(Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)
90 Minutes to Kickoff – Fans begin to line up and purchase their tickets. This is going to be exciting and, of course, historic.
The electric billboards surrounding the pitch on the sidelines say: “Go Sol Go.” Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Wanna Be” plays. The stadium is roughly half full.
T-83 minutes – A single bass drum can be seen in the Angel City Brigade section. Later on the drum and the banner would be moved to section 121.
T-81 minutes – The first practice apparatus are put out. The fans begin to arrive and take their seats.
T-75 minutes – A slight break in the clouds.
T-72 minutes – Some photographer from a Japanese news site greets me in my press box downstairs. I would later be joined by a writer from another Japanese site, as well as Joe Nixon, another contributor to B/R, and one of his friends who attends my alma mater, the Beach.
T-71 minutes – Hint. That is the name of this new energy drink (actually, I found out it’s water that has no sugar, but some fruit flavor) that are one of the sponsors. Wonder if anyone on B/R has tried this. I know the people in my press box and myself would try it out.
T-67 minutes – I notice section 119: “Marta’s Maniacs in the Amway Corner.”
Clearly the people in that part of the stadium will go wild when she takes the field, let alone if she scores (she would have an assist instead, and sign some autographs later). For more info on my memo, check it out here.
T-60 minutes – One hour to kick-off. The sprinklers are on, for some reason known only to the grounds crew. Maybe this is to make the pitch lusher, who knows?
T-55 minutes – More fans come in, banging their Amway Thunderstix.
T-50 minutes – The fans who came out early see the Freedom take the field for their preliminaries. They will don all red for this contest.
T-48 minutes – Sol keepers enter the field for their preliminaries.
T-47 minutes – The rest of the Sol players take to the field for the first time. I head down to take some shots of the teams going through their warm-ups.
T-33 minutes – After returning to my box, I watch some highlights of WPS players on international duty. Poor Matildas.
T-30 minutes – A lady from NHK japan asks me for assistance regarding press access. In spite of my bout of laryngitis (which explains my behavior in the box), I show her where to go to enter the field. I also refer her to people upstairs when my knowledge is not strong enough.
T-28 minutes – Sepp Blatter sends his best wishes.
T-24 minutes – Found out what Hint was all about.
T-20 minutes – The Sol complete their warm-up after practicing ball handling in the new Puma green and whites commissioned by the league.
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