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The Giant is Not Dead
Mexico City, Mexico - I had to go all the way to Mexico City to realize how much I can't stand DC United fans, in particular, the Screaming Eagles. I spend over $700 to see my country play and some bitch from DC is going to tell me not to sing? More on this later..... Azteca Stadium is one of the few venues in the World to host 2 World Cup finals - the capacity, the altitude, the legendary mystique - it is one of the top 10 stadiums in the world. Throw on top of that, the growing rivalry between the US and Mexico and it easily becomes a must see for any diehard US fan who can afford the trip. Originally I was looking at doing all my traveling solo from NJ but as we got closer and closer to the game, people who at first said NO, caved .. so when I finalized my plans, I was heading down to Mexico with Joe and Sansone. We would be meeting up with Cory, Brent and Leo once in Mexico City.
We arrived in Mexico City on Thursday night. With Good Friday the next day and Easter on Sunday, the city was quite dead - it wasn't its normal bustling self. Friday, we did a little sight seeing during the day and we headed to a balcony restaurant that had a nice view of of the national cathederal and the main square of the Zocalo. No sooner did we sit down and fireworks started going off in the distance. During the course of our meal, they kept getting closer and closer to us. Eventually, the fireworks were being shot off from the square. Shortly after that, a candle light procession began to move thru. We had stumbled upon one of the many parades being held during the week. The square must have been the end destination for the parade because once there, everyone filed around a stage and it looked like a Mass was going on. It was a pretty surreal night. Great food, a great view, great events going on around us. It made me wish I had done a little more research about Mexico City before I left on this trip.
Saturday was the day that many fans were going to visit the Pyramids. We were planning on going to the Pyramids too but since we weren't leaving Monday, we figured to go then when there would be less people. Instead we went searching around for bars so we could watch World Cup Qualifiers from Europe. After Sunday was finally upon us. The reason we all came down. All of the ESC boys had secured tickets thru Soccer Travels which included a police escorted bus ride to the stadium. After hearing the stories Joe had from 4 years ago down here, with concrete bits and smoke bombs thrown at him, I was glad we weren't taking the subway like alot of other fans. It also makes it alot easier if you are carrying the baby flag too. Soccer Travel had 2 buses full of fans and the Screaming Eagles had their own bus. I was actually too nervous to drink on the bus ride to the stadium. Where there going to be any bathrooms? How would I get to them? Would I miss something good like a US goal? Everyone else on the other hand, especially Joe, had no problems consuming alcohol on the ride there or during the game.
Once we arrived at the stadium, the authorities had no clue what to do with us. They didn't know where to park us, they didn't where to lead us, they only thing they did know was that they would have every US fan surrounded by police in riot gear at all times. When we finally got out of the buses, we were lead into the stadium and then down to a tunnel - The Wrong Tunnel. So they sent us back the way we came and in another direction. Once we were inside the stadium tunnel, we started singing on our entrance to our seats. The boos started almost immediately. We were lead all the way down behind the players benches. Then after 5 minutes, we were moved During the player warm ups we finally started getting into our singing groove. We started to sing a few songs. After one of them, this woman, who I have never seen before comes up to me and tells me that I look like a good cheerleader but we shouldn't bother to sing any songs because we are outnumbered. Instead we should just wave things because the team will have a better chance of seeing us do that than hearing us. She then proceeds to demonstrate by waving this weak ass American Flag hair bandana that she has. Turns out this person was Lisa, one of the heads of the Screaming Eagles, need I say more. I was too floored to tell the bitch what I really thought. First of all, I didn't spend all this time, money and effort to come down here not to sing and second of all, if she want to wave things, what do you think the team is going to notice - that scrawny bitch waving her hankerchief or me waving the 20 by 30 ft flag I brought with me. FUCK OFF. If I ever have to talk to that bitch again, that will be one time too many. Its great how many numbers the Screaming Eagles brought, but its just that, numbers. I have more passion in my left pinky than all of them combined. The only time they get emotional or show any passion is when they are busy stiffing restaurant employees of their tips.
The US came out with a slight different formation and more legs to start the second half. Eddie Lewis had a good chance early that was saved by the keeper.
I started to drink after the game on the ride home, I had some catching up to do. I was having such a good time drinking, I didn't even realize we had reached our destination. Once we got back to the hotel room, we dropped off our stuff and headed out for a bite to eat. After that, we watched the replay of the game on Sansone's pc. He had brought some crazy electronic gizmos with him and one of them allowed him to TIVO the game from the Mexican cable onto his pc. They had some really fun sketches, one with Presidents Fox and Bush, the other involving claymation and the history between our two countries. When the replay whistle sounded, Joe was done for the night but the rest of us headed out to drink the night away. By the end of the night, I had no pesos left on me and somehow made it home not knowing where I was, Sansone had gotten pulled over by the Mexican police and Brent was singing anti-England songs to a bunch of English fellows. Win or lose vs Mexico, we are always going to have a good time.
