Soccer, missed one, caught one

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Tom: Our plan for Saturday was to watch the Man U vs Chelsea game at bar on 8th Ave, however somewhere along the way we got local and gmt mixed up, so we arrived in Manhattan for 12 noon only to find the match had started @12 noon gmt, 5 hours previous. Even worse was to come when we discovered that the Blue scum had won and that the title race was going to go to the wire.

So with our plans well and truly scuppered we just mooched round Central Park and finished up with a few beers in Manhattan followed by a few more back at the hostel.

So on to today, Sunday, and we popped over to New Jersey to watch NY Redbulls play San Jose Earthquakes at the Giants stadium. A good game, won 2-0 by NYR but it was an odd atmosphere as the 6000 or so fans came nowhere near filling the 80000 capacity stadium. Football might catch on over here sooner or later and i sincerely hope the home fans learn to make some noise - the 150 or so traveling fans out-sang the NY faithful hands down.

The pizza on the way home was excellent and now we'll sit down and plan the Chicago stage of our travels, tho i am failing at thinking and typing due to a severe lack of coffee. The instant coffee over here is so bad it's undrinkable - i can really understand how Starbucks et al are making a killing.

Msg to mum: try chocolate covered raisins with porridge :D - not quite as healthy as your organic raisins but certainly a good treat!

Tim: Having been forced to extend our stay by a few days and having seen quite a bit of what Manhattan had to offer we have now taken to getting in these American sporting events experienced. Football has nowhere near the following it does in Europe and it showed with the quality of play, not to say that the game was dull in anyway. I would have liked to have seen more passion from the New York fans with whom we were sitting. So far getting to games and picking up tickets at the gate has been easier than expected and we could not do that at home. We are going to have one last good look around Manhattan tommorow and we are going to visit the Little Italy and Chinatown areas and eat some of their food.

New York has been good but having spent a week here now I am looking forward to the change that Canada will no doubt bring.

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Photos

NY Redbulls football
not Soccer!

The first GOAAAAALL!
from the penalty spot(about the only decision the ref got right)

The vocal SJE fans
they were amazing!