Football night in Seattle

[OMMF]

Tonight, at Seahawks Stadium, champions of a different kind will take the field. With at least 60,000 fans in the 67,000 seats, D.C. United will play a "friendly" with Real Madrid.

I'll be there.

By the way, don't think that these two teams are taking this game lightly.

Beckham and his Real Madrid teammates will travel to Seattle today to play Major League Soccer's D.C. United at 8 p.m. at Qwest Field. After the game, Real Madrid will return to Salt Lake City, where they will play another exhibition Saturday, against Real Salt Lake of the MLS.

Even though the match today is classified as an international friendly, don't think that the Real Madrid players aren't taking things seriously.

"We take every game very seriously," said Spanish striker Raul. "For us, there really is no friendly game. We want to play every game to win.

"We represent a very important institution, and as such we try and represent ourselves well."

Madrid's journey to the United States represents the European club's fourth week of training camp leading up to its La Liga season opener on Aug. 27.

"Every one of these matches is important to us, not only for us as players to establish our fitness, but also for our coach to figure out which players want to play in what position," said Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos. "Our goal is to win titles, and that's what we're going to continue to work toward."

Of its two games against MLS sides, Real Madrid figures to get its stiffest test from D.C. United tonight. While Real Salt Lake is floundering in the MLS cellar with a 5-10-5 record, D.C. United sits high atop the league table with a 13-2-6 record, though D.C. lost to Real Salt Lake 2-1 on July 29, the final match before the All-Star break.

The result of that MLS All-Star Game is why fans should expect the unexpected tonight. Even though Real players and coaches insist they want to win, they simply aren't match fit, and probably won't be for several more weeks. D.C. United, meanwhile, is in midseason form and many of the players are coming off the euphoria of that All-Star Game triumph.

Last weekend, a collection of MLS All-Stars that included several D.C. players, including Freddy Adu, upset English Premiere League club Chelsea 1-0 in Chicago. Are similar results in store for Real Madrid this week against MLS teams?

There appears to be a different attitude surrounding Real Madrid after a largely disappointing 2005-06 campaign that ended without a trophy. A change in personnel and atop the coaching ranks no doubt has played a role.

Former Juventus coach Fabio Capello is returning to Real Madrid for his second stint with "Los Galacticos," and he's being joined by an array of world-class players. In addition to Beckham, Ronaldo, Robinho, Raul, Carlos and many more, Real Madrid forked out plenty of cash this summer to acquire Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro, Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy as well as Brazilian midfielder Emerson.

All of those players will be in uniform tonight at Qwest Field, excluding Ronaldo, who is back in Spain continuing his "recovery and shape-up program," according to the team's Web site.

[FiddySicks]

Didnt they once have a game back in the 70s where a college team played an NFL team and just got destroyed? Im thinkin thats pretty much gonna be the same result here.

[leopard88]

Didnt they once have a game back in the 70s where a college team played an NFL team and just got destroyed? Im thinkin thats pretty much gonna be the same result here.

If you're thinking about the College All-Star Game, that took place every year until some time in the 70s.

As for the result, Real Madrid may well win (maybe even handily), but I highly doubt it will look like a group of college football players against an NFL team.

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

Didnt they once have a game back in the 70s where a college team played an NFL team and just got destroyed? Im thinkin thats pretty much gonna be the same result here.

If you're thinking about the College All-Star Game, that took place every year until some time in the 70s.

Wow. That actually happened?

Remember all the talk a few years back about how the University of Miami Hurricanes could beat the Cincinnati Bengals? I would have loved to have seen that, if only to see pretty boy Miami get crushed by an NFL team.

Same with college basketball players. Does anyone think that Florida could beat a team like the Knicks? Or the Trailblazers? It wouldn't even be close.

[NDwas]

RFK Stadium? No.

FedEx Field? No.

M&T Bank Stadium? No.

Let's play in Washington! State?

Great compromise.

[leopard88]

Didnt they once have a game back in the 70s where a college team played an NFL team and just got destroyed? Im thinkin thats pretty much gonna be the same result here.

If you're thinking about the College All-Star Game, that took place every year until some time in the 70s.

Wow. That actually happened?

Indeed, it did.

Wikipedia -- College All-Star Game

I'm old enough to have seen a few, but I can't say I really remember them.

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

Didnt they once have a game back in the 70s where a college team played an NFL team and just got destroyed? Im thinkin thats pretty much gonna be the same result here.

If you're thinking about the College All-Star Game, that took place every year until some time in the 70s.

Wow. That actually happened?

Indeed, it did.

Wikipedia -- College All-Star Game

I'm old enough to have seen a few, but I can't say I really remember them.

Wow. The NFL championship winner would play a team of college all-stars, and amazingly, only won 31 out of the 43 games played (nine wins by the college all stars and two ties [these numbers add to 42 and not 43, but this is wikipedia...huh....]).

In the early years, the 30s-40s when college football was much more important than the professional game, I could see a bunch of well coached young athletes providing a good contest for what were essentially part-time pro athletes, construction workers and insurance salesmen who happened to be pretty good athletes. But by the 60s (the college team won in 1963 against Lombardi's Packers), it really should have been no contest. Indeed, in the last game, the 1976 Steelers were up 24-0 before bad weather canceled the game.

I'd like to something similar now, but only for the traffic accident effect of it. It'd be too uncompetitive not to watch.

[OMMF]

RFK Stadium? No.

FedEx Field? No.

M&T Bank Stadium? No.

Let's play in Washington! State?

Great compromise.

Their loss, our gain.

[NJTank]

lol thats funny

Maybe one day Seattle will get MLS

[OMMF]

Fantastic, fantastic game last night at Qwest field. Some people went home disappointed at the 1-1 draw but there was certainly a lot of excitement anyway.

mms://a1503.v115042.c11504.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/11504/v0001/mlbmls.download.akamai.com/11504/2006/open/gp/08/080906_rmddcu_gp_350.wmv

cut and paste into media player

Perkins made some great saves. The virtual sellout crown of 66,800+ seemed to be rooting more for players than the teams. Adu, Van Nistelrooy and Beckham all got huge cheers during the intros and whenever they got a touch.

Overall, just a wonderful evening of football in Seattle.