firstrowidiots.com

Site Change

keith — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 21:10:00 GMT

Photos will now be hosted on firstrowphotos.com, our photo partner site. Previously photos were hosted on this site, but now firstrowphotos.com is the place to go for the latest, as well as past, photos.

As part of the move, we've fixed the photo search engine on firstrowphotos.com and removed watermarks from the thumbnails images.

If you have any suggestions or comments, let me know at keith (at) firstrowphotos.com.

8/12 - FC Barcelona play New York Red Bulls

keith — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:21:00 GMT

firstrowphotos.com game day photos

firstrowphotos.com FC Barcelona Press Conference Photos

8/10 FC Barcelona Press Conference Photos

keith — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 17:08:37 GMT

Photos from Thursday night's press conference at Giants with FC Barcelona are now online. A very special thanks to Idiot Brian for help with identifying players.

firstrowphotos.com photos

NBA MVP Steve Nash Trains with RBNY

keith — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:10:48 GMT

Red Bull Players and press were surprised today by an appearance at practice by Phoenix Suns’ basketball star Steve Nash. Nash, who lives in New York City in the offseason, is a big soccer fan and spent the day training with the team.

Two photos, provided by Red Bull New York

2006 MLS All Star Game

keith — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:34:00 GMT

Keith of firstrowidiots.com/firstrowphotos.com attended the 2006 MLS All Star game at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois. Media day was on Friday, August 4th. The game, which was the MLS All Stars versus Chelsea FC, took place on Saturday, August 5th. Full coverage below.

08.04 - Media Day

Photos from firstrowphotos.com

Recap - Idiot Keith
Recap - MLSNET

08.05 - Game Day

Tailgating -- Contains 11 Photos

Pre-Game -- Contains 21 Photos

2006 MLS All Star Game -- Contains 47 Photos

Post-Game -- Contains 44 Photos

Recap - MLSNET
Video - MLSNET

2006 All Star Game: Media Day Photos

keith — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 17:23:00 GMT

firstrowphotos.com has photos from Friday's All Star events.

2006 All Star Game: Friday Media Day

keith — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 16:22:00 GMT

Having a pretty full agenda of events, I got up yesterday, packed up my gear and headed to Toyota Park to check out the MLS All Stars practicing and catch the Commissioner’s State of the League Address.

Following the instructions provided to me by the league, when I arrived located the gate they told media to use to enter. Unfortunately, when I got when I got there at 10am, an hour into the day’s events, the gate’s fence was shut and there was no way in. I turned my car around and searched for another entrance that was open. Luckily a guard was posted at the VIP entrance and I was able to enter.

Unfortunately the entrance was on the other side of where they were letting media into the stadium, so I had to take a long walk around the outside of the stadium.
One thing that was very noticeable was the amount of work still being done to the recently opened stadium. There were gardening and construction crews all around busily preparing the stadium for the big game.

The players hadn’t made their way on to the field yet, so I headed up to the press box. The press box didn’t have a lot of people, but construction and wiring crews were busy enhancing the space with plasma TVs and all sorts of new cabling.

I met about a bunch of local media and we chatted about the soccer, the previous day’s MLS All Star practice at University of Illinois Chicago (which lasted about 30 minutes), the fact the almost a large majority of the All Star team was made up of D.C. United players and the Wednesday’s nightmare Open Cup game at Toyota Park which got canceled after a 4 hour rain delay.

Around 10:30, the team finally made its way onto the field, so we all ventured down as a group.
For the next hour, I took pictures of the team’s training session, which include different drills and workouts. Afterwards, several players signed autographs for local kids, while Peter Nowak answered reporters’ questions. Eventually ai players, including Freddy Adu, Jaime Moreno and Jimmy Conrad came over and took part in one-on-one Q&As with reporters.

After the training and Q&A ended, we headed up to the Stadium Club for lunch, which would be followed by the Commissioner’s State of the League Address.

