The Soccer Match

In another impulsive pro sports trip I convinced Carey and his flatmates to go see New Zealand's only professional Soccer team. They play in Westpac stadium which due to its shape has affectionately been called the Cake Tin by the citizens of Wellington. The stadium seats approximately 40,000 people. We had a record crowd of just over 7,000 but luckily the management decided to encourage all of the crazy fans to sit in one section. Therefore there are smatterings of people all over the Arena and one beautiful corner of drunken flag waving New Zealand insanity.




The chants were some of the best that I have heard at a sporting event. While I don't see much need for a dirty Aussie chant back home however the ones involving the referees would fit in well at the Garden. Carey has a great list here.
The Wellington Phoenix play in the Australian pro league which consists of 8 teams. Luckily we were playing one of the worst and slaughtered them 3-0. There was even a goal song but it had more than two words so I wasn't able to follow along.
This was probably the closest that I am going to come to a hockey game on this trip. It really isn't the same having the entire season compressed down into a few minutes of highlights every few days.
It was nice for a few hours to be able to scream obnoxious things at the top of my lungs and pretend that I actually cared about the outcome on the field.