March 3 2010

We were donning lucha libre masks when we arrived at the gates of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Ca. The security guard told us they were not allowed and we agreed to take them off. 90k fans had already made their way in, but a few thousand were still converging on the stadium after sitting in traffic for more than an hour. We’d missed the entire first half of the Mexico/New Zealand matchup, but the score was 0-0 so we hadn’t missed much. We grabbed a few quick tacos and made our way toward section 7-H row 39.

“Nadie puede ver, como creen que van a ver con esas mascaras?” “No one can see. How do you think you’ll see through those masks?”

The atmosphere was festive and tense. We finally approached our tunnel; the screams of almost one-hundred thousand boisterous soccer fans lured us to get closer. “Stay close, man. I can’t find my ticket”, said Osito. We were stuck behind hundreds of fans trying to find their seats for the second half. Finally the floodgates opened, Osito found his ticket and we made our way in only to find our seats were taken by a family who had their seats taken.

Security guards were called away from other pressing matters, I locked eyes on the field, people yelled at us to sit down, the family was angry but we finally made it to our seats. Another minute had passed and the crowds rose, Mexican player Javier Hernandez flew through the air and snapped his head against an on-coming volley. The place erupted.

The roar of 90K soccer fans cheering for their team is a sound to behold. Like a sonic boom, the flex in power of this sound is awesome. Good thing there isn’t a need to travel South of the border to hear this. The fans in LA are well equipped to create it.