SOCCER: Rivalry could live up to billing this time
28.01.04
The dirty little secret of professional club soccer is that games between two close rivals are often tense, chippy affairs where teams play to avoid losing lest they give their opponents precious bragging rights until the next meeting.
The liveliest rivalries often compensate for dour on-field action with passion off it.
That was seen this weekend in MLS where the fanaticism of Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders fans, resuming their big league rivalry for the first time since the now defunct North American Soccer League, provided diversion (and provoked admiration) as a capacity crowd of 36,000 stood and cheered their teams in a driving rain storm. And that's just as well because the game ended in an inconclusive 1-1 draw, the slick carpet at Qwest Field not providing the optimal surface for a free-flowing game.
Alas, the Chivas USA-Galaxy rivalry has rarely been particularly compelling either on the field or off it.
Usually, one or the other of the two clubs - and more
Source: Whittier Daily News