'Awesome' opening of Red Bull Arena has players excited for future
Updated: Jan. 18, 2019, 9:35 p.m. | Published: Mar. 23, 2010, 12:02 a.m.
By Frank Giase | The Star-Ledger
John Munson/The Star-LedgerMichelle Ackermann, of Fair Lawn, heads to the game with friends as Red Bull Arena opens with a match against Brazil's Santos FC.
It was 15 years in the making, going through countless redesigns. Owners and general managers tweaked the plans, then threw them out and began again.
The last ownership group wanted a stage at one end for concerts, and we would have gladly taken that if someone would have just built the darn thing already. But in the end, when it all shook out, Red Bull Arena is what it should have been all along, a soccer-only stadium where all other events take a back seat.
And Giants Stadium? Well, even Franz Beckenbauer had no love for the place.
"We flew over it coming in to Teterboro," he said at Saturday night's stadium opener. "I see they are tearing it down. We used to have 60,000 fans there but the field was terrible."
It took another 30 years after Beckenbauer left the Cosmos before Red Bull Arena was built, but Saturday night it was well worth the wait. Forget the final score, or that Santos FC sent pretty much a reserve team while its first team was winning 9-1 in Brazil on Sunday.
All that mattered was the atmosphere, the fan support and the commitment of the club to put a team on the field worthy of such a beautiful building.
"It was awesome," defender Jeremy Hall said. "I had a huge smile on my face just to see the number of people who came out for this game. We knew it would be sold out, but to actually see the people in the seats in this beautiful stadium was unbelievable. I never wanted to get off the field. I'm looking forward to next week (the Red Bulls' MLS opener) to see the same turnout."
That was pretty much the reaction throughout the locker room for the Red Bulls, who haven't had this much excitement entering a season since the inaugural year of 1996. When they were warming up prior to the game, a number of players stopped to look around.
Seeing people in the upper deck was a rare sight at Giants Stadium, but it should be a routine sight from now on. And while 25,000 might have come close to filling the lower bowl at the old place, it still left a cavernous echo. Saturday night, 25,000 screaming fans seemed like 50,000. And that's the way it should always be.
Goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul has only been with the club since last June, but he came from the Rapids, who play at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, so he knows what a stadium can do for a club and it fan base.
"When I was growing up in the Bronx I never had it in my mind that one day we would have our own stadium and play in front of a crowd like this," he said. "It is one of those dreams come true."
Hall said he felt a boost from the crowd. "I always get butterflies coming out in any game, but when you complete that first pass everything goes calm and you're focused into the game," he said. "After Joel (Lindpere) scored I thought everything changed. We were confident and we found out we could score against good teams and we were able to possess the ball more and go forward. And we got two great goals after that."
And the crowd cheered after each one, a roar that encircled the stadium and just didn't seem to die out. The place is built to hold the sound in, a combination of the translucent roof and the wave of the upper deck.
It's the kind of noise that turns a home field into a home-field advantage and makes it difficult for visiting teams to come away with any points.
Defender Mike Petke said last week that it's his goal to win every home game this year, that it would be a shame if the Red Bulls lost one game at home all season. And while that's not exactly realistic, it sums up the attitude of the players, who seem to appreciate the commitment of ownership.
So now it counts. Game one is Saturday night, and for all those losses to the Chicago Fire at Giants Stadium — nine in the regular season plus the 2003 Open Cup final — it's time for payback.
Let all the teams walk in and look around. And when they leave they can talk about how it's the best stadium in Major League Soccer. But in between, it's two hours of solid noise.
