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I’ve had plenty of adventures at the World Cup. I’ve even had adventures getting ready to leave. Why should this one be any different? I’ve been working on a book about our travels around the world, and at the same time, was planning on writing a blog about my experiences in South Africa. I wanted to tweet, foursquare, blog, and otherwise complete engage in the sharing of our adventures as part of my personal mission to share our passion for soccer with not just our friends and family, but to take part in some small way in explaining to Americans why the rest of the world loves soccer so passionately.
There’s just one problem: my Droid phone wouldn’t work in South Africa, and I didn’t have the budget to finance my own technological arsenal. Fortunately, upstairs from my store, Simply for Giggles, there’s social media expert Nathan T. Wright of LavaRow. He introduced me to his contact at Verizon, who was lovely enough to supply me with a Blackberry Tour and in HP Mini Notebook. This would allow me to Skype to my children back in the USA, as well as report every detail immediate and mobile.
I started carrying the Blackberry Tour in the days leading up to the trip in an effort to re-learn the Blackberry OS. Here’s where the trouble started: I went out one night and somewhere in the evening the Tour was stolen. That would be bad enough, but it gets worse. I was very focused on wrapping up at work and packing, and didn’t notice the phone was missing until 4 AM, 3 hours before we were to leave Des Moines.
Disaster. Utter disaster. I emailed Karen, my contact at Verizon, hoping that there was some way to get another phone on our 18 hour layover in Boston. At this point, I was desperate and willing to go to any number of Verizon locations, pay almost any penalty with money we definitely didn’t have. I had gotten very comfortable with the idea that I would be able to call my kids whenever, and I wasn’t too excited to tell my mom that it wouldn’t happen.
As it turns out, Karen and the people at Verizon work miracles on short notice. Not only did she find a loaner Blackberry Tour for me, but her contact in Boston brought it to the airport for me. Even better, he delivered it in front of my mom, so instead of being the idiot that had her phone stolen and didn’t realize it in time to do something about it, I’m her daughter that has people bring phones to airports for me. How’s that for an upgrade?
This isn’t even the first time Verizon has worked a miracle for me. The last time I was in New York, someone spilled coffee on my phone and sent my brand new Droid to an early grave. Like any parent of young children should, I had the insurance on the phone, but Verizon rushed my replacement and got me a new phone with all my contacts loaded in under an hour so that I would have it for my flight that day.
So if you enjoy my photos and tweets this World Cup, thank Verizon Wireless. They’ve earned my business for life, twice now.
When I heard about the baseball refereeing controversy last week (a referee made a questionable call and cost someone a perfect game) it reminded me of the scope of referee impact. Disclaimer: I’ve been a soccer referee since 1993, climbing as high as State Referee and NISOA college refereeing, and I’m married to a former US Soccer National Referee. So we are a pro referee household. My default position is that you have to play the game, with the referees included. When the US was eliminated by Germany in 2002 and there was a questionable handball, as a fan, I was upset, but realistically, you have to play through all those things to win.
In 1998, my husband and I were staying in a small French town visiting a friend when the American referee, Esse Baharmast, did his game, Brazil vs. Norway. My friend arranged for us to watch the game at her friend’s house, where they had cable. We hardly spoke any French, but we were able to communicate that we were interested in the game because the referee was American.
We enjoyed watching the game with them until Esse called a late in the game penalty against Brazil, that looked from all angles highly questionable. At the time, Doug and I were both refereeing at high levels and both seeking advancement, so Esse Baharmest was a hero to us. I’d met him at youth tournaments and liked him. I couldn’t believe he would blow such a big call, but all televised camera angles looked awful.
Not only that, but that penalty was scored, and that changed the group outcome from Morocco advancing to the next game to them being eliminated. Now here’s where it’s important to really be smart about soccer while at the World Cup. Why would we have reason to be concerned sitting in a small town French living room watching the outcome of Brazil vs. Norway, impacting Morocco’s advancement? Because the Moroccan coach is French, and you better believe the French immediately put it together that our referee had just eliminated their coach. It was several extraordinarily uncomfortable moments before we could leave at the end of the game.
So lesson #1, pay attention to who’s on what team and who it’s impacting, so at least you’re aware as you wander into hostile territory. Lesson #2 is you have to play with the referees you’re dealt, and generally, they do a highly professional game. The next day, a smaller news organization came out with a previously unseen camera angle that showed that Esse had made the correct call. It was too late to keep him in the tournament and too late to alieviate the international tensions where we watched the game, but in the end, he did get it right.
