Before I begin, I must admit that I am nothing more than a casual soccer fan. My sports fandom wheelhouse, fixed since I was a youngster, has always been MLB, NBA, NFL, with a sprinkle of NCAAB and NCAAF. Yet, that hasn’t stopped me from tapping into other physical recreations like boxing, UFC, and, of course, soccer.
Due to its infrequent occurrence, the World Cup—as high-stakes a sporting event as there is—has always been of major interest to me. When I ruminate over my childhood as a sports enthusiast, I often envision flashes of flipping through magazines featuring the high-stakes event and electric moments in time where I watched the great tournament in my red, kid-size Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal jersey. Similar to both the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic, there’s just something about the country-vs.-country aspect that adds a little extra spice to the clashes. So when I heard that the U.S. Men’s National Team would be playing an international friendly match against Panama in my city, I knew I had to attend.
In coincidental fashion, it was both my first game and Mauricio Pochettino’s debut as head coach of the Americans. In honor of his inaugural contest leading the charge, we fans received a flashy poster featuring the fresh skipper.
Prior to the whistle, though it was just an exhibition, the sense of nationalistic pride was palpable. Since the contest was on our home turf, it felt like 99.9% of the supporters in the crowd were pulling for the red, white, and blue.
As someone who has created graphics for national television, I appreciated the above visual from the event. A crisp, patriotic pictorial that boosted the collective flag-waving desire for all in attendance.
Once the contest got underway, supporters cheered in spurts. Heavy noise if there was potential for a game-altering play and a communal calmness when the ball was bopping around the middle of the field.
Although I had seen plenty of tilts on television, since this was my first live soccer game, I was unaware of how little action there is over the course of a meet. For long periods of time, it felt like I was watching a cardio-focused event and not a strategic chess match, but again, this is a casual fan reporting from his casual lens.
In between all the running, I was fortunate to witness two U.S. goals. On the first one, star player Christian Pulisic (featured below) set up his teammate Yunus Musah in picture-perfect fashion for an easy finish. It was Musah’s first international goal, cementing the multinational showdown as the “Night of 1sts.” The image above highlights the squad celebrating the opening score. Lucky for me, I was posted in a perfect seat to snap a memory of the elation-heavy moment.
The latter—and final—goal in the game came during stoppage time in the 94th minute, a smooth finish by Ricardo Pepi. Even though there were far fewer highlight-reel plays in comparison to other sports I’ve viewed in person, the 2-0 victory over Panama was a check off my bucket list, as I had always wanted to see the national team perform. Plus, the victory snapped a four-game losing streak for the Americans. On an individual note, Tim Ream, a seasoned player, became the 10th USMNT field player to appear in an international match (a.k.a. earn a cap) after turning 37. He was the first to achieve this fun milestone since Preki did it in 2001. I never saw Preki perform, but I used him in a computer game I loved playing as a child titled Backyard Soccer MLS Edition.
In the video game, Preki was quite the talent, and with the World Cup on the horizon, I pray that the United States has five or six footballers as good as the iconic midfielder.