Afternoon all
Well, I must say, despite the 1-0 loss up in Portland, everyone still seems in a jubilant mood...... and why wouldn't they be!? The first loss of the season had to come at some stage, now with it been and gone, perhaps there is now a little less pressure on the team. Certainly the hype will be off them for a while, but I get the feeling, with the way this side play their soccer, the bright lights will be back on them very soon.
So let me take you back to the start of last week. We all arrived at KCI early in the morning for a 3/4 hour flight to Seattle. Once we got there and realized that Jake (@jakeyadrich) had forgotten his passport (which was no problem, he got that sorted fairly quickly), we had to devilish challenge of driving up to Vancouver. After a 3 hour drive involving lots of banter and laughing, we reached the Canadian boarder and were subsuquently denied entry into Canada due to not having a certain document signed. So after an hour or 2, we were through and heading for my favorite MLS city that we'd visited last year. I was very excited and as we approached downtown Vancouver and were very much in the thick of things, my eyes lit up and a rather large grin appeared on my face. I really do like Vancouver as a city, it excites me. So after a lovely lie on on Wednesday morning, I took a final look over my notes for the broadcast. I wandered downtown for something to eat and accidentally ended up strolling onto a movie set! Theres my claim to fame right there!!! Never before have I seen a guy in such a rush to usher and move people away from the set. We did the broadcast of the game on the evening and the boys said it was one of the better and easier set ups they've done in a while due to the great facilities at BC Place. I have to say, I was very much looking forward to seeing BC Place. Last year we played Vancouver at the temporary facility 'Empire Field' which had a cracking atmosphere in the close proximity it offered. BC Place had been recently renovated and I have to say, when I walked on the pitch, I was gob smacked. What a lovely stadium and I can't wait to go back when ever that may be. Sporting got themselves a 3-1 win to remain top of the league and we left Vancouver in great spirits and even managed to fit in a few beers after the broadcast.
The next day the 8/9 hour journey to Portland would be upon us. We arrived in the lobby at 9am and set off. We knew we'd have a problem or 2 getting back into the USA. It was plain and simple, just always going to be in the script. Thankfully, Jake had his passport this time, so that wouldn't be an issue. The problem was the fact that we had 19 bags full of TV equipment, overloaded with wires, cables and other things that quit frankly, I have no idea what they do! Either way, we were told to go to a certain building after being escorted out of our cars. After moving about 10 ft in an hour we were then told we'd been directed to the wrong building (which was extremely frustrating). However, after that, things flowed fairly smoothly and after getting the appropriate paper work signed and everything cleared, we were back in the USA and on our way. Driving past Seattle once again (knowing we'd have to come back this way on Sunday) we worked our way down to Portland. Dan (@the_doubledown) was driving and I still have no idea how he didn't fall asleep! So once again after hours of banter, laughing, working talking, singing and dancing (in our car anyway); Jake, Dan and I made it to Portland, closely followed by the other 2 separate vehicles with Chris (@ctwyche) and Justin in 1 car and Craig and Eric in the other.
So we decided to meet up for a couple of beers with Mike Flaherty (@kitmanskc) on the friday night and ended up bumping into the traveling Cauldron (@kccauldron) and shared several stories of our separate travels to get to Portland. I was also treated to several stories about the team 'back in the day' and had a genuine good time with the fans and thoroughly enjoyed that.
So game day came in Portland, it was a beautiful day. I must admit, Jeld WEN - Field has to be 1 of the best atmosphere's in MLS. The Timbers army are so loud and as you all know due to your vocals at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, it makes a difference and helps the team out. Obviously Sporting suffered their first defeat of the season (rather unexpectedly) to Portland Timbers, but either way, I still think we have to be excited in the fact that we aren't playing to our full potential quite yet. The first defeat was always going to come, now its out of the way. The last leg of the long road trip was the final salt in the wound here, with a 5am wake up call and another 3 hour drive to Seattle. It was so good to get back to Kansas City and see people i'd missed. However, that was a laugh.
Here are some video's which will give you all you need to know about our road trip - Enjoy!
http://www.sportingkc.com/video/2012/04/22/skc-tvs-road-trip-through-cascadia-part-1
http://www.sportingkc.com/video/2012/04/22/skc-tvs-road-trip-through-cascadia-part-2
A bye weekend now for Sporting, so lets recharge the batteries and enjoy the weekend off, we've got it all to do again next weekend vs Montreal Impact. I know you all will anyway, but lets make sure we give Davy Arnaud a warm welcome back.
No radio show on Thursday on 610, but Jake and I will be on KSMO - TV on Sunday evening at 9.30pm for 'Off the Pitch'.
See you there guys!
Cal
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