Live from Paris: It's China versus South Africa

I hadn't initially bought tickets for this game, but a friend had extras and since I was already in Paris playing tourist, it seemed like the right thing to do.

China had already lost a 1-0 game to Germany, and South Africa had lost a 3-1 game to Spain.

It was a gorgeous night in Paris - after two days of on and off again rain, it was clear and warm (fortunately, since I had a pile of laundry drying and had only shorts left to wear). The game got off to a somewhat slow start -- neither team looked particularly strong. The ball changed feet a lot. Although the teams felt quite well matched, the ball spent a lot of time in the South African end.

In fact, it wasn't until the end of the half that the 0-0 stalemate was broken by a spectacular sliding plunge by China star Li Ying in the 40th minute. The South African sweeper (Janine Van Wyk) had been doing a fantastic job clearing balls from the box -- she is super fast and an awesome defender and appeared to be an effective captain. The goal cam with Van Wyk on the ball, but Li slding in to poke it into the goal -- stunning and beautiful.

South Africa came out strong in the second half. They demonstrated terrific ball possession and an ability to move the ball around, dominating the first half of the second half. Their speedy strikers, Ode Fulutilu and Thembi Kgatlana, got the crowd excited a number of times, but they were unable to convert. And then in the last five to ten minutes, China seemed to up their game to an entirely new level zipping the ball back and forth up and down the field, placing passes at teammates' feet -- it looked like a whole new game.

End result: China 1, South Africa 0.

Next up for me: USA v Chile in Paris! (Sunday)

Gratuitous Selfie

In other games:

Wednesday:

• Nigeria 2, South Korea 0
• Germany 1, Spain 0
• France 2, Norway 1

Thursday:

• Australia 3, Brazil 2 (upset -- worth the read!)

Live From Reims, it's USA versus Thailand.

Perhaps the most stunning thing about this game was that although it was in a tiny stadium Stade Auguste Delaune and they had sold out all the tickets, the 21,000+ stadium only had 18,000+ fans in attendance. OK, so the outcome wasn't too much in question, but Reims is only 45 minutes outside of Paris, and from what I saw on the train, many Americans had made the trip.

In any case, the atmosphere was charged and it was exciting to see the US Women take the field for their opening match. It didn't take long for the US to demonstrate that they were here to play and score goals. In the fourth minute, reminiscent of the opener, the US had a goal called back, due to an offsides. However, by the 12th minute Alex Morgan had seen to that and put one up on the board.

It is tough to compare the US team with the French team, since they had different opponents, but I have to say, while the US were clearly dominating, they did not look as sharp as the French -- the long balls into the box were not quite as precise. However, there was a fluidity to their play that was different from the French. I continue to anticipate what might be the best game of the tournament in the quarter final ...

Anyway, back to the US. One of my favorite players, Rose Lavelle, the lithe, quick, and magically footed midfielder looked dangerous from the beginning, so it was pleasantly satisfying to see her put in goal number two. By the 33rd minute, Lindsay Horan had also found the back of the net, which took the US women into halftime up 3-0, as the French had done.

The second half was an entirely different game. Quite honestly, there were so many goals in so short a time (10 goals in 45 minutes) that it was hard to keep track. I believe we ended up wit a total of five for Morgan, braces (2) for LaValle and Mewis, and one each for Push, Horan, Rapinoe and Lloyd. It's worth noting that Lloyd came in relatively early in the half (for LaVelle), Pugh for Julie Ertz (which seemed like an odd substitution until Horan came back for some time as defending midfielder), and then Press for Tobin Heath.

And this match's gratuitous selfie:

It turns out that we were sitting in the Thailand section, so after the game, we had the honor of cheering for the courageous Thailand women who never gave up, even in the face of the US onslaught. Their two speedy forwards continued to make attacking runs, annoy the defenders, and do whatever they could to try to erase that 0. I can only imagine how exhausted the defense was -- I was reminded of Bruiser Karen Bowen's, "I feel like a cone." response to our first ever appearance in the California State Cup tournament (where the nascent Bruisers played the top team in Northern California).

