Sweet justice last night!! Wright gets the winner and Auntie Razov gets his scrawny butt kicked up and down the pitch. :-D

AFter the game one of our players overheard me telling one of my friends that I didn't know who I disliked more..the ref or Razov. He jumped in to tell us how he quite enjoyed giving Razov some verbals during the game. hee.

BAck to Chicago on Friday night, then! I wouldn't be surprised if Chicago win it. Should be a fire-y(no pun intended) encounter anyway. At least my (probable) last game at Foxboro was a win!

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000

Answers

I heard the score this morning on the radio, quite surprised really that chicago are still alive in it. I thought you lads would've give the fire a right beatin', Still wait till friday. I know a lady that works for the fire orgainzation so I'll be sure to mention that part about razov. I might just throw in some things that weren't said just to make sure he is good and pissed off for friday. After a great start to football over here it seems to have died off a bit, espcially in chicago. What is the status of the game on the east coast? Guns still blazing or has it died a bit. I think it's down to exposure (or lack of it) from the press. There are some particularly shitty pressmen out here that report the fires scores behind those of local hight schools. Just got a note from biffa (nufc.com) no goals will be posted due to some premier league intervention.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000

LOL! I think both sides will be plenty wound up for Friday's game already. Last night was the Revs first playoff win...EVER. They're fired up and full of belief that they can move on to the semis. Razov will really want to prove something, and be happy to be back in front of a home crowd. Even the Foxboro crowd laid into him during the game. Plenty of boos when he was on the ball(or diving). My favorite lunatic in the next section gave him plenty when he was down our end, and huge cheers whenever he got kicked by one of our players or sent the ball over the net/out wide/etc. It was actually great fun as I've never heard our crowd dish out that much sustained abuse (as well as sustained vocal support for the Revs!). still nothing compared to EPL, however.

It may have been because last night's crowd was more adult than usual and the real die-hards, which there was a surprising number of. I need to find out what the attendance was because there were way more than the 5,000 tickets sold before yesterday. Great turnout for a Tuesday night during the school year, in the rain, and with barely a week's notice for marketing/ticket sales! And the pre-printed marketing material all had us playing on the 20th, so they also had to get word out of the date change.

As for the popularity of the game here, it's still relatively strong. I don't know in terms of actual figures, but I don't think it's dropped very much. The team still have to market very aggressively, and do target schools and youth teams quite a bit. The game is hugely popular at that level and the kids seem to have a great time at the games. The night of the MLS Camp graduation we were overrun by thousands of the little beggers in Soccer Celebration :-0

Media coverage is the usual problem...still not enough and not with enough respect. BUT, it has improved dramatically over the last 2 seasons. At least results aren't given with a sneer anymore. Heck, we're the only major Boston team in a playoff right now! Still hurts a bit though after seeing how much coverage and respect MLS gets in DC and especially Columbus. We'll get there...eventually. :-)

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2000