Best Seats ≠ Best Experience

Yesterday was my first ever live USA soccer match, so I decided to splurge on the seats when bought them. Whereas for all other games I bought the cheap seats, here I bought Category 1 seats. These put me about midway between the half way line and the goal, in row O, so 15 rows back. Plus, was wearing a powdered wig and tricorn hat:




You would think that this would lead to a great experience. Not exactly.

First of all, there was the aforementioned problem with Slovenians trying to cheat their way into the good seats. Second of all, there were two absolute jackass Americans sitting in front of me who kept trying to stand up during the game, despite repeated warnings from the stewards. I mean, I understand the appeal of standing during a match, but that simply isn't the way it's done anymore. Their insistence on standing led to fights with other Americans, which wasn't much of an advertisement for our country.

Neither was our performance during the first half, with the minuscule nation of Slovenia jumping to a 2-0 lead, though the first goal looked offside. I also missed Landon Donovan's goal early in the first half, thanks to some guy in the beer line who was . . . well I don't know what his problem was. Whatever he was doing, it wasn't giving the appropriate amount of money for the beer he was purchasing.

I didn't miss Michael Bradley's equalizer though, and it was the kind of moment where random strangers were jumping around and hugging each other. So was our third goal . . . until it was disallowed for no good reason. In other words, got sprayed with beer for no reason. The referee, I understand, is under investigation for this and probably won't referee any more games, but obviously it was too little, too late for the USA.

Fortunately, Algeria did us a massive favor and as long as we defeat them, we'll go on to the next round.