Having spent the last two days visiting the sites of Washington DC, we headed north to Lancaster. Strange that the Washington Post sports section made no mention of the 'World soccer' event between Palace and their hosts from Baltimore! The build up to the British Open managed quite a few column inches though!

 

The Clipper Magazine stadium was infinitely easier to find for our second game; home of the Lancaster Barnstormers. The neon sign outside the baseball stadium welcomed 'London Crystal Palace' and again the ground had been converted for a 'World class' soccer match!' World class? Well we do have players from Argentina, Austria, Australia etc... but they do like to exaggerate in the States!

 

 

Our opponents this time; Harrisburg City Islanders would, I'm guessing, usually play their games in Harrisburg, which is 25 miles north west of Lancaster.

 

I'm not sure why we didn't play at their home ground but, again I'm guessing, that the lure of CPFC was to try and win more baseball fans to watch some US based soccer!

 

The first positive of this evening was that the ticket price was $2 less than last Monday. And being close to a town centre (although every place is a city in Amercia) the fixture attracted more people; about 5000.

 

My theory appeared correct as I spent the game sitting next to a major league baseball fan who was attending his first ever soccer match. They certainly tried to make the 25 or so UK based Palace fans at home playing 'Three Lions' and 'Walk on' before the kick off. And 'Glad All Over' got an airing for each Palace goal.

 

A major obstacle for the players (and supporters for that matter) was the heat at the 7pm KO time - around 90 degrees.

 

The uncomfortable temperature didn't abate until well into the second half. We stood again for the National anthems only for 'God save the Queen' to be interupted by a furry orange mascot (I couldn't tell you what it was supposed to be!) and the match ball arriving by helicopter.

 

As we kicked off five minutes late - Palace in their new home kit again - the pre match music continued and the announcer insisted on stating the blindingly obvious every time either team had a goal kick, corner or free kick (referred to as a re-start).

 

Harrisburg started better although through Freddie Sears, Palace took the lead on 33 minutes - a decent strike from the edge of the box. Another new boy, Ambrose netted six minutes later from a free kick before Neil Danns headed home on half time to give the score line a flattering look at 3-0.

 

 

Wholesale changes once more occurred after the break and although Palace played better football in the second period, the City Islanders managed one back on 68 minutes for the game to finish 3-1; Matt Lawrence this time (Paddy McCarthy in the last game) was the only player to feature for the whole 90 minutes.

 

They promised fireworks again but this time they didn't appear; most supporters ended up on the pitch at the end of the game, mixing with the players.

 

 

I know the guys are used to signing autographs but they were mobbed by hundreds of American kids and adults wanting shirts signed etc... One guy, wearing a red England top asked our Austrian international to sign his shirt! We had a team photo of CPFC team UK with players and fans alike before making our separate ways.

 

 

Off to New York tomorrow for the final leg of the vacation (sorry, holiday) - not brilliant planning on my part as we don't arrive back until Tuesday morning; jet lag permitting in time for the Brentford game!