Monday 24th July
Another day – another city – another time zone!
I left my hotel in New York late Sunday evening and walked to the nearby Penn St station (unfortunately as it’s next to Maddison Square Gardens, where a Drake concert had just finished and everyone was piling out!).
Then I got the underground to somewhere close to the airport, which set us up for the all-night Airport bus. I had been expecting to be one of the first passengers to arrive at the airport (1:30am), but how wrong was I? There was queues already at check-in…
Being one of the first flights of the day, our plane was already on the stand, so we loaded and set off on time.
A 6 hour flight across America (NE to SW) – when it’s only 7hrs from New York to Manchester!
I slept most of the way and we arrived in LA (LAX) at 8am local time.
My friend was at the airport to meet me and we drove to West Covina (just outside LA).
In the afternoon, we went with him, his wife and kids to his dad’s house. We had a great afternoon/evening in the swimming pool and enjoyed a BBQ.
An early night followed because I needed the sleep.
Tuesday 25th: Match Day
After breakfast we all got into their car to drive the 120 miles south to San Diego.
They have booked an AirBnb for a couple of nights, but I’m only staying Tuesday night as I’ve an early Wednesday flight to Houston to catch!
I’m still not sure what type of team United will be putting out – but when they first put tickets on sale (back in March) no one said it was ‘only the academy’ and tickets were on sale at more than FA Cup final prices.
A very young team/squad and a lot of disappointed Americans who were expecting to see one or two ‘first teamers’.
The 3-1 loss was equivalent to a PapaJohns Pizza Cup game, but after paying FA Cup final standard prices!
Hannibal was my stand out player.
Early start tomorrow – flight at 8:30 to Houston!
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