Good Old Beckham

I did it. I know I said that I wouldn’t go to any more Real Salt Lake games since they raised their ticket prices (again) but they offered them from work, and they were at a group rate, so I got some. I purchased the tickets back in March. The game was in May and I was dreaming about a beautiful summer-like evening spent with friends at a soccer game. Sadly, my dreams of 70 degree summer nights was off by a couple of months. But I won’t complain because it didn’t rain and we were able to enjoy a semi-warm-ish night where only a jacket was needed.

The game was against the LA Galaxy, and the first thing I noticed is that I recognized more players on the visiting team than I did on my own. The entire roster of the RSL has changed since I was a season ticket holder 2 years ago. The only player I recognized on my team was Andy Williams; he is the only one that is still around. The Galaxy had a lot of familiar faces. First, there was Chris Klein, who played for the Real, then there was Landon Donovan, who played on the US national team, and of course, there was David Beckham. I was actually surprised to see him playing in the game. But my surprise would quickly turn to anger.

RSL started out very well, by scoring two goals and we were having a party. It was fun, we were winning! But then, good old Beckham scored a goal. Oh well, at least we are still up by one. But then, good old Beckham scored another goal! Oh well, at least we are tied. But then, good old Beckham didn’t score again and we got to end in a tie. Not a lot of closure there, technically it is better than a loss. There was a moment in the 2nd half when someone on RSL (yeah, I don’t know who any of them are) took a nice chunk out of Beckham and he had to lie on the ground for about 3 minutes and take off his shoe. I was wondering if we had caused him another season ending injury, but a miracle occurred (as they often do on the soccer field) and he was healed. OH, and at the end of the game he was nice enough to had his very sweaty jersey to a girl in the crowd. She promptly put it on. (after 90 minutes of him running around in it, I am not sure I would have done that)

The game was fun. I felt like the team was playing a better game of soccer than they had the past couple of years. But I won’t get too excited; the tickets are still too expensive.