US Women's National Team (soccer) comes to town! We went!

Hey, friendos.  

Jamie and I went to see the US Women's National Team (in soccer) play Iceland this evening at Austin's Q2 Stadium where we usually take in Austin FC.  

The game started a tad early - 6:40 or so.  And so we drove in rush-hour traffic all the way from Lower Austin to Howard Lane to catch the train to Q2.  The drive:  terrible.  The train - amazing.

lightrail!  It works!

I've liked to try to follow the USWNT since being completely won over by the team in the 1999 World Cup.  Brandi Chastain's goal is, in my book, one of the great sports moments of my lifetime.  I followed the team through the Mia Hamm era, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan...  The US women tend to dominate globally for a variety of reasons.  However, the World Cup in 2023 did not go our way.  But!  the current line-up under coach Emma Hayes won Gold in the 2024 Olympics, and is... great.

So, yeah, finally getting to see this team is 25 years in the making, for me.  Also, Austin needs an NWSL expansion team.  Just saying. 

Jamie has watched USWNT with me since 1999, and so getting to go to this together is real partner stuff for us.

For posterity, here was our starting XI.

Not bad, right?  I've wanted to see Rose Lavelle play for a long time - but this whole line-up was pretty awesome.  (spoiler: Lavelle did not disappoint - nor did anyone)

Spoilers:  we won

Alyssa Thompson scored an amazing goal about 39 minutes into the first half (she'd been threatening since the first minute.  Iceland actually tied it up, but after the 66th minute we subbed in Jaedyn Shaw and Sophia Smith among others (we had a few first caps tonight) and Shaw scored on the hardest drive of the game around the 86th minute, and Sophia Smith followed up about three minutes later.  

If you want to see a stadium of people flip out, this is a pretty good way to do it.  And, I don't know if it was sold out - but by the 20th minute the place seemed very, very full.  Can't tell me no one cares about this team.

In general, I keep my phone in my pocket during games, but I did take a few pics just because folks were relatively close a few times.

Things I did not get pictures of:

• Anyone scoring
• The band in the supporters section who seemed at a loss without the usual Austin FC songs
• The Icelanders who seemed clustered in our section
• Jamie saying "I know" when I'd get excited and say "Sophia Smith scored a goal" which she had also just witnessed

Before the game started, they had these flamethrowers that kept going off, and they were *hot*.  And, they scorched the field.  Someone is getting in trouble.

They gave out Red, White and Blue flags.  We sat in the Red Section.  Somehow, though, we walked out with a Blue and White one after a trade gone wrong (Jamie wanted blue, not red, and I wanted the whole collection.  We DID get a free poster I'll put up in the garage.

The team!  Look - Mallory Swanson!

At the end:  Fireworks and lights!

 Anyway - we had a great time, and I have a bucketlist item checked off.  But I'll go every time they come to town.