Thunder vs Galaxy

I was excited about the event today. I arrived at the dome 3 hours early to help with the set up and organization, the doors opened at 4PM for the public.

I had let the Bangu players know that they needed to be down behind the Field Level seats at 5PM in order to organize for the youth tunnel, and when I looked over to that section at 4:15PM a crowd had already begun to gather.

When all was said and done, nearly 300 players lined up the entrance to the field to help usher in the two teams. It was a lot of prep and waiting for the 10 seconds or so that each player got to watch the teams go past them, but the experience was worth it.

I spent most of the game walking between the Bangu section and the field itself, and I got the sense that people seemed to be having a very enjoyable time.

All 16 of my U14s were out at the event, and were giddy and excited to get a chance to see Beckham. 

The Bangu Directors have yearly allowances through Nike for apparel, so I was able to offer $100 from my account to two winners for two contests I set up.  The first was a Craziest Fan/Best Sign contest, and the second was a Guess the Goal contest.  For the latter, I asked players to submit guesses as to which team would score the first goal at what time.  The winner was a U11 boys named Alex who guessed LA would score five minutes and fifty seconds into the contest - they scored at the 38:39 mark.  The winner of the Craziest Fan/Best Sign contest was Mo Mo from the U13G Blue team. Her and her mother went wild.

To see many of our club players get into the event with painted hair and faces, creative signs and banners, and with 100+ submitting guesses in anticipation of the match was well worth the $200 in my book.

As for the game itself, the first half was really good.  Though the Thunder went behind early, they played well.  It’s sometimes easy for a team like LA to come into an event like this and go through the motions.  However, with their recent announcement of their new coach (Dutch superstar Ruud Gullit) and Ruud’s statement to the team that he would be watching this game and players knew they were playing for a new coach and their roster spots, both teams played hard.

The Thunder pulled the match level in the second half, but fell short in the PK shootout.

It was fantastic to see players like Bechkam and Donovan combine right in front of us, though in my book the best player on the field was my old Thunder teammate and current Rochester Rhino player Johnny Menyounger.

All in all, a very successful event for the Thunder and for our club.