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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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World Cup 2006: US vs Czech Republic in Germany match begins! ESPN All Access segments (in date order; pop-up windows):
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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.
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The future looks bright........no not the New York Red Bulls' future, although hopefully the first win of the season will be the start of continued success. We won't have to wait very long to find out, because on Wednesday the team faces powerhouse FC Dallas, who are coming off their 4-0 thrashing of the Clintless-Revs. I think we all can agree that it has been a horrible start to our season, not to
mention the dark cloud that the petulant Guevara has cast over our Red
Bulls. Without another impact player added to the team we will most likely struggle against the top teams.
The future that I am really referring to is the bright future for the First Row Idiots as a continuing fan community based on the tremendous turnout of kids. Saturday could have officially been called Idiot Youth Day when Ofer drove up with a vanload of five kids, including his 3 children. I brought two 11-year-olds, my son, Dylan, and his neighbor/soccer teammate, Mark. Idiot John's brought along guest, Patrick, who's 10-year-old son, Aaron, become fast friends with Dylan and Mark. Idiot Jason made his first appearance of the season and brought his sleeping 4-year-old son, Joshua. Joshua wasn't asleep for long and in no time was kicking one of the soccer balls around the parking lot, joining Ronen's son, David, who's almost 3-year-old, and the other boys. Missing from the festivities were Greg, who missed his first game of the season, and Paul, who's currently tied with Jason in his race to win his second consecutive Joey Award this year.
Idiot Joey was in charge of food for this tailgate and thanks to his efforts, the usual hotdogs and hamburgers were grilled, supplemented by shrimp; I brought tortilla chips with guacamole. A few of the shrimp, and surprisingly even chips, ended up being grilled also.
The game in the first half was looking like a runaway win as Peguero scored twice and Stammler added a rocket of a shot into the goal from well outside the box. But, true to form the Red Bull defense allowed Chivas USA back into the game. Chivas scored two goals within six minutes in the early part of the second half. The scoring didn't stop there: Stammler answered with a header, then Razov scored, followed by Jean Philippe Peguero completing his hat trick and Palencia converting a very questionable penalty call. The Red Bull ended on the rights side of the golazo game.
Our media savvy children made an appearance on the in-stadium TV screen, but weren't on the TV replay.
Joey's persistent comments questioning which side of the salad bar that Chivas USA player Garcia prefers seems to have rattled him. On his second corner kick try in the second half Garcia sent the ball over the endline.
I am sure that the front office will soon be marking down Guevara jerseys and t-shirts for quick sales. Hopefully, the same won't happen to the actually player and the Red Bulls with get a player of equal or at least similar skill level. Without a doubt Guevara has become the highest paid "fan" that the Red Bulls have on the roster.
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While the weather conditions were questionable the entire week leading up to the match against Chicago, the Idiots proved themselves to be resilient and never backed off from their mission to get together yet again for what would be the 5th tie of a season that seems to be over before it ever really started. Weather forecasts, and even the reliable Doppler 4000, leading up to game day had prognosticated rain; a reminder of the past home games and perhaps a sign of the game’s final outcome.
I, for one, didn’t care so long as I got out of the house and, not to mention, that I was also looking forward to unloading the grill, the bag, the 7 chairs, the table, the condiments, plastic cups, 2 packs of burgers, 1 pack of hot dogs, and buns for said meats. Needless to say, my hope for unloading the stuff was matched only by my hope that Amado would make peace with the team and that the Red Bulls would finally win a match. As many of you now know Amado continues to be a sore on the buttocks of the Red Bulls and the team tied again. Also, I still have the grill. Subsequently I have filed a petition with the FRI membership to have the list reordered such that my name is not followed by Paul, Joey, or Jason; the names of those Idiots that are not likely to show to a game.
At the tailgate were Greg, Ronen, junior Idiot David (who at this point has been to more games than Jason and Paul), and myself. Keith and Ryan (unofficial member) met us in the middle the tailgate after having had the pleasure of watching the Devils successfully and temporarily defend their playoff spot. David spent most of his time in the back of Greg’s truck playing with garbage. He also spent his time taunting Keith for not being able to break the screen of an old TV set in the back of Greg’s truck. In Keith’s defense he did ding it… a little with the 10 lb hitch. Ofer and his junior Idiots joined us later.
As far as the game, it started off with some confusion over Meola’s absence and substitution. In for Meola was Jon Conway who all-in-all had a decent game. The Red Bulls scored their first goal in the first half. The goal was credited to Jean Phillipe Peguero who headed in a cross from Seth Stammler in the 27th minute. Although the team managed its passing and possession well in the first half, the team struggled with dominating the midfield. It’s perhaps for this reason that Mo Johnston decided to sub rookie Marvell Wynne for Amado Guevara. Amado reacted by walking off the field and sitting in the stands with his wife for the remainder of the game.
The game ended in a tie as a result of a penalty kick taken by Chicago’s Diego Gutierrez after Red Bulls Danny O’Rourke took down Nate Jaqua in the box.
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