Mexico vs. Ghana

I knew that I was in for an interesting night when, while walking towards the stadium, a guy who had been hawking "Boletos" looked pointedly at me and said, "Tickets?". Indeed Steve, known as Coach Steve in family circles, and I might have been the only white guys not working the stands that I saw. Almost 20000 people were at the game, with maybe 1000 or so cheering for Ghana. The rest of the stands were awash in the Tricolores, fans wearing Mexican jerseys, and others with painted heads. When we got to where our seats were supposed to be, there were people in them, so we sat nearby in empty seats. The game was good. The first half was pretty much ruled by Ghana. They moved the ball much better, had some good attacking and did not really allow Mexico to get off at all. Mexico really seemed tentative. The second half seemed to be played by two entirely different teams. Mexico cme out with lots of pressure and had pretty much the whole of the play in the second half, including a very nice cross and nod that put a bulge in the old onion bag (in the parlance of Tommy Smythe, my favorite soccer commentator). That happened maybe 15 yards in front of me. Pretty incredible. The crowd, of course went nuts. It was very cool. There were a couple of other close calls, but the finla score ended Mexico 1, Ghana 0. I left with the distinct impression that the US would have soundly defeated either of those teams the way they played that night. (The soccer-saavy of you will know that the US plays Ghana in the World Cup on June 22.) Next up, FC Dallas, opening day againt the Chicago Fire April 1.