US Soccer vs. Trinidad Tobago

I traveled on a charter bus from St. Paul to Chicago with 40 some other soccer fans to see the U.S. mens soccer team play Trinidad Tobago in a World Cup qualifier on Sept 10.

I took a few photos and recorded a couple videos.

Here we are on the bus. It was pretty comfortable and we watched soccer videos for several hours during the ride to Chicago.

We stopped in the Wisconsin Dells for lunch. It was cheesy as expected.
The Toyota Park was very nice on the inside and outside. It's a dedicated soccer stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois (a Chicago suburb).

Many fans gathered before the game in the parking lot.


All the bus riders wore a special t-shirt. This guy got a tattoo on his forehead. We teased him a bit.

Sprinklers watered the grass before the match. The field was beautiful (as beautiful as grass gets, at least).

When the U.S. scored, they passed a giant flag up the rows for display. I've seen this sort of stuff before on TV, but I've never been under the flag until last night (three times).

Action shot of soccer action.


The sun went down during the game.



The U.S. won 3-0 and it was time for a nap in the parking lot. Our bus disappeared during the game, but they returned to pick us up. We got back to St. Paul at 5 a.m. as scheduled. It was a great trip. I don't need to do it every week, but I'll do it again when possible.



Videos:
The fans sang songs almost non-stop during match. I captured a few on video.

This is a song the fans sang in appreciation of goalie Tim Howard's fine play.


This is a cheer the fans yelled when one of the opposing players went down and needed a stretcher.

They're singing, "You're going home in a Cook County ambulance!"