By Al
Today I had tickets to see the Trophée des champions. TheTrophée des champions is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the Super Cups found in many countries. It was being play at Red Bull Arena in Newark. This is only the second time it was played outside France in its history. The other time was in Canada.
The teams were Lyon and Montpellier. Lyon won in a shoot-out. I was a very good game, although I was struck at the inability of the players to stop a pass. They always seemed to bounce it a few feet away, which allowed many turnovers. However, the level of play was much better than the Red Bull-Fire game Sally and I saw. I was surprised that the stands were not full, although there were more people than had come to see the Red Bulls. I don't know how well this game was advertised. There were, of course, a lot of people speaking French and taking sides.
It rained before the game and after, but the weather wasn't too bad for the match. Just very humid.
The game starts. More people come as the me proceeds. 
Freezing an injured players knee.
Score.
I had to meet Sally that night for a concert at Lincoln Center as part of the Mostly Mozart series. So, I was anxious to get back to New York in time. I had taken the New Jersey train to Newark and was going to take it back to Penn Station. However, when I got to the Newark Penn station, all trains were delayed. There was no information as to how long the delay would be. There are also New York Port Authority trains from Newark to Manhattan, so I took one that was supposed to go to the World Trade Center. This would have worked. However, the train got to Journal Square, which is still in New Jersey. The train operator then started yelling over the intercom that the train was no longer in service and everybody had to get off. He yelled this at least 10 times in a row as he was opening the doors. Of course the train was full because of people leaving the game, so it took a while for the train to empty. When people didn't get off fast enough, he yelled it at least 5 more times. When the train was empty, he pulled out. There was no explanation as to why and no information as to when the next train would be coming through. We were just left on the platform. Fortunately, I was able to figure out that there was another train going to Hoboken and then Manhattan that I could take. I had no idea how long it would take, but at least it was running. Ultimately, I did get to Lincoln Center with about 15 minutes to spare.
New York subways may have their problems; but, at least, when a train is not running they make an announcement and tell you what to do to continue on with your journey. The Port Authority doesn't seem to care. Very poor management.
The concert had a piece by Mozart and a piece by Shubert. I am sure Sally will tell you more abut them. I did have a epiphany as to why I don't particularly like this music. Both composer, in both pieces, had eight note phrases. They then composed different ways to play around these phrases. For me, it just got boring, because the basic phrase was always the same.
I am glad that some people like this, but at least I can now identify what bothers me about this music.
Sally's Day
I spent the morning waiting in line for free tickets to the Mozart concert, and then returned in the evening for the concert. I am a big Mozart fun, but enjoyed the Schubert piece more.
The Mozart was Symphony #38, and the Schubert, Symphony #4.
As you can guess from Al's comments, I will be probably going to classical music concerts in the future without him.
The first person in line got there at 4:30 a.m. for ticket distribution at 10 a.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment