Honduras, Honduras, Honduras

Like most of you I, where I grew up college football is king. Now down here in Miami it's still very popular. Maybe not for FIU but you can bet that the usual teams are covered....UF, Miami, and FSU to a lesser extent. But what you for sure see a lot down here are soccer jerseys representing teams that you don't know exist from leagues you've never heard of. People here are much more passionate about soccer than people in Alabama, in general. That's what you might expect. If I can take some liberty here to say that, when southerners think of other countries and sports, soccer is usually what comes to mind. And so you might then expect that a city as culturally diverse as Miami that soccer would be popular. And for the most part it is (right now the Miami Heat are the kings). However, when it was announced that FIU would be hosting a round of the Gold Cup, I was interested at how much interest would be generated within the community. The highest level soccer match I had ever been to was a women's college game and that was out of necessity because I was running the six minute mile immediately afterwards.
I was really excited to attend my first international game. So, I did some research and picked my team, Honduras it was. I dug through my closet and found my blue Camp Butter & Egg shirt, told Isa to dress the same, and did some research. I wanted to see if there was anything else I needed to know about the game. Who was winning the group, who the key players were, and and just what to expect in general. At first I thought there was only going to be a few thousand fans there, just to take in the game. But as I was researching, I saw that 20,000 Hondurans showed up for to watch them play against the US in D.C. But I tried to keep my hopes form becoming too quixotic. I had it in my mind that this was going to be a legitimate International game with all the Pomp and Circumstance and chants that go along with it. I persuaded Isa to get there early to take it in. Any fears that I had about people not showing up to the game and just going through the emotions were abandoned on the ride when I saw a convoy of eager Hondurans with their national flag draped over the hood of their cars making their way ever so noisily into FIU. The atmosphere only got better as we entered the stadium and found it extremely difficult to find a seat (at the time Guatemala and Jamaica were playing). It was way better than I had hoped it would be and definitively one to remember. The total attendance was 18,057, only four thousand less than the US game in Tampa the next night. There was very little English spoken as we were surrounded by Hondurans. When the MC made the announcement to stand for the national anthems, no one stood up. Only when the same announcement was made in Spanish did everyone comply. But all in all it definitely broadens your world to go to an international game that the US is not in. So I highly recommend it. For just a little bit see the video below as well as be sure to check out my Flickr.