US Soccer
As a soccer fan, I obviously care a great deal about how the US National Team plays. I played soccer growing up so my parents and coaches would find ways to get me to some of the few top-level soccer games that came through the area. I remember attending a friendly against the USSR at Stanford which must have occured during the brief window between the US having qualified for the 1990 World Cup and the breakup of the Soviet Union.
I also managed to convince my dad to get a pair of ticket-sets to the 1994 World Cup. My family split two tickets to the five games at Stanford that year. I got to see Brazil-Cameroon (part of the reason I support Barça), Colombia-Switzerland, and USA-Brazil. The USA-Brazil game was on the forth of July and while we had no real chance against the eventual champions, it was a lot of fun.
I got up at midnight to watch us play Portugal in 2002 and was promptly jerked out of my sleepiness by John O’Brien’s goal. Later that morning I proudly wore my now-ancient jersey (from qualifying in 1997) to work as I tried to make it through the day without sleeping.
