As much as I enjoyed the day with her, I am also grateful for having been afforded the chance to see the U.S. - Jamaica game. Thanks to El Salvador's bare qualification out of the Gold Cup's group stage, RFK was popping and the atmosphere was without precedent for me at the stadium.
The blue wave that descended on the stadium prior to the first game of the doubleheader surprised me. I had (wrongly) assumed that most of the Salvadoran partisans would stay outside the grounds tailgating until the ES - Panama tie grew closer, but, instead, tens of thousands of fans wearing blue filled seats and rooted loudly and forcefully for the U.S. men's national team.
The unique nature of the day should not be understated. For Salvadorans throughout the region, today offered a rare opportunity to show simultaneous love and loyalty both for the country left behind (but by no means forgotten) and for the country that has become home. It was a beautiful sight to behold.
On the field, an early injury to Jozy Altidore left the USMNT with a team that featured Juan Agudelo along with Sasha Klejstan, Alejandro Bedoya, and Eric Lichaj, and all four performed very well. Everyone around me provided better analysis of the game than I ever could, so I'll just memorialize photos of a day at the park:
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