Soccer with 19000 fans. My son sang the National Anthem at Sporting KC and I get to be an honored guest at the game against St Louis. I get to be at field level before the game. Drums are drumming. Gigagiant screen is broadcasting. It is intense here and intensity builds up to fever level as we get nearer to the start of the game. I’m standing where the visiting team is seated. They come into the stadiumas I try to stay out of their way. They are young and very fit…and all good looking!
Color guard marched out into field. Fans are screaming and emotions are high. Nathan and Ben take the field and get ready to sing.
I’m in a totally different world….think Tomorrowlamd combined with Gladiators in The Roman Colosium about to take to the field with Charlton Heston. It is that intense.
I had a blinding flash of the obvious. This must be what a horse goes through when being taken from peaceful pasture and deposited from trailer into the intensity of a big horse show. Aha!
After the fabulous anthem with the entire crowd screaming with anthem happiness, we are escorted to our seats in the stadium. We are seated in the next section from the opposing St. Louis fans. Never, except during the half, did the St Louis fans have a moment of quiet. The three or four drummers and several hundred screaming people kept it up the entire game. One chant was S……T……..L. I believe that stands for ST. Louis
The other chants were too complicated for me to remember. Nathan chanted along with St Louis fans in a slightly negative manner. He changed the words. Near the end, Nathan made a certain number of fans in our section chant the I Believe chant. Things get exciting at soccer games!
I got caught up in the talented Sporting KC players as they made the body moves and feet dribbling skills to keep the ball away from the opposing player. I watched for a while and thought,my goodness, this is just like the tricky cow moves when trying to get back to the herd, past the cutting horse, during cutting.
And then I knew that I have gone over the hill in horse crazyiness. Tony and Jenny Vaught must have made a deep impression on my brain in all the cow clinics and cow herding lessons for me to compare soccor with cow work.
I occasionally glanced at the big clock as time went on. I swear the clock said 60 minutes a while ago and now it sez 68 minutes. Oh wait, I remember that we count up to 90 minutes in a soccer game. I remember that penalties add to the time, but the penalty added times are not reflected anywhere. They are a secret.
We were at 90 minutes and the game went on. I must have been looking at the poor exhausted St Louis drummers when I realized that all the fans were cheering at something. Movement wasn’t happening on the field. I was trying to figure out what happened when I saw the teams shaking hands with one another. Oh, the game must have ended. The game ending must be a secret to new fans to the game. Everyone else seemed to be aware that the game ended. I stood up and cheered too, so everyone would know that I knew that the game was over and we won. YAY!
What crazy person invented such a game that ends and the new fans have no idea…and the clock is still at 90 minutes.
Soccer is weird…and so are horse events for those that don’t know the rules.