Soccer match: France vs. Morocco

On Friday night I went to the France Morocco exhibition soccer match. To put it in simple terms, the peope on this side of the Atlantic are crazy about "football". The atmosphere in the stadium is, at the least, energetic. It is where France beat Brazil 3-0 in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

I had been to a exhibition match back in 2003 to watch the first event ever at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia: Manchester United vs. FC Barcelona. However, as much fun as that game was, it does not compare to this game for 2 reasons.
1. 80,000 French/Moroccan fans have more thrust than 67,000 Philadelphia fans about soccer.
2. As rowdy and obnoxious as Philadelphia fans are (which I am very proud of), their efforts are concentrated in a different manor. I think it has to do with French people having a larger repertoire of emotions and expressions.

Morocco played very well against France and in the end, the score was tied a 2 apiece.

Has anyone seen my shirt?
Welcome the teams will you.

and they are almost ready to start...

Before we got there, Steve, Anass & I were not sure who to root for, since we are living in France, but there are also many Moroccans living in France as well. Also, Anass is French born, but with family in Morocco. You can imagine the situation we were in! Not to worry, once we got to our seats, our minds were quickly made up for us. Since we were surrounded by red (the Moroccan colors), we chanted Arabic the whole time.

So close



Here comes the WAVE!