History for peteremcc

Living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, certainly makes it tough to follow New Zealand football, so I was extremely lucky to be up in Edmonton last Saturday for a conference for work, and managed to get to the opening games after the conference.

Canada v China was a good watch, not as dire in person as it probably seemed on TV, as the atmosphere was actually pretty good at the ground. Commonwealth Stadium isn't a great stadium by Canadian sporting standards, but was better than I expected, and actual attendance was probably something like 45,000 rather than the 51,000 suggested. I was a bit sceptical of the penalty in person, but having seen the replay now it clearly was a foul.

Only negative was that probably half the croud left after the Canada game finished which was disappointing but probably not too surprising. There were lots of younger kids at the game and 5 hours is just too long for them to be sitting in 30 degree direct sunshine. Maybe a shorter gap between the games would have helped, but too late to change that. On the bright side, that left lots of empty seats up the front that I moved to, and ended up sitting with a few other New Zealanders who were family members of a player and had travelled to Canada with the team for the tournament.

New Zealand v Netherlands game was pretty much as has been described by others here. Lots of possession, some pretty good play, but we never really looked too dangerous. I think we could be a pretty good match for Canada and China though, so I haven't written off our hopes yet.

Speaking of which, I've booked myself a rental car and will be driving up to Edmonton again tomorrow morning (after a short sleep, given the U20 game won't finish until about 3.30am local time) to watch the New Zealand v Canada game. It's only a three hour drive, so I'd be crazy not too! Will try take more pictures this time, but here's the one shot from last time that I managed to tweet before my phone died:

https://twitter.com/peteremcc/status/6073546776304...

Go Football Ferns!

Living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, certainly makes it tough to follow New Zealand football, so I was extremely lucky to be up in Edmonton last Saturday for a conference for work, and managed to get to the opening games after the conference.

Canada v China was a good watch, not as dire in person as it probably seemed on TV, as the atmosphere was actually pretty good at the ground. Commonwealth Stadium isn't a great stadium by Canadian sporting standards, but was better than I expected, and actual attendance was probably something like 45,000 rather than the 51,000 suggested. I was a bit sceptical of the penalty in person, but having seen the replay now it clearly was a foul.

Only negative was that probably half the croud left after the Canada game finished which was disappointing but probably not too surprising. There were lots of younger kids at the game and 5 hours is just too long for them to be sitting in 30 degree direct sunshine. Maybe a shorter gap between the games would have helped, but too late to change that. On the bright side, that left lots of empty seats up the front that I moved to, and ended up sitting with a few other New Zealanders who were family members of a player and had travelled to Canada with the team for the tournament.

New Zealand v Netherlands game was pretty much as has been described by others here. Lots of possession, some pretty good play, but we never really looked too dangerous. I think we could be a pretty good match for Canada and China though, so I haven't written off our hopes yet.

Speaking of which, I've booked myself a rental car and will be driving up to Edmonton again tomorrow to watch the New Zealand v Canada game. It's only a three hour drive, so I'd be crazy not too! Will try take more pictures this time, but here's the one shot from last time that I managed to tweet before my phone died:

https://twitter.com/peteremcc/status/6073546776304...

Go Football Ferns!

Living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, certainly makes it tough to follow New Zealand football, so I was extremely lucky to be up in Edmonton last Saturday for a conference for work, and managed to get to the opening games after the conference.

Canada v China was a good watch, not as dire in person as it probably seemed on TV, as the atmosphere was actually pretty good at the ground. Commonwealth Stadium isn't a great stadium by Canadian sporting standards, but was better than I expected, and actual attendance was probably something like 45,000 rather than the 51,000 suggested. I was a bit sceptical of the penalty in person, but having seen the replay now it clearly was a foul.

Only negative was that probably half the croud left after the Canada game finished which was disappointing but probably not too surprising. There were lots of younger kids at the game and 5 hours is just too long for them to be sitting in 30 degree direct sunshine. Maybe a shorter gap between the games would have helped, but too late to change that. On the bright side, that left lots of empty seats up the front that I moved to, and ended up sitting with a few other New Zealanders who were family members of a player and had travelled to Canada with the team for the tournament.

New Zealand v Netherlands game was pretty much as has been described by others here. Lots of possession, some pretty good play, but we never really looked too dangerous. I think we could be a pretty good match for Canada and China though, so I haven't written off our hopes yet.

Speaking of which, I've booked myself a rental car and will be driving up to Edmonton again tomorrow to watch the New Zealand v Canada game. It's only a three hour drive, so I'd be crazy not too! Will try take more pictures this time, but here's the one shot from last time that I managed to tweet before my phone died:

https://twitter.com/peteremcc/status/6073546776304...

Go Football Ferns!