After such a fun time at the first game I went to, when the US team made it to the quarterfinals- I just HAD to go! Never mind that 1 ticket was not cheap.
This time around there were a LOT less people in the arena. Because the Slovaks lost, there wasn't a real big 'home crowd' (the Czech team played the entire tournament in Prague) and so a lot of people that would have gone to the games, left town to head back to Slovakia.
No matter- I was all geared up and went with my friend, I, and his friend, M.
We were pumped and the atmosphere was great. It was rainy, so there weren't a whole lot of people in the fan zone outside the arena. And when we got in, there seemed to be even less people!
But as I said previously, I moved over to where my friends were sitting. And we made our own little cheering section! There were some US fans sporadically around, but it was a bit bleak on the USA chants! There even was a group of Slovakians who were US fans, but they just couldn't get the U S A chant down right. They didn't pause and then added another version "Hey, hey, USA, USA". The support was appreciated....but it just sounded off!!
Besides winning the game to advance to the semis, the most exciting part of the game was when one of the tournament mascots made his way over!!!! The mascots for the whole tournament were Bob and Bobek, two rabbits who are popular Czech cartoon creatures. They were AMAZING. They got the crowd pumped (so much better than the "cheerleaders" who just were...blah) and were quite cute. Just imagine- bunnies in hockey jerseys!
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| Bob or Bobek- I don't know which |
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| With some Russian fans! |
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| Awwww....hugging my friend D |
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| I, Bob/Bobek and I |
The game was quite exciting and we screamed our heads off- and lost our voices. After the game, we waited around for the team to skate off the ice. It was just so cool and I felt so- patriotic and proud!!
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| Get ready.. |
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| Close game |
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| Look at how empty it is!! |
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| I and M |
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| D- with his skin tight running US suit and flag!! |
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| Close |
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| Can we pull it off? |
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| USA!USA! |
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| Loving the homeland |
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| Psst...that's the team behind me |
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| I and Me |
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| Presentation of medals |
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| Good game! Good game! Good Game! |
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| Team USA |
Another great memory :)
PS- while it was a bit like a tailgate outside in the fan zone- beer, "brats" (sausages), music, cheering, etc., inside the arena, you could only drink in the concourse. You couldn't take any drinks or food to the seats. I guess it was because in some of the earlier games, some fans were throwing their beers or just dumping them on the ground (looking towards the east....) and so they started the "no drinks" rule. It was odd.
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