In Case You Missed It – Gold Cup in Charlotte

The US and Mexico are at odds once again in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tonight. The game is being played out in Pasadena and will mark the tenth time (out of eleven) that the tournament’s final consisted of these two teams.

Seeing as how I won’t be out in California for tonight’s game but at a cookout instead, I figured I might share a few pics from when Charlotte got a sampling of the Gold Cup with the first round double header featuring Costa Rica vs El Salvador and Cuba vs Mexico.

I met up with @TheKnox, @Braman14, @jashshea, and a few others at Mort’s (as is our wont) for a few pregame cocktails. Considering there is always a stadium premium on drinks regardless of the game being played, we decided to this purely in an effort to be economical. <ahem>

The walk over was pretty uneventful, at least until we were right outside of the stadium. While there was quite a crowd to be seen once we arrived, I seemed to remember larger crowds back when Mexico had its international friendly with Iceland.

And the same could be said once we reached our seats. For last year’s game I was sitting in the upper deck and it was packed. This year there weren’t too many people up there. It turns out attendance for the games ended up being about 20,000 people shy of the match a year ago.

This year we also had club seats. We figured we’d splurge a bit to get a little closer since it was for two games. It also gave me the opportunity to check out what the club section looked like, something I’ve yet to have a chance to do during a Panthers game.

And I’ve got to confess, it was pretty nice in there. I could definitely see the benefits of being inside during one of the really hot games that might occur early in the season, or even if it rained. I would be curious as to the drink lines, however. It wasn’t bad for us, but I wonder how the lines might fare during a Panthers game.

The games themselves were pretty good. El Salvador/Costa Rica proved to be more of a contest than was expected. Costa Rica was the favorite, but trailed through much of the game until the final moments when they managed to tie it at 1 – 1 just before the end of regulation.

By the time Mexico and Cuba took the field, the bottom half of the stadium was finally filled in. It seems a bunch of Mexico’s fans figured they’d keep partying until it was their turn on the pitch. Once on, they ended up decimating Cuba. It didn’t get bad until the second half. At that point the floodgates opened and Mexico cruised to a 5 – 0 win.

That’s also when the stands became the most lively. There’s something to be said for the energy soccer fans have. It wasn’t anything compared to what you mind find over in Europe or South America (or any other location outside of the US frankly), but it was still far above what you might find at a Panthers or Bobcats game.

So here’s hoping our fellow statesmen will be on hand to cheer on the red, white and blue tonight, especially since the match is on US soil. I’ll definitely be making as much noise through the TV as possible, as I’m sure these fellas as well as 90% of who was on hand at Bank of America stadium will be doing for their side.