Costa Rica vs. Panama

Waiting for our bus!

           Tuesday evening we ate dinner early and then were on our way to meet up with the other UNK students to watch the soccer match between Costa Rica and Panama. It was just our luck that it started raining right when we decided to leave. We had been warned at school earlier that day to not bring umbrellas or coins because they were not permitted inside the stadium; the reason being that people would throw these objects at the players from their seats in the stands. We decided to carry our umbrellas with us anyways in hopes that we could leave them on the bus and pick them up after the soccer game.

The madness outside the stadium before the game!

            We sat in traffic for about an hour and a half before finally arriving at the game. There were people everywhere when we hopped off the bus. We finally made our way to the entrance gate only to be told that we were in the wrong section of the stadium and would have to walk to the exact opposite side before we would be allowed inside. At this point, it was a downpour, we were umbrella-less and were a huge target to any robber out there. As we tried to make our way to the other side of the stadium we were greet by complete chaos-mud was lurking everywhere, people where grabbing onto the fence and trying to chimney their way around, and our group continued to become separated as time went on. By the time we made it to the East side of the stadium our group had shrunk down to 5 girls. We first had to walk through lines where security men checked us. We then had to make a mad dash for this Coca-Cola tent where everyone huddled together waiting to go to the next station in the process. After making sure all five of us were together again, we made another mad dash to the next barricade where people took your ticket. We finally entered into the stadium, located our seats, and sat down. Some people tried to sit on the edge of their seats since they were all wet; however, Molly and I just embraced the wetness because at this point we had been outside in the pouring rain for a good 45 minutes or so.

            Throughout the first half, no goals were scored. The event that attracted the most attention was a poor worker who fell walking down the stairs. This worker was carrying a tray filled with drinks to sell to fans when he slipped going down the stairs due to the rain. He happened to fall directly in front of where the UNK students were sitting. We looked up and noticed that at the ends of certain stands there was a stretcher with a red light that flashed accompanied by a paramedic. We tried to do our best to get the attention of this man. However, it seemed like an eternity before someone finally came to help. And, when the paramedic did finally come he came and examined the man and then had to go back up the stairs to find additional help so the process was quite lengthy. I felt awful because the employee appeared to be in a lot of pain and it took quite some time before he was finally taken away.

            At halftime Molly and I decided to go on a hunt for these blow-horn things. A lot of people in the stands had them and they were awesome. Unfortunately for us, they were only sold outside the stadium. So instead, we went ahead and bought donuts. The second half of the game started and four minutes later Costa Rica scored!!! Three minutes after that Costa Rica scored again making it two to zero. When the clock hit 90 minutes signaling the end of the game, the rain magically decided to stop. However, becoming soaking wet was totally worth it because the game was awesome!

            You would think our little adventure would end there, but things really started getting crazy when it was time to exit the stadium. After the game was over, a fight broke out on the field between Costa Rica and Panama. The UNK students were told it was time to leave and so we all started filling out.  When we reached the top of the stairs, Molly asked if I would take her picture. I snapped the photo real quick and the two of us went to join the rest of the group. Unfortunately, everyone had magically disappeared in the time it took for me to take the photo. Molly and I tried walking fast in hopes of catching up to them, but they were nowhere in sight. We decided as long as we stuck together everything should be fine. We made our way out of the stadium into the crowd of 40,000 people. We decided that the fastest route would be grabbing onto the fence and shimming our way around everyone. Mud and people lurked in every corner and we did our best to avoid both. We finally made our way to the street and Molly turned to me and asked if I remembered how to get to the bus. I told her that I hadn’t really paid attention when we were walking because I didn’t think we would ever be in this situation. She had the same thought so we decided we would head in the direction we thought we came from. After crossing a few streets we saw a bus. Neither of us thought it was actually the one with UNK students; however Molly decided we should just try taking a peek anyways. Luckily we did because it happened to be the right bus. Molly and I were jumping up and down with joy because we were so relieved. We climbed on the bus and then sat back and enjoyed our traffic-filled ride back to our part of town!!!