Burritos At Giant Stadium?

Friday night, I was at an international soccer doubleheader at Giant Stadium. The first game was Honduras v Panama, followed by Mexico v Cuba. They were playing in the Gold Cup, which is an international tournament for Central and North American countries (USA is 2-0).

The whole experience was so surreal. I made a stupid mistake right when I arrived at the stadium. My dad has this trick that he uses at Jet games, where he parks very far away from the stadium, so that when we leave we can pull right out into the exit and not be stuck in an hour of traffic inside the parking lot. Five minutes of walking is worth 60 of sitting in a car. So I parked near the exit, very far away from the stadium. What I didn't account for was that we weren't at a Jet game. 22,000 out of the 80,000 maximum fans were there, meaning there was no traffic at all after the game, and I felt pretty dumb walking across the entire empty parking lot.

The decrease in quantity of fans was more than made up by the increase in quality. That's not a knock on NFL fans, but a tribute to soccer fans around the world. Without a doubt, soccer fans are the best by far. Especially the crazy international guys. It was so bizarre, we saw just 7 other non hispanic white Americans at the game, out of 22,000. Every single person was Mexican, Panamanian, Honduran, or Cuban. It was so weird having people look at me as the minoritiy for once. What's even more weird was the smell of burritos that filled the parking lot before the game. Instead of fat white guys grilling burgers, it was little hispanic guys making burritos. Instead of footballs being tossed, it was soccer balls being juggled. It was just sooo surreal.

We got there pretty early and got front row seats behind the goal. This was amazing because we got in TV and had a great view for all the goals. And there were a ton. Panama upset Honduras 3-2 in the first game, and Mexico beat Cuba 2-1 in the second. There was so much action: amazing goals, hard fouls, great saves, everything.

But the game could have been boring and the experience would have still been amazing. The crowd was absolutely hilarious. Everybody had crazy sombreros on, or wrapped themselves in their country's flag. They had all these funny cheers and we couldn't understand anything they said.

There was this group of insane hondurans sitting behind us. They all had dreadlocks and danced the entire game. One of them kept holding the flag up to the sky and pointing and screamed "SI..SI..SI." And that was when they were sober. Then they got really drunk and starting going insane and running up the aisles and dancing. We we're dying.

I was also apart of the best wave I've ever seen. It went around the stadium 8 times I believe. Everyone was screaming and going nuts. The eruption that took place whenever a goal was scored reminded me of how amazing sports are. Some of these people seroiusly put the fate of their happiness in the outcome of the game. It's something I don't recommend, but it was really fascinating to see how happy and sad depending on their team's play.

I go nuts for the Rangers and Jets, Bill Simmons is a nutjob for his Celtics and Red Sox. But neither of us are on the level that some of these people were on. It's a level that I didn't really know existed. There was one kid sitting close to us. When Mexico scored the game winner, the player ran around and took his shirt off. For some reason, the kid sitting next to us just took his shirt off right after the player did. It was so weird and hilarious. We we're trying to figure out what could have possibly went through his mind to make him just take his shirt off.

It was a great night at Giant Stadium and one that has sent me on a mission to see English Premier League soccer live, and some day go to the world cup. Imagine what that's like compared to this. This was just a few crappy teams playing in the Gold Cup.