USA, USA, USA!

When we first decided that we were going to try to go to Brazil for the World Cup, the big fish - the white whale, was to get a game where the US was playing. It was one of the reasons why we decided to wait to try to get tickets until the second round of the ticket lottery, after they had done the draw and we would know where the United States would be.  Of course, waiting to the second round was risky.  You might not get any tickets at all. And of course, that's exactly what happened. We put our names in for the lottery and we got shut out entirely. It looked like the dream was dead. 

But Christopher had a buddy who had been spectacularly successful in his lottery applications. He had lots of tickets and so most of the games that we are seeing, we are seeing on the strength of his lottery winnings.  And one of the games for which Ryan had too many tickets was the US opening match against Ghana in Natal. So, after our four days in Fortaleza and seeing our first match  (Uruguay versus Costa Rica), we jumped in the rental car and made the 7 Hour drive to Natal.  Driving in Brazil is an experience (There'll be another post on that as soon as I can get it together  -  interesting but it pales in comparison to the experience around the US game here in Natal.)

After spending the whole day in the car, as soon as we got to Natal we went to straight to the pre-match party that was hosted by the US soccer Federation. They had thrown up a "pop-up" event in what was an empty electronics store, it seems.  We decided to go over and check it out. When we got there the place was hopping.  There must've been a couple of thousand US fans decked out in any one of the couple of thousand different jerseys United States has worn over the last 10 years. It really is sad to me that United States does not have a jersey that anyone would recognize anywhere. Not like Argentina and it's blue and white stripes or Brazil with its canary and green. No, we have worn a whole bunch of different looks over the years and none of them really scream USA.  

At any rate, the party was pretty good, I suppose.  It had some minor failings at least from my vantage point.  The best beer that they had was good old Budweiser. What do you want, they are a sponsor...  Call me a beer snob, but I have not paid for a Budweiser in at least 10 years and I was not going to start tonight. Especially because they decided Bud should be sold for about the same price that you would pay if you were at home about twice what we've been paying for the local stuff.  The price would be fine except that you're getting Budweiser. I'll just have water - they're about the same anyway. As for the rest, there were plenty of TVs to watch the matches going on and there was music and dancing and it was pretty cool just to be in the presence of so many American fans so excited on the eve of the big game. We stayed for a while but it was complicated to get both something to eat or something to drink. You had to stand in one long line to pay and get your receipt and then stand in another long line to go pick up the thing that you just paid for. We decided we could find another place that had a little bit better service and so off we went. 

The next day the excitement around game started building early even though the game itself didn't start until 4 PM.   All around town we would see Americans sporting the red white and blue. We were not quite as boisterous or confident/arrogant as the Uruguayans in Fortaleza but we weren't bashful about American pride either.  About four hours before the game we decided to go over and see if we could join with the American Outlaws gathering a couple blocks from the stadium. It was not hard to find.  There was a corner pizza place and five hundred people standing in the street in front of it.   You couldn't get anywhere near a pizza or a beer or the bathroom for that matter.  But it was fun just being with a bunch of Americans soaking in the atmosphere and anticipating the start of what was probably a once in a lifetime event for most of us. Two hours before the match the march to the stadium began.  It took 45 minutes and was awesome - or so I'm told. Unfortunately, we missed it because we decided that we needed to pop up the street to a place where you could actually get in to have some lunch before the game. Given our Fortaleza stadium experience where it was so difficult to get food, we decided that it was not a good idea to try to go to the stadium and find something to eat.  We blew it.   Some people said  it was the highlight of the day. 

Or maybe not, because at 4:00 the game started and at 4:01 United States was ahead 1-0. I suspect that it has to go down as one of quickest goals in World Cup history and undoubtedly US World Cup history by a mile. The next 90 minutes were excruciating. I love watching soccer when I don't care all that much about the outcome. When you care it is rough if your team is not playing well. The US was not playing particularly well. Yes, we were ahead for almost the entirety of the match but we were having a lot of trouble holding the midfield.   At halftime they showed the time of possession and it favored the Ghanaians almost two to one.

Something was bound to give. And of course, finally it did. Ghana got the equalizer. I must say that at that point I had a serious sense of dread. The last 80 minutes United States had not looked all that dangerous. And now we are going to need a goal if we were going to have any chance of getting out of our group. Lo and behold, that goal materialized.  I'm not sure that if I were a neutral observer I would say that the result was completely deserved.   I don't think the Brazialians in the crowd thought so.  Over the course of the match they had begun to swing to support Ghana more and more loudly.  But I'm not a neutral observer and so I was thrilled to take the win and the three points. 

After the game the party was on - probably all through the night although we didn't stay out all that late. As we walked around town we got high-fives from Americans and Brazilians.  Congratulations all around - on our wonderful cheering?  I'm not sure exactly what I had to do with the result but when we went into the restaurant for dinner cheers to rang out as we walked in, along with chants of USA, USA. As it turns out every time any American walked in people cheered and started chanting.  It was a great night for the red, white and blue.