Tag: World Cup

When it comes to the World Cup, Philly has been treated to Brazil’s magic, the powerhouse that is France, and the sheer might of Ecuador.

Additionally, coming through has been one of the World Cup’s best stories in Curaçao, and the impressive skill of a young and eager Ivory Coast team, not once, but twice.

Philly’s bundle of group stage matches ended Saturday night as Croatia battled to a 2-1 win against Ghana that saw them leapfrog the Black Stars to finish second in Group L, culminating a thrilling two and a half weeks of soccer.

Now, Philadelphia Stadium gets a week’s respite before the final game the city will house, one that could shape up to be the biggest soccer match in the history of the Lincoln Financial Field; which is saying a great deal considering the building opened with a massive match between European giants Barcelona and Manchester United in 2003, and has hosted other memorable club and national team games in the years since.

When Philly plays host to the round of 16 match on July 4, it will host the winners of two matches between Germany and Paraguay, who face off in the round of 32 on Monday (4:30 p.m., Fox29), and the winner of France and Sweden who play In the round of 32 on Tuesday (5 p.m., Fox29).

Both Germany and France, who won Group E and Group I, respectively, are the presumed favorites, which would make for a massive showdown in a push for the quarterfinal rounds beginning July 9-11.

“I won’t be here for it, but that would be a fantastic game if it were to work out that way, especially to have the chance to have France back here one more time,” said Susan Richman, 43, who grew up in Philly, but now lives in Chicago and has stayed with her “soccer-crazy” relatives all week. Saturday’s game was the second inside the stadium for Richman, who works in finance and was in the house for last Monday’s rain-delayed match between France and Iraq.

After storms caused a delay that lasted over two hours, it was France that put that match to bed, behind two goals from Kylian Mbappé and cherry on top from Ousmane Dembele for a 3-0 win.

“It’s been an expensive summer,” laughed Richman, who was there on Saturday with her sister and their family. “I think all in all we’ve spent close to $15,000 [on tickets]? But for us to say that we’ve attended the World Cup in America is something that personally, I’ll always remember.”

Ticket prices on FIFA’s official marketplace have yet to go on sale, but on secondary markets like StubHub, cheap seats as of Saturday night began at $1,986. There’s been a bit of trepidation with secondary markets tickets as fans have purchased only to find out at the gate that their tickets won’t scan.

Did Croatian fans debunk the Rocky curse?

The red and white of Croatia’s colors spilled throughout Center City on Friday night as the biggest demonstration saw fans take over a large stretch of the Parkway, singing, dancing and even setting off a few smoke bombs.

However, following Croatia’s win, a supporters group called Mi Hrvati (We Croats), alongside the support of Arena Casino, held a secret gathering on the steps of the Art Museum and claimed to have placed a jersey on the statue of Rocky at the top of the steps on Friday evening in advance of the game.

A bold strategy, considering that it’s been widely reported that fans placing their team’s jersey onto Rocky historically hasn’t worked out in their team’s favor. Ecuador fans found that out before Philly’s opening match on June 14. The word was so widespread that in the match that followed, Brazilian fans brought their own partition and security detail to deter anyone who attempted to do the same before its match against Haiti.

However, Mi Hrvati claims its decision test the theory came “in secret” as they “did not want to create the story before the match,” a release supplied to The Inquirer claimed, adding, “We believed in Croatia and waited for the result. After the victory, we can say that the Rocky Curse has been broken. This is a fan story to remember.”

Croatia will face Portugal in its round of 32 match on July 2 in Toronto.

Croatia-Ghana brings the crowd

Saturday’s match boasted another sellout crowd of 68,324 at Philadelphia Stadium, the fourth announced sellout by FIFA in the five matches that have come through Philly. The game, a very pro-Croatian crowd, still had a sizable contingent of Ghana fans.

It was yet another match that would ensure FIFA sets a new all-time attendance record for the World Cup, a feat it announced Friday it had already surpassed by the time Thursday’s match in Philly between the Ivory Coast and Curaçao took place.

Saturday’s match result dropped Ghana into a third-place slot and it will face Group K winner Columbia on July 3 in the round of 32 in Kansas City.