Next up is South Africa versus China in Paris on Thursday.

And in other matches:
Sunday:

• England 2, Scotland 1

Monday:

• Canada 1, Cameron 0
• Argentina 0, Japan 0

Tuesday

• Netherlands 1, New Zealand 0
• Sweden 2, Chile 0

The FIFA Museum

TL;DR. It's not worth the 24 Swiss Francs it cost me.

Bad news: You can't carry even a tiny  backpack with you.
Good news: I got to leave mine here:

The place is quite high tech and lots of glass and large (and I mean large) screens on the walls, so it looks spiffy. But, it turns out to be really small. I had been wondering what one would find in a FIFA museum, and the answer is, "not much." Ah well ... the first floor has, I believe, two displays. The centerpiece is a representation of all the FIFA members, represented by their (men's) team shirts, organized by color. Now, this is visually appealing, but does make it rather tricky  to find any particular country, unless you already know their color, in which case, why do you want to see their shirt? It seemed like form over substance.

Then they had a wall with a brief history of FIFA. I was relieved to see that they included the women's world cups and saddened to see just how recently the  women's U-## tournaments were created.



Next, you go downstairs. It looks large, but the main room is actually tiny -- just bracketed by mirrors. There was a display called "Foundations" that was so uninteresting I don't remember anything about it (six hours later). Then they had a "FIFA World Cup Gallery." Yes, there was a tiny women's world cup portion to it, with some cool things.

This is the display for the 1999 Women's World Cup Winners

This is the display for the 2003 final (Germany)

I found these two displays kind of cool for a couple of reasons. First, the scurry gloves are totally cool. Second, I happen to know where the gloves are that could have gone in the 2003 display. If I didn't hate FIFA so much, I might even have thought to donate them (although the only proof I have of their authenticity is the photograph of Silke Rottenberg and the little boy who got those gloves). You should all be delighted to know that since that little boy is pretty grown up, they are now in the hands (no pun intended) of a young woman who plays goalie for a pretty talented futsal team.

The actual world cup (or one of them) is on display, but it seems that the women's world cup trophy was absent.

I can forgive them for that. However, what I cannot forgive them for is making me sit through a movie about "World Cup Finals" that had precisely 0 minutes dedicated to the women. We got to see all sorts of men diving (as well as some beautiful plays), but really, it's 2019 FIFA -- you've had a women's world cup for over 25 years and you can't put together a few minutes of coverage? This completely infuriated me.











The rest of the museum, only accessible if you sit through the movie, has displays on soccer balls through the ages, turf through the ages, and a collection of digital tournament books: precisely three for the women and something like 8 for the men (there have been eight women's world cups, including the current one, which they had). They also had a gallery of games. The third floor was just a fake -- it got you to their gift shop and cafe.

So, I did manage to spend about an hour and a half at the museum, but I left angry  and disappointed. Get your act together FIFA.

Women's World Cup 2019! Welcome to France.

Every four years I treat myself to the Women's World Cup -- it started with a match, then a final, then a trip to Germany, then nearly an entire month in Canada (and look how that ended up), and now an entire month in Europe for this year's installment. I will try to diligently blog this year as I did four years ago.

This years Coupe du Monde Feminine is in France, specifically: Paris, Reims, Le Havre, Lyon, Valenciennes, Rennes, Montpelier, Grenoble, and Nice. Unsurprisingly, the opening match, which always features the host team, was in Paris. So, on June 7, I found myself in Paris, joyfully sharing the experience with Mike and Teresa Olson of Berkeley, Charles River Soccer teammate, Dawn Tesorero, and Dawn's friend and mentee, Madeline (Maddy) Hernstrom-Hill.

