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Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
Birmingham, AL - Let me tell you how nice it was to be back in the United States. Back where I knew what everyone was saying - Back where I could eat the fruit - Back where I knew exactly how much it cost - Back where I could drink the water. The game in Mexico was over. Leo and Brent were back in NYC, only Joe, Sansone, Cory and I remained. Sansone is originally from Alabama so he was glad to be back home and was excited to show us all around his home state. He wasn't born in Birmingham but he knew enough of the city to give us a quick driving tour. But before we could do any of that, we had to hang around the airport for an extra hour waiting for Joe's luggage to arrive on the next flight in. Apparently his bag got randomly searched and missed making the flight that we were on. Once we all had our stuff, Mike took us through the UAB area. We were trying to see if the US was practicing on the fields there but we were too late. They had already started to practice on the actual field they would be playing on at Legion Field. While driving through Birmingham, Sansone had pointed out the Vulcan Statue to us so we went and checked that out. Apparently this 56ft tall statue is the tallest cast iron statue in the world or something like that. At any rate, the views offered from atop of the statue were magnificent. You could see all of Birmingham.
The US came out and dominated the game from start to finish. It took 11 minutes for the US to score and of course it was Eddie Johnson yet again. This guy seems to be the real deal. Watching the replay of the game, he was just incredible. His touches, his runs, his passes ....everything he did something good came out of it. At only 21, hopefully he'll continue to learn and grow as a player. The second half it was very hard to tell that we were the home team. About 15 minutes after the game was over, the skies opened up and it began pouring. Since we couldn't continue the drinking and celebrating outdoors, we moved indoors to Tide and Tiger bar. This was right across from the stadium and it was a definite local place with dirty South rap musing blaring. It was a pretty funny scene too. 5 white guys in a packed black bar. It was great to see the reactions of both the patrons and also the fellows in our group. Sansone was going on and on about how this would never happen up North and about how much better the South was with interracial activities. Good times. We stayed there for a few drinks and then headed back to downtown Birmingham to celebrate the win. We ended up at some club where there was a boxing ring in the middle of the bar. Only in the South, I though to myself.
When we woke up in the morning, we were all still in Alabama but Joe's cell phone was now in DC. Whoops! Well Rishi would have to mail it back to Brooklyn for us. We had one more day left to check out the city and there were still some things left to see. We checked out the historical park downtown and ended up at the Civil Rights Institute. I had told all my friends back home, that my trip to Birmingham wouldn't be complete if I didn't get to see two water fountains. Well the first thing you see entering the Institute is actually that. My trip was now complete. Seriously though, the place was amazing. It sucked we got there late in the day. Because it was closing, we had to kind of blow through about half of the displays and timelines. I could have stayed in there all day reading and watching everything. Its amazing to think that all took place down here. We left early the next morning and got out right before all the heavy rains came. Our flight did get delayed because of the rain and we only had 12 minutes to change terminals and get on our connecting flight in Houston but we made it. It was now back to home and the forecasted monsoon game the Metros were going to have for their home opener, It's going to be our third game of the week. But our vacation and our trip was now over.
Ed Kirwan
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We then stopped for some pie. I shouldn't say some pie, we stopped at Johnny Ray's, which is world renown for its pies. We had to sample every flavor and let me tell you the pies did live up to the reputation. We then went to see who was going to show at Mellow Mushroom and stopped by there for a bit. We hooked up with Rishi from DC (the only DC fan I like) and eventually hooked up with one of Sansone's old friends. He took us to a much cooler bar and we spent the rest of the evening drinking there. We did have to call it a night pretty early though because we had a 2 hr drive in front of us. Sansone had a lake house in Lake Martin and he had invited us to stay there. We picked up some barbeque pork and headed out for the lake in central Alabama. The drive seemed to take forever but we made it. Now Sansone hadn't been to this house since November so he wasn't sure what to expect. The house was still there but unfortunately after he turned on the water, it was not. We had no water at all, so we couldn't shit, shave or shower. In the morning, Mike found out that a water line had broke right by the edge of his property and the water had been shut off. We couldn't stay here. So we headed back to Birmingham. Luckily for us, Rishi had a reservation at the Best Western in the UAB section of town and he got us two rooms for the night. On our way back to Birmingham we had a hilarious encounter with a local Alabamian. "Y'all remember the 80s?" "I like Alabama but I support UAB football."
After some nice hot showers, we were on the way to stadium. We arrived at the stadium pretty early but so did all the Guatemalans. They were everywhere outside of the stadium. Just another day at the office being a US fan. Some people were surprised by the turnout, but I wasn't. This is Guatemala's first trip to Hex in I don't know how long and this is probably their best chance to make it to the World Cup. If I was Guatemalan and living in the US, I would have been at this game. I was just hoping that by the time the game started, enough local Alabamians would show up to make it a true home field advantage for us.
We met a bunch of Sansone's friends for the tailgate who had come down from Nashville, TN. They brought with them these ribs and this incredible barbeque sauce. You can't get that shit up here, it was that good. I came back from will call getting my tickets and the ribs were almost all gone. I had to scarf em down as quick as I could to make sure I had enough.
I went into the game a little earlier than everyone else. I had shipped the 30 x 60ft BAF flag to the stadium and I wanted to make sure it was there waiting for us in the section. After what happened with the Baby flag in Chicago, I was a little nervous. Once I got to the section there was nothing to worry about. The flag had made it. I put down my stuff, opened the flag and laid it out. I came back to my stuff and my two scarves were missing. I had asked two ladies to watch my stuff and either they are idiots and didn't see someone stealing them or they stole em themselves. I wasn't too concerned about the Nike United States scarf, but I was pretty pissed because they snagged the "Estadios Unidos" scarf that Monty and the boys had made up in New England and I'll be hard pressed to find another. I asked a cop if they could search the two and they said no. Since there wasn't much I could do, I just went on with it, there was a game to be won here.
We got no calls at all from the ref. Landon Donovan had a great run and a great header goal called back for offsides. In another crazy sequence, a clear handball was missed in the box followed by an amazing bicycle kick from Eddie Johnson that I couldn't believe the goalie saved. Finally though the US got their insurance goal thanks to Steve Ralston. A well received pass and toe poke past the keeper extended the lead to 2-0. The whole game, the US didn't let up and they kept pressing and pressing and pressing. However they kept missing and missing and missing. Our finishing really needs to be better. Until we solve that problem, it will be very tough for us to advance into that upper echelon of teams. It'll be like vs Germany in Korea every time.
It was getting late and Rishi had to catch an early flight so we took off back to our hotel. There was a Waffle House connected to our hotel and Rishi and I stopped in for a bite to eat. No sooner do we sit down, but in walk Eddie Johnson and Cory Gibbs. We quickly call to our room and have Joe come down with my camera so we can at least get a picture. Since it was Eddie's 21st birthday, we tried to order a muffin for him with a candle in it but apparently Waffle House doesn't do stuff like that, so they didn't have any candles. On our way back to the room, Joe decided he was going to go for a swim in the pool. Only problem was that the pool was closed and had a big tarp over it. Joe gave me his wallet, his cell phone to Rishi and took off. Since it had rained, it was like a slip and slide and Joe had his fun. I took Rishi to the airport and headed back to my room.
