USA! USA! USA! YEEAAH!!!
Ok, now that I've calmed down...here's my photo report from Olympic Men's Football at the Tianjin Olympic Stadium!
Turns out it was Japan vs. Nigeria and America vs. The Netherlands,
unlike what I said initially. We were squaring off against the Orangemen, it turns out. Take that, Adu.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03611.JPG
Honed from ingots of pure WIN.
We had to take the high-speed train from Beijing's brand new Sir Norman Foster-designed railway station to Tianjin which was 40 min away, then ride a taxi for half an hour to the stadium. The train was a knock-off of the Japanese, down to the paintjob and goofy toilets, but it did go 243kph without falling apart, so there.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03634.JPG
The stadium. Packed with people, of course.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03639.JPG
Hello, Dutchie!
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03640.JPG
"Mind you, they do
do a lot of drugs."
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03641.JPG
The Japanese fans were out in droves. Which was fortunate because almost nobody cheered for them except themselves. Chinese people still aren't really big fans of them.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03643.JPG
Bought two flags for 3RMB, now I'm ready to cheer in style.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03679.JPG
The Japanese section didn't stop singing and cheering the ENTIRE game. You think they would have stopped to take a breather during the boring parts, or during the times when they were losing (which was almost the entire game), but no, those guys must have been doing Red Bull shots because they didn't let up once. I bet they're still cheering on the plane ride home right now.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03677_000.JPG
Oh, hey.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03691.JPG
Halfway through the game, the Nigerian delegation FINALLY showed up. They made up for it by running around the stadium for a good half hour and being incredibly loud, getting most of the support of the Japanese-hating audience.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03646.JPG
My first photo with my crappy Sony Cyber-Shot that kept threatening to run out of batteries. All the way on 3x digital zoom...
This wasn't working. So just for shits n' giggles, I pointed the crappy point-and-shoot lens into the eyepiece of the ex-Soviet military binoculars that my father's friend had brought along...
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03651.JPG
Surprisingly enough, it worked! And thus BinocularCam? was born.
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03681.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03684.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03699.JPG
Nigeria ended up winning 2-1 over the Japanese. It was pretty slick, the audience definitely approved. The Japanese team was humble enough to bow to the audience, though, which I thought was cute. (Half of them were named Honda, which I thought was cute too.
)
America vs. Netherlands, to follow later. Right now I'm going to Hooters in Shanghai. Yeah, that's right.