The Paris games are all being played in Les Parc du Princes, home of Paris Saint-Germain. It is located just outside the Peripherie (the ring around Paris -- think something like I-95 around Boston, assuming that the entire Metropolitan area inside were all Boston) at about 8:00. I chose a hotel that was about a half hour walk away; Mike and Teresa has one about 10 minutes away (8 to be precise), and Dawn and Maddy opted for something closer to all the sites (a 45 minute metro ride). We all descended on Porte de St. Cloud for dinner and ticket exchange, and a joyful toast to Paris, the World Cup, old friends, and anything else that we felt warranted a drink.

Our goal was to hit the stadium for the opening ceremony at 8:30 and we thought we would have plenty of time getting to the stadium around 8:00. After all, how long can it take to enter a stadium? Quite some time as it turns out ... we got through the gates at precisely 8:30 and after some confusion regarding the gender-based lines for searching and frisking (I cannot imagine how a non-binary soccer fan would have experienced this; the word uncomfortable comes to mind, putting it mildly; also four lines for men to two lines for women for a freaking WOMEN'S WORLD CUP????).

Nonetheless, we got to our seats as the field was being transformed for the opening and we were seated right next to the place where all the performers came into the stadium. That was the good news; the bad news was that the show was mostly directed at the bigwigs across the field, so we never got to see the front of the cool city signs that beefy young men carried via fancy "backpacks."

 

  The opening ceremony was a high-energy, joyful performance, featuring a large number of dancing young women, representing all the teams in the tournament. 

And then, of course, the match! It was France versus South Korea. While France was expected to win (they were a 2-goal favorite), none of the pre-match analysis prepared the crowd for the dazzling performance of the French. Not only did they dominate their guests, but they displayed speed and precision that was breathtaking. Even before her tenth minute goal, Le Sommer, made her presence known - there were at least three plays that were close enough to goals to elicit the collective gasp or groan of the 45,000 assembled fans. Finally in minute ten, she got one in -- not just a goal, but a pretty goal.

The rest of the half continued in a similar fashion -- quick runs up the field by French players and crosses from the wings dropped in front of the goal with laser-like precision. One particularly beautiful play to zippy center back Griedge Mbock Bathy ended with the ball in the net, but FIFA's VAR (virtual assistant referee) technology, which they used in last year's world cup, showed that she was offsides by the tiniest of margins. It was the right call and in prior world cups would have been counted -- in this case, the VAR did not affect the outcome of the game, but my prediction is that it certainly will before the tournament is over.

So with that goal called back, it was Wendie Renard, stalwart defender, who broke the game open. She is quite tall and France's secret weapon (or not so secret it would seem) on set plays. Her first goal came off a gorgeous cross and there wasn't really much for the Korean goalie to do. And then, at the very end of stoppage time, there was a repeat performance instants before the whistle, taking the French into halftime with a 3-0 lead.

And just to show that I am really quite terrible at the selfie, here is the gratuitous halftime selfie, with Mike and Teresa (who have mastered this art form way  better than I have!)

The second half saw similar domination -- Korea's first shot on goal didn't occur until the 78th minute! And then, captain Amandine Henry, made it 4-0 with a gorgeous, curling shot in the 85th minute that entered the goal just on the correct side of the far post.

Even though there was never a question about the outcome, it was a fun game to watch. The French women are dazzling in their speed and precision and look like a pretty formidable opponent. If the tournament goes according to plan, they could meet the USA in the quarter final in Paris on June 28; should it come to pass (i.e., both teams win their bracket and their round-of-16 match) that will be a match for the ages (and unfortunate that it happens so early in the tournament.

And for those of you who do not follow the cup, but humor me by reading my blog:

Saturday's results were:

• German 1, China 0
• Norway 3, Nigeria 0
• Spain 3, South Africa 1

Today's results so far are:

• Italy 2, Australia 1 (upset)
• Brazil 3, Jamaica 0

Up next: England versus Scotlant

The Great Cat Migration of 2019

Mission: Transport three physical felines (which shall be multiplexed onto two virtual felines) from Boston to Vancouver.

