The MLS Cup

I had another fun weekend, this time on account of the fact that Ramya came down to the LP and Eric was in town for business, so he was able to stop by as well. We played Simpsons Clue (Ramya won 2 games, Eric 1), Trivial Pursuit '90s Edition (Eric won, but I had all my pie pieces), Skip-Bo (I crushed them)- oh yeah, we painted the town red. Saturday they even helped me get my Christmas lights up. It went much faster with three people- we did it the same way I do it every year. At one point after Ramya wound the lighted garland around the columns she said "Oops, one of them is going a different way than the other two. Is that going to bother you?" I responded "Have we met?" and she was kind enough to redo it. Please note that I will not be turning them on until after Thanksgiving.

But the real event was today when we traveled up to DC for the Major League Soccer Championship game. Eric is quite the soccer fan, and his hometown Houston Dynamo were playing for their second straight title against the New England Revolution. I don't follow soccer, and I've never seen an MLS game live or on TV, but I figured that since American Soccer's Superbowl was happening right up the road, why not check it out? The fact that I've had it with Boston sports/fans in general and this gave me a chance to root against them just sweetened the deal (you'll never guess who owns the Revolution). And would you believe that there were a ton of tickets available, even at the last minute?Like I said, I don't know soccer. I'm a (American) football guy. So I found the biggest difference to be that the game was so constant and flowing- there was no start of play, end of play. It was just guys kicking the ball around for 45 minutes at a time. In turn, there was no announcer giving play by play. Although anything they did say over the PA was given in English, then Spanish. Grr.

The stadium seemed to be less than half full, with about half of those in attendance wearing the colors of the hometown DC United. The ground level did have rabid fans of each team, who spent the entire contest waving flags, pounding drums, leading cheers, and otherwise emulating their European counterparts. I noticed that whenever Houston had a corner-kick down by the New England fan section, a hailstorm of streamers, garbage, water bottles etc pelted the field to distract the player. The refs didn't seem to do anything about it, so I figured that maybe this was common in soccer. But it didn't go the other way- the Houston fans left the players alone. I take this to mean that New England fans are jerks in any sport.

If there was one downfall in the outing, it was our trip to the concessions stand. Now, I've been in some slow moving lines before, but this was the worst. We left before halftime to get some food, and not only did it take the entire 30 minutes (although Ramya held our place in line while I ducked out to watch Jimmy Eat World perform) but we were still standing there long enough into the second half to miss both Houston goals and the headbutt. Maaaan! Still, it was a fun time and it was just perfect that Eric happened to be in town to see the game.

On our way back to the Metro we learned that Eric hasn't been to DC since 8th grade, so we decided to hit some monuments. We did the standard Washington-Lincoln-Vietnam walk, but then Eric really wanted to see the Korean War Memorial, so we trekked over there. I had never seen it before, and in lieu of names it has several portraits etched into marble walls. In passing we noticed this guy:Look like anyone you know? Seriously, that soldier looks like a young me with a smaller mouth and bigger eyes. It was slightly eerie.

So this weekend Ramya and I are off to New York to meet Carly and Daniel for Thanksgiving with their friends Sean and Jenny. After that, it looks like Eric might be back in town, so this time we're going to do a for real Smithsonian trip. Have a great Thanksgiving!