(no subject)

Today I went to the home opener of NYC FC, the new New York City MLS team that is playing its games at Yankee Stadium. The weather was brutal, windy and cold, but I do not regret going. I've gone to several New York Red Bulls games over the years, both at Giants Stadium and at their new soccer-only stadium in Harrison, and I have never had as much fun at one of those games as I had today. It actually felt like the game was somehow momentous, like it represented a step forward in terms of New Yorkers actually caring about soccer. The crowd was 40,000+ strong and it was enthusiastic all game. I was probably standing half the game, joining in chants and cheers and yelling my head off.

NYC FC is headlined by David Villa, late of La Liga and the Spanish National Team. Dude is following in the footsteps of plenty of other slightly-past-their-prime Europeans coming over to the US for a paycheck, but he scored the first goal of the match, threatened a couple of other times, and provided everything the team could have asked for as far as star power. His good game was matched by some excellent goalkeeping with Josh Saunders, including a pretty miraculous out of position save/accidental scorpion kick.