Trailblazers Tame Bulls

It was another cold, sharp, crisp winter's night in Portland and I ventured yet again to the Moda Centre to watch some NBA between the Portland Trailblazers and the Chicago Bulls. I had always wanted to see the Bulls play as growing up during the 1990's you were inundated with all things Chicago, Bulls and the legends on the court that were just so phenomenal. However, I knew that the Bulls that I was going to see were a tiny shadow of what they used to be of the heyday of the 1990's. But, it was something that I have wanted to do.

Portland were much like how they played against the New York Knicks and were in control from start to finish. It was a well-oiled machine display and they were just ticking along throughout the match. The crowd were right behind the Blazers, and was rather reminiscent of when I watched a few Portland Timbers games the previous summer. The fans are tightly knit, despite their political views which for me is rather astonishing with Portland being a very blue state these days. But, sport does unite us from all corners of the spectrum so it really shouldn't surprise me. That is one thing that I really do love about sports, watching and being involved with it. It bridges many divides.

Portland didn't really look under threat though during the game, but there were moments where the Bulls did try and mount a form of counter which the hosts had to call the odd time-out to just collect themselves and reset the tempo to their liking. This didn't happen too many times though, but unlike the Utah Jazz game, this was a refreshing and positive sign for them leading into the tail end of the season.

Getting there and going through were the usual affair. The metal detector and check was very much like the World Cup in Russia and when I was in Brazil during the Olympics. Finding my seat wasn't difficult with everything well signed and easy to navigate through. Though they do have a lot of bars and eateries to just sit and chill while watching the game on the screens. While this is good to have, and I am all for it, I'd rather see the game live. It can work at Optus Stadium for the cricket and the Aussie rules, which have excellent viewing bars, doing for basketball is not really for me.Portland finished the game 124-112 winners.

The food was standard as I have covered earlier but this time I did buy some beer. I had Coors Light for 9 dollars but I gave the guy a dollar tip as I was trying to get to my seat quickly and I didn't want to obstruct anyone from viewing the game. I didn't have anything to eat during this game as I will admit that when I was downtown prior to the game I was at Buffalo Wild Wings. This place is generally wings, but you can of course order burgers, fries and other things. But you usually come for the boneless or bones wings which come in many sauces. They vary from tame, to medium to hot but varying flavours. It was good to have wings while watching some earlier NBA games and then heading down to watch my game live. I sure would love to have something similar in Perth.

Once again it was great to get out of the cold, and miserable wet conditions of Portland and just escape and watch some basketball. Was great to break up the winter's chill of the Pacific North-West.

Portland Fend Off Knicks

On yet another cold, crisp and cool Portland winter's evening was host to the Trailblazers and the New York Knicks at the moda centre in downtown Portland. Getting there isn't an issue if you just jump straight onto the Max tram service that the city has, then a straight short walk to the arena. Getting into the venue isn't very difficult, besides the initial security detectors, but that is a given. Finding my seat wasn't difficult, however, on this occasion I had special seats due to a friend of mine offering me his spare ticket. These seats were about 10-12 rows back from court-side so I was almost there in the action. It may sound like a fair way away, but the way the rows have been angled and are rather close to each other to the court, it does make it feel much closer.

Portland were in control all game, but there were times where the Knicks began to claw their way back into the contest. The margin at times was blowing out to 15 points, but through some resilience from the visitors, the margin was kept around the 9-10 point mark. However, Portland had a better day at the office, compared to the game I saw against the Jazz. They were sinking every basket, stringing passes together, moving across the court well, rebounding and applying great pressure when defending.

Food-wise, I had a cheeseburger with chips. This time round they didn't give me any ranch or blue cheese sauce which was a shame as the chips were delicious but could have done with some dipping condiments. The chips were garlic, herbs and salted which made a nice touch to just ordinary chips. The burger was fresh, with the lettuce crisp and the bread soft. However due to the nature of an Oregonian winter, the tomato was virtually white, tasteless, lifeless and soggy. An unfortunate aspect of out of season produce. With a large cup of coke it was in total 20 dollars, I think the cup is actually smaller than the collector's cup so you are getting ripped off for the same price for cool drink. Also with Oregon and the west coast of America getting obsessed with banning straws etc, they have biodegradable straws, which are fine at first, but they turn into a soggy useless mess due to exposure to the coke or liquid you're drinking.

The Blazers ran out winners over-all 111 to 101 with the fans once again winning a 6-pack of nuggets as they hit over 100 points. I really do enjoy coming to the Trailblazers games, especially when I was treated to some special seats from my friend. I really appreciated that and hopefully can experience the NBA again close up!

