This past Wednesday night, Benfica, from the top Portuguese soccer league, ended up facing Fiorentina, from the Italian "top flight", inside Red Bull Arena as part of the 2019 International Champions Cup European "pre-season" exhibition international soccer series, and, even though it was "mid-week", the turnout still seemed a tad disappointing overall, honestly, given the massive Portuguese population literally right next door to Harrison, and the many "enclaves" of Italian immigrant communities in this country generally, let alone locally - attendance ended up being announced as about 12,000 out of the 25,000+ seats there, but, thankfully, those who did show up wearing both purple and red ended up making their presence felt inside the Arena, and they got quite the game considering the "exhibition" nature, as Benfica ended up dominating the initial few minutes of the game possession-wise, yet ended up getting absolutely nothing to actually show for it on the scoreboard until the 9th minute, turning a turnover into an eventual short cross and point-blank shot to open the scoring, although Benfica honestly kept dominating through about the first 20+ minutes of the game, by which time Fiorentina finally seemed to keep possession for longer stretches, and ended up tying the game in the 29th minute courtesy of a long cross, turned into a couple of shorter ones, that ended up eventually producing the shot that would tie the game, although there honestly wasn't much more action in the rest of the first half, as the score ended up remaining 1-1 at halftime, with both teams having pretty much "coasted" through the last few minutes, along with the "added time", of the opening half!
The second half, however, saw substitutions (and yellow cards) galore, and it would be some of those substitutes who would end up missing a glorious opportunity for Fiorentina, as the purple-clad forwards broke through a massive logjam of Benfica defenders, only to have the initial shot hit the post, and have the rebound end up getting put over the top of the net, somehow keeping the score tied, 1-1, but certainly awakening the teams nonetheless, as the yellow cards suddenly stopped (although that seemed to be quite a bit due to the officials basically "pocketing" their whistles by then), and the shot totals ended up increasing, although, again, with almost nothing except for more substitutions the rest of the way, at least up until the "added time" part of the second half, as Benfica actually ended up "backtracking" just enough by then for one of the forwards to get wide open and just unleash an absolute blast of a shot with very little time remaining before there would have been a penalty kick shootout, giving Benfica the very last-minute 2-1 win in its latest "exhibition" matchup here!
(also, in the aforementioned game at Yankee Stadium, Liverpool and Sporting Club de Portugal ended up finishing tied, 2-2, in their exhibition matchup; highlights here)
Meanwhile, this past Friday night, it was Atlético de Madrid against Real Madrid in the first-ever "Madrid derby" outside Europe, attracting an announced crowd of 57K+ (albeit with at least half of the 300-level seats closed off to fans) to MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, and, unlike Benfica v Fiorentina, this game was all Atlético, as it took advantage of a Real Madrid turnover right after the opening kickoff to open the scoring, and that would pretty much end up being all Atlético would need in the entire game, as Real Madrid only ended up continuing to commit the same mistakes and turnovers as it did right at the beginning of the game throughout the first half in particular, as Atlético would end up scoring in the 1st, 8th, 19th, and 28th minutes in the "run of play", while adding a penalty kick in the 45th+ minute, to already end up taking a commanding 5-0 lead into the halftime break, sending a massive "chorus of boos" from the almost entirely-Real Madrid-supporting crowd inside MetLife Stadium; it would take Real Madrid through over the first ten minutes into the second half to finally get on the scoreboard, by which time Atlético had added yet another goal, only for a fight to almost end up breaking out a few minutes later; once cards, including a few reds, rightfully got issued to the players most involved in that whole "fracas", Atlético would add yet another goal, and Real would claw back just a little bit, albeit late in the game, making the final score 7-3!
...while I'm on the subject of "international soccer", have I mentioned to you yet at all that I actually graduated high school alongside a guy who's happened to be just one of the many members of the U.S. national team these past few years, who, at least back then, had nothing but complimentary things to say about other students (personally, the only thing I kept thinking back then was "well, you're the only one out of all of us who'll likely end up achieving international 'fame' anytime soon...", and, even now, I still consider things like those to be the ultimate "compliments" one could receive...)? I obviously can't "speak" for other people, but that seemed to have "tempered" my criticism, at least, of the U.S. team not even qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup over in Russia; that may or may not be, however, 'cause I've always kept a bit of a "grudge" (which I'm sure is another thing you
...also, a little under a month ago, I believe I mentioned this to you:
"There was also a celebration put on by a local "non-profit" Peruvian group at a local restaurant (that was once celebrated in the local Peruvian consulate) to celebrate those of us local graduates within the past year, and the only thing I could think after that was that something like that, a "mini-ceremony", if you will...(etc.)"
...well, it turned out that said group also ended up taking part in the parade commemorating 196th anniversary of Peruvian independence from Spain, except that it was boiling hot around here last weekend, so I, personally, along with, surely, many others, ended up passing on attending that whole commemoration, lest we end up practically melting in said heat!
(also, I'm not sure about how people handled last weekend's triple-digit
...also, if you needed any more evidence that social media, in particular, is (apparently) full of "slowpokes" who end up catching on to "trends" way behind the rest of us in society, look no further than this recent Reddi
...also, there were recently "shades" of 1965 (Northeastern U.S.)/'71 (N.J./N.Y.C.)/'77 (N.Y.C.)/'03 (Northeast)/'06 (Queens, N.Y.C.) all over again in N.Y.C., it seemed, as a blackout crippled the island of Manhattan one recent Saturday night; also, this weekend's blackout in Manhattan comes almost immediately on the heels of the blackouts in the Dallas "metroplex" region of Texas, along with blackouts hitting the entirety of each of the Latin American countries of Argentina/Paraguay/Uruguay...
...meanwhile, in non-"blackout"-related N.Y.C. news:
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/
Lastly, as previously mentioned, I'll be visiting Washington, D.C. next weekend, so, as always, "stay tuned" for my thoughts on our "nation's capital"!
Lastly, as previously mentioned, I'll be visiting Washington, D.C. next weekend, so, as always, "stay tuned" for my thoughts on our "nation's capital"!
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