The first ever Winoly Cup pitted Winchester City against Arsenal. Two teams both from England, who left the location of the Olympics to play in another Olympic stadium on the very day of the opening ceremonies....how funny! Neither of us were fans of either team, but still we were excited to see a great game. Also, the two friends we went with were big Arsenal fans so we wore red to go along with them. The downside for Arsenal was they were missing a few of their starters who were at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies as they are participating with the English Soccer team. This proved to hurt them as by the half Winchester was up 2-0.
As you can see in the picture above the stadium is HUGE (you can barely make out the top section). With a capacity of 80,000 it was still pretty packed. With many entrances all of the way around for cars, buses, subway, and taxis, getting to the stadium was easier than we expected. The taxi dropped us off just outside and we followed the crowds to the nest. Again, there were many entrances around the stadium letting folks in that it was probably the shortest lines I've seen at any major sporting event...even the security line with x-ray machines for your bags/purses and security with the metal detector wands went quickly.
In the picture above you can see that the Chinese take security seriously. On the track all the way around were two rows of sitting guards who watched the audience. Also, sitting in the first row every few seats were uniformed guards. They even lined the openings where the players walk out of when they enter the stadium. I was surprised at the amount of security there. I don't believe they even let anyone sit in the 2nd row. We thought maybe the Chinese get rowdy during the soccer games...however by the end of the game we knew they don't. This was one of the calmest games of any level, of any sport that I have been to. People did cheer and there were some horns, but no high-fiving and not much loud yelling/cheering for the entire match. Of course when the goals happened people got to the their feet and clapped and cheered...but still, no over-joy like we see in the US and other parts of the world.
I had to include the sign above that I saw in the stadium because of the top item...I never walked over to find out what the "love elevator" was and I'm not sure I really want to find out. Maybe one of my Chinese speaking friends can read the characters and tell me if it says something different in Chinese...
In the second half the rain started to come down hard. It was hot and humid during the first half, but when the rain started it cooled off some...but not much. All of the guards had pouches with them that included rain jackets with a hood and slickers. Fortunately, the shape of the stadium allows only the field and track to be rained on therefore most, if not all, spectators stayed dry.
Aside from the goals, one of the more exciting time of the match was when they started the wave :) See video below:
With the rain coming down for most of the second half, there was a lot of slipping and sliding and lots of "almost" goals...but no goals were actually scored. The game ended with Manchester City winning 2-0. We had a lot of fun seeing an event at an Olympic stadium. It is my dream to one day attend an actual Olympic event (maybe Brazil in 2016??) until then this will last me a while in the happiness meter.
A couple interesting observations: 1. No alcohol was served in the stadium (maybe that's why the spectators weren't as rowdy as home?). 2. The food and soda was NOT over-priced like in every other stadium I have ever been to. We got a water, ice cream, and pop corn for under $4USD!
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