During lunch, I had a chance to talk to Matt Chmura of the Red Bulls. Although no Red Bulls were in the All Star roster, he told me Bruce Arena and [Managing Director] Marc De Grandpre were in town for the day attending league meetings. Seth Stammler would be at the game today during league public relations, though.

Before the Commissioner’s State of the League Address, MLS held a press conference with John Skipper, Executive Vice President for Content with ESPN to announce a long rumored deal between the league and the network. For the first time in league history, ESPN will pay for the rights to telecast MLS games. Starting with 2007 to 2014, ESPN will broadcast 26 regular-season games on Thursday nights. (Fox Soccer Channel will have a national game each week on Saturday nights). The first game of the season, the All Star game and MLS Cup game will be shown on ABC. Skipper, who is a big soccer fan, believes strongly in the sport and its growth in the United States.

"I'm the ... latest knucklehead that thinks soccer is going to work in the United States," Skipper said. "Fortunately, if I'm a knucklehead, I'm a knucklehead at ESPN. If we get ESPN behind soccer in this country, it is almost impossible for me to believe that we can't move this forward.
Skipper said ESPN was taking the coverage very seriously and was working on different production ideas, including a skycam, and providing viewers with different stats throughout the game, both ideas being similar to how they do it with NFL broadcasts.

Garber’s address on the State of the League was extremely positive. Good news for the Red Bulls was announced when Garber informed the media that the league was weeks away from finalizing a plan that would allow teams to sign players on their youth teams without them having to be placed in the draft.

MLSNet has a good recap of his comments and commissioner’s State of the League Address.

After the State of the League address, the next scheduled event was a 20 minute Chelsea press conference and followed by a 2 hour training session on the field. Unfortunately though, those events didn’t start for another 2 and half hours, so I decided to call it a day.

I’ll be heading to the stadium pretty early this afternoon to catch both teams warming up and stake out my position on the field for the game.

I’ll post more tomorrow.

firstrowidiots.com/firstrowphotos.com 2006 MLS All Star Game Schedule

keith — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:43:00 GMT

Although no Red Bulls will be playing in the All Star game this weekend at Toyota Park in Chicago, I’ll be there covering the game versus Chelsea FC complete with tons of photos and a few blog posts.

I’ll be spending most of the day on Friday and Saturday at Toyota Park covering the events leading up the game and the game itself.

Here’s a schedule of the media events I’ll be at: (all times are CT)

Friday, August 4

9:00 AM – 11:00AM – Gatorade Chalk Talk and Stadium Tours (Gatorade Youth Program)
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM – MLS All-Stars training session
1:15 PM – 2:00 PM – Commissioner’s [State of the League] Press Conference
5:00 PM – 5:20 PM – Chelsea press conference (Jose Mourinho & Chelsea player TBA)
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM – Chelsea FC training session (public was able to purchase tickets to this session)

Saturday, August 5

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM – Soccer Celebration – Toyota Park Gate B (Features entertainment for all ages, player autograph sessions, giveaways and prizes, soccer clinics, interactive displays, soccer inflatables and more.)
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM – 2006 Sierra Mist All-Star Game – Toyota Park

Open Cup: Red Bulls Advance to Quarterfinals, with 2-1 Victory

keith — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:34:00 GMT

The Red Bulls defeated the Wilmington Hammerheads, 2-1. Seth Stammler scored in the 4th minute. The game remained 1–0 until in the 85th minute, Wilmington's Ryan Miller tied the game up. The tie didn’t last long: New York regained the lead a minute later with a goal by Jordon Cila.

The Red Bulls will play D.C. United on August 23rd at RFK, in Washington D.C..

Check out MLS MatchTracker for game details.

7/29: Red Bulls Tie Houston

keith — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:24:00 GMT

Same old, same old?!

brian — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 22:56:00 GMT

Another Red Bulls home game, another rainy Saturday afternoon, another washed out tailgate party and probably another blown lead too. Since early this Spring, the pattern has become all to familiar for the faithful Red Bulls/ Metro fans.

