Wooo!!! August 9th was finally here! US of A had made it into the Final after a crazy semi, and I had a front row seat. Couldn’t get much better than that! (Turns out that it could, but that will come later!) The game was at the historic Wembley Stadium…. The center of English Football and the womens team were playing on the famous pitch. It was bound to be epic!
5:30 seemed to take forever to come. I attempted to do work, but I don’t know why I even bothered. It was like waiting for Christmas morning and I was completely distracted. I read every article, knew the predictions, the things that had potential to trouble the USA and the things that were bound to help them. I could have been an announcer at that game!! Finally the time arrived and I got on my lucky Wheres Waldo outfit, snapped a picture to show everyone what they were looking for and headed out the door!
I got to Wembley Park tube stop without a problem. The tube actually wasn’t full at all, but the station was a little busy when I got off the train. I exited and went through the subway (in American English that is an underpass) and was on the Olympic Way. It was packed. But I walked right up to my entrance gate, walked right through, got my bag checked, and found my block. No waiting at all!
Although I arrived at 6:10 or so, I was still one of the first ones there. I like being one of the first ones because you can take pictures without being joustled. I asked a random guy to take mine and he was really nice about it. He took two for me even! Thank you mister nice guy in the row behind me! I hung out at my seat and people watched, read my football programme and waited for them to come out!
Hope Solo came out first and looked around, then went back in only to come out to warmup soon after. She seems to always be the first one out. Then came the rest of the team and I watched them warmup. They looked pretty good ad ready to go! While they were warming up the dumb presenters in the stadium was entertaining the crowd. Our row had to do the Usain Bolt pose twice so I was on the large screen as they panned down my row each time. Thankfully no one at home saw that!
The team went back in and 10 minutes later came out holding hands of 10-12 year olds. How I wanted to be one of those kids. Except I wouldn’t have let go of whosever hand I was hold, so that may be a problem! The anthems played, I sang along, and then the two Japanese men in business suits sang along to theirs. I was a little nervous about sitting next to them, but they turned out to be the sweetest and most polite people I have ever met! I also learned that I say Japan wrong. According to them (and they were Japanese so I think they must be right) its Yi-Pan, not Ja-Pan. See Im teaching you guys tons of stuff!
Kick off FINALLY happened and we were looking good. Dominating more then I thought we would and about minutes in Carli Llyod scored off of a crazy header in which she almost lost her head via Abby Wambach’s left foot! The stadium thought it was Abby until we saw the replay. What a goal!! The Japanese men politely said that the goal was a very good one… thanks. I was relaxed since we were up by one, although there were some close calls that the Japanese hit the woodwork on.
Halftime came and went and I was still relaxed. USA came out and were still doing well. There was one really close call that Amy had to body out of the goal box, but all in all we were holding our own. Then Carli Lloyd came dribbling down the field and the crowd was screaming. She had Abby and Alex right with her. Pass… Pass… PASS and she shot instead…. GOAL!!! Everyone freaked out. Pia went crazy and hugged everyone, the team went crazy. I was really relaxed now. A two point cushion against Japan. We needed that 2nd goal because I had a feeling Japan wouldn’t give up and they would score eventually. They did in the 60th or so minute. Then I was nervous. Japan was dominated and possessing the ball. We were stabbing and getting beat on the wings over and over ( you would think that after 20 times of the same run the USA would catch on. 10 minutes left Hope Solo made a HUGE save… and saved the game.
We held on and after 2 minutes of extra time the whistle blew. I have never heard a stadium roar that loudly. Everyone was on their feet waving American flags. (it seemed anyways!) The team was freaking out, Pia was dancing and hugging everyone. Flags came from everywhere and the girls picked them up, waved them around and cried into them. I was too busy taking it all in to really get pictures and videos, and the ones I got weren’t great. But they wouldn’t have shown the moment well enough anyways. Its something you have to be there for. I think everyone in my section had dry eyes until Megan Rapione popped up in screen in tears, then I think we all choked up a little. The Japanese men did a little bow and said congrats. (im serious. Most polite little men ever). I told them that it was a great game and congrats on the silver and they smiled and said thank you. What honorable losers!
The girls continued to walk around the pitch, belting out “We are the Champions” and Silverstein’s “Born in the USA”. SO fun! Then they left with their flags and champion shirts and we watched the podium get set up. While we were waiting a camera guy came over and filmed me chanting USA with my flag, but his camera must have not been live because I watched BBC and the people on my left were on, it cut to the studio, then the people on my right were one. GAH!!!! I finished watching the podium being set up. It kinda took the awesomeness out of the moment, but soon enough everything was set for the ceremony.
This is when my seat was the worst in the house…. The Press stood RIGHT in front of us. A old guy started yelling, and we all started chanting “down in front”. They didn’t move so eventually we were all standing on our chairs until the security people made us get down, so appreciate those press photos.
The ceremony was cool. Joseph Blatters was one of the medal giver people… Everyone in the stadium booed him and he stood there with a coy little smile. I googled him when I got home and in 2004 he had made a remark that in order for Women’s football to sell tickets, they should wear shorter shorts and low cut shirts. Why on earth did they pick him to give out the medals?? Im glad everyone booed him. (he was probably picked because he is an important FIFA person)
It took awhile for everyone to get their medals and flowers. I didn’t clap for Canada. They didnt deserve their medal and I don’t like their team. I clapped for Yi-Pan though and the Japanese men clapped for the USA. After everyone had their medals we turned and watched the flags go up. I have never heard so many people sing the anthem!
I hung around for a bit afterwards, but didn’t really see much. Just the players interviewing and there were so many cameras that I couldn’t see much. So I headed home. I walked outside and the entire Olympic Way was a sea of people. Oh geez. It only took 25 minutes though from being on the ramp at the stadium to being on the tube home. So it wasn’t too bad
Today I still haven’t calmed down. I bet the players haven’t then if I haven’t! I watched all the videos and looked at all the pictures from yesterday. So fun. I managed to get some work done and finished my thesis catalog today. Now I just have to do my comparative images tomorrow and I am ready to proof read. FINALLY!
My Olympics are officially over. I am so pumped that I got to do all that I did though! What an amazing two weeks it has been! Im going to save my pennies and go the womens soccer final in RIO now!!! : ))))))
P.S This picture is my favorite I think!
Awesome! Sounds like an amazing time!
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