Wow, Panamania for real
Wow. So the game on Wednesday night can only be described as 'crazy.' It caused quite a commotion in Dynamo-land back here for the refereeing, the fans, the lights, and my colorful if not controversial commentary. :-)
Here's a Reader's Digest version:
I took the early bus to the stadium with our trainer and equipment manager, leaving Panama City around 2:30. It immediately started pouring as we got out of the city, crossed the Bridge of the Americas (my only look at the Panama Canal, since I was told tours took four hours) and headed into the jungle. Not the hardcore jungle, but it felt a little Jurassic Park-esque at times, especially with the pouring rain.
We had a number of good laughs about it, especially since our hearts all skipped beats every time we went through a flooded area and felt we might hydro-plane out of control. Our driver came from the same driving school as my high school bus driver; that is, he accelerated hard for a few seconds, then took his foot off the gas completely, then accelerated hard again. The only disruption to this rhythm was the occasional hard brake. Great way to ride. He also seemed intent on not hitting any potholes along the way, which caused him to make frequent swerves, which made us think we might just keep on swerving all the way off the road on one of them. Of course, later in the trip he went over the bumps, and I'm really not sure which was worse, the bumps or the swerves.
After about 40 minutes, we descended a big hill, the rain stopped, and we were in a pretty classic-looking valley on our way to the town of La Chorrera. The stadium was as expected ... a nice, new turf field with one newly renovated grandstand and locker room and one slightly older grandstand on the other side. I found my way to the side from which I would broadcast - our friend from the regional governing body who spoke English was not yet on the scene - but could not find the phone line.
The humidity was palpable ... my camera fogged up as soon as I took the lens cap off, and it soon started pouring. So I stood there, chatting amiably if somewhat incomprehensibly in Spanish with two Panamanian guys on hand. We talked about Mariano Rivera, who is from La Chorrera, and the other teams in our group.
Eventually, after the rain stopped and with the help of the bilingual official, I found the phone line and set up my booth (white plastic chairs, no table), dripping sweat all the while. Later, I came back up to find a Panamanian radio crew had set up in the other half of my booth, so I ran my phone line out the window to another booth and switched there so we didn't have to listen to each other the whole night. I did help their radio guy figure out our team's positions, even though I briefly confused derecha and izquierda.
I won't get into the game itself, but suffice it to say the officiating was terrible. Five red cards, including three to us, none of which seemed warranted. Calling the game on a phone because even the bare-bones equipment I brought didn't work (batteries, we think), I had quite a time describing the scene. We took a 1-0 lead playing 10 on 9, then gave up the tying goal in stoppage time playing 8 on 9. This was the breaking point, as the roughly 2,500 fans packed into the 3,000-seat stadium went nuts, throwing beverages in the air and on the field in celebration. Multiple media members, located on a walkway just in front of me through an open window, turned toward me and gave me the universal hand signal for "F off!" which really tested my patience.
Two minutes later, with only about 90 seconds left in the match, the lights went off in the stadium. Freaking crazy feeling. Not frightening so much, just bizarre uncertainty. The press box lights and power soon followed suit. Players later said they thought fans might come onto the field. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem. Fans just held up their cell phones and started chanting, and the whole place was just a madhouse. It was an odd 15 minutes as lights gradually started to re-appear and officials tried to decide what to do with the game.
They eventually continued the game, which was odd since both coaches would have been OK if it had been called, in sub-standard lighting, and we did get a 1-1 tie, which would have been a decent result in our minds coming into the game.
After the game, our players and staff got together in the middle of the field to wait for the stands to be cleared before they headed to the locker room. The referees were escorted off under protection of riot police. Our guys eventually got out without any incidents. We had two fans in the building, and they came up to see if I wanted them to walk over to the locker room with me - strength in numbers. I said I'd be fine.
Just a few minutes later, however, and thankfully after I went off the air, all power and lights in the stadium went out AGAIN. So I hastily shut down and packed up my computer in the dark, shone my cell phone light around the booth to see if I forgot anything, and headed out of there. Didn't have any trouble, just had to show my credential to a military official, who said "Dynamo, Dynamo," and asked a guard to open the gate to the field.
Walked across and found our guys in a darkened locker room with only their own cell phones for light. Since showers were not going to be an option, we were ready to leave as soon as possible, but it took everybody some time to figure out a safe and easy exit plan, and the area around the locker room was a bit chaotic at this point. With nothing else to do, I stood there and made sure nobody unauthorized came in, which wasn't very difficult.
Eventually our team admin approved the exit route, we headed to the bus, and drove off into the night. Made the 45-minute drive back, and then I worked for about four hours straight producing content for the website and missing the team meal, which we were invited to, for once. Went to bed at about 2:30, needing to wake up in time to be on the bus ready to leave at 7:50 the next morning.
Naturally, I overslept just a bit, but made the bus easily, and everything else was pretty smooth. But what a trip! I've been saying "Panamania!" in imitation of a Spanish announcer I once heard, but this really was crazy. A great story, but crazy.
Anyway, all's well that ends well.