But maybe not this night? Not now. Not after Bruce Arena signed up to be our new head coach. Not now. Not after Richie Williams and the RBs were riding a two-game win streak (more precisely, two shutouts) into Saturday night's contest with division rival Kansas City. Not now. Call it a feeling, call it good karma, call it what you want, but for whatever reason, there was some pre-game excitement in the air and this FRIer was flying high on it.

After finishing off multiple Heinekens, some food, Coronas and a few slices of David's Oreo flavored birthday cake, we (Keith, Ronen, his son David, my friend Ryan and I) packed up our outdoor/ indoor tailgate at the Marina/ Waterfront/ Driving range restaurant and headed for our old soccer venue. Making our way safely through the rain to the friendly confines of section 114, our ranks were swollen by the arrivals of Kevin, Paul and Ofer & company.

Upon getting comfortable, we were immediately struck by the fact that our new super hero striker Jean-Philippe Peguero was not in the starting lineup. What?! Is JPP hurt? Is he at another wedding? Has he been sold to another club? One of the harsh realities of being a MLS fan hit us once Keith verified via the Internet that JPP was getting his passport ready for a new European home. Saddened by the probable news, the FRIs were determined to not lose faith. We knew that if we were going to keep these fresh and tasty streaks alive, it was going to take a lot of yelling, drinking, irritating and screaming to get us a victory.

The first half was played at a good pace and the possession fairly balanced. Thankfully the blood colored herd struck first in the 25th minute off a smart pass from Seth Stammler into the box. Marvell Wynne started the action which resulted in a well-timed poke by the author's number one home boy striker/ midfielder/ friend-of-Corona Mike Magee. After what would prove to be the winner, the RBs did not relent. And neither did the FRIs. Upon witnessing the awe and sheer power of KC's world class strikers Josh Wolff and Eddie Johnson, the FRIs showed them the respect that they earned playing for the USA against the Czechs last June.

Although the Wizards were much less than magical, they did mount a couple of rallies in the early and late portions of the second half. Fortunately the RBs defense, led by our moose-of-a-keeper Jon Conway, were more than up to the task. Once the whistle blew, the RBs were once again on the right side of the scoreboard for the third consecutive match and now in sole possession of third place in the MLS East Division.

Thus, a new and more pleasant pattern continues on. Let's hope this one gets to feel real familiar.

7/22 - Red Bulls Win Third Straight!

keith — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 02:36:00 GMT

7/19: Red Bulls 2, Columbus 0

keith — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 14:30:00 GMT

Red Bulls Introduce Bruce Arena as Head Coach and Sporting Director

keith — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 20:33:00 GMT

Coverage of Red Bull New York's press conference to introduction Bruce Arena as the new Sporting Director and Head Coach. The press conference was at New York City's Stone Rose Lounge. Bruce was joined by RBNY's Managing Director Marc de Grandpre.

Recap - Idiot Ronen
firstrowphotos.com photos
Audio - Streaming Audio from Press Conference (30 minutes; requires Windows Media Player; encoded by firstrowidiots.com from audio feed provided at event)
Video - MSG Interview with Bruce Arena
Video - Redbulls.com Highlights (13:37)
Recap - Big Apple Soccer - Get Ready for Arena Futbol
Recap - Big Apple Soccer - Welcome Wagon
Recap - Herald News - Arena to become latest big name to coach team
Recap - MSG Network's Steve Cangialos - Bringing in Arena is the right move

The Bruce Arena Press Conference

ronen — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 20:20:00 GMT

Red Bull has given Arena the keys to the castle. Yup. One leaves the press conference after basking in Arena’s confidence feeling that Red Bull made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Was it the money or the absolute autonomy he’d enjoy in building a soccer club? Or was it a combination of them both.

Arena will pack up his familia and move up north. He’ll be both be the soccer director and the coach. He’s gonna keep Richie (as assistant coach) and Des (the goalkeeper coach). He’ll add a few more to the team, including a technical director, fitness coach, and third assistant, and anyone else he damn well pleases.

Here are some highlights:

Appetizers were passed around before he finally arrived (he was about 40 minutes late), which included shrimp, kobe beef, sushi, chicken wraps and other stuff. So if he was an hour late, none of us would have cared.

