Red Bulls v New York City

August 25th 2017 and we took the subway across to New Jersey and a place called Harrison in the middle of an industrial area… a bit like the Riverside Stadium at Middlesbrough. The MLS league game was against New York City and therefore a local Derby.
Sports events here are a lot more relaxed than at home, with tailgate parties in the car park, music, beer, kids games and freebies from sponsors. I’m sure there’s the occasional drink related trouble but generally everyone is in good humour from what we saw.

We were given free Red Bulls scarves for signing up to Champion tyres – one of the sponsors and as we were in the home end just behind the singing section we became Bulls supporters for the night. It was well after kick off before the stadium was filled to approximately 70% capacity. Not sure what the average attendance is but considering it was two New York Teams I was surprised at how few City fans were there.

The atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic, led by a couple of drum beaters the singing was loud and constant. There were fireworks at the beginning and kick off a little late due to a smoke filled stadium, but no one made a deal if it. Even the big. loud, funny guy next to us kept us entertained with his unsympathetic comments directed at players rolling on the ground after tackles and loud “get up…GET UP!!” That I’m sure they could hear on the pitch. The little kid sat next to me rolled his eyes and told me he did that every match.
The quality of play was roughly what we were used to with Newcastle United when they are playing badly, no big names other than Sean Wright-Philips but it was a decent game and a draw, though the Bulls should have won.
Despite the number of fans leaving the stadium, it was well organised and we got back to the city by subway with only a short wait.
This was the second time we had gone to a MLS game, the first two years ago to see Orlando City, but due to a long Summer storm, torrential rain for hours, we left before kick off which was at 10:45pm, had to push the car out of a quagmire car park and drive back through floods. Least this time we got to see the game.

We all agreed it’d been a great night and we’re looking forward to the next day when Newcastle played West Ham at home.. which we would miss but had everything crossed for a much needed win.