Seahawks Fend Off the Chiefs

On a very sharp, cold and breezy Seattle winter's night was host of the National Football League's fixture between the Seattle Seahawks and the Kansas City Chiefs at CenturyLink Field. This stadium is an incredible stadium for its sheer size. The stadium is for 70,000 spectators and 69,500 odd turned up to scream at the top of their lungs and make one heck of a noise to maintain the reputation of Seattle being one of the noisiest stadiums in the league. So noisy in fact are the fans at CenturyLink, is that they trigger the second highest amount of false starts in the league, second behind Minnesota. However, for a casual fan like myself, it was intense the noise and rather painful. Then again I had 6 fans in my seats scream at their fullest capacities in the back of my head to induce said migraine.

Tickets to these games do not come cheap, and unfortunately the cheapest I could afford were towards the very back. While not a bad view, the bitter cold blowing into the semi-open stadium did make it rather chilly. I do recommend to take your gloves for a game and a warm jacket, in which I did. But apart from the noisy fans behind me, the atmosphere is what I was expecting in an NFL game. These fans wear their emotions on their sleeves and are not afraid to show it. They do not take too kindly humour of the wry, witty or even dry varieties. So I suggest that you don't engage like that. 

The game however was a very even contest with Seattle coming out of the blocks early and hard. But failing to capitalise on the dominance. This is where Kansas City Chiefs had began to turn it around and cause trouble for the Seattle defensive team. Yes, that is right, there are effectively two teams within the team. One is an offensive team, then when they are on the defensive, well, you got it there is a team for that as they switch. So It is rather difficult to follow if you are not a fan of the game like I am. When I start to get into understanding the basics of the game however, it stops and then there is a considerable pause in the play. So it is hard to understand why they stopped and what was it for.

Kansas during the second quarter edged in front over the hosts and the crowd were wavering in their loud support for the Seahawks. But with mistakes from the Chiefs, Seattle had turned it around and with some touchdowns and conversions had hit the lead and secured the match as 38 to 31 point winners.

Beers were the usual fare at the game, I had a bottle of Budweiser for 12 dollars and chips and M&Ms for 12 dollars in total. There were plenty of other foods, but I wasn't going to fight through the crowds to fight for the food and fight all the way back up to the back of the stands with the food.
Despite the cold, and the bitterness of the winter's night in Seattle, it was a wonder evening to watch my first American football game. If you are in the states and you want to tick it off your list, I recommend it.

 

Utah Upbeat As Portland Slow On The Trail

Headed to my second NBA game at the Moda Centre on a rather chilly, crisp, cold and clear night in downtown Portland, Oregon to watch the Portland Trailblazers play host to the Utah Jazz. I caught the Max to the Rose Centre and was a little long as per usual when you cross through cities on a system that should be heavy rail, but that's the US for you. I got into the venue but I had to hand over my selfie stick to the cloak room. While this is a standard policy for virtually every stadium around the world, I thought id just have it in my pocket until post game for some after match selfies.

I found my seat with no difficulties, but there was a couple who had placed their coats on my seat and I didn't want to be squashed up next to them so I sat behind them where there were a couple of empty seats. I sat there for the first half and a couple of minutes into the third quarter until a family decided to finally arrive after eating and drinking on the concourse level. I don't understand why would you spend this money on basketball tickets, come all this way, (Portland is very sparsely populated) and not watch the game live and not on some screen in a concourse food outlet?

I happily moved, but went to the opposite side of my seat to get myself a better, or different perspective. I had no problems finding a seat as people were starting to leave half way through the third quarter as Utah were dominating Portland. The home side were competitive in the first half only trailing by 6 at half time. However, Portland's poor shooting and woeful rebounding, steals and foul count had given the Jazz easy opportunities to sink for threes and take free throws to blow out the lead beyond single digits and ended up running home with a 30 point win, 120 to 90.

The food was the same but this time I had the chicken spicy burger. It was 12 dollars also and I had a collectors cup on top of that for another 12. The total was 24 dollars and I have to say that the chips were once again a bit average. They were garlic fries, but I had to add some more salt and have ranch and barbecue sauce to add flavour. The burger was dray and utterly tasteless with little to no spice what so ever. I found this disappointing as in the United States if something is spicy, you know that there will be a bit of a tickle, unlike in Australia where it is a land devoid of anything remotely spicy.

The bread was dry and felt stale, but I could be wrong as bread in the US is usually a bit dry and not overly soft like back home. The lettuce wasn't bad, but the tomato was not pleasant. The chicken patty was bone dry and without any flavour. It only just had that crumbed taste and it did break apart easily like regular chicken. However, all in all it was not very nice.

A shame that the food on this occasion was even worse and that the Trailblazers played even worse still. But It is a neat little basketball stadium in a small Pacific North-West town that I am sure that I will be returning to at some stage in the future.

