Epic Five on Friday

The Copa America Centenario USA 2016 is an International Soccer Tournament that is the oldest international continental football competition. 32 matches played throughout the USA June 3-26th with 16 teams from the Americas in 10 cities. Seattle is one of the 10 cities. This is the first time that the tournament is being hosted outside of South America.

Our son Josh, daughter in love Laura and ellen b. purchased tickets for the U.S.A. v. Ecuador quarterfinal game hosted by Seattle. I pulled out my USA gear to take to the game.

Here we are before the game started. Sunshine in Seattle!

Our own Clint Dempsey from the Seattle Sounders scored the first goal and was the Man of the Match.

All smiles at the end of the game after our 2-1 victory! On to the semi-finals where we will play Argentina or Venezuela depending on who comes out victorious when these two teams play each other on Saturday. If I had to guess I’d say we will be playing Argentina with the amazing Lionel Messi but there are always upsets in tournaments.

It was a beautiful night in Seattle and on the way back to our car we spotted a ferry rolling in on the Puget Sound. I only had my phone camera with me and it doesn’t capture how beautiful the night was. It was a historical night and a fun night for the 3 of us.

I’ve said this before and I realize many of you are not sport fans and especially not soccer fans but soccer is my favorite sport and thank you for indulging me as I share this part of my life occasionally.

I’m joining Amy’s Five on Friday and Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five, thank you Amy and Susanne!

Here in the USA and in Canada we celebrate Father’s Day this Sunday. Our Western Washington kids are treating their dad with a brunch in Seattle on Sunday. I’ll be calling my dear old Pop who lives in California to wish him a happy father’s day. Do you have plans?

Signs of my Times…

This past week I traveled to the nearby town of Woodinville for an appointment with our accountant. Woodinville has become a very popular tourist spot for wine tasting in our state. The last two names on this sign direct you to two of many wineries. The most popular winery in Woodinville is probably Ste Michelle Winery. Another larger winery in this town is Columbia Winery. You can probably find wines from Ste Michelle on your grocery shelves.

Last night I attended my first soccer game of the year in Seattle at Century Link Field. Our Seattle Sounders played Club America, a team from Mexico in the Concacaf Champions League. This was a quarterfinal game. We will play this same team again on March 2nd in Mexico to see who moves on in the tournament. Our home opening game for the MLS season is on March 6th. The season will be in full swing starting the 6th. I have season tickets with our son, daughter in law, and daughter. Yes, we are soccer fans.

I’m signing up with Lesley at signs, signs. Thanks Lesley!

I feel like I’ve had quite the workout today. After my walk since the weather was so nice I mowed the lawn for the first time this season. I also did some cleaning up of our drive. My body is telling this old gal to sit a spell and put my feet up! I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on visiting blogs.

USA vs Ghana Viewing Party!

It was so exciting and stomach wrenching to watch the U.S.A. vs. Ghana game on Monday. We had a house full and we made enough noise for the neighborhood to hear us. We are really hoping for another positive result that will get the U.S.A. into the round of sixteen. Time will tell. I’m happy I get to enjoy my U.S.A. decor now since we won’t be in the country for the fourth of July.

I’m off today to take my niece and nephew by marriage on a sight seeing tour of Whidbey Island. What is up in your world?

World Cup 2014 ~ Brazil

With World Cup 2014 in progress right now in Brazil I decided to re-post our photos from the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.A. I published this post on June 17, 2010. The kids and I flew down to Southern California and stayed with my parents for the duration of World Cup. Josh was able to get a ticket package for the Rose Bowl venue and Dan was able to get 2 tickets for the Brazil vs. Cameroon game in San Jose at Stanford. Dan and I traveled to Stanford to see that very colorful game.

In 1994 our boys were 15 and 13. We found the U.S.A. training facility in Southern California and were able to see some of the team and practice and get an autograph.

Later during our time in Southern California we found out the hotel the team was staying at and we traveled there and hung out watching for players so Josh could get his Team poster autographed.

Our patience won out and we had a great time.

This is Alexi Lalas with Josh and Dan.

Josh and Dan got every players signature on the team poster. Lalas, Meola, Harkes, Dooley, Wagerle, Balboa, Ramos, Reyna, just to name a few. They also managed to get all the coaches signatures but one. The players were all friendly and willing to talk to the boys and sign autographs. What an exciting and fun experience for Josh and Dan and me!

