Planned and unplanned we ended up at three soccer matches in July. In a month that also contained the hottest day on earth, that would seem like a bad thing. But between great soccer, surprising weather, and good friends/family it ended up being a killer month for football.
Colombia v. Uruguay - Copa America (Charlotte, NC)
This might be a once in a lifetime sporting experience, let alone soccer one. The crowd was 95% Colombia fans that sang, cheered, booed, and poured out support for their national team the whole game. The 75,000 capacity stadium was sold out and swayed with a crowd that never sat down. The soccer on the field was great too. Luis Diaz was an unstoppable force, bending defenders two at time one way while he went another. Seeing Darwin Nunez on the other end of that spectrum was wild too. Doing everything right, pace, space, passing, and then letting it all down with wild shots off the mark. It was a night I will never forget and has me hyped to see the World Cup here in two years.
Manchester City v. Celtic - 2024 FC Series (Chapel Hill, NC)
We have been to a few of these summer exhibition games before. They pit big European clubs against each other in friendlies to promote the clubs and the leagues in growing markets. They are generally a fun time and this was no exception. We lucked into tickets from a friend and had 50 yard line seats to see a mostly B-team Man City face a near full strength Celtic. The highlights were a grip of goals, with a 4-3 Celtic win, getting to see Haaland play again, and seeing the much smaller Celtic fanbase out cheer the largely new to City crowd.
Richmond Kickers v. Greenville Triumph SC - USL League One (Richmond, VA)
The very much smaller of the three games we attended is a good night out regardless. Our local club offers up good beer, a fun crowd, and a ratty old stadium that is our ratty old stadium. And we like it that way. Two years ago were a top of the table team and have since slid down to the lower end. Not a deal breaker though, because as mentioned, good beer and good crowd. We got invited, through one of the boys teammates, to sit up in a box above the crowd which was a cool/different experience.