We'll catch up more tomorrow, but since the flight to Guangzho is rapidly approaching, a few highlights from this evening's activities:
- The crowd was fantastic. We knew it was going to be fun night when they applauded our team as they came out for warmups - and then lit flares. We would see those throughout the night.
- Apparently 'bangers' have become a world wide fan tool. A little know fact - bangers were first developed in the United States. No surprise there, but do you know when they were first used? Portland, Oregon on Sept. 7, 1997 in for the USA-Costa Rica World Cup qualifier. That's right folks. Soccer fans unleashed this phenomenon on the world. Not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing...
- Our players got a first-hand experience of what referee decisions can be like when you're on the road. Let's just say the wide margin in fouls called was probably a wee bit unjust.
- The Chinese team is fast and well coached. The number of precision diagonal balls they managed was impressive.
- There were USA fans in the stadium! Thanks to all six of you for showing up. It was fun meeting you post-game, although we're still not sure how you managed to get down to the locker room door.
- It's an unusual experience when it happens, but for the second straight press conference Peter and Sacha received an ovation at the end.
- You can get burgers and pizza at any post-game meal in the world. And they somehow managed to carve happy faces into the hashbrown patties.
- That's it for this evening. Overall, it was an entertaining game and probably a fair result. For their first time playing together, this group showed a lot of promise. Tomorrow the team travels - on the same flight as their Chinese counterparts - to Guangzho. Should be a light day of training, so we will sit down with some of the guys and get their thoughts on the match.
1 comment:
haah wow.
I want a smiley face burger. :]
Post a Comment