Lesson #2: You have to play with the referees you’re dealt. It sometimes sucks, but if you can’t win with the referee you draw, that it may be a cheap loss, but it counts just the same as a fair loss.
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And we’re off on the 54 hour trek that will take us to the other side of the world! Today’s itinerary is Des Moines > Minneapolis > Boston. There we stop at Grandma and Grandpa’s and start the kids’ World Cup adventure. Then, 18 hours later starts the Boston > New York > Dubai > Johanesburg leg of our journey.
I didn’t even bother trying to sleep last night. It took me until 11 to finish my work, then I was packing until 2:30 AM when I realized that my worldwide smartphone had gone missing. By the time I had searched the whole house, my store downtown, and my car it was after 4 AM. I decided one hour of sleep was not better than nothing, and sewed my super hero USMNT cape until it was time to head to the airport for our 7 AM flight.
I feel exhausted and exhilirated at the same time. I know I should be tired, but I’m so thrilled that this day is finally here, I can’t settle down to even think about sleeping. Maybe on Minneapolis > Boston.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Abduction, South Africa, Travel Safety, Women's World Cup, World Cup
I’ve always written about my travels and adventures WITH my children. In my work life, I own a children’s store and blog about my adventures as a parent. My plan for Soccer….Family Style was to write about traveling with my kids. My 7-1/2 year old has a dozen caps, and at the age of 3-1/2 led a German double decker train car in the “Everywhere we go” chant. My 2-1/2 year old sees a flag and starts soccer chants without prompting. They’re great little fans and I love going to games with them.
But even I have to draw the line somewhere. When we realized that just to fly them to South Africa would cost $3700, we had to accept that this trip would be better suited for second honeymoon than family adventure. Thanks to Verizon and Skype we should be able to keep in touch with the kids as they party it up with an extended Grandparents visit.
In the back of my mind, I was a little relieved to not have to worry about their safety. When we were planning to bring them, I had people at my store advising my to write on them in permanent marker with our contact information in case they were kidnapped. But it was hard to take comfort in that since my previous experience has been that the World Cup is typically a very safe place to be. There’s security everywhere, the hosts are excited and helpful, and people are typically in good spirits.
Then I read a story of a mother in South Africa who fought off a child abductor who tried to snatch her child out of her car through a smashed window. I had heard that you should be very careful to always travel with windows up and keep valuables off the seat and out of view, but how are you supposed to extend that to your children? We have two kids…they can’t both sit in the middle.
I would love to have our kids with us. They have a different way of looking at the world that makes sharing soccer with them a pleasure, but in this case, I think they will have more fun getting spoiled by grandparents and we will have more fun knowing we only have to keep track of two grown ups. And we’ll save that $3700 to go visit Germany next summer for the Women’s World Cup.
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What’s it like to be Giuseppe Rossi right now?
It wouldn’t be right for a girl from New Jersey not to weigh in on Giuseppe Rossi’s not being named to the Italian World Cup roster. I’m really annoyed with Rossi. I’m proud of my New Jersey heritage, in spite of all MTV has done to tarnish my state’s rep. Rossi could have been another hero from Jersey, after so many Kearny boys before him.
But sometime, years ago, at the age of 12, Rossi decided to go play for Italy. He was invited to come play for the US in 2006 according to his Wikipedia page but turned it down. Here’s why I can’t feel sorry for him: it wasn’t after 1998, when we sucked and finished last. It was after 2002, when you could see the glimmers of hope that the US could actually be something someday. He could have stepped up and said, “Yes, I want to be a part of growing soccer in America.”
But he didn’t. He decided to play for Italy, explaining to ESPN last month, “Off the field, I have always felt American. On the field I’ve always felt Italian,” Part 2 of why I can’t feel sorry for him. Italians aren’t really halfway kind of people. I’m guessing they want a bunch of 100% Italian guys playing for them, not a guy who’s American on the street, Spanish at “work”, and Italian once every four years.
I’ve tried, for a few minutes, to feel sorry for him, but I can’t. He’s a traitor to the American Soccer program, and that just won’t work for me. The midwestern mama in me wants to say “sorry for your luck” but the Jersey girl in me has a better idea. “Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?” Insert your own obscene hand gesture.