That notion was an interesting potential matchup for Ghana fan Quinton Ayton, who attended Saturday’s match. Ayton, who sat in Ghana’s raucous supporters section between sections 110-111, said that he’s ecstatic that his team was headed into the knockout phase.

“Hey man, we’re here and win or lose it’s just great that this team is doing what they’re doing,” said Ayton, who lives in the Elmwood Park section of the city, said. “To get the opportunity to see my country play so close to home was a dream. An expensive dream, but a dream.”

When asked how much he spent on his tickets, Ayton said, laughing: “I can’t give a price, my wife will kill me, just know it was worth it to see them play in Philadelphia.”

When Ghana closes out its final group stage match of the World Cup in Philadelphia against Croatia on Saturday (5 p.m., FS1) it’ll mark the West African nation’s first return to the region since it became a piece of Philly soccer lore 14 years prior on a rainy night in Chester.

Fresh off a run to the semifinals in the African Cup of Nations in 2012, Ghana booked a trip to America to take on Chile in an exhibition match at Subaru Park, which at the time was known as PPL Park. The match, scheduled in February, already had a chill to it, but it was amplified by a driving rain that didn’t let up the entire game.

The first half saw Ghana head into the locker rooms at halftime up, 1-0, after a goal by young midfielder Richard Mpong gave the tiny but loud Ghanaian support plenty to cheer about.

Typically, a soccer halftime lasts 10-15 minutes. But this time during a pouring rain, fans were treated to a mini-concert by a Ghanaian hip-hop group and virtual games on the stadium’s video board.

But then 20 minutes passed, then 30. Fans were made to believe that it was due to the rain that the match was delayed. But what transpired in Ghana’s locker room had nothing to do with Mother Nature.

It had everything to do with the match promoter failing to make it rain an alleged $125,000 to Ghana’s team. A sum that doesn’t seem like much when you consider that if the amount went only to the 18 Ghanaian players who made the trip, it was less than $6,950 per player.

However, according to the official (and a few unsubstantiated reports), the team was adamant that if the game’s promoter didn’t pay the full amount of their appearance, the team had planned not to return to finish the match.

A high-ranking stadium official who chose to remain anonymous confirmed to the Inquirer that there was a definite “tense situation” going on in the locker rooms, and while they were in the arena that night it was unclear that the issue involved an unpaid Ghana team until much later.

Coincidentally, according to a 2012 report from Modern Ghana, the match was moved to PPL Park because the promoter failed to secure a venue in New Jersey, due to the “high costs” of the venue.

“There was definitely some type of dispute, and it definitely was some type of issue with the promoter,” the official recalled. “The second half didn’t get underway for some time, and I don’t think fans knew what was going on, but it was heated in the locker room for sure.”

The official, who has firsthand insight into the proceedings of how these matches are typically set up, explained that there are promoters who arrange these international matches and will arrange a sort of half-now, half-later deal with smaller-level international clubs, using the proceeds from the match to close out the deal.

“Look, I don’t know the ins and outs of this particular night, and it was so long ago, but I do recall it being a very sketchy scenario,” he said. “A lot of times, they’ll look to use the arena, promote the two nations but then ask for like 1,000 consignment tickets, thinking that if they can hand out a handful of free tickets, they’ll recoup out of the arrangement what people might spend in the stadium.”

They added that there are a handful of promoters who handle friendlies today in the same manner. It doesn’t affect the venue, who offers a going rate to rent the facility and its amenities for the match, and once that’s paid, the rest falls on the promoter to turn a profit as they see fit.

“But yeah, there was some type of financial dispute where I think the Ghanaian Federation, the [team’s] manager or somebody felt like they weren’t compensated enough in advance of the game and to them, that was like the last straw,” he said. “It was like, ‘Okay, screw it. We’re not coming out.’”

Eventually, after a halftime delay that lasted over an hour, Ghana did emerge and play the second half. It would end up finishing the match with a 1-1 draw after a goal by Chilean Matias Fernandez would even the score off of a penalty kick in the 75th minute.

On Saturday, Ghana will return with a 26-man roster featuring none of the players or manager who were on that roster in 2012. The game is in a much bigger arena and the stakes are higher as a win will secure Ghana a chance to move to the knockout rounds out of Group L and depending on how scorelines from other games shake out, could even see the nation win the group.

