Another sport to think about...

I mentioned my trip to Chicago in a few other posts, but I wanted to just direct everyone to a great write-up of what I took part in on Saturday night at Soldier Field. I will be the first person to tell you that I'm not a big soccer fan, and I generally don't concern myself with watching or playing the sport. I understand that a large percentage of Ultimate players may have played the sport at one time or another, but it is not a sport that I really identify well with.

Regardless of this, I found myself attending the USA vs. Honduras World Cup Qualifying match on Saturday night. The story leading up to the game was an adventure all it's own, but the game was about as exciting as I've been part of (I'm going to restrict that comment to all things outside of Oklahoma football, as Renaldo Works would probably have something to say about that...).



Anyway, the game was rowdy. There were 55,000+ fans there, ~40,000 of them being Honduran. Their passion for the game was evident as we made our way to the stadium, and they more than overwhelmed the "home" team's fans. It was not surprising to see the contrasting levels of support between our two countries, and, to be honest, it almost made me want the Hondurans to win. After all, the number of Chicagoan's confused by the Honduran presence speaks volumes about our views on soccer... I ended up having a great time, thanks to those fans. You could feel their passion in every juke, every pass, every corner, and, of course, every goal. It was impressive the way they supported their country. It made me feel slightly uncomfortable about my own patriotism (I wore a green shirt to the game...).

Back to the reason I posted today... John and I checked out the game together, and he is officially a Master (of Science) of Journalism now so you should probably read his take: Passion.