Because it’s us, the American soccer fans you’ve let down. You could have been a big contributor to US Soccer, Rossi, but instead you’re the guy who Italy didn’t think was Italian enough.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2006 Germany, Soccer, Weltmeisterschaft, World Cup
Some of our friends in Kaiserslautern, Germany after US vs. Italy
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: advice, Football, Soccer, South Africa, Travel, World Cup
I’ve spent the last 16 years of my life following the US Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT). As we prepare to travel to our 5th Men’s World Cup in South Africa, my husband and I have been comparing notes on what we’ve learned from our travels. Here’s a summary:
1994: The USA World Cup
This was the World Cup that started it all: where we decided we never wanted to miss a World Cup ever again. We were pretty new, but we picked up a few ideas here:
* Go with the most fun people you can find, or meet fun people while you’re there. You’ll have more fun with other fun people. Go early and look for the supporters tailgate. Introduce yourself to the people around you. Have fun.
*Get a hotel room. Our first game we could have had so much more fun if we’d sprung for a hotel room and stayed for the after party. Half the fun is the party afterward.
1998: The France Coupe de Monde
*Don’t wear face paint. OK, I’m just kidding. It’s just that the one time we wore face paint, we got mugged and had our tickets stolen. So really what I’m saying is, you’re allowed to be as superstitious as you want. If you feel like you have to wear the exact same thing the same way to every game, you go right ahead. Just as long as I don’t have to face paint again.
*It’s the world cup, even if thing go horribly wrong, they can still end up pretty great. Best story of the tournament followed getting mugged. We met these crazy police officers who got us into the super secret police headquarters at the stadium (PS don’t pick your nose in the stadium…they’re watching you). We had a far better time because we got mugged and were able to keep a positive attitude. No matter what, keep your head up and look for your next adventure.
*Book hotels in advance, even if you don’t think you’ll stay. Our last night in France, we’d planned on leaving our luggage at the train station in a locker, and then taking the train back to Paris that night. Only problem: the lockers were closed because of the security risk. It took 4 hours to find a hotel that wasn’t booked!
2002: Korea World Cup
*When giving quotes outside the stadium to foreign press, do it with a straight face. It’s the World Cup, crazy stuff can happen. Figo was the #1 FIFA player in the world. Who would have guessed Jeff Agoos would score more goals than Figo?
*The further away the world cup, the more psycho the fans. Yes, it’s expensive to travel halfway around the world. But the people who do are the best in the world. Get ready to make friends for life.
*Respect the local culture, until you just need to cross the street, then your expanding their horizons. Experience the local culture. Try new foods. Be respectful. But when there’s one traffic cop and 100+ fans and the road is closed, it’s OK to cross against the light, even if doing so is completely NOT Korean.
2006: Germany Weltmeisterschaft
*I am truly sorry if you wanted tickets and couldn’t get them, but we brought our 3-1/2 year old daughter and FIFA makes you buy a ticket from all children. Even a 3 year old can and did sleep through at least half of every game.
*The barter system is a beautiful thing. We tried to get US vs Italy tickets every way we could. In the end, we traded 2 of our Germany vs. Ecuador for 2 US vs. Italy tickets with a German who was as thrilled as we were with the trade.
Tune in starting June 12th for the lessons of 2010: South Africa.
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One day, many years ago, a girl who loved to travel met a boy who loved soccer. This blog is their story.
The day I met my husband, I could never have guessed that our relationship would take me all over the world following the US Men’s National Soccer team. We met the night of his last game as a college player at Carnegie Mellon University, so it took me a while to figure out just how into soccer he was. He told me about being a soccer referee and player, but as our relationship developed, it became clear that he was not your ordinary couch riding soccer fan.
It was in 1994 at our first World Cup together that I could see our adventure unfold. We went to the games in Chicago together and I was completely in love with the experience. I loved watching the soccer, but it was the culture that was the most amazing part of the experience. People from all over the world, in traditional dress, singing songs, face painted, all coming together to celebrate this huge sporting event. I was hooked.
On the way home, I presented my plan to Doug: “You love soccer and like to travel, I love to travel and like soccer. Let’s go to every World Cup, no matter where it is in the world. We’ll see the world, and we will always be a part of this.” And the rest, as they say, is history.
We have had hundreds of adventures through France in 1998, Korea in 2002, and Germany in 2006. Like any addict, soon the World Cup wasn’t enough. We’ve been to games all over the US and to Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. We’ve been there for great games and sucky games. And we’ve seen a million crazy things. This blog is about those adventures. Along the way I’ll share stories about our past adventures, and about the ones about to take place in South Africa this June.
There are a million places online where you can get the stats and analysis about the games. I’m sure I’ll have game info on here, but mostly I write about the soul of soccer ultra fandom. What it’s like to travel to a World Cup. The experience of being a fan in the stands and on the streets. I hope you’ll get a glimpse of what it is that keeps me following US Soccer.
Soccer....Family Style 