On Wednesday night, I traveled to Los Angeles to watch the LAFC vs Sacramento Republic game in the 5th round of the US Open Cup. I had been wanting to attend a game at the new Banc de California Stadium and when Sacramento Republic beat the Seattle Sounders to match up with LAFC, it was the perfect game to attend.
One of my brothers, Benjamin, is the assistant coach of the Sacramento Republic FC team and it’s always great when schedule allows us brothers to support one another. I took my daughter Sally, who plays at Sonoma State University and met my brother Marcus, who is the head men’s soccer coach at Sonoma State University, at the game. Two of his former players Ethan and Brendan, came as well.
It was an exciting game from start to finish – very evenly matched. LAFC was missing a few key players on World Cup duty, but they still had a talented roster at their disposal. Sacramento Republic led twice, before LAFC scored the game winner in the 89th minute to give them a 3-2 win. To be fair, LAFC was the more talented and dangerous team and deserved to win, but Sacramento Republic Republic did themselves proud by knocking off the Seattle Sounders before giving LAFC a great game.
While the game itself was exciting, the true champion of the night was the Banc de California Stadium. It is a real soccer stadium, one which LAFC and Los Angeles should be proud of. Very proud. To build a downtown stadium in any major city is a huge success, but to build a stadium which can elevate the game day experience should be the goal of any new stadium. LAFC accomplished that and then some.
The stadium is the perfect size. The crowd was small (official attendance was announced at 8750) as it was a midweek US Open Cup game, but the LAFC fans still provided all of us in attendance a great atmosphere. The stadium holds 22,00o fans so it will be both intimate and lively.
I could go on all day, but if you love to watch live soccer, LAFC’s new stadium is worth a visit. I look forward to comparing it to the Seattle Sounders game day experience as we will watch the Sounders host the Chicago Fire on Saturday in Seattle.
Oh, by the way..I’m in Seattle for an ECNL event with my daughter Gabby and her Santa Rosa United 02 girls team. It will be fun to share the World Cup experience with her team and also get a pulse on how the Seattle soccer community is taking in the World Cup. The event we are at has hundreds of teams from around the US so the hope is there will be some World Cup buzz…
