• Real Madrid vs. Manchester United | Sights & Sounds from Michigan Stadium (2014)

    Rooney turns on one in the first half (MVictors photo) Quick hitters: What an awesome event.  For all the beatings #1000SSS has taken lately, hats off to Hunter Lochmann and Dave Brandon for putting this together. Strongly feel we need to keep using this facility for events like this.  Fielding Yost would have loved this. I was naive to think there’d be a big overlap between Michigan football fans and this event.  Wrong, this was a completely different crowd and demographic.  Evidence: The traffic mess..but not because NB Ann Arbor-Saline was closed.  It was because of the noobs.  From the east folks figured the best way to get to the stadium was down M-14 to downtown.  From the south, the masses went to the Washtenaw exit off of 23 – which IIRC is where the signs tell you to go.  Yikes.  Backups started 3-4 hours before the game. The Wave..your old lame friend The Wave was spun up in the first half but..it was actually kind of cool.  No, not because the wave is cool, but because unofficially 99.4% of the crowd participated and screamed like girls.  It felt like 1989. Languages..circling the field I think I heard 7-8 different languages. Newsflash: Ronaldo is indeed one handsome cat.  And it was pretty cool when he stepped down on the field…

  • Big House English Football

    Dave Brandon (center) and the folks responsible for the match at midfield today It’s official – Man U and Real Madrid will play August 2, 2014 at 4pm.  Sounds like the delay in getting this announced was dealing with the pitch: how to get natural grass and how to get a field of adequate dimensions for a game.  More details: Beer?  Yes.  Liquor license request is in the State Legislature but you can book it: Guinness will pour at the Big House on August 2. Field?  They will bring in large chunks of natural grass 48 hours before the game and go through a process to weave a pitch.   No platform. Team Benches?  Likely somewhere in the stands (see below). Walls?  Width of the field will bump right up to the perimeter so they’ll be padded.  God forbid Giggsy cracks his melon open on the bricks. Tickets?  For Michigan donors and season ticket holders, Monday April 7.  Price Range: $45 – $189.  Details. Other games?  Unlike the hockey events at the Big House, unfortunately they won’t have any other matches on the pitch before or after the event. How will it look?   Crude mock-up and yes, liberties taken with the field logo: Will you be there? Follow MVictors on Twitter

  • Big House…Football?

      Giggsy So…this caused a bit a stir last night: EXCLUSIVE: Real Madrid, Manchester United and Liverpool will be among 8 top European teams playing in 12 cities in the 2014 International Champions Cup. The participating teams that will be officially announced on Tuesday are Real Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, AC Milan, AS Roma, Liverpool, Inter Milan and Olympiacos. The games will be played in 12 cities across the United States — Dallas, Washington DC, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Denver, Miami, Phoenix, Charlotte, Ann Arbor, Hartford, New York and Philadelphia. The tentative schedule for matches July 26 through August 4 is as follows. Note that the schedule is subject to change, and has not been confirmed. The official announcement will be made on Tuesday. The Ann Arbor match would pit Manchester United and Real Madrid, as the report notes unofficially and tentatively on Saturday August 2:   I haven’t seen any other confirmation of this and a tweet to @DaveBrandonAD asking for confirmation is resting broken hearted with no reply.   Your thoughts? [poll id=70] Stay tuned. Follow MVictors on Twitter