When we arrived at the stadium around 1230p.m. the party had already started.
Parking lots packed with people kicking soccer balls around and grilling amazing smelling foods.
From the media parking lot we could see that people had already lined up to get into the stadium.
They were ready to see the best women’s soccer players in the world, hundreds of Wambach jerseys, faces painted red white and blue and chants of U.S.A.
There were people of all ages from kids that were just learning to walk to an 80 year old man who told me “he wouldn’t miss this for world.”
As we made our way through the crowd we talked to people from all over. Two ladies drove six hours to come see the team play.
We spoke with a soccer club from Binghamton where a few players skipped practice one day to go get the tickets. “Our coach was mad at first, but then he was not mad when we told him what we were doing.”
Then there was the Fish family from Victor who didn’t have tickets as of Thursday morning. By the end of the day they had 5 of them. Plus, their oldest daughter had the privilege of walking one of the US players on to the field. A day I am sure that all five of them will never forget.
Saturday is a day many Rochestarians will never forget. It was a day to welcome home Abby and a day to show the rest of the country what Rochester is all about.
The match was three days ago and people are still a buzz about, I talked with people that didn’t go to the game and they were excited to see their city on the national NBC broadcast.
The first game since gold was playing right here in our great city. One of the biggest reasons was number 14. Abby welcome home and thank you for making Rochester the capital of the soccer world for a weekend.
Photojournalist, Will Morgan
