The USA vs Brasil Match
I found a piece of my soul today.
It was all so breathtaking. The stadium was beautiful. The energy was incredible. The fans were pumped. The players, phenomenal! I swear, tonight, in that stadium, I was me: happiness. Words can’t describe the rush that goes through your whole being at a game like that, when you feel the way I do about soccer. Walking into the stadium and seeing the players warming up on the field… oh man, they were so close, SO. REAL. I’ve been watching these guys on TV and ESPN, following them on twitter and facebook, watching and seeing them everywhere and now, here they were, in front of me, REAL. God, it was incredible. I kept thinking “wow, this is the most amazing HD” and then having to keep reminding myself it was real life. Dammit, forget real. This was surreal. Let’s look that up, shall we? Surreal: ”having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream;unreal; fantastic.” On point.
Neymar, Thiago Silva, Donovan, Neymar, Tim Howard, Bocanegra, Neymar…Oh, and NEYMAR. Damn, it was even difficult to hate Marcelo from that distance (I still don’t like him but youknowwhatimean).
The crowd was on fire! Every goal, every chant, shook the stadium floors. The cheers of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” and “Brasil! Brasil!” and even “Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Braa-siiil, Braaa-sil!” started a mile away from the stadium, four hours before it began and didn’t ever stop. Not even after the game had ended and everyone was trying to make their way out.
The air was mine. The weather, perfect. I wanted to capture it in a jar and keep it forever.
I spent every game before this one imagining what it would be like to stand there, in the middle of all of it, to be so close. I imagined every time. And now, here I was, close to it. I kept thinking about how Neymar was in the same city as me, within a mile of me, in the same stadium as me, then only a countable number of feet away. Ughh, incredible. Indescribable. This must be what drugs are like. I keep mapping out ways to feel like that again, to get back there.
Oh, man. I WANT TO GO BACK. TAKE ME BACK. THAT FIELD. THOSE FANS. THE PLAYERS. Let’s be real, it was even exciting to see the ref. The withdrawal has begun… take me back to NEYMAR <3 take me back to it allll! The best night of my summer yet!
Can’t wait for the job I’m getting after college where I will make the money that I can spend on more tickets for soccer matches. I will live in a cardboard box and sit in the front row. Sweet, sweet, happiness.