Ghana has yet to lose a match in this World Cup, defeating Panama in its opener, 1-0, followed by a thrilling scoreless draw against group favorites, England on Tuesday.

With the group stage still going strong, FIFA has already set an all-time World Cup attendance record, and Philadelphia has been a major part of that.

Following Thursday’s slate of group stage games, FIFA announced that 3,605,357 fans had attended matches in this year’s expanded tournament of 48 nations vying for the top prize in the July 19 final.

The mark passed FIFA’s previous mark of 3,587,538 fans set in 1994, the last time the World Cup came to the United States.

Philly’s place in all of it hasn’t gone unnoticed as the mark was set during the city’s fourth match on Thursday between the Ivory Coast and Curaçao, which had an announced attendance of 68,324. Across the four matches, Lincoln Financial Field, renamed Philadelphia Stadium for the World Cup, has welcomed 273,296 fans — approximately 7.6% of the total.

“This was incredible, the whole experience is a memory,” said Mustafa Al-Hasani, a fan from Iowa who attended Monday’s rain-delayed Group I match between France and Iraq. Despite the rain, Al-Hasani lauded both the stadium and the city’s hospitality. “Philly’s great, I’ve been here before, but this is an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”

FIFA’s attendance record being surpassed was an inevitability, given that this tournament field expanded from 32. FIFA’s increase in the number of nations means more matches and venues. For this World Cup, 104 games are being played in 16 stadiums across the United States, Canada, and Mexico over the monthlong event.

However, with it being just 14 days into the tournament, this also sets the standard going forward for FIFA reaching an attendance record.

According to FIFA, stadium capacities have been at an all-time high; here in Philadelphia, attendance at all four matches has been an announced 68,324, which is capacity at the Linc.

That’s a remarkable number when you consider that, with FIFA enacting a dynamic pricing model for the first time in a World Cup, ticket prices have never been higher, including some seats listed in the thousands of dollars in the lower-level seating of stadiums.

Philadelphia has just two more matches. Croatia and Ghana play in Group L on Saturday (5 p.m., FS1), and then on July 4 the city will host a Round of 16 game, between the winners of two games in the Round of 32.

After the congratulatory hugs, picture posing and victory lap, Yan Diomande pointed to the sky.

It was unclear whether the Ivory Coast forward was thinking of his departed sister or just his country’s unprecedented accomplishment in the World Cup as he exited the field at Philadelphia Stadium following a 2-0 win over Curaçao on Thursday.

But surely it was a moment of emotion for the 19-year-old wunderkind.

Diomande’s arrival in the international consciousness of soccer took another step after the Ivory Coast advanced to the knockout stage of the tournament for the first time, ever. He might not have been Player of the Match — that honor was reserved for teammate Nicolas Pépé, who scored both goals — but Diomande assisted on the first and produced other chances.

He will get at least one more opportunity to represent his homeland when Ivory Coast faces Norway in the round of 32 on Tuesday in Dallas. Philly, though, will be remembered as where Diomande first launched his star in America, especially for casuals who haven’t followed his meteoric rise over the last two years.

Most hardcore fans have been aware of the former United States high school athlete for some time. He was Rookie of the Season in the German Bundesliga playing for RB Leipzig, where he scored 12 goals and had nine assists last season.

And he’s been one of the most sought-after signings this offseason with powerhouse European clubs like Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munich reportedly in pursuit. Diomande might not be a household name here, but the New York-based Roc Nation is his agency.

Rapper Jay-Z, Roc Nation’s founder, attended Ivory Coast’s first fixture of group play at Philadelphia Stadium, normally known as Lincoln Financial Field, in support of his client. Diomande dominated that game — a 1-0 victory over Ecuador on June 14 — from both wings.

On Thursday, five days after Ivory Coast suffered a late, gut-punching 2-1 loss to Germany, the forward played exclusively on the left flank. Diomande needed only minutes to make his presence felt. Gifted a Curaçao turnover, he penetrated along the end line and found Pepe in front for a one-touch goal in the 7th minute.

Diomande continued to be problematic when he dribbled at defenders. His combination of speed, agility, and power forced Curaçao to send multiple defenders his way. And yet, he still created the most chances (3) by the half.

Pépé’s second goal came in the 64th minute when he received a pass just inside the box and ripped a left-footer past keeper Eloy Room. Three minutes later, Diomande was subbed off, likely to preserve him for next week.