Portland Overcome Memphis

It was a crisp and cool early December winter in Portland, Oregon which was the host to my first National Basketball Association match, between the Portland Trailblazers and the Memphis Grizzlies. It was also my first trip to the Moda Centre in Portland as my previous outing here was a Timbers game last July.
The venue is very much like the Perth Arena, and most basketball venues I would imagine, with signage that was straight forward and well signed. The staff were helpful also and there were no major issues getting to my seats.

Portland started off very slowly with Memphis sprinting out of the blocks in the first quarter and dominating the frustrated home fans. Where I was sitting was rather boisterous and I loved the support as it was very much like my time at Providence Park, only with more music from the sound system. Portland were slowly warming up to the contest and in the second quarter they were starting to find their feet. However, some sloppy shooting, poor rebounds and giving away some fouls were keeping the Grizzlies with the noses in front of the contest.

By the third quarter Portland found new energy, they began to hit their strides with the crowd pushing them along. In this quarter their passes seemed to stick and they were blocking almost everything Memphis threw at them. The rapid turnovers, and the turnarounds had ensured that the Trailblazers had hit the lead by three quarter time. In the final quarter Memphis were a shadow of their former selves from the first quarter and were trying all they could to try and stem the flow of the home side. However, in the last 5 minutes of the quarter Memphis did manage to break open the Portland defence, but it was too late and Portland were too resilient holding out the visitors 99 to 92.

Food was not bad as I had the chicken strips with chips and barbecue sauce. I had a collectors cup with coke and a cider during the game. The cider was an apple cider which was not sweet, so if that is your thing for apple ciders then you may not enjoy it. The cider was 11 dollars, the meal was also 12.50 and the collectors cup was 12. This seems to be standard for sporting venues as I recall this for the Timbers and at the Dodgers and Galaxy last year.
All in all a fantastic first game for me and would highly recommend anyone in the US during the winter months to go and see a basketball match.

Perth Glorious Against Brisbane

Perth overcame a late fightback from Brisbane in their Hyundai A-League week 3 fixture at nib Stadium on a pleasant Perth evening. Perth were in fantastic form, after their rescue mission the previous week against Melbourne. They continued the patient, calm build up of play to open the account on the 15 minute mark. Perth look decidedly different than previous years and I just couldn't believe my eyes to see just how composed they were in all areas of their game.

Perth doubled the account through an unfortunate own goal had set the scene for a potential Perth walk over of the Roar. Perth seem to be generating a lot of opportunities and more chances for goal than last year, let alone previous seasons, which is a positive sign for the team and fans alike.

There were moments where Brisbane were sniffing for an opportunity, and it came on the brief moment of a lapse in concentration towards the end of the second half which awarded the visitors the opportunity to take a penalty. Brisbane converted the penalty and were frantic to try and score an equaliser, but to no avail. Perth held out firm and recorded a 2-1 win.

I had a beef pie this time from Jester's as previously mentioned, you cant really screw this up as the taste is the same. However, the price of the pie at 6 dollars is on the edge of too expensive for the size of the pie. At Optus or at Aussie Rules games, you get a bigger pie but similar price. But sacrifice in taste of the meat and pastry. Water was 5 dollars, so that is a bit of a rip-off for just water. So much for "living lighter" etc that the state government is trying to push. But with Perth playing a better, more controlled style, is a pleasure to watch. May we see more of it.

Perth Impress but Fail to Punish West Sydney

The Hyundai A-League kicked off in Perth on a beautiful sunny and fantastic day between Perth Glory and the West Sydney Wanderers. Perth Glory kick off the season with a new look squad and a new head coach looking to arrest the sliding poor results of previous seasons. West Sydney are going through a rebuilding phase and are looking at turning their fortunes around also.

Perth were dominating throughout the entire first half, remaining calm and collected with patient build up of passages of play which is a breath of fresh air. Perth took the lead through excellent passing and positioning which looked like the beginning of an avalanche of goals for the men in purple.

However, it was like a predictable horror movie trope, Perth Glory fell asleep and their dominance slipped. West Sydney were beginning to work their way back into the game by slipping through the lacklustre Glory defences. This culminated in a goal which was a shock, but really not surprising to older viewers and members who have seen this before. Yet still a shock as Perth were playing brilliantly under their new regime so it was a shame. The game ended 1-1.

Food was the usual, with cool drinks at 5 dollars and I had a Jester's chick curry pie, for 6 dollars. Jester's pies are very good, and were not any different here at the ground. Although the pie was expensive compared to one bought in a Jester's store, it is on the cusp of an acceptable price range. Of course a bottle of coke or soft drink for 5 dollars, is ridiculous. But hopefully this game is a sign of more to come for the season.