As the US trip went on I found that the options for seeing another football game opened up a bit with the MSL play-offs. Houston had qualified and had a home game in Texas, which is just a five-hour drive from Baton Rouge. It’s the sort of distance that Americans will drive to pick up a Gazette and a pint of milk and so it seemed far less weird than travelling that far would in the UK to attend a game in say, Cornwall, between two teams I had no affinity with.
A benefit of travelling long distance in the States is the variety of service stations. I’ve previously broken a journey to fire an AK47. This time I got to manhandle an alligator. Despite me telling the lady in charge that alligators generally like me, she still wouldn’t remove the band from around its mouth in case it ripped my arm off. Nevertheless, it beats the services in the UK and perked me up far more than a coffee would, although perhaps not as much as blasting away with a machine gun did.
As the game was on a Sunday Houston was pretty quiet and we stayed at a hotel next to the baseball stadium and about a twenty-minute walk from Houston Dynamos Shell Energy Stadium. Somewhat surprisingly (to me) the game hadn’t sold out. Maybe Houston isn’t really a soccer town.
As we went in we were given a tea towel and a voucher for a bottle of Bud Lite. I doubt I’d ever buy American Bud unless there were very limited options but as it was free, I was happy to save the tenner that I’d have needed to spend on a stadium beer. Jen very kindly gave me hers as well, although the savings then became moot as she switched to twenty-dollar Margaritas.
Our seats were in one of the corners, so we watched the warm-ups from a bar. If you got there early enough you could watch the whole game from tables there and that might have been a decent option, particularly if you were more interested in a chat and a drink than the action on the pitch.
The play-off structure has been expanded so that half the league seems to qualify. What is odder is that the format provides for a best of three scenario. That seems like overkill to me, surely a two-legged affair is enough for anyone.
Anyway, Dynamo went a goal up and Salt Lake equalised. With the rain coming down and Jen and I having relocated to the bar to take advantage of their roof, Houston nicked a late winner to go a game up with two to play.
Tags: Alligators, Bud Lite, Houston Dynamo, MSL play-off, Real Salt Lake
Trail of the Lion King 
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