International Champions Cup 2014

Upon hearing a few months ago that Manchester City and Olympiakos were coming to Minneapolis as part of the International Champions Cup tour, I immediately jumped on the tickets. Not that Minnesota United lacks quality, but when you get this type of quality coming through the city, well, it's not something you pass up.

Warm ups...



Aside for some last minute turf issues (they laid sod on top of the artificial turf that serves as grass for the University of Minnesota football team) and the warm conditions in the stands, it was a great day of football! Granted, I didn't see the full compliment of starters on each team, but I was interested in watching our (formerly) very own Patjim Kasami on Olympiakos. He started and he didn't make that much of an impact in the half that he played...turned the ball over a bit much for my liking. Sound familiar? I was actually most impressed with David Silva from Man City. That boy has some pace and gave the Olympiakos defenders all they could handle. The match ended 2-2 (5-4 on penalties) for Olympiakos, so it was nice to see Man City lose (as always) and it was very cool to see a shootout.

The crowd was about 34,000 strong (not quite the 109,000 at the Big House in Michigan) with a smattering of random jerseys, mostly Man City jerseys, but I saw my share of Barcelona and Chelsea jerseys. Of course, I did this...



Yes, I represented FULHAM! That's my little girl on the left, who is a Fulhamite, and my wife on the right who is a Tim Howard fan so by default she is an Everton fan (boo!). I actually saw two other guys with Fulham jerseys on and made sure we shared in a quick cheer. And it took every ounce of my being not to say F Chelsea to every Samsung jersey I saw walk by! Although I did quietly boo everytime I saw one and my daughter asked why I was doing that, to which I gave her, her first lesson in rivalries.

A good time was had by all and it is always a beautiful day for some football!