Women's Intl Soccer Cup

We went to Providence Park Saturday night to watch a soccer doubleheader - the consolation and championship games of the Women's International Championship Cup. There were four teams invited to play: the Houston Dash and Portland Thorns, and FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais. The teams played US vs US and Euro vs Euro on Wednesday night, as a semifinal matchip; the Thorns and Lyonnais won and were thus meeting in the final game. 

We arrived at halftime of the consolation match and watched the Dash and Barca battle it out. It was a little surreal to be at an actual game with FC Barcelona logos and jersey out in front of us on the field.

And then it was on to the main event, and the crowd swelled in size and volume. The Thorns army of supporters have flags and drums and songs and are really fun to watch (from a distance... too loud for us on a sustained basis).

The game was really exciting, and the Thorns controlled the ball for a lot of the second half, but the score remained 0-0 until the 87th minute when the Thorns scored to go ahead. The crowd went wild. We jumped and cheered too, and then they hung on for a few more minutes to win it. Such a fabulous night; so fun to be part of a cheering crowd watching a live sporting event.