Final design of the stadium will be ready in a few weeks. It will be the best soccer stadium in North America.

They’re working on two separate paths to complete a practice facility for the team and the youth teams to utilize. In case one fails, they’ll have the other. Could be ready before the stadium.

Arena seems optimistic of a team that has Wynne, Mendes, Guevara, Stammler, Buddle, O’Rourke. He mentioned Guevara more then any other and thinks he’s one of the best midfielder in the league.

There are no plans for an immediate acquisition while the transfer window is open. He’ll probably try and improve the team through trades and whatnot.

Arena thinks DC is the best team in MLS and is excited to play against them.

Paul Gardner asked where the players were in a negative way and Arena, classically, answered something like: Well, they have practice and I believe they’re on a 1:00 plane to Columbus for tomorrow’s game. Gardner is an idiot.

Arena drank some Red Bull.

Gio tells us that all of the Red Bull youth teams are in first place.

Arena kept mentioning that things will not be done cheaply and that Red Bull is behind him with whatever resources he’ll need.

He came to terms with Red Bull about 10-14 days ago.

At first, he didn’t want to return to MLS but after his conversations with the company executives in Austria and here, he though it was a unique situation where he can make a big difference and help the team/league get better.

Bruce Arena Named Sporting Director, Coach of Red Bull New York

keith — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:40:00 GMT

The Red Bulls announced today they have hired outgoing U.S. men's national team coach to be Sporting Director and Head Coach of the club.

The team will hold a 1p.m. press conference today and we'll be there to cover it.

More details in the team's official release.

Image provided by Red Bull New York

7/14: Red Bulls Get 3rd Win of Season

keith — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 14:28:00 GMT

June 10 - July 8, 2006 Game Summaries

keith — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:27:00 GMT

World Cup fever slowed down firstrowidiots.com’s coverage of the Red Bulls during June 10th to July 8th. The following is a summary of those games:

6/10: RBNY vs Houston : 1-1

MLSnet.com Recap

6/17: RBNY vs LA Galaxy : 2-1

MLSnet.com Recap

6/25: Chicago Fire vs RBNY : 2-0

MLSnet.com Recap

6/28: RBNY vs Columbus Crew : 2-1

firstrowidiots.com Recap (coming soon)

7/01: NE vs RBNY: 3-2

MLSnet.com Recap

7/04: LA Galaxy vs RBNY vs : 1-0

MLSnet.com Recap

7/08: FC Dallas vs RBNY : 2-1

MLSnet.com Recap

Idiots in Germany: World Cup 2006 Photos

keith — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 23:37:58 GMT

I've got through over 1000 photos from 3 different cameras (Ronen, Joey’s and mine) and selected highlights of the Idiots trip to the World Cup 2006 in Germany. Drew will be posting a full recap of the whole trip in the near future.

World Cup 2006

06.10 to 11 - Trip to Germany
Contains 29 Photo(s)

06.11 - Frankfurt
Contains 20 Photo(s)

06.12 - Frankfurt
Contains 11 Photo(s)

06.12 - Gelsenkirchen: USA vs Czech Republic
Contains 63 Photo(s)

06.12 - Night in Dusseldorf
Contains 7 Photo(s)

06.13 - Dusseldorf
Contains 11 Photo(s)

06.13 - Köln (Cologne)
Contains 41 Photo(s)

06.14 - Leipzig
Contains 44 Photo(s)

06.15 - Berlin
Contains 75 Photo(s)

06.16 Frankfurt
Contains 21 Photo(s)

06.17 - Frankfurt
Contains 12 Photo(s)

06.17 Kaiserslautern: USA vs Italy
Contains 87 Photo(s)

WC2006 Begins!

keithwc — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:54:00 GMT

Yesterday, the World Cup started with a German 4 to 2 victory versus Costa Rica.

Today the Idiots will be boarding flights to Germany! Joey is already in Europe and the rest of us we'll be on flights to join him in less than 12 hours.

