It's been a long time, and now for some soccer

Except for my emails, I suppose many of you began to think that I no longer existed. I apologize for the long delay in adding to my blog. Like many of my students and many of the athletes I have coached, I could come up with some wonderful and viable excuses, but really, no reason fits or could be truly excused. I have simply found myself allowing the myriad of excuses to cloud my need to keep everyone back in the States informed of what is going on, so I am sorry.

Since August, many things have happened that are blog-noteworthy, and while I will get to all of them in time, the one I would like to begin with is the most recent major event. As some of you may well know, the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup was recently hosted by China. While I had originally planned to fly north to Chengdu to see the U.S. women play against either Sweden or Nigeria, my school had planned an all-staff retreat the same weekend. Therefore, I sadly changed my plans and decided to go to Shanghai and watch the Consolation Final, the Final and the Closing Ceremonies instead. I know, tough break. Because of the U.S. women's history in the World Cup, I figured that this plan was a fairly safe bet on seeing the U.S. women in action. I was right. The Red, White and Blue had not failed to make the semifinals in the four previous World Cups, and this year was no different. While they did not make it to the Final, I still received the opportunity to see them in action in Shanghai.
I managed to convince four other teachers to join me in Shanghai, and to attend the games. While I think that all of them doubted whether or not they could handle five plus hours of soccer and fanfare, they would all tell me later that it was the coolest large event to which they had ever been. That is me on the left. Sarah and Emily, who I went to Guilin and Yangshuo last year, sit in the middle. Tiffany, a new teacher this year from the States, but who has Chinese ancestry, is seated on the right. And, of course, Miss Suli stands behind us on the right (being Chinese and wanting to cheer for an absent China, she decided to cheer for no one, understandably). We are seated in front of one of the many Women's World Cup advertising displays surrounding the stadium. After we received our tickets, we walked about the surrounding area, looking for anything Red, White, and Blue, but mostly drinking in the atmosphere.
In case there are those who do not believe that I was actually there, here is a shot of me at halftime with the field in the background. Because we did not have an enormous U.S. flag, I think we never made it on the television. We never would have known anyway. Most of the time, when the large screens at the stadium began to show a replay or show shots of the fans, they flashed to a large blue FIFA screen instead. I supposed it had something to do with televising rights, but in anycase, if anyone was televised, they had about two seconds to realize they were on t.v. before the screen went blue. So, I doubt I was on television, and even if I was, it was a safe bet that I would never have known it. Even so, I cheered for all of the U.S. goals and watched them dismantle Norway enroute to a third place finish.
In a stadium, after dark, I found it difficult to take good pictures. However, I did manage to get a few. The one above shows Germany's mounting realization that they had just scored a second goal against the Brazilians in the Final. The player reeling away from the goal, between the two women with their hands in the air, had just latched onto a header off a corner kick. The Brazilians, who had threatened the German goal throughout the first half, and who had had a penalty-kick saved by the German keeper became noticeably rattled by this second goal. After that point, the South Americans' attack seemed disjointed at best, and it was all their defense could do to keep a third from being scored. Even so, the Final actually was a beautiful game, between to wonderful teams, and showcased two wonderful goals.
Sadly, our seats were positioned on the wrong side of the stadium for the Closing Ceremonies. You can see some of the fireworks in this picture, but the majority of them ringed the rim of the stadium on our side. Therefore, only the people on the opposite side of the arena could see them shooting into the night sky. However, the fanfare and the confetti still made this an incredible sight. Of course the Germans partied. Along the lower edge of the photo you can see a German flag being hoisted in the air. While the stadium had been only partially full during the Consolation Final between the U. S. and Norway, it was filled to capacity for the Final, and German and Brazilian flags joined the U.S. and Norwegian flags to create a sea of color, a sea that "the wave" had found its way into throughout the two competitions.

After the ceremonies had ended, we slowly made our way out of the stadium, surrounded by soccer fans from around the world. Germans cheered their victory. Americans and Brazilians wondered what could have been. And the Norwegians simply sang Scandanavian fight songs. The picture above is a shot of the stadium with all its beautiful night lights. The large uprights support the train that connects Shanghai with the surrounding cities. I took other pictures of the stadium, but they were all up close and made it difficult to see how the arena looks like a huge spaceship. We wandered back to our hotel, purchasing some "chao mian" (fried noodles) on our way back. Each of the other teachers, as stated above, honestly told me how much they enjoyed it, and even with all the things there are to see in Shanghai, they said the soccer was the highlight. I know it was for me.