Ed Kirwan
Pics
**Asteriks at the end of a descripition denotes a contributed photo. Photos have been contributed from Yellow Card Journalism with their permission. Look in the status bar for the name of the photograper.
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There were less people, less traffic, less smog and less things open. We were staying at the Galleria Plaza in the Zona Rosa as were many other US fans. Tired from all the traveling, we just grabbed a bite to eat, had a few drinks and called it a night.
watching the WCQ games we checked out some place and had some goat tacos. I couldn't help but laugh thinking of Dimitri and his alien goat eating Chivas banner he keeps insisting we make. After that we met a huge contingent of US fans on the rooftop pool of our hotel. For many of us, it was a Korea Reunion - we hadn't seen each other since then. We drank there for a few hours, exchanged some stories and witnessed another parade that this time was going on by the Angel Monument. We did go out and do some more drinking, but we all called it an early night in anticipation for the next day.
2 sections to the left. Then 2 more sections. Finally they moved us one more time all the way into the corner of the stadium. It was pretty frustrating, we would open up the baby flag, set it up, I would start to hang my banners and then we had to move it all again. Our section was completely surrounded by police in riot gear. There was a fence to our left seperating the sections so we were close to a whole lot of Mexicans, but there was no way for them to cause us any real physical harm. From out vantage point, we had a good view of the moat and fence surrounding the field. The moat was filled with even more police and EVEN guard dogs. I read in one of the papers afterwards, there were over 3500 security personnel on hand for the game. The press surrounded us too. Taking picture after picture of our section. Drew Carey was part of the press corp who came over taking pictures. He thoroughly enjoyed our "Mime's a Mexican" chant. Brent had a pretty good buzz going and was running up to every TV camera chanting USA and doing his best Wu-Tan NYC impressions. Someone's girlfriend wore a stars and stripes bikini top and naturally got a lot of attention. Every photographer there took her picture and she made her way into every single newspaper the next day....some just had pictures of her breasts and cut out her head.
The game itself was very disappointing. Bruce trained all these MLS players in high altitudes in the US so he could start 2 of them. His starting line up of a 4-5-1 consisted mainly of European based players was way too defensive, it reminded me of his crap line up away vs Costa Rica four years ago. Give a team enough chances, they are certain to score. AND when they do, you don't have the personnel out there to accommodate the offense you now need. The game started out ok enough though, both teams had some early chances. Then as the game progressed, you could see the US players starting to tire. Around the 25 minute on a corner kick, Claudio had his hands on his knees and was gasping for air. Azteca, the altitude, the air, it started to take its toll. Mexico started to control the wings and in the 30th minute a sneaky header caught Kasey Keller reacting prematurely and Gooch couldn't get to Borgetti fast enough. 1-0. The place erupted. Mexican fans started to go crazy. MEHICO MEHICO. No sooner were they in the seats, they were back out when a reeling US defense allowed a wide open Naelson in the box. 2-0. Now it was starting to look bad. The US hadn't scored in Mexico City in 20 years...asking for 2 goals seemed to be too much, especially the way they were playing.
If we could just get one back early...who knows what could happen. Then in the 58th minute a good sequence out wide, saw the ball finds its way to Donovan and he laid it off for Eddie Lewis. He fired a low screamer weaving between the defenders and the post. GOAL! - our first in 20 years AND let the shower begin. As soon as Lewis scored, the place went dead and beer began flying over at us. Luckily for most of us, we had the 20 x 30ft flag over us so most of the beer shower landed on the flag. We now had almost 20 minutes to score another but we just couldn't seem to generate any more offense. Kasey Keller did an amazing job at keeping it a one goal game. I'm not sure why Clint Mathis wasn't in Mexico City but he was sorely missed. His insertion for Claudio I am certain would have meant a tying goal. The way we were playing, our goal would to have come from out of nowhere and no one is better than Clint at that. As time kept ticking off, the final whistle sounded: 2-1 Mexico. "The Giant is Not Dead" one banner proclaimed from the stands.
Some random things I'll remember from the game. Every time Mexico scored, the Mexican beer guy running down the first aisle pumping his fists. Brent selling out and doing an interview for Outside the Lines during the game. The father who broke his nose and lip to get his son a Corona ball. I was going to give it to your son anyway. Joe trading his American bandana for a Mexican flag and starting an exchange of gifts between the two fans. Joe's such a diplomat. Sansone getting that crazy Mexican hat.
Boy was I glad we weren't leaving Mexico Monday. I felt like such crap when I woke up. Joe had slept all night and he didn't wake up until 12pm. Needless to say, we did not make it to the Pyramids. (Note to self: Never plan anything big for the day after the US game. Do it before.) We ate lunch at a nice quaint place and then went strolling around the now busy streets looking for a market. Eventually we found the market and we bought a few things to take back with us. We didn't do a whole lot Monday night, we just relaxed and enjoyed the rest of our stay in Mexico. Tuesday morning, we were going back to the US and headed towards Birmingham, Alabama where the Guatemalans awaited us.
