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Real Madrid Offers a Touch of Cool on a Hot Day at FedEx Field
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"I was hoping I could exchange jerseys with Robben because it seemed like I was chasing him around the field the whole day," McTavish said. "But someone already got his."
Told that auctioning off a Real Madrid game-worn jersey on eBay might bring more than the average D.C. United salary, McTavish smiled, adding, "Dude, you could get a lot for that."
Real Madrid is so big, an MLS team in Salt Lake and a third-division outfit in Rockville (Real Maryland) stole its name. You never hear that futbol machine from the Canary Islands borrow the Columbus MLS team's name; I'm sorry, the Tenerife Crew just doesn't work.
Of all the statistics thrown out this week, none was more telling than the one in Steve Goff's Saturday preview in The Post: the combined salaries this year of Ronaldo and Kaka are more than every player has ever made in the 13-year history of the United -- and that's counting Freddy "$500K or I no play" Adu.
The MLS salary cap is just $2.3 million per team, which is basically cerveza money for Raul or Kaka.
Thirty-one championships. Fame. Fortune. And the largest non-doubleheader crowd ever to watch D.C. United in its history -- home and away. What a day for the locals to be part of, no?
This time a year ago Greg Janicki was playing for -- you got to love this nickname -- the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. On Sunday, he was starting in a three-man back line against the world's richest and one of its most regal teams, the last line of defense between Cristiano and Raul and Kaka. Rodney Wallace and Chris Pontius were playing collegiate soccer a few months ago, for Maryland and UC Santa Barbara, respectively.
Yes, it's the name of the same club D.C. United tied in Seattle three years ago on Sunday. But that club was not this constellation of stars. With so many great players, so much glitterati and so much pageantry, it was sure swell of the privileged elite to deign to play the peasants on their home pitch Sunday.
It's like McTavish said when I asked whether he ever believed he would step on the field against a team like Real Madrid when he was playing at West Virginia University.
"No, I never thought I'd get to experience this," he said.
All right then -- "Landover, Maryland" gets three stars.
