On Saturday, August 7, 2010 we saw the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team play an exhibition game against Real Madrid at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Like many people we had gotten into following association football or soccer by watching the World Cup on TV in June and July. This game would feature several players from the World Cup including Landon Donovan from the U.S. team and Iker Casillas from the Spanish team. We got our tickets online a few weeks in advance and by that time there were no more general seating tickets available. We got some assigned seating tickets for about $10 more in section 1-L, row 67. Also online we learned that the Galaxy would have a Soccerfest festival on the grounds near the Rose Bowl in the afternoon before the game.
Before seeing this game neither my wife nor I had actually been inside the Rose Bowl venue proper. We used to walk around the grounds and parking lots of the Rose Bowl in the morning on some Saturdays and Sundays. We called this exercise TMA for Three Milers Anonymous. We still do TMA occasionally. Something else my wife had learned was that a good parking arrangement wasn’t to park in one of the large lots near the Rose Bowl for $20 but to park at Parsons Engineering near Old Town Pasadena for $15 and take a shuttle. On the Saturday, August 7 we left home at 2:20 p.m. took the 210 freeway west and exited at Fair Oaks. We turned left to go south on Fair Oaks and after crossing W. Walnut St. we turned right into the large Parsons Engineering complex. We had to go down some driveways and lots to the far side of the building where there was a large lot, though not too many cars. We parked at around 2:40 p.m. We walked west to Pasadena Ave. where we caught the shuttle. It looked like a Pasadena city bus.
There were only a few other people on the shuttle. A couple of young women next to us looked like diehard Galaxy fans. One of them wore this bracelet with little plastic soccer balls that my wife liked. She said she wanted one like it. The shuttle left right away and got on the 210 freeway north. It exited at Lincoln Avenue, turned left on Lincoln and drove into some neighborhood streets. It turned right on Westgate and later left on Arroyo that led to the Rose Bowl. It dropped us off at Lot H. From there we walked to Soccerfest that was on a large spread of grass nearby.
The festival consisted of several booths, a stage, many places selling food off to one side, many tables and chairs, and already many people, mostly Latinos with many wearing Galaxy gear, or gear for international football teams. Over the course of the evening we saw many jerseys for David Beckham and Landon Donovan. We also saw them for Cristiano Ronal-D’oh (a reference to his appearance in a commercial with Homer Simpson), Zidane, IROD, (Xabi) Alonso, Messi, Higuain, Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Rooney, Drogba, Iniesta, Buddle, Kaka, Tevez, Torres, Ozil, Villa, Eto’o, Cannavaro.
The first booth we visited was Fox Sports soccer channel. They had us fill out forms and gave us some black scarves with their logo. We then queued up at a booth where they had people spin a wheel to win a prize. It was a long, slow queue and while waiting I watched the soccer ball juggling contest at the State Farm booth nearby. Contestants would try to keep the ball from touching the ground without using their hands or arms. An announcer with a microphone would count every time a contestant would touch the ball with their foot, leg, head, or chest. Closer to the front of the queue we could see the prize wheel. When it stopped on the “Pelota Loca” section or “Campeon” a person got a dark blue soccer ball. When it stopped on “Gol” or “Celebrar” they got a Fox Sports T-shirt. After waiting for 20 minutes it was our turn to spin. We were awarded a Fox Sports T-shirt.
We walked around checking out the booths. They had one for making signs, another for temporary tattoos, a small soccer field bordered by an inflated “moon bounce” barrier where many kids played. Near the stage were life-size cardboard cutouts of Galaxy players David Beckham and Landon Donovan. A band came on stage and played Latin and Caribbean music including the song “The Girl from Ipanema.” Many people started to surround the booth of the Futboleros, a group of young people affiliated with the Galaxy who performed juggling tricks with soccer balls set to music. One would balance the ball on the back of his neck, roll it over his shoulders. They kicked the ball into the crowd a few times and I once had to kick it back.
