Jay Meydad's Life Mashup

I took my 8 & 5.5 year old sons and their 10 year old cousin who is visiting from Israel to watch the friendly game between LA Galaxy vs Barcelona at the Rose Bowl on Saterdauy. It was a fantastic night and a great memory for all of us, especially for Evyatar, my oldest son, who celebrated his 8th birthday that day.

Notes:

• A packed Rose Bowl with all the pre-game activities outside the stadium provides an amazing atmosphere for a soccer game
• There is such a huge potential to make soccer really big in the US as there is such a hunger by so many people to see the top players play locally. I am certain that if more European players will join the MLS, this league could be really successful. And if the MLS champion will start participating in the Champions league (similar to some discussions related to European basketball team(s) joining the NBA) that could be a real booster for success.
• Barcelona is coming to this season well trained and prepared.It was amazing the see how 2-3 players of Barcelona put pressure on a Galaxy player the second he had the ball
• I have a feeling Zlatan Ibrahimovic will score over 30 goals this season with Messi, Henry and Xavi feeding him with assists
• Galaxy fans are still not over their David Beckham booing. But when he scored a fantastic goal from a free kick, he was god to them. Go figure…

I uploaded plenty of pictures and videos (including Barcelona’s first goal) to this Flickr set but here is a taste.

We are in the midst of amazing two weeks for football (a.k.a soccer) fans:

• Los Angeles Galaxy played AC Milan last Sunday at the Home Depot Center (what a great stadium, no matter where you sit you get to see all the action). That was David Beckham’s first game with the Galaxy after coming back from a load to…AC Milan. He was booed by the fans the entire first half but gave a great game. Regardless of what many fans think, without Becks, the Galaxy are two levels weaker. Here are some photos I took and a video clip of Galaxy’s first goal, an example of how a fast break should be executed. It ended 2:2 and everyone were happy.
• Inter Milan played Chelsea on Sunday at the Rose bowl in front of 82K fans (who said football isn’t popular in the US?). Inter was weak (even with Zlatan), Chelsea was very strong and won rightly 2:0. Pictures here.
• Next Sunday I will see the world’s best team, FC Barcelona, in a game against the Galaxy. Since Zlatan Ibrahimovic just signed for Barca I will have a chance to see him again. I hope he will play much better than his performance with Inter. I hear there are still some tickets on StubHub if you are interested.