Nic Zweifel
Home Town: Maryville, MO
University : Drury class of 2010
Majors: Computer Information Systems, Spanish
Minors: Philosophy and Global Studies
I arrived in Granada, Spain at the end of January to begin my year long study abroad experience. When I learned that the U.S. MNT would be playing a friendly against Spain, in Spain, while I would be in the country, it was like a dream come true. It would be an understatement to say that I was excited about the game.
I talked up the game up to all of my friends in attempt to recruit a group to travel north to Santander. FYI, Santander is located on the north coast of Spain while Granada, where I study, is about an hour drive from the southern coast. In the end we had a group of 4 Americans plus one British chap that made the trip. Getting tickets to the game proved to be an interesting task as they were never officially advertised on the U.S. soccer website. Luckily we were able to purchase tickets for the 13th row from a bank in Spain. This, of course, meant that we would be sitting in a sea of Spanish fans but we were content with the location and price (€20 = $30).
Most of my Spanish friends told me they would watch the game on TV and often sympathetically assured me that the U.S. wouldn’t lose that bad. To be honest after the performance against England a week earlier I had my fears of things that could go wrong or us simply not playing well. But for the most part I kept confident that our team would step up to the challenge and play a good game.
Just like an MLS or NFL game there were plenty of activities outside the stadium in which fans could participate before the game. Although the activities tents were almost exclusively filled with Spainards we still took at most of the stuff. There was tent that contained a bunch of World Cup memorabilia from each competition. We found our seats about an hour before the game. It started to drizzle light rain but luckily we were just under the overhang of the stadium so we kept dry.
As soon as the U.S. team entered the field to warm-up I whipped out my camera. I had never been so close to any of these players. As in all international friendlies both team’s flags were presented along with the playing of their national anthem. My group (minus the Britain) and I proudly stood up among of crowd of 14,000 Spanish fans and sang. It was a really exciting experience if not a bit intimidating.
As far as the game goes I feel that all I can say has already been said by other commentators or bloggers. Compared to last week against England the U.S. team was much improved and they provided an entertaining match. I would even go as far to say that we appeared to be the more dangerous team during the first half. Our seats allowed us to get a great view of the U.S. defensive line during the first half and I think all four full backs played well. It was good to see Freddy Adu get a start and perform well. And for those of you who haven’t seen Michael Bradley up close – the kid doesn’t look 20 years old – he’s developed an impressive build and is quite an athlete. I’ll add that I was also happy to see former KC striker Eddie Johnson create some dangerous chances. In the end I left the stadium a bit disappointed – but only because I thought we had chances to beat Spain but failed to capitalize.
It is also important to add that we had no trouble with other fans before, during, or after the game. We were treated politely and even shared a couple of friendly conversations after the game. – I have a lot of respect for the Spanish fans. I did talk with several U.S. fans (there were maybe 50 of us total) before and after the match. It seemed that a large part of the U.S. fans were in Spain on some sort of a study abroad trip in Spain, which allowed them to make the trip. A few said they were in Wembley the week before and a few actually migrated from their homes in Europe.
I am extremely content that I had a chance to see the U.S. Men’s team in Spain. I was impressed by our team’s effort and it was fun to cheer on the U.S. and be part of something of which I was proud while in Spain. On so many levels the U.S. is not recognized as an international contender in soccer so it was fun to share my knowledge and passion of the national to my foreign friends.
On that note I’m excited to see that there is consistently a group of fans gathering weekly for soccer matches at Coester’s. It is great to know that we have a strong mini-hotbed of soccer in SW Missouri that can gather together and enjoy the beautiful game. That is a group I’ll look forward to joining when I return from studying abroad next January. Until then I plan on finding a pub in Granada where I can watch the U.S. vs. Argentina game on Sunday.
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Nic Zweifel
www.niczweifel.com
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