USA’s win played second fiddle to Mexico’s loss

Published 9:50 pm Thursday, July 25, 2013

ARLINGTON — This must be what it’s like to arrive three hours early for a prize fight.

You are in the venue, have located your seats and are casually watching the undercard bouts in preparation for the main event.

The atmosphere is building and there are a scattering of spectators concerned with what is going on currently in the ring — friends and family of the spectators, or die-hard boxing fans — but the majority of your celebrities and others in attendance are there for what comes later.

That’s what it felt like for me at times during the USA-Honduras Gold Cup match played Wednesday at Cowboys — excuse me, I mean AT&T — Stadium. It was Game 1 of a semifinal doubleheader that would later feature Mexico vs. Panama.

The stadium was about half full at kickoff for the USA match. Goals were scored, cheers were sung, hands were clapped and there was merriment all around for those wearing red, white and blue.

The small problem with that was 90 percent of the stadium was wearing green and black in support of Mexico.

You know; the match that would happen later.

The Mexican supporters were courteous and provided applause at the goals and other moments — like when U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann was ejected — with a few whistles at other moments of the match, but all in all, this was the undercard as far as they were concerned.

It was weird sitting there because normally when you are at a football game or sporting event, all eyes and attention are on what is in front of you, but the majority of people seated did not care in the grand scheme of things.

It made for an unusual environment. You look around and by the second half the stadium was full (attendance was 81, 410), but not very loud.

The United States picked up where it left off against El Salvador with Landon Donovan scoring twice and Eddie Johnson hitting the back of the net for the second time in as many games. USA won 3-1 and advanced to the Gold Cup final.

Then we had about an hour before the Mexico game began and you could feel the excitement and noise level rising when El Tri came out to warm up.

Once the match began, it was like being at a college football game: constant chanting, whistling and, of course, shouting a profane word in Spanish every time the goalkeeper took a kick.

The thousand or so American fans who stuck around got to see it as well.

A young soccer fan wearing a U.S. jersey asked his Dad, “What are they yelling, Daddy?” Another young girl wearing an Abby Wambach jersey seated right in front of me texted her friend during the match shocked at what the crowd was shouting, once she found out what it meant.

For Matthew Stepp from TheOldCoach.com, myself and his cousin, Jason, we were ready to go midway through the first half of the second match, which Panama won 2-1.

I saw what I came to see — a USA victory.

Hopefully the final in Chicago featuring the U.S. vs. Panama will be a full house once again. More people wearing red, white and blue would be appreciated, too.