How Did US Soccer Let This Happen?

It was an exciting thing when Nashville was chosen to host Olympic qualifiers, and that the U.S. team would be playing in the group that would be hosted in Nashville, instead of in Carson CA.  We've known about it for months - that the games would be spread over three days and the four teams in the group would play each other team once.  Three days of high quality soccer in Nashville.


So how did we get to gametime tonight - a FRIDAY night - and LP Field is this empty?  I know Nashville and surrounding areas can draw for soccer.  We had 30,000 for a US Men's team friendly against Paraguay.  30K may not seem like a lot, and it's less than half of capacity at LP Field, but it's a strong crowd.  Many professional soccer stadiums around the world only hold about that many people.


The only game I'm going to is Monday's.  I have other things going on during the other games and just can't make it.  I've known about it for months and have seen web ads, print ads, and heard about it on the radio.  Until tonight I had ZERO notion that turnout would be this low.  I didn't hear any urgency anywhere.


Surely US Soccer knew the tickets weren't sold.  In a case like this they need to do what it takes to get people there, both to enrich the event and to recoup financially.  They should have been giving BLOCKS of tickets to all the local soccer clubs and school districts.  I'm sure there are lots of people who would have gone.  I would have brought my U12 boys team.


Is it because this isn't the senior team, but U23s?  These are our future stars, and some of these players are already featuring for the senior team (Adu, Shea, Hamid in a backup role).  


This is an unorganized rant, but I just had to get it out.  I'm very much looking forward to getting out there Monday and supporting our boys.  I'm excited to see in person the same team that will most likely be representing the USA in London this Summer.