Man City v Liverpool on Skysports 1 now

capo4th

Live from NYC

capo4th

The pitch looks a little strange.

holnrew

Looks almost as weird as when they have NHL games in a baseball stadium.

RobDavies

Why do people bother with friendlies?

mike_l

capo4th said:

The pitch looks a little strange.

I didn't see the match, or the pitch, but I'd hazard a guestimate the difference is it's because you're used to seeing European pitches and the American groundsmen aren't used to preparing a grass pitch like that, NFL and baseball have different surface requirements.

underdog

RobDavies;308111" said:

Why do people bother with friendlies?

To get the players "match fit" after a couple of weeks off, to see the progress of youth and fringe players, to put unwanted players in the shop window, and of course money.

Gone are the days of 5 friendlies against local teams, you pick a continent and tour it, often playing other English or European sides doing the same thing. You promote your team in the US or Asia sell a few hundered thousand shirts, up your tv money for those areas and gain some sponsors.

Other than that they are pointless

RobDavies

underdog;308141" said:

[quote="RobDavies;308111"]Why do people bother with friendlies?

To get the players "match fit" after a couple of weeks off, to see the progress of youth and fringe players, to put unwanted players in the shop window, and of course money.

[/quote]

Yeah, I know all that.   What I meant was, why would anyone go out of their way to watch one?   It's pointless.

I've been a season ticket holder at Brentford for about thirty years and I've never paid to watch a friendly (other than when it was against Fulham or QPR, because that's never 'friendly').  

holnrew

It was pretty cool last year when Real played Bournemouth.