Here's a Reader's Digest version:
I took the early bus to the stadium with our trainer and equipment manager, leaving Panama City around 2:30. It immediately started pouring as we got out of the city, crossed the Bridge of the Americas (my only look at the Panama Canal, since I was told tours took four hours) and headed into the jungle. Not the hardcore jungle, but it felt a little Jurassic Park-esque at times, especially with the pouring rain.We had a number of good laughs about it, especially since our hearts all skipped beats every time we went through a flooded area and felt we might hydro-plane out of control. Our driver came from the same driving school as my high school bus driver; that is, he accelerated hard for a few seconds, then took his foot off the gas completely, then accelerated hard again. The only disruption to this rhythm was the occasional hard brake. Great way to ride. He also seemed intent on not hitting any potholes along the way, which caused him to make frequent swerves, which made us think we might just keep on swerving all the way off the road on one of them. Of course, later in the trip he went over the bumps, and I'm really not sure which was worse, the bumps or the swerves.
After about 40 minutes, we descended a big hill, the rain stopped, and we were in a pretty classic-looking valley on our way to the town of La Chorrera. The stadium was as expected ... a nice, new turf field with one newly renovated grandstand and locker room and one slightly older grandstand on the other side. I found my way to the side from which I would broadcast - our friend from the regional governing body who spoke English was not yet on the scene - but could not find the phone line.The humidity was palpable ... my camera fogged up as soon as I took the lens cap off, and it soon started pouring. So I stood there, chatting amiably if somewhat incomprehensibly in Spanish with two Panamanian guys on hand. We talked about Mariano Rivera, who is from La Chorrera, and the other teams in our group.
Eventually, after the rain stopped and with the help of the bilingual official, I found the phone line and set up my booth (white plastic chairs, no table), dripping sweat all the while. Later, I came back up to find a Panamanian radio crew had set up in the other half of my booth, so I ran my phone line out the window to another booth and switched there so we didn't have to listen to each other the whole night. I did help their radio guy figure out our team's positions, even though I briefly confused derecha and izquierda.I won't get into the game itself, but suffice it to say the officiating was terrible. Five red cards, including three to us, none of which seemed warranted. Calling the game on a phone because even the bare-bones equipment I brought didn't work (batteries, we think), I had quite a time describing the scene. We took a 1-0 lead playing 10 on 9, then gave up the tying goal in stoppage time playing 8 on 9. This was the breaking point, as the roughly 2,500 fans packed into the 3,000-seat stadium went nuts, throwing beverages in the air and on the field in celebration. Multiple media members, located on a walkway just in front of me through an open window, turned toward me and gave me the universal hand signal for "F off!" which really tested my patience.
Two minutes later, with only about 90 seconds left in the match, the lights went off in the stadium. Freaking crazy feeling. Not frightening so much, just bizarre uncertainty. The press box lights and power soon followed suit. Players later said they thought fans might come onto the field. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem. Fans just held up their cell phones and started chanting, and the whole place was just a madhouse. It was an odd 15 minutes as lights gradually started to re-appear and officials tried to decide what to do with the game.They eventually continued the game, which was odd since both coaches would have been OK if it had been called, in sub-standard lighting, and we did get a 1-1 tie, which would have been a decent result in our minds coming into the game.
After the game, our players and staff got together in the middle of the field to wait for the stands to be cleared before they headed to the locker room. The referees were escorted off under protection of riot police. Our guys eventually got out without any incidents. We had two fans in the building, and they came up to see if I wanted them to walk over to the locker room with me - strength in numbers. I said I'd be fine.Just a few minutes later, however, and thankfully after I went off the air, all power and lights in the stadium went out AGAIN. So I hastily shut down and packed up my computer in the dark, shone my cell phone light around the booth to see if I forgot anything, and headed out of there. Didn't have any trouble, just had to show my credential to a military official, who said "Dynamo, Dynamo," and asked a guard to open the gate to the field.
Walked across and found our guys in a darkened locker room with only their own cell phones for light. Since showers were not going to be an option, we were ready to leave as soon as possible, but it took everybody some time to figure out a safe and easy exit plan, and the area around the locker room was a bit chaotic at this point. With nothing else to do, I stood there and made sure nobody unauthorized came in, which wasn't very difficult.
Eventually our team admin approved the exit route, we headed to the bus, and drove off into the night. Made the 45-minute drive back, and then I worked for about four hours straight producing content for the website and missing the team meal, which we were invited to, for once. Went to bed at about 2:30, needing to wake up in time to be on the bus ready to leave at 7:50 the next morning.
Naturally, I overslept just a bit, but made the bus easily, and everything else was pretty smooth. But what a trip! I've been saying "Panamania!" in imitation of a Spanish announcer I once heard, but this really was crazy. A great story, but crazy.
Anyway, all's well that ends well.
posted by Jon at
16:36
1 Comments:
Haha to the "Jurassic Park" comment. Glad you didn't have to stop the bus to get out and attach a winch to it, only to have a dilophosarus attack you.
By
Eric, at 11:18 PM
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