Dan and I drove to Clovis and spent the night with my cousin and then we drove to a train station to take a commuter train to Stanford for the Brazil vs. Cameroon game. We found a shop that had a Brazilian flag and bought it for the game. Brazil brings a party atmosphere to soccer games that’s hard to beat and we had fun experiencing it.

We finished off our time at 1994 World Cup with a game at the Rose Bowl where the final game would be played.

Participating in this historical event was thrilling for our family.

Dear was finally able to fly down to Southern California and join us at the end of our trip. The whole family had a fun day at Disneyland with our extended family in Southern California, too.

1994 was the first time the U.S.A. hosted World Cup. We were hoping the U.S.A. would be chosen for the 2018 World Cup or the 2022 but alas Russia and Qatar got the nod for those cups. Now we hear that there were some shady dealings in Qatar decision. The U.S.A. plays their first game on Monday against Ghana at 3 pm Pacific time. Our family room will be full of U.S.A. soccer fans!

Go U.S.A.!

I’ll be adding my World Cup link to ABC Wednesday this week since we are at the letter W.

Rain Won’t Stop…

…our parade!

We had a full day of celebrating this past Saturday and we didn’t let the pouring rain dampen our spirits or our celebrating.

Opening the game with the National Anthem and all the branches of the military represented is one of my favorite parts of being at the game instead of watching it from home. Our soccer crowd sings along and it’s great to hear close to 40,000 people singing.

There are lots of creative ideas to get the fans behind the team and to keep us cheering. The blue and green plastic squares were in our cup holders and they had blue sections and green sections and had us all hold up our squares at once. Fun times. At every kickoff the green streamers fly. Our most expensive player, Clint Dempsey, has lots of fans and someone created a Dempseyland banner using Disneyland printing. Fun times.

We are fortunate to have our season tickets under some cover so the rain does not fall freely on our heads. If the wind picks up we can get some rain blown our way but for the most part we stay dry when others in the stadium get soaked.

Of course it would have been a bummer if after all this we would have lost the game but I’m happy to say we won. It took till the very last minute of the game but we won and we left elated and ready to face the horrible downpour and slick roads home. Once home we got ready for our next fun event.

Our Laura’s grandmother, Wilma, turned 90 this week and we all got together to celebrate her 90 years at her favorite restaurant.

Wilma is such a sweet lady and we are so happy to have gotten to know her since Josh and Laura got married.

Isn’t the cake great?

These two events on the same day really brought a lot of sunshine into my world.

I’m linking up with Sunlit Sunday at My Little Home and Garden and Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.

What is brightening up your world these days?

The Stars Aligned…

…last Wednesday. The Seattle Sounders were playing the Vancouver Whitecaps and Marg had wanted to come to a soccer game with a crazy fan like me. Enough of our season ticket holders in our row of seats gave up or couldn’t use their tickets so it was “game on” and John and Marg drove across the line to meet up at my house for an evening of fun.

First we’d join Dear in downtown Seattle for Happy Hour at Boka.

Thankfully Marg and John came disguised as Manchester United fans instead of Whitecap fans since they’d be sitting with us in Sounders country.

Our Happy Hour meal had many tasty choices that we shared around the table.

We made it to the game in plenty of time to get good parking and get to our seats well before the game started.

It was great to hear both National Anthems and see our flags side by side.

We were the best of hosts as we let the Whitecaps run all over us and take away the victory back North…oye. I was happy for John and Marg. Hopefully we’ll see better results for our team this Sunday when we play the Portland Timbers.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend to all the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and other friends across the line. May God give you thankful hearts to praise Him.

Theatre of Dreams ~ Old Trafford

‘This is Manchester United football club, this is the theatre of dreams.’

The phrase coined by Sir Bobby Charlton in John Riley’s book simply entitled ‘Soccer’ 26 years ago has stuck in the period of unprecedented success which the Red Devils enjoyed under the tenure of Sir Alex Ferguson. From the Glaswegian’s appointment in November 1986, this cathedral of British football has undergone a dramatic transformation to become arguably the finest club ground in English football.

We searched on line to get tips about getting to the stadium and parking for the soccer game. We found the neighborhood suggested to park in and followed the crowds walking to the stadium.