Clint Dempsey
scored the winning goal when Fulham rallied from three goals down to beat Juventus, 4-1, and advance to the quarterfinals of the Europa League on 5-4 aggregate. ... U.S. forward
Charlie Davies
resumed training with Sochaux less than six months after he was nearly killed in a car accident. The club says he went for a jog this morning and should join in practice with his teammates in 2-4 weeks. ... U.S. striker
Eddie Johnson
scored for Aris in a 1-1 tie with Panionios in the Greek league. ... U.S. midfielders
Benny Feilhaber
Stuart Holden
are recovering from injuries and should begin training with their club teams next month. ... England will play Mexico at Wembley on May 24 to prepare to play the United States in its World Cup opener. ... The U.S. women's national team will play Germany in a friendly at Cleveland Browns Stadium on May 22. On Sunday, the women play Mexico in a friendly at the University of San Diego. ... The Philadelphia Union will host Valencia in an exhibition game at PPL Park this summer at a date to be determined. ... The Crew lost to Toluca, 5-4, on aggregate to get eliminated from the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League. MLS teams are now winless in 20 competitive games in Mexico, with 18 losses and two ties. Four Mexican teams — Toluca, Pachuca, Pumas and Cruz Azul — will play in the semifinals. ... FIFA says it made a profit of $196 million in 2009 and increased its reserves to more than $1 billion. ... FIFA's executive committee rejected a move to limit the term of a president to eight years by a vote of 15-5 with one abstention.
Sepp Blatter
, elected in 1998, intends to run for a fourth term. ... Colombia president
says his country will bid to host the 2026 World Cup. ... Manchester United's debt stands at $1.06 billion, more than the total of Germany's top 36 clubs combined. ... Portsmouth has been fined $1.5 million by the Premier League for breaking its rules and regulations over the late payment of salary and transfer fees. On top of that, it faces almost-certain relegation after being docked nine points for being forced to seek bankruptcy protection. ... Chelsea captain
was questioned by police after his car hit the club's security man, who suffered a broken leg. ... Chelsea's 1-0 loss to Inter Milan ended its 21-game unbeaten streak at home in the Champions League. ... Manchester City defender
could miss the rest of the season after undergoing a hernia operation. ...
Ian Dowie
has been hired as Hull coach to replace
Phil Brown
, who was fired last week. ... The FA Cup quarterfinal replay between Tottenham and Fulham will be played Wednesday. ... Tottenham striker
Jermain Defoe
will be out a couple of weeks with a hamstring injury. ... Blackburn goalkeeper
will be sidelined up to a month with a calf injury. ...
Kenny Miller's
goal in the 84th minute, after his team was down to nine men, enabled Rangers to beat St. Mirren, 1-0, on Sunday to win the Scottish League Cup for the 26th time. ... AC Milan forward
will be out indefinitely with a muscle tear in his right leg. ... Atalanta captain
Cristiano Doni
has been suspended three games by the Italian league after being sent off for insulting a referee. ... Bayern Munich extended the contract of captain
Mark van Bommel
another season, until June 30, 2011. ... Bayern Munich midfielder
sat out Saturday's 2-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt with an ankle injury, but could return for Wednesday's German Cup semifinal against Schalke. The other semifinal, which will be played Tuesday, pits Werder Bremen against Augsburg of the second division. ... Hamburg midfielder
Eljero Elia
will be out a month following surgery to remove damaged cartilage from his left ankle. ... Bayer Leverkusen extended the contract of striker
Stefan Kiessling
three years, until 2015. Kiessling is the Bundesliga's leading scorer this season with 16 goals. ... Sevilla defender
will undergo a heart operation so he can resume his career. The 23-year-old was diagnosed with the condition in January that required him to stop all physical activity. ... Two French teams — Bordeaux and Lyon — have reached the last eight of the Champions League for the first time since Lyon and Monaco in 2004. Unfortunately, they are playing each other. ... Bordeaux and Marseille will play for the French League Cup final on Saturday. ...
Pim Verbeek
will step down as Australia coach after the World Cup. ... Sydney FC beat the Melbourne Victory, 4-2, on penalty kicks following a 1-1 tie in regulation to win Australia's A-League grand final on Saturday. Sydney had also won the title in the league's inaugural 2005-06 season. ... Former France midfielder
has been hired to coach Israel. He replaces
Dror Kashtan
, who failed to guide the team to the World Cup. ... Sao Paulo beat Mogi Mirim, 2-0, on Sunday as goalkeeper
Rogerio Ceni
scored his 88th career goal with a first-half penalty kick. ... With two months still to play, Benfica scored its 100th league and cup goal of the season last week. ... Indonesia dropped out of the race to host the 2022 World Cup after failing to provide government guarantees to FIFA.
Frank Giase may be reached at fgiase@starledger.com