Quick Trivia Question:

How many professional sporting events have Karl and I attended together?

Answer: None

How many professional sporting events had I ever been to?

Answer: None

That’s right, before last Tuesday I had never been to a Professional sporting event. Never. Never a to the Padres nor the Chargers. Not the Jazz or the Lakers or anything. I never would have thought it would be the Salt Lake Real (pronounced Ree Al) I had a friend from work who loved the team and I heard all about the National Championship they won a couple of years ago. I got into soccer a little while in Albania and have wanted to get more into it since then. So when Groupon had a sweet deal on some tickets, I was really excited to go. The Groupon included two tickets, two Real SLC beanies and two hot chocolates delivered to your seat.

The day of the game arrived and Karl and I headed out of town after work. We went to Johnny Carino’s for dinner, and enjoyed our time in Sandy. We went to Nordstroms Rack and got some new shoes. The game didn’t begin until 8 so we ended up having a bunch of time.

We FINALLY arrived and, well, there it was:

The arena was bigger than I realized.

Our seats were in the “R” section.

Here we are, seated.

It was the first day of March, so it was pretty cold. We brought scarves and gloves, and our hats. I even packed a couple of blankets just in case. We were super glad that I did.

And the game started.

So, it turns out we really like soccer! It is such a fast game and those guys are such amazing athletes. I had only ever seen high school and little kid soccer. This was a totally different game.

There were other fans there that had received this revelation many years before me:

They came with a huge base drum, gigantic banners, eight foot flags, and smoke bombs.

YEAH!

It took a little while for them to score. Even thought the goal is so big, it is really hard to get a ball into.

Half way through the first half, no point. This is a pic of the board, with the ball high in the air.

Corner kick.

These are three of my favorite players:5, 17, and 18. This goalie was so amazing. They couldn’t get ANYTHING past him.

Another funny thing about these games were they guys selling stuff. Like this hot Chocolate seller.

Finally, GOAL! Here was Karl’s reaction:

Mine:

The super fans:

Yes that is a gigantic banner that covered the whole section.

So just in case you don’t know, because I didn’t, a soccer game is split into 2 45 min halves. They never stop the clock, BUT at the end of each half the officials will add some amount of time for time the ball sat still for outs, injuries, etc. There was less than a minute left on the clock and Karl and I decided to leave. It was 10 o’clock on a school night and we were both really tired.

As we ran out to the car, fighting off people as we went, we heard a great cheer in the stadium, they had scored again! The final Score was 4:1. The Real dominated. We drove home and crashed. What a fun night!