I almost came home with no hands!

Last night was the first Open Cup game, Real vs. San Jose. I love the Open Cup games, because they can’t end in ties. So even if there is a tie at the end, there has to be overtime, with the possibility of a shoot-out. And even though shoot-outs are the most intense thing ever, they’re very much one of the best things about the game-I love when they happen. We got to the stadium about a half hour before the game started. It was a little chilly, but nothing we couldn’t handle, of course. We grabbed some food (I gotta say, I love the concession food at the stadium.) Holding the good, though, made my hands so bloody freezing. I couldn’t wait to be finished to get some heat to my hands.
The game started, and our boys were in top form. We had possession of the ball the most, but I will say this for San Jose-their boys are feisty. They don’t give up on anything-they attack over and over again. The funniest bit of the game happened…oh, I want to say about 12 minutes in (I could be totally wrong on that) their was a ball up in the air, and a San Jose guy went for it…not realizing his teammate was also going up for it. They smashed heads in a spectacular crash that put both of them on the ground for several minutes, and finally, left the field, ice packs to their respective heads. I laughed when it happened, and even harder in the replay. I wish I could find a video to it, it was so awesome. Our team was on fire though, and about a half hour in, we had scored 3 points. Halftime started, and we felt pretty confident we’d win.
The second half started, and with it, the snow came. At first, it was light flakes coming down, but after a few minutes, it was heavy, thick snow, and it was hard to see anything. After a few minutes, Real busted out the famous orange ball-used in weather conditions that make it hard to see the ball. The temperature was dropping still and I was getting really cold. My shoes were doing nothing for my feet-my toes were frozen. I thought I bundled up pretty good with my two sweaters, my gloves, a scarf, and a blanket, but I was cold. I didn’t see a lot of the second half, with the bad visibility/it was too cold to move a lot to follow the ball as good as I normally do, but it was still fun. We scored again in the last few minutes, to make our score 4-0, and with that goal came the jumping and screaming and everything, and we got a little warmed up. After the goal, we had about a minute left of time, and the game ended with us being the victor(ine). It was awesome-and totally worth sitting out in the cold and snow. And as an added plus, we made friends with the people that sit near us-so we’ll have soccer buddies for the rest of the season! And after the game, even though we had frozen the past few hours, we got some ice cream.
It was delicious.