Diomande has been playing with a heavy heart. A year ago, his 15-year-old sister, Roxane, died back home after her drink was spiked. Diomande penned an emotional open letter to his sister in The Players’ Tribune upon his return to the U.S. for the World Cup.

“I don’t feel anything. It’s like I’m not even human,” he wrote. “Since you died, I’m just blank.”

Diomande has, if anything, been the opposite on the pitch. In fact, that’s exactly how Ivory Coast native Lucas Droh described him before the match as he and his older brother, Pacome, tailgated in the lot outside Xfinity Mobile Arena.

“He’s expressive,” Lucas, 32, said. “He plays happy and with an imagination.”

The Drohs, along with cousin Kevin Gnako, traveled from Charleston, S.C., to watch Diomande and Les Éléphants play on Thursday. They are from Abidjan, the largest city in the West African nation, and emigrated to the United States 15 years ago after their mother married.

Diomande is also from Abidjan. He wrote about his impoverished childhood and how he wore plastic sandals to play because his family couldn’t afford cleats. When he was finally given proper footwear, he wore them to bed, although he said that he still dons the sandals when he’s home.

“He’s from the streets,” Lucas said. “He grew up poor, so he’s hungry.”

At 15, Diomande relocated to the U.S. and ended up at DME Sports Academy in Florida. He had a short stint in the United Premier Soccer League and drew attention from MLS clubs, but Europe beckoned.

English Premier League teams like Chelsea, Bournemouth, and Crystal Palace, along with clubs in other countries, tried Diomande out. But it was Leganes in Spain that signed him in 2024. Just before he made his debut against Real Madrid, the former squad of his hero, Cristiano Ronaldo, he found out Roxane had died.

“I never got any answers. I don’t know if I want to know why,” Diomande wrote in the letter to his sister. “Maybe it was jealousy. Maybe it’s just something that happens in our country. Maybe I could have protected you. I don’t know.”

Diomande said that he doesn’t care about playing for money, and that he wants to use his success “to show the whole world” what Roxane saw in him, and that every time he scores, “I’ll make sure everybody knows your name.”

He has yet to score here, but goals are forthcoming, just like fame and fortune. While Liverpool reportedly balked at Leipzig’s initial price tag, Diomande could ultimately fetch close to €100 million.

In the meantime, he’s focused on the World Cup. Ivory Coast failed to qualify in 2022 and 2018, but it’s trying to recapture the glow of the early-to-mid 2000s when Didier Drogba, Yaya and Kolo Touré wore the orange in three appearances. As talented as those lineups were, they never got out of the group stage.

The Droh brothers and Gnako touted this version of Les Éléphants, which had knocked off France, 2-1, in a tune-up friendly earlier this month.

“We didn’t lose a friendly coming in,” Pacome said. “The Elephant is going to do some stomping.”

Ivory Coast will likely have to ride Diomande if they are to advance. Pépé (Villareal), forward Ange-Yoan Bonny (Inter Milan), and midfielder Ibrahim Sangare (Nottingham Forest) are formidable and among many on the roster who play for European clubs.

But Diomande has been dubbed the second coming for his country.

“That’s the next Drogba. Everybody wants him now,” Pacome Droh said. “But he’ll always be ours.”

While supporters of Curaçao and Ivory Coast were at Philadelphia Stadium (known locally as Lincoln Financial Field) for their match, fans of all allegiances watched from the lawns of Lemon Hill Park at the FIFA Fan Festival.

Both matches in the 4 p.m. window, Ivory Coast-Curaçao and Germany-Ecuador, drew crowds of people at the Fan Fest in the final group stage matches of Group E.

Ecuadorian fans watched on the festival’s secondary screen as their team overcame a Rocky-cursed start to the group stage and advanced to the knockout rounds with a 2-1 win over Germany.

Ivory Coast supporters watched their team secure its first trip to the knockout rounds at a FIFA World Cup with a 2-0 win over Curaçao.

Some fans at the festival planned to stick it out through to the U.S. match against Turkey at 10 p.m., while others were there to take in the festival’s environment briefly.

Ivory Coast to Chestnut Hill

Fans of Les Éléphants came from near and far to watch their team in Philly on Thursday.

