did a quick circuit of the field. maybe 3 or 4 thousand people encircling the game, up in the trees, balanced along the 2nd and 3rd rungs of an 18' high chain linked fence. who said theyres no market for soccer in america? it just has to have international superstars playing on an inner city field and be free. - dave 6-25-2008 11:45 pm [add a comment]
Of course Baron Davis had played soccer before — he was in seventh grade at the time. And of course he had a game plan for Wednesday night’s pickup soccer match.
“We want to play just like we do in basketball,” he said before the charity game organized by the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash and the Red Bulls’ Claudio Reyna. “I know that we can win if we outscore the other team.”
Davis, playing in a Los Angeles Dodgers hat and his glasses, did not help much with that. He was responsible for two penalty kicks for hand-ball penalties. But with his casual cheating and playground antics, he did help entertain the throngs of people who were packed into, around and over a tiny field in Manhattan’s Chinatown while catching a glimpse of the highest-paid pickup soccer players in the world.
People climbed trees, fences and streetlights as the shadows lengthened through the balmy evening. Here and there, they broke into multilingual chants that were born in stadiums an ocean away. They seemed to hardly believe they were watching a playground full of sports stars just fooling around.
“We had it completely wrong in terms of the excitement,” Reyna said. “We knew people were going to come out, but we just couldn’t believe it when we showed.”
Nash and Reyna collaborated to bring together a collection of their friends from the worlds of professional soccer and basketball to raise money for their respective foundations. The rosters included a World Cup winner (the Barcelona striker Thierry Henry), three players who have represented the United States at the international level (Reyna, Jozy Altidore and Gregg Berhalter), a handful of former and current players from the English Premier League (Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Salomon Kalou) as well as a smattering of N.B.A. players (Davis, Jason Kidd, Leandro Barbosa and Raja Bell).
Some of the basketball players fared remarkably well. Kidd, who played soccer in high school, and Barbosa, a Brazilian who has soccer in his DNA, showed keen instincts and delicate touches. As for Nash, who played the game while growing up in Canada, the match was just one more Manhattan kick-about. He is regularly spotted in recreational league games across the city through the off-season.
But other N.B.A. players could not help reverting to the sport they knew. At one point, Davis spent several minutes patrolling the area around the goal as if it was the low post.
“I expected exactly what I saw,” Altidore said of the N.B.A. players. “Some of them can really play, like Leandro and J-Kidd. But it was all good fun. Baron was hilarious.”
With Henry orchestrating play and thrilling the fans with a healthy dose of showboating, Nash’s side won the 60-minute game, 9-4. Henry’s theatrics, like juggling the ball for 20 yards at a time or balancing it on his head or even blasting volleys from long range, drew the most applause. But he might have rather been playing for France in the European Championship had it not been eliminated.
Perhaps a little of that frustration lingered when he stepped up to take a penalty kick. Until then, the professionals had reined in their shots. But with a lash of his right foot, he fired the ball into the top corner.
He turned to Nash and grinned. “Sorry,” he mouthed, “I had to make it.”
Henry has on occasion been linked to a move to the United States. And, though it was not the 100,000-seat stadium he usually frequents in Barcelona, the public field between Chrystie and Forsyth streets showed him that enthusiasm for the game here is alive and well. But he pointed out that soccer still faces some major obstacles.
“I think that David Beckham came over and that surely helped,” he said. “But maybe first you have to stop the N.F.L., the N.H.L. and the N.B.A. for one or two years and then maybe it will work.”
If it did, maybe Kidd, Nash, and the other N.B.A. stars would have something to fall back on. Just in case this whole basketball thing did not work out. - dave 6-26-2008 11:47 pm [add a comment]
- dave 6-25-2008 9:08 pm
did a quick circuit of the field. maybe 3 or 4 thousand people encircling the game, up in the trees, balanced along the 2nd and 3rd rungs of an 18' high chain linked fence. who said theyres no market for soccer in america? it just has to have international superstars playing on an inner city field and be free.
- dave 6-25-2008 11:45 pm [add a comment]
- dave 6-26-2008 11:40 pm [add a comment]
Of course Baron Davis had played soccer before — he was in seventh grade at the time. And of course he had a game plan for Wednesday night’s pickup soccer match.
“We want to play just like we do in basketball,” he said before the charity game organized by the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash and the Red Bulls’ Claudio Reyna. “I know that we can win if we outscore the other team.”
Davis, playing in a Los Angeles Dodgers hat and his glasses, did not help much with that. He was responsible for two penalty kicks for hand-ball penalties. But with his casual cheating and playground antics, he did help entertain the throngs of people who were packed into, around and over a tiny field in Manhattan’s Chinatown while catching a glimpse of the highest-paid pickup soccer players in the world.
People climbed trees, fences and streetlights as the shadows lengthened through the balmy evening. Here and there, they broke into multilingual chants that were born in stadiums an ocean away. They seemed to hardly believe they were watching a playground full of sports stars just fooling around.
“We had it completely wrong in terms of the excitement,” Reyna said. “We knew people were going to come out, but we just couldn’t believe it when we showed.”
Nash and Reyna collaborated to bring together a collection of their friends from the worlds of professional soccer and basketball to raise money for their respective foundations. The rosters included a World Cup winner (the Barcelona striker Thierry Henry), three players who have represented the United States at the international level (Reyna, Jozy Altidore and Gregg Berhalter), a handful of former and current players from the English Premier League (Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Salomon Kalou) as well as a smattering of N.B.A. players (Davis, Jason Kidd, Leandro Barbosa and Raja Bell).
Some of the basketball players fared remarkably well. Kidd, who played soccer in high school, and Barbosa, a Brazilian who has soccer in his DNA, showed keen instincts and delicate touches. As for Nash, who played the game while growing up in Canada, the match was just one more Manhattan kick-about. He is regularly spotted in recreational league games across the city through the off-season.
But other N.B.A. players could not help reverting to the sport they knew. At one point, Davis spent several minutes patrolling the area around the goal as if it was the low post.
“I expected exactly what I saw,” Altidore said of the N.B.A. players. “Some of them can really play, like Leandro and J-Kidd. But it was all good fun. Baron was hilarious.”
With Henry orchestrating play and thrilling the fans with a healthy dose of showboating, Nash’s side won the 60-minute game, 9-4. Henry’s theatrics, like juggling the ball for 20 yards at a time or balancing it on his head or even blasting volleys from long range, drew the most applause. But he might have rather been playing for France in the European Championship had it not been eliminated.
Perhaps a little of that frustration lingered when he stepped up to take a penalty kick. Until then, the professionals had reined in their shots. But with a lash of his right foot, he fired the ball into the top corner.
He turned to Nash and grinned. “Sorry,” he mouthed, “I had to make it.”
Henry has on occasion been linked to a move to the United States. And, though it was not the 100,000-seat stadium he usually frequents in Barcelona, the public field between Chrystie and Forsyth streets showed him that enthusiasm for the game here is alive and well. But he pointed out that soccer still faces some major obstacles.
“I think that David Beckham came over and that surely helped,” he said. “But maybe first you have to stop the N.F.L., the N.H.L. and the N.B.A. for one or two years and then maybe it will work.”
If it did, maybe Kidd, Nash, and the other N.B.A. stars would have something to fall back on. Just in case this whole basketball thing did not work out.
- dave 6-26-2008 11:47 pm [add a comment]