Itchin' for more matches...

Less than 9 days away til the Carolina Cup Challenge and our accommodations in Charleston, SC are now secured!  Its been six weeks since our last live game, but that doesn't mean we have not been watching.



Most of our weekend mornings have been spent at Courtyard Hooligans. This by far is our home base for all soccer happenings. This includes the well fought battle between MK Dons and QPR. Dons you almost did it. Im still proud of you. In addition Hooligans is the home base of The Queen City Outlaws. The US Soccer supporters group.

While we love Hooligans it does not beat the live game, so we rented a house on the Isle of Palms with family and friends. We initially began this challenge with the two of us in mind but we soon realized the passion was not just our own. So we are headed down with our good friend, Jay, who will be reporting for www.rattletheframe.com and meeting up with the Ginger behind the Ginger Minute, Matt Garner.

Joining us for the Saturday matches will be cousins George, Andrew, and their friend Ethan...coming all the way down from Ohio. As for George and Andrew, They proved their passion at a match they met Shawn and went to the  2010 World Cup qualifiers in Columbus Crew Stadium. As Shawn put it:

"This may go down as the worst tailgate conditions ever. The weather turned and George and I were ready to jump in the car to ride it out but Andrew convinced us otherwise. So there we stood highs winds low temperature and it was sleeting sideways. It sucked but we survived."

I however remember a different time where Andrew made a bad decision. It was Just last year for the Gold Cup games here in Charlotte. Him and Ethan came down to catch the Mexico - Cuba game before heading down to Tampa. Long story short they both were escorted out of the stadium. Lets hope this trip is equally as fun, with less police involvement. Oh and someone does the thinking for Andrew.

We are quickly realizing that this is not just a quest to see the matches. It is a quest to share them with our friends and family as we all peruse our passion. In our last post we put that we wanted anyone who knew of matches we should catch let us know. We later learned that it is equally important to go to those who are close to use because, as Jay put it, many people are looking for "the Assist in this challenge:" So yea Ian we are coming to your area.

Thank you to Charlie Slagle, with Back of the Net on 99.9 in Raleigh for having us on his radio show a week back.  It is always a pleasure to talk soccer on a Saturday morning.

Charlie has also helped us get into the Vancouver v Railhawks match on our (taking-the-long-way-home) journey back from Charleston on Sunday, March 4.  We will be detouring to Cary to check out the match with our friends Jay and Matt  Thanks Charlie!  We look forward to seeing you there.

More than anything we are just psyched to get back to it.  Our last live match was early January.  The withdrawal is deep and disturbing.  Don't know if you've experienced it.  You've a part of something way bigger than yourself.  Watching the beautiful game - the fans - taking it all in - participating - forgetting your worries back home.  It's time to get that back.

See ya'll in Charleston!
GO CREW