Duski Kamagate was born in Abobo, a suburb of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city. He came to the U.S. to attend Chestnut Hill College and play on its soccer team.

Kamagate, sporting an orange Ivory Coast kit, attended Thursday’s Fan Festival with a few of his teammates from Chestnut Hill.

“I think it’s a great experience, being able to come watch the game, vibe and have fun,” Kamagate said. “I think it’s a good vibe.”

With Ivory Coast up 1-0 at halftime, Kamagate said he was not nervous about the country’s chances of making it to the round of 32.

“We don’t get nervous,” Kamagate said. “We’re used to pressure.”

Victor Tarchala attended the Fan Festival in the same orange Ivorian kit that Kamagate wore, but with far less connection to the country.

Tarchala entered the FIFA ticket lottery for the games at the Linc three times, and was selected in September. He purchased tickets to every match in Philadelphia and has hosted his family from across the country in his apartment in King of Prussia.

Tarchala attended the Brazil-Haiti and France-Iraq matches in Philly, and will attend Croatia-Ghana on Saturday, but gave up his seat to serve as the designated driver for a group of friends on Thursday.

Tarchala said it was an even split within his friend group for which nation to cheer on.

“It’s literally divided, between me and my friends, half and half,” Tarchala said. “The other half really want Curaçao [to win]. We came to this one because the shirt was available.”

Jerry Hill brought an unexpected accessory with him to the Fan Festival.

The English fan traveled to America to take in the World Cup alongside his wife, Pauline. Hill brought a customized English flag paying tribute to Aidan Morris, an American midfielder playing for Middlesbrough, Hill’s hometown team.

Hill said the flag is one of many custom flags he’s made to support Middlesbrough, but since Morris is an American player, Hill wanted to bring it on his journey through the States.

“Within four games, I thought, ‘This kid’s special,” Hill said.

Hill proudly displayed his flag, signed by Morris himself, in front of the main stage on Thursday while wearing a bright red Middlesbrough Hawaiian shirt.

While England did not have a game Thursday, Hill said he wanted to get a feel for the festival’s environment. Hill plans to take in England’s final game of the group stage from the New York New Jersey Fan Festival at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday.

The couple started their American journey in Florida for England’s friendlies, then traveled through Atlanta and Nashville before making a long haul drive to Philadelphia.

After they finished watching Ivory Coast-Curacao, the couple planned to compare a few cheesesteaks at Pat’s and Geno’s.

“My wife will get one, I’ll get one of the other,” Hill said. “We’ll split it in half and see which one’s better.”

Hill does not have tickets to a World Cup match, but he did attend England games in the U.S. when it hosted the World Cup in 1994. He was impressed with how the American game has grown since.

“It was completely different, soccer wasn’t big here then,” Hill said. “We were trying to bring our atmosphere to get the fans behind the team … On the whole, [it’s] completely different now. The U.S., the fans at the game, they’ve got it right.”

Two dense blocks, one of orange, and one of dark blue, broke up the kaleidoscope of color in the stands at Philadelphia Stadium on Thursday. Fans came bearing jerseys and flags from basically any national team you could think of — from France and England to Honduras and Anguilla.

And yes, even some Eagles jerseys.

Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast was the least marquee matchup on Philly’s World Cup game slate. The teams don’t have the star power of France’s Kylian Mbappé, Croatia’s Luka Modrić, or Brazil’s Vinicius Jr., nor the massive stateside fanbase of Ecuador.

That made it the easiest ticket to acquire for local and passionate soccer fans, as well as diehard supporters of both nations.

In the end, it was the fans clad in orange who went home happy, watching a pair of goals from Ivory Coast forward Nicolas Pépé fuel a 2-0 defeat of Curaçao to advance to the knockout stage out of Group E.

Curaçao is the smallest nation in the World Cup, an island of just over 155,000 residents. Curaçao has fielded an independent team under its own flag since 2011, and had never qualified for the World Cup before this year.

Despite its small size, it’s a country with a strong sporting tradition. A team from Curaçao memorably won the Little League World Series in 2004, and MLB stars like Hall of Famer Andruw Jones and Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies hail from the island.

But in the World Baseball Classic, Albies competes for Team Netherlands, as Curaçao has never fielded an independent team. That’s why this team resonated so much with Isla, one of what she estimated was a group of 5,000 fans who traveled up from Curaçao for Thursday’s match.

