Comments on: At the Gold Cup final in pictures

By: Pitch Invasion · Weekend Wrap

Pitch Invasion · Weekend Wrap — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 01:44:20 +0000

[...] started off this week with a trip to the Gold Cup final, where we watched as a bewildered neutral while the U.S. won on what felt like foreign soil by [...]

By: Thoughts on Blanco - Team News - The Offside - Chicago Fire MLS Soccer Blog

Thoughts on Blanco - Team News - The Offside - Chicago Fire MLS Soccer Blog — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:24:40 +0000

[...] I spent the weekend watching Blanco live - the Fire sensibly having an off-week from MLS during the Gold Cup’s finale in Chicago - I figured I’d post my thoughts and see what other people [...]

By: Notes From A Soccer Junkie » The Gold Cup Final In Pictures

Notes From A Soccer Junkie » The Gold Cup Final In Pictures — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:26:32 +0000

[...] stuff from the folks at Pitch Invasion, who chronicled the entire thrilling 2-1 USA win over Mexico in the Gold Cup final. Check it out, [...]

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 04:05:29 +0000

Thanks for your insights, everyone. I’ll admit, I live in country where soccer gets almost no coverage at all (New Zealand, where the national sport is rugby union), so I’m curious to see how things go in the US.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:29:10 +0000

I think one of the biggest issues facing US Soccer is the income level of its fanbase. Soccer will never be the sport of our fathers (my dad is 51), so it’s left to us twenty-somethings to begin the revolution in this country. There’s one major hurdle, along with a few smaller ones, most of us in our twentys are paying off our huge student loan debt, and can barely afford cable or the bar tab required to even catch games on TV, let alone shelling out money for a ticket and traveling to games. I am currently starting a savings account for tickets and travel for the 2010 qualifiers (my girlfriend thinks it’s for our wedding), sssshhhhhhh!!!!), so that I can at least attend the matches within an eight hours drive of Chicago.

By: Don Hornbeck

Don Hornbeck — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:47:40 +0000

Wonderful photos…. the fact that most in the crowd were for Mexico only makes the US teams effort more impressive. They played their hearts out. GOOD JOB!

By: Michael Coroneos

Michael Coroneos — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:48:43 +0000

Great shots Thomas. It really is great to see 60,000 people watching football in America, even if it was 90% Mexican.

It’s interesting that here in Canada the national team received the most mainstream media coverage I have ever seen them get, but that was only after the semi-final USA loss. In a way that blown offside call might have been a good thing for the exposure of the team, very odd.

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:41:07 +0000

I’m planning on taking a very close look at some of my photos to see exactly who and how many were cheering for the U.S. after their goals in random cross-sections of the crowd. It was surprisingly loud. I’ll report back on what I find…

By: Fullback

Fullback — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:16:39 +0000

Nice pictures! Count me among those shocked by how loud the “USA” chants were towards the end. My favorite bit was when the Mexicans tried to drown it out with a “Mexico” chant of their own but it fell flat and the “USA’s” continued to ring out around the stadium.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:03:56 +0000

Great photos! Watched every minute of the game on FSC and the atmosphere was absolutely electric, which the pics show.

As far as the % of the crowd there to support Mexico versus those there to support the US, there are lots of factors. For starters, Chicago, and the extended area known as Chicagoland, has a very vibrant Mexican community and they showed up. Like many immigrants though, subsequent generations of Mexican-Americans are likely to support both the US and Mexico. When the “USA” chant was echoing through Soldier Field in the second half, it certainly sounded like plenty of folks there to support Mexico were chiming in.

When you look at the growth of Sam’s Army and support the men’s national team, it’s been slowly but surely increasing for years. It’s always going to be tough to get a pro-USA crowd in huge metropolis with tons of immigrants but we’re getting there.

Keep on winning and we’re gonna get there even faster.