My wife wanted to get some face paint and for $1 got a drawing of Landon Donovan and the word “Donovan”. We also bought a white plastic vuvuzela from a vendor that had a Mexican flag on it. To sound it we blew into small tube on the side with just the right pressure. Later my wife got a blue L.A. Galaxy headband.
We decided to have dinner and there were many choices including barbecue, Mexican food, Cajun food, teriyaki bowls, grilled Middle Eastern food, hot dogs, etc. We first figured out what we wanted and then went to a booth in the middle of the grounds that sold food scrip: red tickets each costing $1. I got some grilled Middle Eastern chicken with sides of hummus, coleslaw and pita bread. It was good, though it got a little messy. The coleslaw had raisins in it. My wife got some fried catfish and Cajun fries to eat and citron lemonade. The food was a bit expensive. I think we had to buy 25 scrip tickets but it was probably better than the food sold inside the Rose Bowl venue itself. We sat down and ate at one of the white round tables with an umbrella. A few other people sat at the table and it looked like they had brought their own food.
Just after 6 p.m. we left Soccerfest and started walking toward the Rose Bowl venue. There were lots of cars parked in the lots surrounding the Soccerfest grounds. Some of their drivers were having their own tailgate parties. People were already entering the Rose Bowl and I noticed that one woman wasn’t allowed to bring in her vuvuzela. We figured the same would happen to us so we blew our vuvuzela a few times, took some photos of me with it around my neck and then hung it on a tree near the chainlinked corridor leading to where the shuttle bus would pick us up. We doubted it would still be there when the game got out but hoped it would. We then entered the Rose Bowl venue for the first time, climbed the very steep bleacher-like rows to our seats, and sat down at 6:23 p.m.
Despite being fairly high up it seemed like we had a pretty good view of the field. They had sprinklers irrigating it when we just entered. The stands didn’t look very crowded at all especially the upper levels. This would change as it got closer to game time with nearly all seats filling. The one right next to ours did not fill, however. Screens that high up on the ends of the stadiums showed ads for Galaxy sponsors Turkish Airlines and Tequila Jimador. They played music over the speakers that included the song “Stop for a Minute” by the band Keane and the rapper K’naan. We had seen Keane in concert two weeks earlier at the House of Blues Las Vegas.
They stopped the sprinklers and at around 6:40 p.m. some players came out to practice on the field. We couldn’t tell who they were. The ones in white uniforms practiced closer to us and in dark uniforms at the farther goal box. By 6:53 both full teams were out. The one near us was the Galaxy and we recognized Landon Donovan. They practiced some shooting and passing drills. Donovan was in the corner closest to us for a short time. At 7:19 p.m. the players left the field. They would actually wear the opposite color uniforms for the game: the Galaxy in dark blue and Real Madrid in white. Some people brought out this circular dark blue parachute-like banner with logos for the Galaxy and their sponsor Herbalife. Staffers also brought out these black boxes with pipes sticking out of them and placed them towards the center. The Galaxy’s mascot, a cute light green smiling alien in a white Galaxy uniform came out and waved to the crowd.
They moved the parachute banner to the middle of the field. The players came out and faced the stands opposite us. They announced some special recognitions of attendees who had helped better their communities. They also announced that this was Galaxy player Clint Mathis’ last professional game. He had played for the Galaxy for many years and had also played for the U.S. in an earlier World Cup where he had scored an impressive goal. Around this time American Idol contestant Ace Stevens performed the national anthem. During the song, fireworks shot out of the boxes with pipes showing us some real “rockets’ red glare.” After they finished they cleared out the banner and black boxes and the players took the field. Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts in a green uniform took his position in the goalbox nearest us. Real Madrid had Jerzy Dudek rather than World Cup winning goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
Not long after we took our seats we saw some people in front of us with these game programs. I found one on our bench closer to the aisle and it was a roster card listing the players’ names for both teams and boxes to enter the names of the goal scorers, the halftime and final scores, the substitutions, and the recipients of red and yellow cards. Only a few players from World Cup teams played in the first half: Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle on the Galaxy, Sergio Ramos (Spanish team), and Lasana Diarra and Rafael Van der Vaart (the Netherlands). We could see the Galaxy players’ numbers and easily tell who they were that way but we couldn’t see the Real Madrid players’ numbers. We kind of had to guess who they were other than the ones with long hair such as Sergio Ramos and braids such as Royston Ricky Drenthe.