“What we are doing now, this is nation building,” said Isla, a Curaçao native who was there for the game. “It has to do with our identity, with our people, with our history of slavery. The island of Curaçao is now building on this. Since we can play under our flag, every match is a party for us. Every game, we win.”

‘It’s a dream’

Curaçao’s underdog story resonated beyond the island. Plenty of local fans came ready to rep Curaçao, including Anna Villarreal from Monterrey, Mexico, who wore a Mexico jersey and carried a “Mexico supports you Curaçao!” sign. Villarreal, 24, is spending the summer at the University of Maryland and snagged tickets to attend her first World Cup game in Philadelphia through the FIFA lottery after a lifetime of passionate soccer fandom.

“We grew up watching the World Cup, but it’s in Brazil, Russia, Qatar — expensive!” Villarreal said. “Watching it in high school, college, kindergarten, but now it’s in North America, I’m so excited to have the opportunity to go to a game. … I don’t really have words. We grew up watching it on TV. I never thought I would be here right now. It’s a dream.”

Devon and Jay Geyer, siblings from Philadelphia, attended the game as a birthday trip. Jay now lives abroad in the Netherlands, so they chose to attend Thursday’s game to support Curaçao, thanks to that connection.

“As a Philadelphian, it’s cool to see people come here and really enjoy it and appreciate it from an outside view,” Devon said.

Plenty of Philadelphians jumped on the Ivory Coast bandwagon, given the team was headquartered in Chester at the Union’s training facility. Louie, a 23-year-old from central New Jersey, has Ivorian heritage and got all his friends on board, starting chants on the Broad Street Line on the way down to the stadium.

“We went to the Union, they had their open practice and their scrimmage against the Philadelphia Union II,” said Giovanni Morales, one of Louie’s friends. “It was really nice to see them play, good atmosphere, good fans, everything was good.”

Ken Palmer, 70, was cheering along with them on the train. His dream 70th birthday gift was a trip to Ivory Coast, where he spent 13 of the first 18 years of his life while his parents worked as missionaries, before moving back to the United States. A trip down to Philadelphia from his home in the Poconos to watch the national team play in the World Cup with his kids was close enough.

“I tend to be a quiet, calm watcher, but I’m already excited,” Palmer said. “It’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Another group of friends from Ontario got tickets through the FIFA lottery and decided to back Ivory Coast after finding jerseys in a Facebook group. They were hoping to get tickets in Toronto, but after striking out, decided Philadelphia was close enough for a road trip.

Compared to the games featuring some of the biggest national teams like France and Brazil, Thursday’s game was by far the least expensive. Tickets were as low as $300 on the secondary market in the lead-up to the game, and while they did rise closer to game day, many fans cited the cheaper tickets as their primary motive for picking this game.

Pat Diamond and Joe Staudenmayer, lifelong friends from South Jersey, picked this game because it was the easiest Philly game to get tickets for. Thomas Khatib drove up from Washington, D.C., and paid $350 to sit in the lower bowl, a price he felt was reasonable — although much more expensive than the free tickets he got to a Belgium-Saudi Arabia game at the 1994 World Cup. He attended with a fellow diehard soccer fan friend, both wearing Germany shirts. “Germany tickets got too expensive,” Khatib said.

Salome Munoz and her husband live in Lansdale, Pa., but trace their own heritage to Colombia. They’re rooting for the Colombian national team, but Colombia wasn’t headed to Philly. As huge soccer fans, they wanted to still make the trip to a local game. The cheapest was Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast, paying $550 per ticket in the lower bowl.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Muñoz said. “I’m going for Curaçao, my husband’s going for Ivory Coast. I’m going for Curaçao because this is their first time, it’s a small country, anything that happens to them is brand new. I want to see a country vibe, just like Colombia has in so many other occasions when we’ve been to the World Cup.”

The mostly local crowd, as compared to some of the other nations, was more subdued than other World Cup atmospheres. The neutral fans didn’t know the songs or the chants, and so aside from the two passionate fan sections, it felt a bit more like a Thursday afternoon Phillies game than the intense atmosphere at some of the other matches. But almost everyone still walked out happy, no matter what jersey they wore.