ATLANTA — After covering at some point every major sporting event you can imagine shy of The Masters and a Super Bowl, I was more than looking forward to my first major professional soccer match Wednesday at the Georgia Dome.
The good-ole U-S-of-A vs. the home of Bob Marley (Jamaica-man) in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Was it everything I expected it to be?
Yes and no.
The outcome -- a 2-1 Jamaica victory -- was definitely unexpected and a disappointment. The good guys were sloppy and played lackluster for most of the match. The Jamaicans showed they can do a little more than bobsled, crank out sweet reggae tunes, and produce the fastest humans on the planet.
It was quite the spectacle at times. At others, it resembled your weekly Atlanta Falcons letdown.
With that in mind, here are some observations for the day in and around the Georgia Dome that did NOT involve American football:
1) Downtown Atlanta was awash with green from Mexican and Jamaican fans. It looked like a midsummer St. Patrick’s Day festival in some areas. The only difference was the top hat was replaced with sombreros. Encouragingly there was even more Red, White and Blue, as U.S. fans filed into the sold-out Georgia Dome.
2) Hours before the match a visit to Stats (a sports bar near the Dome) which was playing host to The American Outlaws, a group of U.S. soccer pilgrims that follows the U.S. team everywhere it goes, yielded an unsettling tone. We were expecting pre-game chants of ‘U-S-A.’ and raucous rituals. Instead we got laidback fans watching the final outs of the Braves game against the Dodgers and listening to acoustic versions of top 40 songs.
3) Before walking into the Dome I was expecting near-riotous fans to already be filling it up. Unfortunately it reminded me more of being at a Falcons or Braves game. Late arrivals, which was surprising considering the importance of the match.
4) While things got loud at moments, it was not the ear-splitting decibels I was preparing myself for. The loudest moment came when the U.S.’s Michael Bradley cut the Jamaican lead to 2-1 early in the second half. Of course, lackluster play will always squelch a good crowd.
5) The colors on display were amazing. It’s one of the few times I’ve been in the Dome when it wasn’t awash in red, be it the Falcons, or Georgia, or Alabama. The greens and yellows mixed in with the the red, white, and blues gave the Dome a certain Norman Rockwell americana feel. It was worth several photos for the scrapbook.
6) REAL GRASS!!!! The CONCACAF powers-that-be showed what the Dome could look like with natural turf. It looked fantastic, though there was a certain surreal quality when you suddenly notice large tractor-type lawn mowers exiting the tunnels to trim the field between matches.
7) To end on a positive note, it was one of the more inspiring national anthems I heard in a while. The organist was flat out butchering it to start, but the American Outlaws group took over at a different pace and inspired the rest of the large American faithful to follow along. It brought a lump to my throat by the time it ended.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. Sports is all about the moment. Unfortunately, on this day the Jamaicans had more moments. There was nothing I could do about that.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/7/324822/opinion-despite-loss-first-national-soccer-experience-worth-the-wait