The Galaxy seemed to dominate the first half though Sergio Ramos had an impressive tackle early on. On a corner kick at Real Madrid’s end the ball seemed to bounce around between players and finally into the Real Madrid goal. It was credited to Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant. Plays would repeat on the screens. They took Clint Mathis out around midway through the first half to applause from the crowd. Later, Real Madrid player Drenthe high-kicked a Galaxy player in the chest. The Galaxy were granted a free kick for this and Landon Donovan took it and scored putting the Galaxy up 2-0 at the half. There was no stoppage time.
Roundabout halftime many seats behind us were filled by a group of young mostly Caucasians who from what they said sounded like UCLA recent graduates or grad students. During halftime and the second half they talked on and on about their lives, jobs, and parties they’d attended. They only paid attention to the game when someone scored a goal. I found them annoying and tried to drown them out by giving my own commentary on the game as I watched it. Real Madrid put in star goalkeeper Iker Casillas. They seemed to bring out their big guns in the second half and since this was an exhibition game they weren’t limited to just three subs. The Galaxy also brought in a different goalkeeper, Josh Saunders. They didn’t announce all the subs but from their numbers I could tell that Real Madrid put in World Cup players Karim Benzema, Angel di Maria, Xabi Alonso, Gonzalo Higuain, and Cristiano Ronal-D’oh.
Not surprisingly, Real Madrid dominated the second half. Xabi Alonso scored and Higuain scored twice. Cristiano Ronal-D’oh did not score but he set up some of his teammates. When he missed an attempt someone from the crowd yelled, “You suck!” Casillas didn’t get as much action as Dudek did in the first half. There was one point where Casillas did some fancy footwork and faked out a Galaxy player. There were 5-10 minutes of stoppage time at the end of the second half. I noticed one section of fans across the stadium from us but at our end of the field and in much better seats that was cheering very loudly and had lots of banners, signs and, possibly, a drum. They seemed to be a Galaxy fan club. The game ended after stoppage time expired and Real Madrid had won 3-2.
When we left the stadium we ended up walking down the bleachers in front of us because people were so slow going down the aisle. Some people had started leaving before the game ended. It was a slow walk through the tunnel to the outside of the venue. We walked toward where the shuttle buses were and noticed a queue emanating backward away from it. Chainlinked fences, a wooden fence, and staffers enforced the queue that just seemed to go on and on and on. After a long walk we finally found the end and queued up at 9:49 p.m. expecting a long wait. I noticed some people from the Galaxy fan club walk by still chanting loudly. Surprisingly, we didn’t wait long before the queue started moving and it moved quickly. We passed the tree where we had left our $3 vuvuzela trusting that the other attendees wouldn’t touch another’s personal property. Not surprisingly, it was gone.
We reached the shuttle pickup location at 10:15 p.m. The shuttle filled up with all the people in front of us so we caught the next one and were able to sit down. It filled to standing room only capacity. Some people were drunk and a bit loud but no one got too rowdy. Someone jokingly pulled the cord for “stop requested.” I don’t remember if the bus got on the freeway but eventually we were going south on Fair Oaks crossing Mountain Street, Esther Street, and Maple Street. I think we turned right to cross a freeway before arriving at Parsons Engineering at 10:42 p.m. We found our car, followed a line of cars on the drives going out of the complex and I think we had to take a few side streets before getting on the 210 east to get back home. When we got back it was still August 7th. I don’t know when we’ll ever go back inside the Rose Bowl stadium proper, but our first experience there was pretty good. Only the Galaxy losing and us losing our vuvuzela kept it from being perfect.
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