Wow. Just...wow. This is...like...the best night of my life.
(Okay, I know I'm supposed to go in and add disclaimers here, like, "except for the nights my kids were born" or "except for the night I married my husband," except even they all know I would be lying, so screw it.)
(And by that I of course mean: Love you guys! Wouldn't want to go to these games with anybody but you!)
I hope to have some photos tomorrow, and maybe a bit more coherent analysis, but for now, just random thoughts:
- Good and bad news: My season ticket rep screwed up our tickets, putting one seat w-a-a-a-y at the other end of the row, so one of us would have wound up sitting by him/herself. The bad news is they couldn't fix the season tickets tonight. The good news was that when I brought it to customer service's attention, just for tonight's game they put us in the fourth row, overlooking the midline. Yes, I'm serious. I was maybe 25 feet from Drew Carey as they were preparing the opening ceremony. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
- Drew Carey LOVES this team. I LOVE Drew Carey.
- Who was it that was afraid Tyrone Marshall was too old to keep up? Wasn't me. Nuh-uh. I'm pretty sure I always believed. (Actually, I'm lying. And I was wrong. Sorry, Tyrone!) He and Hurtado were a fantastic central defensive pairing, especially with Osvaldo Alonso and Brad Evans helping out from the midfield. Red Bulls could not get anything going offensively.
- I hate to admit this, but I kind of expected Zach Scott to get smoked going up against Dane Richards. (I love Dane Richards any time he's not playing Seattle, and he is really, really fast.) But Zach definitely held his own, and he did a great job breaking things up on the left and distributing the ball forward. Well done, Zach!
- I really like the way Brad Evans plays in central midfield. He's a force. And that goal was icing on the cake.
- Fredy Freakin' Montero. That is all.
- I absolutely loved the fact that Roger Levesque got subbed in for Fredy in stoppage time. I would have liked to see Roger get a few more minutes, but it was great to get him blooded in MLS, and great for Fredy to get his ovation.
- Yes! to the marching band, Yes! to the ECS, Yes! to all the fans. After the ticket mix-up, we ended up sitting in the prawn sandwich brigade area -- the moneyed place that can be a bit stuffy. And we still stood most of the game, as did everyone around us. Fantastic atmosphere!
- Second half wasn't quite as magic -- they seemed to be sleepwalking for the first 25 minutes or so. But eventually they snapped out of it and Fredy got his second goal. After that they finished strong.
- Wait. This team has only played together for how long?
- Best part of the night? Now Dave (Red Bulls blogger) has to post MY photo. Stay tuned.
That's it for tonight. I'm exhausted. If I can get my pictures uploaded I'll post some tomorrow.
Now tell me about your game experience.