USMNT Live!

The Copa America is a major international soccer tournament generally held every four years between the best South American teams and a couple teams from North America.  This year is the 100th anniversary of it, so there is a special edition with an expanded field, and they're playing it in the US for the first time.  The US was invited as a participant because we are hosting.  I love a handful of teams: K-State football and basketball, the Royals, the Cubs, the Bulls, the Penguins, the Broncos, Sporting KC, and the US Men's National Team for soccer.  The USMNT only plays a few games other than in the major tournaments, but I try to watch them on TV.  So I'm in Chicago for a couple days this week, and it suddenly occurred to me that one of the few games the USMNT is playing in the Copa America, which is going on this month, is being played in Chicago tonight!  I had a free night tonight, so I decided to try to get a ticket, and I did!  And it was a great game, as we thumped Costa Rica, 4-0.  It was played in Soldier Field, so there was a raucous crowd.  So now I've seen the USMNT play in person, which is one more items crossed off my sports bucket list.

As I landed in Chicago last night, I took this picture from the plane.  We all know Chicago is a big city, but sometimes it's hard to fathom.  For example, in this picture, the city goes on for miles.  And what's crazy is this was out one side of the plane, and the other side of the plane looked the same, so this is less than half of it.  Just lights as far as you can see.  There are some things to like about Chicago, but it's really just too big of a city for my liking, at least in terms of where I want to live.