We'll be attending the US games versus Czech Republic and Italy games. Our travels will bring us to Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Dusseldorf, Leipzig, and Kaiserslautern.

Stay tuned to firstrowidiots.com for blogging updates throughout the week.

RB Tie Again, Red Bulls - 1, KC -1

keith — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 16:28:46 GMT

May 24th: Ecuador vs Colombia Photos

keith — Mon, 29 May 2006 16:50:00 GMT

After the Red Bulls vs Dallas game, 52,425 fans watched Ecuador prepare for the World Cup with an International Friendly versus Colombia. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. Check out firstrowphotos.com photos.

Two week Countdown from Now: 6/12 @ 12pm ET; ESPN Clips

keith — Mon, 29 May 2006 15:18:00 GMT

World Cup 2006: US vs Czech Republic in Germany match begins!

ESPN All Access segments (in date order; pop-up windows):

Game Recap - May 24th - Red Bulls vs. Dallas

keith — Sat, 27 May 2006 15:14:00 GMT

Bulls 1 - Dallas 2: the NY Red Leeches

ronen — Thu, 25 May 2006 14:56:00 GMT

Thanks to dictionary.com, I can quote the following definition for a "leech".

    "To drain the essence or exhaust the resources of."

So off I was from the city on a quick bus to Harmon Meadow, where my fellow idiots met up to be served some good (and cheap) pitchers of Pennsylvania beer from five and a halfers walking around with hooters type clothing. Seems this would be the last time we'd meet together before Germany.

Anyway, in my mind, eating and drinking is good for your body, generally, and helps the blood flow and circulate, as does walking, cheering and again, in my mind, just lounging around. Full of circulating blood (red blood) we all headed over to the stadium and discovered the parking lot filled with Ecuadorians and Colombians all there to watch the Red Bulls. I still don't understand why their tickets said the MLS match started at 8:30.

I digress, only because we all thought to ourselves (and to each other) "can you imagine if every Red Bull game was like this?"   Well it isn't and it won't be.

So it all started there. We saw a great turnout for a game not involving our team. There goes the first pint.

Getting into the stadium, albeit a little pale, we notice about 10-15% of the eventual crowd there, and checking the concessions, also noticed that the Red Bull jerseys are still not available for purchase. We paid $85 for a 16 oz. beer and went down to our seats. Collectively, there goes the second and maybe the third pint.

Now, on to the festivities. We all know that a leech is any of the various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, of which one species was formerly used by physicians to bleed patients and is now sometimes used as a temporary aid to circulation during surgical reattachment of a body part. Because our cooler was filled with beer and not a leg, we all ignored the second part of that definition and sat to watch our beloved Red Bulls. Its common knowledge that a bull is an adult male bovine mammal. Some mammals, based on common knowledge, are carnivores, while other weirdos decide to be vegans.   The vegan comment has nothing to do with anything, other then to point out that they're weird.

So, getting back to my thesis, both the leech and the bull are carnivores, so, they are pretty much identical creatures right down to their ear lobes (if leeches had ears). Now that I've proven that, lets continue to the 90 minute medical procedure performed on the idiots by Dr. Mo and his staff which began at approximately 6:30 pm. With every missed tackle, bad pass, missed shot, blown coverage, stumble, slip and uninspired play, they systematically removed the remaining pints of blood from our bodies. We did everything we could to replenish the lost fluids with beer, but there's only so many $85 Buds one group can buy.

The Red Leeches once again lost a lead and gave up two late goals to a better-in-the-standings Dallas team. While Nurse Graham (yes, there are male nurses) fell over himself to make sure Ruiz got the game winner, Dr. Mo continued to make sure our number one intern watched from the bench.   So, pale and weak, we all looked around and clamored for that small glass of orange juice to make sure we didn't faint.

In conclusion, I've now become a casual observing mammal, a dingo that never strikes if you will. I watch two soccer teams play for three points because I love the game. In the eleven years I've been watching the MetroStars/Red Bulls, I can whole heartedly admit that the visiting team has, on more occasions, been the better and more entertaining team.   Not exactly sure when I'll be donating blood again.