Yesterday (21 October) marked the final day of the Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season--Decision Day. St. Louis CITY SC had already clinched the Western Conference regular season championship, giving it home field advantage through the Western Conference final in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.
Late that morning, I drove to CITY Pavillion, across Market Street from CITYPARK, to pick up my reserved copy of Inaugural, a book looking at the club's living, visual, and creative culture in its inaugural MLS season. This softcover book, presented by Soccerbible, is just over 300 pages long and packed with photographs. It also came with a canvas tote bag. I will find Inaugural an interesting read.
After getting lunch at a Lion's Choice in St. Louis Hills, I drove a short distance to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard for my dessert. I ordered an added item on its menu, the CITY Red sundae: Vanilla frozen custard mixed with Dad's original scotch oatmeal cookies, cherries, and coconut flakes. It hit the spot for this CITY supporter.
After enjoying this sundae, I browsed through the nearby Ted Drewes Gift Shop, where I bought a magnet and two stickers. On the way home, I bought a 24 ounce (709.8 ml) can of Keystone Light beer at Quik Trip for that night.
Coming home, I relaxed at home before leaving late that afternoon for the St. Louligans pre-match party at the Schlafly Tap Room. (Julie would normally go with me, but she was sick. I was able to sell my spare ticket to a fellow St. Louligan.) I bought a Schlafly Oktoberfest beer and two sliders with French fries from the Cluck Oink Moo Sliders food truck. Then, I participated with other St. Louligans in Tallboy Roulette. I paid $2 to the St. Louligans while donating that Keystone Light can to the event. Participants would reach into a cooler and pull-out whatever Tallboy can they grasped. After doing so, each participant had to drink the beer he or she got. Some beers contributed are of better quality than others. I was fortunate in selecting a Natural Light, which isn't bad. I drank most of that can before the match into CITYPARK for the match.
That night, we marched into the stadium for the final regular season match. St. Louis CITY SC was hosting Seattle Sounders FC, who beat CITY 3-0 in April at Lumen Field. A packed house hoped for a different result this night.
The home crowd's efforts were not rewarded on the pitch, as Seattle rode two first-half goals to a 2-0 win. Disappointing for CITY for sure. Still, the team stayed after the match to go towards the Supporter Section and thank us for their support this season. That was exceptionally good of them.
CITY now awaits its First-Round opponent, which will be determined by the Wild Card match Wednesday night between 8th seed Sporting Kansas City and 9th seed San Jose Earthquakes. The winner of that match plays CITY in a Best of Three series. The first match will be at CITYPARK next weekend, with the second at the lower seed and the third (if needed) back in St. Louis. The First-Round schedule should be firmed up early this week. I can't wait.
Later.
Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:
Major League Soccer: MLSsoccer.com - The Official Site of Major League Soccer
St. Louis CITY SC: St. Louis CITY SC (stlcitysc.com)
Soccerbible: https://www.soccerbible.com/
Lion's Choice: Lion's Choice – Lion's Choice (lionschoice.com)
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
St. Louligans: https://stlouligans.com
Schlafly Tap Room: Tap Room Brewpub - Schlafly Beer
Cluck Oink Moo Sliders: http://www.cluckoinkmoosliders.com
No comments:
Post a Comment