We had our Seattle Sounders gear with our Sounders/Manchester United friendly match scarf. It was fun that a few people walked up to us recognizing that we were from Seattle and were welcoming.

We had enough time before kick off to take some photos and check out the Mega Store! Yikes was that huge with wall to wall people in it.

Our tickets included a club entrance separate from general entrances and a private lounge to enjoy snacks and drinks before the game and during half time. We also got a free program with our tickets.

We enjoyed our seats and the crowd. We had heard some horror stories about sitting in the stands that didn’t pan out in our experience. The seats were comfortable and the people around us were polite.

The excitement in the stadium reached an elevated pitch when Maraouane Fellaini took the field for the first time as a “Red”. Many of the fans donned wigs that tried to match Fellaini’s hair.

Marouane Fellaini has described his deadline-day move to Manchester United as a ‘dream’, and hopes to repay David Moyes’ faith in him by joining the long list of greats at Old Trafford.

There was a solid line of security between the home fans and the visiting fans. The chants from the two groups always get quite heated and aren’t flattering to their opponents for sure.

We took one last photo of all of us together enjoying experiencing a dream come true for Josh. This wouldn’t be the one and only game that Josh got to attend in England. While we were in London he took a chance at buying a last minute ticket to a sold out Arsenal game in Northern London close to the stadium where the game would be played. An older woman who was meeting someone to sell her 2 season tickets to decided that she’d like to enjoy the game with Josh after talking to him. We were happy for Josh to get his 2nd experience in an English Premier game atmosphere! We shopped while Josh enjoyed the game and then we met up at Selfridges on Oxford Street.

A Shot from Old Trafford…

A dream come true for our son Josh as we stepped onto the grounds of Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, England. This is the home field of Manchester United and Manchester City Soccer teams.

We had our scarves from the Seattle Sounders Friendly match with Manchester United in 2011. We had great seats with privileges to a members only entrance and refreshment area and a free match day program. We had a great time and Manchester United won 2-0.

We’ve traveled a few hundred miles away from Manchester and are enjoying so many wonderful sights.

Until next time…

Seattle’s All a Buzz!

You could literally feel the excitement coming from people as Laura and I walked into the Century Link Stadium on Saturday night. There was to be a “huge announcement” before the game and they asked everyone to make sure and be in their seats at 7:15. We complied because we heard rumors and wanted to see if what we heard would be true and it was…

Clint Dempsey is now a Seattle Sounder!

“Dempsey, the captain of U.S. national team who was purchased from Tottenham of the English Premier League, joins a Seattle team that is getting healthier, hungrier and hotter.”

“Going into the season, I thought I was going to be at Tottenham,” Dempsey said, “but MLS and the Seattle Sounders, they moved mountains to get me here. I am excited to be back in America.”

OK…I realize not all my bloggy friends are Soccer fans and some of you won’t even recognize his name but this is a huge development for the Sounders team and it was so much fun to witness and especially hear the excitement on Saturday night when Dempsey peeled off his hoody and revealed his new Sounders jersey.

In case you are wondering why it was just Laura and I walking into the stadium, Josh is at Lakeside Bible Camp directing the junior high camp for this week. Laura was busily texting him with the news that the Clint Dempsey signing rumors were true. Josh was very excited about two of his favorite things on Saturday…Soccer and Lakeside Bible Camp.

Home front news:

My mom has decided to go off oxygen and morphine so as of Sunday the oxygen has been removed from my parents apartment. My brother served my mom and pop communion on Sunday evening and several of us were able to google hangout to be part of the evening at the apartment. We sang together and prayed together. My mom is still very alert and she continues to make us laugh with her down to earth comments. The dialogues between her and my pop are priceless. Our nephew Caleb is getting married this coming Saturday in Gaviota, California so mom and pop in their words are “putting off dying till after the wedding” they call the wedding a detour from dying. We have enough material from our dear parents to make a mini-series.

My mom with niece Melissa on Sunday. My mom said “I like this gadget”.

