My wife and I, along with my brother and parents, were in attendance at the USA vs. Argentina match held at Giants Stadium on June 8th, 2008.

US vs. Argentina - June 8, 2008

Prior to game time, the seats were packed, but the stadium was obviously not filled. With lots of new construction going on at the Meadowlands, parking was ridiculous. At kickoff, not an empty seat was to be found.

We were asked to stand for the National Anthems. I told my Dad, "I bet every Argentinean sings their Anthem as loud as they can." The Argentinean National Anthem was played very softly. I'm not sure if that was done on purpose. Halfway through the Anthem, the Argentines started to hum, and then they went crazy during the last few seconds. When our National Anthem came on, to my amazement, every American in the stadium sang from start to finish. It was very empowering and you couldn't help the sense of patriotism rush through your body as Sam's Army waved a huge American Flag behind the American Goal (see picture). You go to American baseball and football games and it seems almost as if it is a chore to get people to stand for the Anthem. It was great to see the USA pride in the stadium and you could feel it in the air.

I remember watching the inaugural season of the MLS and watching these tiny groups of people try to emulate the festive soccer environments found in European and South American stadiums. As much as I love this game, I never thought it would catch on the USA. However, I was pleasantly surprised. People were decked out in USA colors, signs and banners and flags were flying and hanging all over the place. Songs were being sung. It was an awesome environment to be a part of.

The teams came out for kickoff. Argentina started stars Lionel Messi of Barcelona (see picture), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool), Gabriel Heinze (Real Madrid) and Julio Cruz (Inter Milan).The United States started with Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Eddie Johnson (Fulham), & Tim Howard (Everton). Landon Donovan earned his 100th cap. A cap is what you earn when you make an appearance for your national team. Donovan is the 4th youngest person ever in the world to earn 100 caps for their national team. Quite an achievement!

The game was great. The crowd went crazy every time Messi touched the ball, for every back heel, dummy, any moment of brilliance. Some players really impressed me, others not so much.

The best part of the game for me was the last 15 minutes. We were down a man because Pablo Mastroeni received a red card (see picture) after constantly fouling the Argentines in the middle of the park. Like I said earlier, the skies had opened up for the game. However, the wind was starting to blow and the skies got darker and darker. This felt great because it was tremendously hot and humid that day. Even though we were down a man, we were still trying to push up and attack. With about 10 minutes left, it started to thunder and lightning. The crowd went crazy, loving every minute of it. Then the rains came, and they came hard. Everyone is screaming and then we earn a corner kick. The whole stadium erupts into a USA! USA! USA! chant. We earned, I believe, 3 corner kicks in a row. The rain was pounding down on us. The fans are screaming USA! It was quite a sight and I will never forget being a part of it.

The other part I will never forget is being a part of the largest soccer game in US history. The attendance for the game was 78,682; also the 4th largest attendance in Giants Stadium history for any event.

Soccer in America is becoming more and more a part of popular culture. Beckham, Donovan, Adu are becoming household names. We're getting coaches these days that grew up playing the game and are therefore developing stronger players. I believe the USA will only get stronger and stronger over the years as we get more and more youth coaches at the grassroot level who grew up playing the game training the future of US Soccer.