An important review was waiting for me this morning, so I had to take care a lot of stuff. However, I managed to wrap up all critical tasks right before noon. After eating the delicious sandwich I grabbed at Uwajimaya, I was on the road back home to pick up my son.
After chatting with Denis, my neighbor next door, for a minute, we were on our way to downtown Seattle. Again, the traffic became congested when we approached Northgate and it wouldn't be improved until we got out off the freeway to James Street.
Parking in the public lot near New Star Restaurant, I paid at the meter. Every time when we came for lunch, I didn't need to pay because the restaurant provided free parking in this lot. However, this was for a soccer match.
It's still too early, we decided to walk around downtown for a while. Before arriving at former WAMU Tower, we turned to the direction to the Sound. I used to work in downtown for several years 2 decades ago, so was very familiar with almost every corner there. However, why had I never paid attention to this supposedly famous spot - Harbor Steps? It's very close to former WAMU tower in which I worked on 18th floor. I am not sure if this spot was the same back then as today. It might be renovated in the past 10 years after I had stopped coming to downtown frequently.
Stepping down Harbor Steps, we were approaching Alaskan Way near Pier 55. Noticing a hog dog stand named Frankfurter, I ordered a Polish sausage and my son ordered German sausage. Sitting at the stone table beside the stand, we enjoyed the flat water in the Sound while tasting the hot dogs.
Wandering back and forth around Pier 55 for a minute, we started walking toward Centurylink Field.
It's already several minutes past four when the gates had been opened. Getting closer to the Field, we could see many fans had been around there. Most of fans wore USA jerseys but there were many Ecuadorians as well. Soccer is always the most popular sport amongst all Latin Americans. In front of the Field, a soccer camp was operated in which a bunch of fun activities were being conducted. A lot of kids were playing various games there. Taking several photos for my son, we went through the security and ticket checkpoint to get onto the small square outside the game field. It's still early, there weren't many fans coming in yet. Sitting on a bench, I raised my head to observe the sky and pleasantly noticed the sunshine trying to break cloud through. It would be a good match under a clear sky.
While climbing the ramp to the club, I filmed a clip of the soccer camp from the higher elevation. The view looked more complete and I could feel the joys from the fans down there.
Going through the entrance to access the club, we were greeted by two guards and one of them said to another: "See, these guys are truly patriotic!" He saw my USA jersey. Hot dogs were just snacks, we ordered Hot Italian Grinders at the stand in the club. Of course, beer was a necessity too.
Not very long after we settled on our seats, both teams walked onto the field and National Anthems for both countries were played. Yes, patriotism can be expressed to the most extent during an International tournament like Copa America. I was wondering why so many people had tried so hard to pursue US Citizenship but didn't support US National Team in the tournament.
As soon as I entered the stands, I wasn't able to upload photos and clips online, so I couldn't share anything in real time while the match was played. Dempsey made a timely header to help USA lead into the halftime break.
Dempsey assisted a goal made by Zadres in second half and Ecuadorians pulled back one goal. Toward the end of the match, USA seemed pressured very badly and the match could be equalized any minute. A tall Russian with his kid sitting next to me kept chanting for Ecuador and an extended family sitting in front row fully covered by Ecuador's jerseys and flags also supported the visitors very enthusiastically. The Ecuador players became very offensive as well. Actually, earlier on Alaskan Way, a South American teenager shouted to me from a car passing by with F word but I didn't catch clearly. I was irritated by this environment around me. Though soccer is not the top sport in States, fans must support National Team to lock the victory in the last minute, we couldn't grant rivals to turn our home field into theirs, it's humiliating. I shouted F & A words, which could be heard by so many fans and even players. Fans in a soccer match in States rarely heard dirty words because those were the copyrights of football games. Though I wasn't really raised in a blue collar environment, soccer is a tough sport all over the world except in States. When I was a teen and youngster, I played very clean soccer on the field because I enjoyed skills instead of physicals though very few defenders could tackle me down and I could run very fast too. However, I probably almost always the worst player in terms of dirty mouth. Since I earned the respects from other players with my skills, they always forgave my dirty words on the field. In the last several minutes, fans all stood up to chant "USA" repeatedly. Team USA held the lead to the end and won the quarter final to move onto semifinal in Houston.
It's a wonderful night without rains at all. The temperature at night was actually pretty warm because I didn't even need to put my Sounders' jacket on. On our way home, we stopped at Taco Time to wrap up the joy with Burrito and Chalupa.
Cheers!
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