Dr Chuck Pearson

On Wednesday afternoon, after the fullest day of my teaching week, I threw myself into the car and started driving without stopping from my outpost in the Georgia Mountains to Birmingham. It was a route I'd never taken before (I lived in Birmingham five years ago, but I'd always driven into and out of Birmingham from the south, never the north, so I left early and took backroads here, there, and everywhere to get to I-59 so I could start careening south.

If you've never driven this part of the country, you need to drive into Alabama on State Route 9 and drive into Centre, Alabama on a late March afternoon - over the lake and in clear view of the rolling hills all around. Words will never do justice to the feeling I felt in that car, with The Killers working on the radio ("Mr. Brightside" is an epic pop song) with creation spilling out all around me, in fullness. Just some kind of awesome view.

I hit I-59 right about exactly at 5:30 PM Eastern Time (4:30 Central, I guess) which made my heart dance because it meant that I hadn't gotten bogged down in the backroads for three hours, which had been my biggest fear. I could just drop the hammer and plow down the interstate and be in Birmingham for plenty of time. I even had the odd thought pass through my head that I could have been a press guy if I had known I'd have had this much time, try to do the work in the press box as Dr. Chuck Pearson, Citizen Journalist or some rot

And then I thought straight again. I've seen the US National team play before (even went to a game at Legion Field against Tunisia while I still lived in Birmingham) but never a qualifier. There were plenty of things that I wanted to accomplish on this night. Most of them involved singing, cheering, and generally getting my voice behind the Yanks. In short, I was there to be a fan.

Simply being a fan - a singing, supporting fan - at a soccer match is something I haven't done in five years, since that match against Tunisia. The soccer options in Georgia are limited - I'm grateful for being able to get down to see the Silverbacks, but even then I have been there just as much as an interested media-type party as a fan, and there's been a lot of freedom to lose myself in the game that I simply haven't allowed myself. As I drove down the interstate to see this match, I was going - I realized I was going - simply because this was a chance I hadn't been able to take in the longest time, a chance just to enjoy it.

And in meeting up with a couple of guys - in the persons of ERic Vormelker and Howard Hamilton - who I have traded plenty of e-mails with in the past, and enjoyed company with on the old USENET newsgroups - as well as seeing net.denizens and meeting new faces standing with Sam's Army - I reminded myself how personal this errand was. Meeting ERic and Howard in real life especially was a thrill - each, in their own ways, served as examples of how to do this writing about soccer thing, and I've really enjoyed doing it. But it's nice also to get beyond just the writing about soccer, or even just the soccer, and to take a few moments to share life together - and, when the moment is right, bring the focus back to the soccer.

(Plug-o-matic: Howard has been keeping a blog on the progress of the hexagonal, and I'm amazed and sorry I haven't found it and pointed it out before now. It's about a million times better than anything I've posted about anything.)

There's not too much about the game itself I could write that hasn't been said plenty of other places (and I'm more than willing to defer to El Harfang Supremo on this front, who apparently posts his stuff on The Mother Ship now...Lee, you so rock the free world...), so let me comment on atmosphere:

• ERic called me as I was coming into town. He warned me that Legion Field was crazy with the blue-and-white shirts. I expected a 50/50 split when I pulled into the parking lot around 6:30 my time. I got a Guatemalan party. The place was OFF THE HOOK with blue and white.
  
  A few rogue USA supporters tried to get some U-S-A chants as I was waiting in line to get in the gate. They were immediately drowned out by "GUATE SI SE PUEDE" and other such chants. It was good-natured joshing back and forth, never felt any hostility, but the Guatemalans were out in full force and were there to represent.
  
  


• In the stadium at 7:00, Sam's Army was slow to gather (I got a lot of stick for my Columbus shirt, but hey, I'm a poseur), but the Guatemalans were getting in the stands and starting cheers for every little thing. A person even LOOKING Latino came out of the tunnel and cheers went up for them.
  
  (I was trying to figure myself why everybody was so hyped up about a pro-US crowd. Number one, the Central American nations absolutely do have traveling supporters, and they represent. Number two, I don't know about Alabama, but Georgia is getting exponentially more Latino by the day, and there is a not-insignificant Guatemalan population in Northwest Georgia. I knew we'd have to outsing Guatemalans by the thousands. I think 10,000 Guatemalans in attendance would be a very conservative estimate.
  
  


• I'm bent that Sam's Army didn't come through better over the TV broadcast. I thought we sounded right nice there. And I heard one moment where "BEAT THE TRAFFIC" came through loud and clear towards the end of the game, which means that ESPN had the ability to focus on Sam's Army chants. Why they didn't more, I don't understand.
  
  But we did get Sam's Army standards going, and the singing and chanting was the best I've done since the first night in Crew Stadium in '99. Someday I'm going to have to go to Foxboro or Columbus or somewhere where the Army turns out in true force.
  
  


• Not only do goals cover a multitude of sins, they sure do shut up the visiting support really well. "You're not singing, you're not singing, you're not singing over there..."
  
  


• I don't know if the referee really was that bad. But in the north end of Legion Field, we were sure convinced he was. And I will swear until my dying day that Landon was far onside when Lewis passed to him.
  
  


• Eddie Johnson really is a grown-ass man.
  
  


• There is only one feeling of pride like having the USA players come over to Sam's Army and applaud you, and that is being applauded standing next to a couple of guys that I only saw for the first time that night but feel like I've known for a lifetime.
  
  

I crashed out in Birmingham on Wednesday night, as massive rain was opening up. I said goodbyes far too early on Thursday morning, and drove through that massive storm.

Science seminar started at 11:00 AM back at school, just a bit over 20 hours after I left.

I was back just in time.

I have memories to last a lifetime.