Beijing to Tianjin for Women's Soccer!

The Super Fast Train Between Beijing & Tianjin

The Tianjin Olympic Stadium

me!

Half-Time Scoreboard

Norway's 83rd minute penalty kick

Friday night I had tickets to Women's Quarterfinal Football (aka soccer) in Tianjin, China. Tianjin is a port city about 80 kilometers east of Beijing, and as of 8/1, is connected to Beijing via a super high speed train that travels 328 km / hr and makes a one way trip in 30 minutes! My friend & I left Beijing south station on 5:20 PM, and were in Tianjin by 5:50, that gives us 10 minutes to make to the Tianjin Olympic Stadium for kick-off. So, yes, we arrived a bit late but the ride was smooth. Arriving to the brand new stadium to enjoy the game in the cool and fresh sea air of Tianjin was so cool. The stadium was sparsely filled with 24K out of 31K seats occupied. If I know anything about Chinese statistics, the officials undoubtedly counted all of the 1000s of volunteers & staff in the head count.

As you can imagine, the stadium and all facilities were brand new and beautiful. The quarterfinal was Brazil vs. Norway and it was a great game, especially for one of the Brazilian player's Marta, who was unstoppable. Despite Norway's penalty kick goal in the 83rd minute, Brazil dominated and won 2-1, winning them a place in the semi-finals, perhaps against USA. The crowd loved the under-dog Norway and they got a few rousing chants and waves going for Norway's blondies to get inspired (jia you Norway!).

After the game, we made the trip home despite the WORLD's worst bus-driver driving a packed bus of passengers to the train station, both slowly & badly.

2 Observations of note about the football match

First, the crowd was almost all Chinese nationals which is great for them, but it really made me think about how nice it would be if these Olympics, and all Olympics were made more accessible for the international common-human. This year's event in Beijing has the special circumstances of prohibitive visa policies making it difficult, and indeed not worth the trouble, to make the trip. However it seems people don't perceive the Olympics as being sporting events they can attend. Contrary to what one might expect of an international sporting event like World Cup or the Tennis Grand Slams, Beijing right now is an absolute ghost town despite 1000's of athletes, their families & coaches, journalists, and a bunch of corporates & BOCOG officials milling around. I have heard that Athens was also very poorly attended but I think the situation could be changed by making the events and cities more accessible for international people, espcially for neighbors in close proximity of the Games. Unless, like the Chinese believe, that the games should be under-attended and tightly controlled because what really matters are the television broadcasts, not actual attendance. Now that I have been to these Games, I can see that the experience of viewing on television does not at all represent what is happening on the ground.

Second, although the infrastructure for this games is unparalleled, something is missing in these games. There is no feeling of the athletics' spirit, no joviality, no frivolity on the streets outside any of the venues. The authoritarian nature of the games has outlawed public musicians, vendors, any sort of public demonstration of team spirit. Indeed athletics for this regime is not a fun-loving matter, it is about demonstrating the might of China. However one would expect at a football match of Brazil that some free-spirit would be allowed in the tradition of celebration & joy exhibited by this passionate and joy-loving culture, but NO. So we left the match so excited to witness these great teams in this great venue, but feeling strangely subdued and calm and sober for having attended such a great match.

I think if China were to host a second games, some fun might be let in. These games are like a couple caring for their first baby, too many precautions, paranoia, and antiseptics, so the over -attentive parents don't allow it to grow independently. Maybe next time China will have proved their competence and can loosen the reigns a bit and let us live a little!