Tuesday, June 15, 2010

USA 1, England 1

Saturday, the 12th, was a day almost completely dedicated to soccer. We started with Mass and prayer, breakfast, and a little planning. Then, after lunch, we headed out to the match site, which was a two hour drive away. South Africa has beautiful landscape, so the scenery on the route was wonderful, and we passed many fans (mostly English) with flags flying out of their windows.


Even though the stadium was in the middle of nowhere, our driver, Wilson, had to park five or six miles away, though we couldn't really tell how far away we were (make a note of this.) We then took a bus to the stadium, arriving a little over four hours before the game. There was a security perimeter set up at a good distance out from the stadium, and all of the activities were located within the perimeter, so, with nothing else to do, Fr. Mitchel and I decided to just stand in the queue (that means "line" for those who have never traveled to a country other than the U.S. with a large English influence.) We waited for over an hour, talking to fans around us. I met a guy who went to school at Washington University in St. Louis.


Eventually, the gates opened, only to close again quickly. It seemed the metal detectors weren't working, and then nearly all of the electronic ticket scanners weren't working. Feeling safe yet? It was good that we got in line early, because the snafus would snarl the lines behind us. There were things to do outside the stadium, but we were hungry, so we went in thinking that the concessions would have a great variety. And they did. We could either get beef hot dogs or lamb hot dogs.

We had plenty of time before the game started, so we walked around the concourse a lot, finding costumed U.S. fans with whom Fr. Mitchel posed. You can see the photos at World Cup Photos. There were at least twice as many England fans as U.S. fans, but the U.S. fans were great. The stadium, which is probably the least nicest of the World Cup venues, was nearly filled at 38,000, though we were surprised at the number of empty seats. Though nearly all of the banners around the stadium were for the English, the best banner simply read: "1776 1812 1950 2010." (In 1950, we beat the English 1-0 in a World Cup game.)

As game time approached, we got super excited. This trip had been a year-and-a-half in the planning, neither of us had ever seen the U.S. national team play in person, and we were playing England. How awesome!! The only drawback we could think of was that the game only lasted 90 minutes (make note of this.)

You saw the game, so you don't need my play-by-play, but I can give emotions. My heart sank after the first goal. I feared that we would get blown out, but the U.S. team eventually got their stride, and I became confident that they would make a game of it. When we scored (aka, when the goalie Green made it impossible for him to return to England safely), we went crazy. Fr. Mitchel and I jumped around in three different rows, knocked over a few beer bottles, fell over, and probably looked like we were taunting the English fans behind us. It was awesome!!! The English fans were stunned to silence, though one of them behind us sweared over and over throughout the whole game. I was nervous through the second half, but Tim Howard kept me sane. Every time he saved a shot I'd yell, "That's my boy" into the ears of the English fans in front of us. I also pointed out to them that this was what a goalie was supposed to do.

Josey's near goal was awesome to watch, but we were anxious for the 90 minutes to be finished. It did finish at 1-1. The U.S. team thanked their fans while the English team made a quick exit.

We tried to make a quick exit too, but we got caught in the crowd. Then, when we got to the bus pick-up, we discovered that there were no volunteers directing anything. People were all over the place, completely unorganized and confused about how and when they'd get back to their cars. I convinced Fr. Mitchel that we should walk, though we didn't remember the way or how far away we were.

We went 4 or 5 kilometers with no parking lot in site. Eventually we found volunteers (yes, the only volunteers we found were nearly 3 miles from the stadium) who helped us and a guy who had been mugged by English fans onto a taxi van back to the parking lot. We were still nearly 3 miles away from the lot, so we would have been walking for another hour.

Our driver got us home at 2am, but we heard of some not making it home until 4am. It was worth it though. Totally worth it.

Well, that's about all I have to say about that. It is a blessing to be here.

God Bless,

Fr. Scott

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