All my soccer buddies had their own Dos a Cero stories, but not me–every time there’s been a US-Mexico game since I started watching soccer, the timing just hasn’t lined up for me to go. This time, though, it worked out. So I went to Columbus, and I got to see that guy I remember as a gawky, sullen teen loping around for daddy’s Metros completely tear shit up for daddy’s Nats, and also:
- Booed a guy at the supermarket
- Got soaking wet
- Didn’t hang the Wake Up banner–we went to set banners just as the storm hit, so in a matchday fitness decision, it was left in the car
- Which is probably what should’ve happened to Nery Castillo
- Hey, Naked Juice, how come I can’t get Black and Blueberry Rush in Boston except for that one time like two years ago?
- Met everybody I was hoping to run into; it’s pretty great how if you just hang around the right meeting points long enough, you find everyone eventually
- Saw several people at the airport who left the bar after I did, but who were flying out before I was, making me wonder if they bothered sleeping
- Only just washed off all the glitter
- Did hang the 2006 Obey Gooch banner, since it was proven weather-tolerant
- Had dinner postgame with complete strangers
- Ate enough pub grub I’m good on that for weeks to come
- Note to self re: above: open soccer bar with menu composed of mostly Thai dishes
- Tried to throw my scarf to Altidore, wind picked it up, no idea who got it
- Pulled up next to the World Cup Express school bus only to discover it was a buddy driving, a buddy who needed directions to the postgame meetup
- Watched some dude lamely kick the front bumper of my rental car postgame as I sat and waited for traffic to clear
- Also watched two Chivas fans either fighting or making out or both, who the hell knows which
- Was delighted to see, on postgame review, the ad using “Over There” to promote the WCQ cycle; makes me feel hip about using WWI posters as banner material
- Uh, Sacha, you should probably figure out how you really fit at the big people table
- Also I think Demps had been up all night with the baby
- Got a great response to the first phase of the Campaign 2010 project, about which I’ll post in detail next month
- Got home on Thursday afternoon 47 hours after we’d left, exhausted, dehydrated, and sore…yep, that’s a national team game all right