Despite not having a ticket in hand, I was determined to not miss the Philadelphia Union's debut at PPL Park Sunday afternoon. I'm glad I didn't decide to just spend the day in front of the TV.

I'll start with the stadium. It's beautiful. It's not spectacular, but I've never been inside a true soccer stadium, so I don't have much to compare it to. I won't say there isn't a bad seat in the house. From where I was at (Section 119, Row K, Seat 20), I couldn't see the scoreboard. Even if I turned around, it was unviewable. And there are no arm rests on the seats, which I guess gives fat old guys like me a little more space, but it's still odd. As I said to Linda, the woman to my right, though, at least they aren't bleachers and at least we don't have to stand the entire match.

As far as the game was concerned, it was a very impressive performance by the Union. I thought they dominated possession and looked much, much more dangerous than Seattle in the attacking third. It was a good, crisp passing performance as Sebastien Le Toux, Fred and Alejandro Moreno ran circles around the Sounders defense. I'd love to know where Peter Nowak concocted this attack. It looked totally different and a heck of a lot better than what we saw in the first 10 matches. I thought Danny Mwanga was very good. Really, the whole team was. I can't pick out a weak link.

The play of the game had to be Chris Seitz's save of a penalty kick, just minutes after all the Union's hard work had paid off in a PK of their own. Seitz didn't have to do much, but any time you save a PK, it is a huge lift to your teammates.

All in all, a great game in a great stadium. Hope you all had as good of a time as I did.