[Another late April post, finished it tonight]
Today I attended my first ever professional soccer game.
I live about 5-10 minutes from the Chiang Rai United Futbol Stadium, so I determined at the beginning of this year to go see a game.
I anticipated this experience and imagined myself in a sea of orange, pretending to know what each Thai cheer or whistle meant, just like Elizabeth Gilbert in her Italian soccer game chapter of Eat, Pray, Love. That's the only soccer game 'schema' I had to compare my future experience to.
That, and the time I "tried" playing on a soccer team in 2nd grade. It was exactly as you'd imagine a 2nd grade girls' soccer team would be.
My team scored 1 point *one point* the entire season, and it rained at just about every game (of course it did, it's because 7 and 8 year old ex-ballerinas had to chase a ball up and down a field of mud for an hour). Etched into my memory is Jeannie Loyd washing the mud off my legs with her spray bottle on a gloomy day. Those are my soccer memories.
BUT ANYWAY, my soccer experience in Thailand was much, much better.
It was actually just like I imagined, and I loved every bit of it.
Fans tailgating ~
Fried food and beer ~
(don't worry, all I had was water and some nori sushi chips. 2 of them....)
A sea of orange ~
Everybody cheering ~
I didn't know much about soccer before tonight. Aside from the failed 2nd grade trial of my athleticism, my only experiences with soccer include the following:
I was so excited just to be at the Chiang Rai United game, though. Thais get really into the games, they're all very "united" about the plays, so it's quite fun. Even when the team made errors on the field (okay, I grew up with baseball, can there be "errors on the field" in soccer?), everyone still seemed pumped to be there. So, I'm sitting there in the 904983 degree Thailand heat, and all I could think about was David Beckham.
8-)
:-*
;;;)
David Beckham gets my large-font googly eyes. I guess I could've included him on my list of things that I know/experiences about soccer. Well, then all I could think about was David Beckham driving that boat on the Thames during the London Olympics Opening Ceremony. And well, the rest of the game was history since that's all I could think about.
But in case you want the deets about the REST of the game, ;) I'll let you know what happened.
First,
I watched and watched and watched waiting to see how a professional soccer game begins (do they flip a coin? is it determined beforehand? home-field advantage? cast lots or what?). I looked down at my cup of water to take a sip from the straw for one second and that's when the game started. We got the ball, though, so that's good.
Next,
It only took only two whistles from the start of the game for a guy from the opposing team to be rolling around on the ground writhing in pain. I told Edie, who was sitting next to me, "Oh no, that guy is in pain, no one's even paying attention to him, this is so bad!" LOL, now I can laugh at it because after that, every other play had a guy rolling around on the ground "writhing" in fake pain. They fake it a lot to buy time, apparently. I bet David Beckham doesn't do that....
8-)
:-*
8-)'''''
^that last one has drool. =)
Well anyway, that's about it. I hope the brevity of my synopsis of a professional futbol game didn't offend any die hard soccer fans/the rest of the world. The game really was tons of fun and made for a great memory and an exciting cultural experience (did I mention tickets only cost $3?).
Today I attended my first ever professional soccer game.
I live about 5-10 minutes from the Chiang Rai United Futbol Stadium, so I determined at the beginning of this year to go see a game.
I anticipated this experience and imagined myself in a sea of orange, pretending to know what each Thai cheer or whistle meant, just like Elizabeth Gilbert in her Italian soccer game chapter of Eat, Pray, Love. That's the only soccer game 'schema' I had to compare my future experience to.
That, and the time I "tried" playing on a soccer team in 2nd grade. It was exactly as you'd imagine a 2nd grade girls' soccer team would be.
My team scored 1 point *one point* the entire season, and it rained at just about every game (of course it did, it's because 7 and 8 year old ex-ballerinas had to chase a ball up and down a field of mud for an hour). Etched into my memory is Jeannie Loyd washing the mud off my legs with her spray bottle on a gloomy day. Those are my soccer memories.
BUT ANYWAY, my soccer experience in Thailand was much, much better.
It was actually just like I imagined, and I loved every bit of it.
Fans tailgating ~
Fried food and beer ~
(don't worry, all I had was water and some nori sushi chips. 2 of them....)
A sea of orange ~
Everybody cheering ~
I didn't know much about soccer before tonight. Aside from the failed 2nd grade trial of my athleticism, my only experiences with soccer include the following:
- My friend, Jessica, played soccer when we were in high school.
- Turner played soccer as a kid, and I had a crush on one of his teammates.
- orange slices.
I was so excited just to be at the Chiang Rai United game, though. Thais get really into the games, they're all very "united" about the plays, so it's quite fun. Even when the team made errors on the field (okay, I grew up with baseball, can there be "errors on the field" in soccer?), everyone still seemed pumped to be there. So, I'm sitting there in the 904983 degree Thailand heat, and all I could think about was David Beckham.
8-)
:-*
;;;)
David Beckham gets my large-font googly eyes. I guess I could've included him on my list of things that I know/experiences about soccer. Well, then all I could think about was David Beckham driving that boat on the Thames during the London Olympics Opening Ceremony. And well, the rest of the game was history since that's all I could think about.
But in case you want the deets about the REST of the game, ;) I'll let you know what happened.
First,
I watched and watched and watched waiting to see how a professional soccer game begins (do they flip a coin? is it determined beforehand? home-field advantage? cast lots or what?). I looked down at my cup of water to take a sip from the straw for one second and that's when the game started. We got the ball, though, so that's good.
Next,
It only took only two whistles from the start of the game for a guy from the opposing team to be rolling around on the ground writhing in pain. I told Edie, who was sitting next to me, "Oh no, that guy is in pain, no one's even paying attention to him, this is so bad!" LOL, now I can laugh at it because after that, every other play had a guy rolling around on the ground "writhing" in fake pain. They fake it a lot to buy time, apparently. I bet David Beckham doesn't do that....
8-)
:-*
8-)'''''
^that last one has drool. =)
Well anyway, that's about it. I hope the brevity of my synopsis of a professional futbol game didn't offend any die hard soccer fans/the rest of the world. The game really was tons of fun and made for a great memory and an exciting cultural experience (did I mention tickets only cost $3?).
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