I seem to be getting this question a lot, so in advance of a more soccer-centric summary over on that part of the site, a few comments and observations:

It dawned on me that this wouldn't be the first time I traveled four to six hours to get to a soccer game, then came back immediately afterwards. The main difference being that, in Korea this summer, it tended to be on a train and not an airplane. What else was the same? The abject lack of foreign language skills by your humble correspondent, although we had one fluent and one intermediate Spanish speaker in our party, the latter of which has made the unelaborated comment that the Morelia supporters were making fun of me.

I'm okay with that. For the most part, I wasn't entirely engaged in this trip. Why? First of all, I had played soccer Friday night, followed by a brief stop at the Elbo Room to see Jayh's band, Two Ton Levy. Then up at 6am to make it to O'Hare for the flight. Some rest and then some coffee on the plane helped at least a little, but for the most part, I was a bit unkempt and mostly exhausted. Also, as a general rule, I tend to be more of a passive observer when in unfamiliar terrain. Doesn't matter if it's just a different city in the U.S., a different country, or even a different state of mind. I typically want to get the lay of the land before I go exploring, and this trip was too short to afford any opportunities to act on anything I learned.

That said, I couldn't just sit back and watch on this trip. Partially because I had brought a drum (sans a shoulder strap of some sort, which made things considerably difficult) for the game itself, and partially due to some degree of responsibility for our role as ambassadors of the Fire's support. Passivity wasn't really an option.

Overall, it went fine. The team and the fans were courteous and conscientious. Carlo, our Fire representative and resident translator, did a great job of helping us along. The game was a lot of fun. Morelia thumped Tecos 4-1, which made the celebratory air coming from the "Barra Locura" even more joyful and ebullient. These kids, and the section was mostly the younger fans, knew how to throw a party, replete with confetti, drums and pyrotechnics. At times, it looked and felt like a mosh pit, which speaks volumes about the ages of the participants. The older supporters had their own section, and were equally rocking, from what we could tell.

After the match, we headed out for dinner with some folks from the team and some other supporters, and then it was a bit of an odyssey getting to the airport, as we couldn't all fit in one cab, so we had to wait for a second one for all five of us to get moving. Then, our driver felt it necessary to keep his dispatch radio cranked at full volume, with blasts of static practically knocking my fatigued brain right out of my head. How Don and Marcin slept in the back of the cab I'll never know. Fortunately, or predictably, a 2:45am flight isn't the most crowded, so we were able to spread out and catch some sleep on the return trip. Apparently everyone was a little groggy upon landing, as the mass of deplaning travelers took a wrong turn on the way to Customs and Immigration.

Speaking of which, if you want to get a funny look from a Customs agent, tell them you flew to Mexico for 12 hours. I'm still surprised none of us were strip searched.