Heartache in Manaus...but it's not all bad
Sunday's tie against Portugal had the widest range of emotions that us Cleveland fans are used to. It didn't matter if you were watching on TV or in the stadium like we were.
I anticipated that we'd have much fewer fans than we had in Natal for the game against Ghana, but a morning stroll through the historic harbor area of Manaus showed I was wrong. USA fans were all over the place.
We taxied over to the stadium around 3 pm, under a stifling heat and burning sun that felt like it was ten feet above you. It's actually difficult to explain how hot it was. The sun is so hot that you feel like you're cooking.
Like most venues, security controls started a few blocks from the stadium. Upon clearing the first obstacle, we found a Shell gas station that was selling Brahma beers for 5 reals (about $2.5) just outside the stadium. We were not alone, all of us trying to get some fluids in while cramming under the shade. Here we find our friends Andy and Evan (who came in from Atlanta, and we’d seen last night at the party) - perhaps not as coincidentally as it appeared.
We entered the stadium around 4:15, all of us with tickets in the upper deck. Like always, we marched into the lower level behind the goal, in the middle of the action. Before kickoff it felt like I had already lost 5 pounds in sweat.
The goal Portugal scored was unfortunate, but we were psyched with how well the guys played the rest of half. We could feel a tie was coming - and went absolutely nuts when Jermaine Jones curled that ball into the goal that was about 50 feet in front of us.
But we felt there was more, and we got it in Clint Dempsey's goal. It was pandemonium at that point. We have no idea how the rest of the stadium reacted, but it felt like we could hear all of the United States yelling with us.
We believed that we would win. We believed we deserved to win, never talking about the Ghana game where we all realized we had some luck.
We yelled at DeAndre Yedlin to keep the ball in the corner, screamed to Wondo to kill some time, and all grabbed our heads when Michael Bradley lost that ball. It was almost like slow motion...two passed and we were tied again in the dying seconds.
It sucked the air life out of us. We were drenched in sweat, feeling like we just played that game. We knew we had the Round of 16 locked up - if not for that goal. I shook my head as I've done way too many times in Ohio, loving the team but amazed at how cruel sports can be.
Exhausted, we tried to congratulate the guys with chants, but we were so spent. Quickly the talk in the stands turned to the tie-breaker scenarios, and wondering if Klinsmann and Low could agree on tying the game on Thursday.
We walked out of the stadium feeling like we had lost - a feeling usually only reserved for top teams with a history of success. Over beers at a nearby sidewalk joint, we laughed at our absurdity. We have four points after two games - something all of us would have taken when the draw was announced. Now we head to Recife with the entire country pulling for the U.S. team - with us representing a nation of soccer fans.
