European Soccer

My handsome husband spent two weeks in Switzerland for, as I was told, work purposes. Although I'm sure he worked, made tough decisions, and participated in wildly exciting meetings, I'm positive he had fun and took advantage of his time there. He sent lots of pictures and video clips each day showing the sights and sounds of life around him at the base of the Alps. 

One evening he opted out of another long dinner with his team to enjoy a soccer game. If you know Grady, most every time he travels he finds reason to attend a professional sporting event of some sort. Switzerland was no exception. Soccer Stadium + Free Evening + Personal Intrigue for all Things Sports-Related = A Great Time.

He send the following in an email to us so we could enjoy the highlights of the game. Now that he's home, he has several friends that want to see his clips and he thought it would be easiest to "get my story out if I could just be a guest writer on your blog." No, I didn't make that up. He really did. A guest writer. For my tens of readers. I looked at the floor, mumbled a few lines about how I wasn't sure, and here I am sharing his European soccer story. 

Enjoy.

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Grady Lee & Micah - Wow. I had the coolest experience last night! I went to a European soccer game! They are in the Switzerland league, and I was cheering for FC Zurich who played FC Basal (another city in Switzerland). FC Basel is the best team in Switzerland, and FC Zurich is a middle-of-the-pack team, so it was an amazing game because the local fans were very excited!

I had no idea what to expect. I went to the stadium, bought the cheapest ticket for CHF 30, and it ended up being in the standing-area-only section. What an amazing experience!

I got there an hour early, and here is a video of me just taking in the experience:

Then the soccer players came out, and the crowd in my section started really getting into it. This singing and chanting actually never stopped throughout the entire game!!! And it only got louder as the game went on.
FC Basel scored at the 10 minute mark and took a 1-0 lead into halftime. FC Zurich seemed to have possession most of the game, but they kept missing their shots.

After halftime, the players came back out, and this video shows how they apparently welcome back their players! Crazy! I never really felt in danger, but it was definitely intense!

The game got even more exciting in the 2nd half! FC Zurich kept taking shots, and then finally, at the 72nd minute, they scored a goal and everyone just erupted! People were hugging and crying and shaking with excitement. I just jumped up and down by myself, the lonely American... :)

With the game tied, it got even more intense, and amazingly, at the 88th minute, FC Zurich scored again! People were going crazy, screaming, hugging and jumping up and down. This time I was so excited I started hugging people all around me! Fortunately, they hugged back! :)

There was a little bit of "injury time" added, and during that time FC Zurich scored again. So they won the game 3-1. Here is a video of people celebrating right after the game was over.

Then, the players came over and they did a cool chant to celebrate the victory.
And here is a clip of the actual highlights of the game, so you can see why I was jumping around and hugging swiss dudes. FC Zurich is in White.
The game was amazing! The atmosphere was very unique. What a blast! Love you all.