally arrived I woke up in Malibu with a huge storm on top of us, wind howling and it was pouring...this was not going to be fun. As game time approached it the faucet in the sky was still going strong so Keli and I decided to get some extra poncho's, along with every other person going to the game. Needless to say the local Target had no supplies. But we were inventful and decided to buy a couple shower curtains we could cover up with...worked perfectly!

Now onto the game, the crew with me today are Keli, one of my best friends DI and his newly ringed up fiance Amanda. As game time approached the heavily pro Galaxy fans were becoming rabid. Everyone feels that this is our year. Back in 2009 we lost to Real Salt Lake in shootouts and now it is time for redemption. It is hard to imagine that the Galaxy wouldn't win with the current star power on the field. Landon Donovan, newly acquired Robbie Keane and David Beckham backed by the best goalie in the league Josh Saunders. On Houston the biggest name and former US national team member Brian Ching was ready to bring down the best team in the league (Galaxy won the Supporters Shield for most regular season points). The game started fairly sloppy which I assume was because of the soaking wet field. The ball was slipping and skipping all over the pitch which lead to very sloppy play on both sides. In the first half LA completely dominated the field and ball possesion. Not only did they have the majority of corner kicks but also had a couple near misses on the goal. In the second half it was more of the same, hard shots, many more corners and several direct kicks just outside of the goalie box. Then at the 72nd minute Beckham lobbed a perfect pass to Keane who fed the ball to Donovan and he made no mistakes on this one by placing the ball in the net for a 1-0 lead. Houston really had no reponse and the time clicked away for a Galaxy championship! The Home Depot center went wild, "We Are The Champions" blasted over the speakers, and the players jumped for joy. Seeing the cup in "our" hands was fantastic. Most players went around the stadium and thanked the fans for a great year (Juninho ran over to the LA Brigade and took the huge Galaxy flag and waved it back an forth on the field bringing the fans to a frenzy).

What a great game, not to be topped anytime soon...