Hockey Atmosphere

Last night, our coach let us go to one of the biggest games in Commonwealth and Hockey history. He marks it up like a Monteral-Toronto or Calgary-Vancouver hockey game but this was more like USA-Canada Olympic hockey. In a stadium of 20,000 people and probably more, Pakistan and India were set to do battle in field hockey. It was pretty remarkable. We arrived with about 7 minutes on the clock before the game started and the stands were jam-packed with Indian fans and flags. It was the first time I have ever heard that "roar" you hear English Premier league commentators talk about on TV. It was incredible to hear and be apart of, especially for field hockey. Every time a blue player touched the ball the crowd roared. If a corner was called or a foul was made against India, the crowd went nuts!

No more than 5 minutes into the game and India had about 4 corners and scored on two of them. The game quickly went back and forth with India having the majority of the opportunities. We knew this game would be end to end action but it was too bad that it wasn't a closer game. The final score was 7-3 for India which put India comfortably into the Semi-finals and Pakistan left for the 5th/6th game. The atmosphere is, as I said before, amazing and I am so glad I had the opportunity to be there!! There were some world class goals and skills that I have never seen before. It was unreal.

Today is our last game against India, home crowd advantage, and we are going in for 5th place. This time it means so much to us so we are going to fight hard!

Tomorow.... we are going to see the Taj Mahal!!! It's going to be a 4-5 hour bus ride but well worth it. We are also going to see another temple on Wednesday night and then closing ceremonies on the 14th. So, we have lots to do before packing up! Updates to come after our game today.