From the eternal to the mundane…our floors are now ready to receive their new padding and carpeting. What interesting room landscapes we are living with for a couple days. 2 queen mattress sets are stacked where our dining table usually sits. Fun times! Even with this configuration we enjoyed a wonderful Copper River Salmon meal last night with my sister and her hubby. Before their softball game Lana asked if she could drop off all the supplies for dinner so Dear and I could cook it for the 4 of us while they fulfilled their team duties. Little sisters can make those kinds of requests. I did reply to her “what do you think I am, a Mennonite?” She replied, “yes, I heard you were adopted in.” So there you have it. And because our garage is full of our other furniture which made our barbecue impossible to retrieve I cooked the salmon on the deck in an electric skillet…if that’s not a Mennonite alternative cooking method I don’t know what is!? We had salmon, black rice, broiled asparagus-zucchini and a cucumber heirloom tomato salad. Delicious. Chunky Monkey Ice Cream for dessert.

How was your weekend?

My Party Ride…

On Tuesday my son called me to say that his company had an extra ticket to the U.S.A. World Cup Qualifier Game against Panama at Century Link Field. He asked me if I’d like to meet up with him and go to the game. What do you think I said!? Yes, thank you. Off I went to a hotel in Bellevue to meet up with the rest of the group. Joshua’s company had reserved a party bus to take everyone across Lake Washington to the stadium. They also had booked a private suite for the game.

Josh was able to represent well with his USA warm-up. He and I were probably the most excited of the bunch to be going to the game. Soccer is a joy for me to watch and I understand that for many it would just make you yawn. We caught the “soccer bug” after going to World Cup games in the U.S.A. in 1994.

It was a beautiful day in Seattle and as we crossed Lake Washington it was fun to see all the sail boats out in force. What fun to just let someone else do the driving.

When we got into the stadium they were handing out complimentary scarves to everyone. We were very excited to receive these!

We headed to the elevators to go up to the Suite Level. I had never been on the Suite level before.

You have to have a ticket that shows a Suite # to be admitted onto this floor.

We looked down to our usual level when we come to a game. Our Club level is pretty sweet, too.

Here it is…Suite 16. We were very happy to see we were not far off from the 50 yard line! Woohoo!

Wow…this is going to be fun and comfortable!

Food and drinks included and 2 private restrooms.

We picked our seats and hung our flag and got ready to cheer the U.S.A. to victory!

The excitement was mounting and I sat ready to enjoy it all.

This is the Centennial year for soccer in the U.S.A. Our Seattle fans are the best and unfurled these banners to celebrate 100 years of history!

#6 Brad Evans and #18 Eddie Johnson are players from our own Sounders Football Club here in Seattle. Brad Evans scored the winning goal for the U.S.A. against Jamaica and Eddie Johnson scored a goal in this game against Panama. We’re proud of our Sounders!

At Half time we took the time to take some posed photos.

What a great group of people from all over the Western States that work for our son’s company. I met folks from Arizona, Utah, California, Idaho, Denver and Washington.

I was able to spot and zoom in on the Space Needle from our suite.

Great views all around. Scoring first made for a wonderful atmosphere in the stadium and the chants “We are going to Brazil” made for a lot of excitement. It’s not a given for a country as large as the U.S.A. to qualify for the World Cup. We won this game with a 2-0 result.

When the game was over we headed down to find The Party Ride bus to take us back to the East side of Lake Washington.

We spotted the Party Ride just where they let us off. There were a lot of people who wished they could hop on that bus with us.

What a great experience for this soccer lover to enjoy with my son. If you ever have a chance to enjoy a game in a suite I would highly recommend it.

The party bus was fun, too. I got home late and was happy to know I had nothing on my calendar until noon on Wednesday. It was nice to just relax the morning after all the fun I had on Tuesday night. Thank you dear son of mine for thinking of your soccer lovin mom! You are the best!

Today is Friday and if the weather is decent I’m headed to Edmonds for their annual Art Festival. I worked hard on Thursday clearing out the free standing cabinets in our kitchen to get ready for the new floors being installed in July. I cleared out our island cabinets as we will have to remove the island completely so the floor can be replaced under it. We have prep work to do before the flooring contractor can come in so I’ll be living with the bare necessities in my kitchen. I told Dear that if I’m too limited we might just have to eat out every night!

I’ve been so sad to see the news about the fires in Colorado. I do hope things come under control soon. Hope all is well where you live.

I’m joining in with The Tablescaper for her meme called “Oh the Places I’ve Been #9” since I’m home alone this week and have time to come and visit all the participants.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Soccer