I went to the Real Madrid-DC United match at Qwest field yesterday. The attendance was 66K+, which made it the largest soccer crowd ever in the Pacific northwest. I enjoyed myself, even though it wasn’t a particularly good game. One thing about exhibition matches is that all of the tackles are about 80%: nobody wants to risk injury. Some of the Real Madrid players looked a little jet-lagged – Van Nistelrooy was walking (well offside) most of the time, and received some “generous” treatment by the linesmen. Beckham played OK, not great: like a couple of his team-mates, he seemed to have trouble with the relatively narrow pitch. He was subbed at half-time; another aspect of the “exhibition match” is that unlimited substitutions are allowed, which meant that we got to see more of the Real Madrid players but that the team had difficulty settling in to a pattern. DC United played well, but their finishing was very weak. The final score was 1-1, which seemed fair.
Oh, and I may have found an apartment. More anon.