The Seattle Sounders and Barclays Premier League club West Ham United will play an international friendly on Tuesday at CenturyLink Field (7:30 pm PT; JoeTV, KIRO 97.3 FM/El Rey 1360 AM), the first-ever matchup between the two teams in their history.
In honor of the occasion, SoundersFC.com asked KIRO 97.3 FM play-by-play man Matt Johnson to reflect on his appreciation for West Ham United, a club he's supported for more than a decade.
Back in 1994 I was lucky enough to get tickets to both the semifinal and final of the World Cup at the Rose Bowl. My brother and I flew down early in the week, stayed with our cousins, and the experience began. The week was amazing, even though we were never invited back to stay with our family (that’s a whole other story).
On our flight home the Monday after the final between Italy and Brazil my brother nudged me and just said, “Why don’t we do this every four years?” I grumbled, “okay,” then went back to sleep.
With that simple conversation, we have been to the last six World Cups.
The Rose Bowl, France, Korea, Germany, South Africa, and Brazil. It has been amazing. I plan on going to World Cup tournaments the rest of my life. Throw in a couple Champions League semifinals in London in 2009 (Manchester United at Arsenal and Chelsea hosting Barcelona), an amazing week of Cup soccer the year before (UEFA Cup Final, FA Cup Final and Champions League Final) and I’ve been lucky enough to have tasted soccer at the highest level.
But it was after the World Cup in France in 1998 - when we were lucky enough to go to 11 matches in 11 days - that my brother came up with another good idea. If we could get tickets on the streets for World Cup fixtures, why don’t we head to England and try our luck to get into Premier League matches?
So we did.
In January 2000 we watched Arsenal at old Highbury, went to Stamford Bridge for a great London derby in Chelsea-Tottenham, went up to Newcastle and saw the great Alan Shearer, and went to a quarterfinal Worthington Cup replay at Upton Park between West Ham and Aston Villa. The Worthington Cup is now called The Capital One Cup and can always be referred to as The League Cup.
From the Rose Bowl to France and all the other games around London my brother and I were always able to get two seats together from scalpers off the street. To this day in all of these matches I’ve attended we’ve been able to sit together except for the West Ham match.
So why am I a Hammers fan? The atmosphere at Upton Park. It was simply unbelievable. West Ham had a number of young players that you might recognize: Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Rio Ferdinand were all up and coming stars that were developed in the West Ham Academy.
But it was one moment that I still remember like it was yesterday.
Their striker was the flamboyant and often controversial Paolo Di Canio. At a tense moment in the match a half-hearted attempt by Di Canio drew a groan from the crowd and a hush went over the stadium. A large and pretty much scary gentleman sitting close to me screams at Di Canio, “DI CANIO, YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT!”
At that point the Italian acknowledges him by raising his hand as if to say, “I know, I will try harder next time.”
Well, the place went nuts. Our whole section started singing his name with the entire stadium joining in embracing their star striker. I’ll never forget it.
West Ham gave up the tying goal from a beautiful volley from Ian Taylor in the 80th minute and went on to lose in extra time. Their League Cup run was over. But I was hooked.
I’ve been a fan ever since.
