World cup soccer games in Houston, my 1 min and 16 seconds of fame? LOL
8I am in Houston (but not for the World Cup Soccer games). Turns out I was put up in a hotel on the second floor immediately above the blocked off area in front to the hotel next door where the Portuguese team is staying (well that team according to the Monterey, Mexico reporter I was talking with to find out what the heck was going on, so I presume he knows what he was talking about). Oops. Wanted to stay away from that traffic disaster.
There are a bunch of fans outside my window still making a huge racket even though the cops told them on a bullhorn over an hour ago that the team will not be coming out again tonight. And the bus has gone. I am betting some will stay there all night. (Good thing I have ear plugs).
Since I can’t upload videos, the link is to the video I took of them going into the Intercontinental Hotel after dinner.
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Wow, some of those fans probably deeply envy you!
@Kyeh Yeah I am sure they would however since there are no windows that open and they want to be heard yelling maybe not.
I think Portugal is a pretty big contender.
Not that I know anything. I just found out there are 11 players on the pitch for each team.
So I have some learning to do.
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I hear The Woodlands and some other areas of greater H have have flooded streets and drainage areas due to the mini-cyclone.
How’s that weather going?
Don’t want H to float away.
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Back to Futbol for a sec
Ok I don’t know anything about this sport. But even I can see the diff between how most teams play and how Argentina w Messi plays. Wow.
/showme vistorious Messi wearing a hat for his hat trick.
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@mediocrebot
Sigh.
What is vistorious @f00l? I’m unfamiliar with that term.
@f00l Yup. Lots of rain. In fact raining now and fans are lining up again.
Must be a lot of people from Portugal here as the racket they are making (starting at 5:4am) is mostly not in English. They are booing every person who walks out of the entrance who isn’t the team. I will know when the team walks out of the entrance this morning as there will be an entire crowd screaming and cheering.
And yes I would bet some would like to be overlooking the cordoned off area. My windows don’t open though so that likely would be a negative for them.
News media is showing up and setting up so I am betting they are leaving soon (but then again so am I as I have to catch the 8am shuttle to get to my apt).
@f00l @therealjrn Apparently the bot is unfamiliar with that term too.
@therealjrn
Re unfamiliar term:
I’m just a bio bot. Terms are for “pretending to understand or know something”
Did I, bio bot, succeed in “obvious pretending”?
Bio bot needs adjustment to processor function and with processor-to-finger output function.
@f00l @therealjrn I think The Vistorious was a fancy hotel in 1920s New York.
/showme victorious Messi wearing a hat for his hat trick.
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@mediocrebot Well then.
Wow. These have got to be hardcore rabid fans. In the Austin area it’s in the low 90’s with Thursday expected to be even hotter. Houston’s got be sharing some of that.
At the price they had the shell out for tickets (not to mention travel expenses) I’m sure they’re trying the most of their time in the US .
I live just down the road from Auburn where Argentina played Iceland in a friendly a week ago. Messi actually stepped out on the pitch and played for a few minutes. Long enough to score a penalty kick. Needless to say the fans went crazy.
Tickets for that game were stupid expensive. The damn resale market is driving so much of this it’s getting intolerable.
@chienfou
It used to be fun to go to big concerts and big events.
Now I don’t even think about going. Lone category exception: an occasional HS or college event.
@f00l
@chienfou it’s not just the resale market… Reportedly FIFA also got into the dynamic pricing game for first party ticket sales this time. Not realtime, but they would raise the prices each round whenever sales indicated the market would bear it.
Well I apparently left too soon as the Netherlands’ and Sweden’s teams are BOTH staying that the Intercontinental Hotel Friday night (I left town about 6pm and drove until I couldn’t stand it any more, slept in my car in a rest area and then drove the rest of the way home today). Apparently there are 3x time fans hanging out where I took the video than with just Portugal and far better behaved and quieter.
Shrinkflation really is coming for everything, isn’t it?
The Scotland “Tartan Army” seem to be the best fans.
Every city wants them to come back asap.
/youtube “no Scotland no party”.
All they do is wear killts, drink, parade, sing, play the pipes, dance, be friendly, have fun, put traffic cones on all the statues.
By “drink”, I mean they do 3x-4x as much in beer and liquor sales as on St Patrick’s Day in an “Irish-identified” city hosting a World Cup match, when Scotland is playing.
But … no vandalism. No nasty drunks. No peeing in public.
And in the early AM they come out in the hundred or thousands and clean up the streets parks and other public places. This is a tradition for them. Plenty of them bring their own trash bags.
Even if city workers tell them that’s not necessary. They tell a few jokes and keep cleaning.
They do keep saying that Boston is “hot”.
I would love for them to have a match in Texas. But I hope they and all the more northern fans are careful of the local summer weather.
@f00l I love that! I saw a Ben Franklin statue with a cone hat, but these animals look even more phenomenal.
@f00l @Kyeh
That’s awesome. In an hour when “soccer hooliganism” can be a major problem it’s nice to see fans that are respectful and yet still having a good time. I remember running across a group of Scots in kilts in Rome when we were on a tour with a bunch of female high school students. They were flirty but super friendly. Our trips to Scotland were always filled with people I wouldn’t hesitate to hang out with.
OWLS! TOWELS! JOWLS! AWESOME!