Good Seats!

After a nice lunch and some rest time, a bunch of the players went to the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center Stadium to watch the Brazilian Men's National Team take on New Zealand. It was a show and the U.S. players had great seats for performance. At every Olympic soccer venue, there is an area reserved for the athletes to watch the matches in which they are not playing (they call it the "athletes stand"). The one in Shenyang happened to be about the 4o-yard line (to use American football terms) and about 20 rows up, a perfect vantage point to see four of the five Brazilian goals, two from Ronaldinho. The team left with 15 minutes remaining in the match so they missed the fifth goal that came in stoppage time. The 60,000-seat stadium had nary an open seat, partly because Brazil almost always plays to packed house, but also because China was playing in the second game (a 2-0 loss to Belgium). It won't be nearly as full for the USA's match against New Zealand, but it's almost new (completed in 2007) it certainly is one of the nicest stadiums the team has ever played in...once they play in it. The team was set to train at the stadium tomorrow, but due to some field issues, the USA and New Zealand will not be able to train on the game pitch. Instead, the USA will train in the afternoon on one of the practices fields outside.