On The Ball with Mark Wheat: A Gorgeous Day in the Neighborhood
by Mark Wheat
August 04, 2014
On the Ball with Mark Wheat is a Monday feature on The Current that celebrates the connections between music and soccer, with an eye to the past weekend's results. Listen Monday at 7 p.m. as Mark plays the music selection of the week.
Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day in our neighborhood! The weather was perfect and I got to see two amazing spectacles in two different stadiums!
At TCF Bank Stadium on the campus of the U of M, nearly 35,000 people showed up, again indicating soccer's rising profile in America. It was a doubleheader featuring Man City, the champions of England, and our own budding champs Minnesota United.
The City game ended 2-2 and so went to penalties, which were played out at the end where we were siting, which was great drama, even going to extra-time penalties! Olympiacos were the victors, which pleased this Man Utd fan only a tiny bit. It was just awesome to see such players in the flesh as Yaya Touré, who I had as the captain of my fantasy team all last season, along with faves like Silva, Milner and England goalkeeper Joe Hart, who had a very shaky game, especially with his clearances. The crowd was largely NON partisan it seemed and therefore a little quiet, but we did get one Mexican wave going around the stadium at least five times towards the end. Mr. Rand was there, too, and shared his thoughts on The Current's Morning Show.
My need to get ready to see Sir Paul McCartney later that night with nearly 40,000 peeps at Target Field meant that I couldn't stay to watch our local team continue their unbeaten run of 8 straight games. They started well with a goal in 4 minutes, then let bottom-of-the-table club Ottawa forge a way back into the match before winning with a 60th minute penalty.
While City were losing the chance to go into the Final of this International Championship which has been played out over the past two weeks in the USA, their noisy neighbors Man United continued the unbeaten run under their new manager by beating European Champions Real Madrid 3-1 in Michigan. It was the largest audience ever to watch a game in America — more than the World Cup Final of Brazil vs France at the Rose Bowl back in 1994 — with over 109 thousand in the Big House! Apparently the tickets sold out in a day to the University of Michigan community and a lot of local youth teams. The Final is tonight between Man Utd and Liverpool, two hooj rivals who say that they are taking the game very seriously despite the short rest time and the approaching Premier league season starting Aug. 16.
Some of you in other parts of the country will have a new way of watching the games of the EPL as they are being shown in cinemas in some cities, but not the Twin Cities as yet — what up with that?!
And speaking of Fantasy League, I was bitten by the bug last year and will continue to play this season, and we've created a league in Fantasy Premier League called 89.3 The Current. I'd love as many of you OTB readers as possible to join and take on Wheat United!! Joining the league couldn't be easier. Simply use this link and you'll be added automatically after you've entered the game. You shouldn't need the league code, but just in case, here it is: 576712-146966.
For our musical tie-in this week, we have to thank Jade, the producer of The Current's Morning Show, for finding this cool article in Paste magazine. We'll play one of the songs with obscure soccer references mentioned in the article … maybe even The Beatles one, "Dig It", if you haven't got sick of them this weekend!?
BTW … Sir Paul was awesome, too; Andrea Swensson captures it really well in her article!
Were you at the TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday? What are your thoughts? How about Paul McCartney? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
