When the Olympics were on in London 2012, I was so excited to watch the Womens Soccer team..........only to discover we could only watch it if we had ESPN Soccer. Which we don't, so I only got updates online, not nearly as much fun or exciting. I wanted to see the goalie play - Hope Solo. She is a year younger than Jeff and I and we went to the same high school and grew up in the same town. Jeff and I had just finished reading her book - wow. As a kid I was totally oblivious to things around me, I'm sure my parents knew more, but I did not. I remember Hope from little league baseball games our brothers played together and on the same team. I remember her dad coached the team. Even my brother remembers him coaching and that he was genuinely a nice person whom everyone enjoyed being around.
So when I found out the Womens team was coming to Phoenix, I jumped on those tickets! How many times in my life would I ever be able to watch someone I know play a professional sport?? Not many if any more at all unless it's the old person golf tour. :) We were going to go just us, but soccer season has brought out some new found love for our girls. Lucas was not interested in watching women play soccer.....he stayed home with Ammon and Alexis babysat for us.
They played Republic of Ireland (had just played them in Portland a few days before) - they beat the socks off these women this time 5-0. Hope only played about 20 minutes and was pulled out as she was not seeing a lot of action and the other goalies needed a chance. The Ireland goalie had an AMAZING! night. She stopped countless shots on goal - I'm impressed that only 5 went in with how many shots she denied.
The little girls in the red shirts were two rows in front of us when they returned to their seats. It was fun to see all the soccer teams and fans - girls looking up to their idols, hoping to one day be on this team. It was a little weird to sit next to the guy who kept yelling 'Marry me, hope!' and other odd comments.
Hope is #1 in the blue
She's in the black in this picture - this was the end of the game as they went to each side of the stands to clap for the fans. She ran around and signed autographs - fun to watch and be a small part of.
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