Looking back a few weeks now, I was in Harrison for the opening "doubleheader" of the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, featuring Canada v. French Guiana, as well as Costa Rica v. Honduras - the "security theater" was actually quite relaxed this time, given the events overseas just within these past few months/weeks - mind you, the situation would probably be more "magnified" had I been attending a music concert doubleheader, rather than a sporting event doubleheader...
The Canada - French Guiana game came first, and I'd be lying to you if I never mentioned the shameful attendance for that game here, considering the (rather) close proximity of various parts of eastern Canada (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, the Atlantic provinces, etc.) to this area, such that people from those areas could easily spend a weekend around here, at the very least! Having said that, though, the few Canadian fans who did make the trip to Harrison were quite passionate about their national team, especially a 16-year-old already breaking various Canadian soccer scoring records, except for the fact that the Costa Rican and Honduran fans who slowly trickled away from the concourses and into the stands as that game continued increasingly started supporting French Guiana, for no other reason, if you ask me, than Canada considering itself the "little brother" to this country, at least politically speaking...
As for the actual game itself, Canada mostly controlled the possession in the first half, shutting down any and all attempts by French Guiana to put any passes through the midfield, in particular, although it took them about halfway through said half to open the scoring, which very much left the Guyanese team in the game, and despite Canada pushing its lead to 3-0 in the second half, indeed, French Guiana struck back twice within about three minutes to make it a 3-2 game, at which point in time the sun gave way to absolute pouring rain almost across the field, slowly but surely, suddenly making possession tougher for everybody on the field, and even sending some of the fans down below scrambling back to the lower concourse! In the end, though, the rain let up, and Canada added another "insurance" goal to make it 4-2, which ended up being the final score of the game, despite being up 3-0 after 60 minutes, and, again, basically shutting down French Guiana's counterattacking efforts...
Immediately following Canada-French Guiana was Costa Rica-Honduras, and, suddenly, the few fans of those teams became many, and so did the physical play, although Honduras, at least in my opinion, had the slight edge in the stands, and, at least early on, almost the total advantage in terms of chances, as they got quite a few balls into the Costa Rican box, but Costa Rica started turning the tide later in the half, and, indeed, it led to a goal for them in the 40th minute, which stood the entire second half, in spite of a near-fight in the (lone) tunnel leading teams off and on the field heading into the halftime break, and tons of free kick attempts both ways throughout the second half of the game, leading to quite a few "near misses", so, after 180 minutes across a pair of games, there were seven goals, a few threats of rain, and somewhere above 10 free kick attempts, making the evening/night quite volatile, overall!
My main complaints about the stadium are the scoreboards almost being off in outer space, with how high up they seem to be along each end of the field, and the restrooms there, which look like I'm sure the "troughs" at the now-closed Joe Louis Arena in Detroit (concerts/Red Wings/various other indoor sports leagues' teams) looked like, and all the flights of stairs necessary for one to climb in order to travel between the concourses and seating areas, along with the fact that the local police decided to just cram people into the Harrison PATH station, which, since it's currently undergoing renovations, basically only consists of a few machines, and the gates leading up to the HOB/JSQ/WTC platforms on one side, and the NWK-Penn Station platforms on the other, leading to massive crowds of people looking to refill their cards in order to be able to get from the puny entrance up to said platforms!
Fast forward a few days/weeks, though, and you'll discover that I returned to Harrison, this time for AS Roma v. Tottenham Hotspur, and from the amount of British accents I heard on the way in, you'd expect the area to be "London west" rather than suburban N.J., although Tottenham made a very bold move for its upcoming season by announcing it would play its entire home schedule at 90,000+ seat Wembley Stadium in London... The lineups to get into the stadium were massive, but, once I did get in, I noticed the vast majority of the crowd supporting Tottenham - maybe even 80% (approx. 20K of 25K+) - basically, they did what the Canadian fans should've done, but didn't end up doing, a few weeks ago for the CONCACAF Gold Cup!
As for the game itself, Tottenham controlled the first few minutes, but the very young lineup the team put out, compared to Roma's more veteran-heavy lineup, and after the first ten minutes or so of the game, that difference started to show, as Roma started getting more "near-misses", while Tottenham kept just taking "potshots" from wherever, instead of working the ball down low, into the 18-yard box, although one of those chances ended up being controversial, as Roma got awarded a penalty kick on a shot that glanced off one of the Tottenham defender's arms or shoulders, instead of said defender "handling" the ball for a split second, which would definitely warrant a free or penalty kick... Roma converted on said controversially-awarded PK, leading to much jeering from the (vast majority of the) crowd... After that, though, Roma kept the pressure on, despite only taking a 1-0 lead through the halftime break and into the second half, which featured a missed penalty call, and, as such, the bare minimum lead stood until the 70th minute, when Roma doubled the lead to 2-0 on what looked like a pass more than a shot, which ended up getting just tipped in near one of the posts - that was when Tottenham suddenly dialed the pressure up tons of notches, though, and finally ended up getting on the scoreboard on a crazy bit of play - a shot that deflected off the post; off the goaltender's gloves; off a few legs; finally, into the back of the net, and the insanity only continued fr
The lineups to get back to wherever (HOB/NPS/JC/33S) were, once again, insane, so, partly to fulfill a bit of curiosity, and also to wait out said lineups, I went to the Five Guys located right near the stadium, which closed just after I got in there (shortly after 10 P.M.), although the employees on duty that night had to turn some people away, and while I didn't try any of their burgers, which I've heard are just as fresh as they are fattening, I did try their answer to Popeye's fries ("cajun"), and I'll be darned if those aren't the spiciest fries anywhere! That being said, though, I'm sure that's nothing compared to what awaits in the desert later this week...
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