I’ve been alive for 57 years and covering sports for nearly two decades, and even in my non-sports-covering years, I have been fortunate enough to have the connections, resources, and desire to experience some really cool sporting events. In fact, there aren’t many events left to complete my bucket list. However, until Tuesday, I’d never attended a World Cup soccer match.
That changed on Tuesday, when I had an opportunity to attend Portugal’s 5-0 win over Uzbekistan at Houston Stadium (which is what FIFA is forcing us to call Reliant Stadium during the World Cup, and to be clear, they’re doing that in every World Cup city). While the game itself was lopsided, the experience exceeded every expectation I had going in, and I had VERY high expectations.
If you’ve had a chance to attend a World Cup match, then you already know, but if you haven’t attended a World Cup match, and you get offered a chance to go, or have the means to buy an increasingly expensive ticket, I’d highly recommend it. These are my big four takeaways from my Tuesday afternoon at Houston Stadium:
4. The atmosphere, wire to wire, is the best I’ve experienced with any sport
I’ve been to some awesome football games, some iconic basketball games, and about 200 baseball games. I’ve never been to an event with the sustained energy in the building like the match on Tuesday. Keep in mind, it was never a close game either! Still, it was 90-plus minutes of chants, songs, and loud cheering. (I’ll ignore the lame “wave” that got going in the second half.) Unlike every Texans game, the stands were full ten minutes before kickoff, a benchmark that typically takes a quarter and a half of a Texans game to occur. The pomp and circumstance of the two teams entering the dojo was downright regal, with both teams’ national anthems having a scintillating, loud aura. Speaking of aura…..
3. I watched Ronaldo score two goals, and the kids are right — AURA is fun!
Tuesday’s match will likely be my only World Cup match I attend during this tournament, and not because I don’t want to attend more games, but I have a vacation coming up. Knowing that, I was excited to get to see one of the sport’s icons, Cristiano Ronaldo, in what may be his last World Cup (NOTE: He’s 41 years old.). I was even more excited to see him score two goals, as Ronaldo had not tallied a goal in his five previous World Cup games, going back to 2022. When Ronaldo scored the first goal of the game at around the four minute mark, the stadium exploded like “The Rock’s” entrance music just unexpectedly played at a WWE event in 1998. (If you don’t get the analogy, here’s the translation — IT WAS EARTH-SHAKING LEVEL LOUD.) Ronaldo has what the kids call “aura,” no doubt.
2. Speaking of aura, I had a chance to meet Brazilian legend, Kaka!
I was fortunate enough to sit in Aramco’s suite at Houston Stadium for the game, and one of my suite-mates was Brazilian soccer legend Kaka! My embarrassing story of the day occurred when I introduced myself to Kaka….and asked “so, what’s your name?” Yes, I basically did the soccer equivalent of asking Michael Jordan or LeBron James to introduce themselves to me. That said, Kaka was a delightful human being, and his brother Rodrigo, who doubles as his agent, was downright hilarious! It was enjoyable getting a chance to explain little nuances of, and traditions with, our version of football here in the United States.
1. The sport itself has some real structural advantages over other sports
This is more of a general take about soccer than something specific to Tuesday’s in stadium experience — I LOVE the fact that soccer matches (a) have a running clock, and (b) generally don’t last more than two hours. The pace of a game is crisp, and leaves you wanting more, in a good way! Put simply, any sporting event with a noon kickoff that has me back on my couch by 2:55 p.m. is sublime. Good work, soccer!