Who: Yours truly, trusted daughter Teagan, and brave friend/colleague, Gabriella.

When: 0700 January 1, 2019.

Previously: Acquisitions: Three Alaska Airlines compliant cat carriers; two cat harnesses and leashes; one dog harness and leash (the Feline heretofore referred to as Fuzzer is what we call, "large."); cat hormone spray; kitty drugs (gabapentin); wet wipes; three spare carrier pads; ziploc bags.

Phase 1: Lincoln to Logan and Airplane

4:00 am wake-up.
4:20 three cats are contained in three rooms
4:45 I am showered and cats are drugged
4:54 cats are in boxes

The most harrowing part of the experience takes place between 5:00 AM and 6:38 when humans and felines are all on board their plane. The feline referred to as Fuzzer does not enjoy car rides and reacts by soiling his carrier.

Upon airport arrival, Gabriella and Teagan undertake mission Fuzzer-Cleanup while I take on mission, "pay for cats on plane." Alaska Airlines agent is extraordinarily helpful and understanding, even though she must ring up each cat separately and needs each of us to appear with a cat. Timing is such that each human is released from cat cleanup duty at precisely the right moment to process paperwork.

Next stop security. We were mostly prepared. Cats come out of carriers, so we have them harnessed and leashed. However, TSA insists on swiping hands of cat carrying humans while said humans are holding the cats. Cats stay out of the carriers until hand swipes have been declared safe.

Excuse me, but who thought this was a good idea?  Why not allow us to place the cats back in their boxes and then swipe hands rather than asking humans to juggle cats while swiping hands?  Really?

All three humans and cats survive security. Cats are pretty droopy thanks to drugs.

Phase 2: Boston to Seattle

The three of us are scattered about the plane, although Gabriella and I are only a row apart. On my right is a lovely woman who is flying Boston->Seattle->Anchorage->Nome->small town several hours outside of Nome. She is at the beginning of a very very very long day, but is lovely. On my left is one parent of two children sitting across the aisle with other parent (the two parents swap regularly). One child throws biggest airplane tantrum I've ever witnessed for about 30 minutes -- 15 prior to take off 15 after. I am no longer stressed about some meowing escaping from my cat carrier.

Kimi wins the title of star traveler. She was quiet and pleasant the entire flight -- so much so that Gabriella got a good four hours of sleep on the flight.

Sushi came in second. She is a bit unhappy and meows quietly, but is light enough to spend most of the flight on Teagan's lap. The small side window is just the right size to insert hand and pet her.

Fuzzer is not terribly happy.  He meows -- alternating plaintive, "Why are you doing this to me?" meows with periodic accusatory, "I am really unhappy and you are not doing anything about it." meows. I put the carrier on my lap for a couple of hours, but Fuzzer is heavy and eventually I give up. By this time, he is relatively well drugged and more docile.

We arrive in Seattle without further incident.


Phase 3: In SEATAC

We had a comfortable layover, so we sought out the "pet relief area." Good news: in our destination terminal. Bad news: we missed it first time around. I sense a bit of specism.  They couldn't have a litter box too?

In any case, we decide to let the felines out of their boxes, on leash, of course. They were somewhat apprehensive.

Ultimately, all three cats ended up hiding behind the metal sheeting in one enormous pile of felines: sushi on the bottom, Fuzzer and Kimi on top.

Phase 4: SEATAC to Vancouver

Back in the boxes they go ...

This time, Fuzzer and Sushi were allowed to sit next to each other with their humans, but Kimi was relegated elsewhere. Fuzzer was pretty chill, but Sushi did not enjoy being on a plane again. The side of the carriers have a tiny hand-sized opening through which you can pet the cat. Sushi didn't quite understand this -- she thought it was designed for the cat to stick her head out, then a paw, and then a second paw. About this time, Teagan and I got wise to her antics and proceeded to figure out how to shove half a cat back through a very small hole. This was sufficiently challenging that there is no documentary evidence that we succeeded.

 And Finally: Vancouver!

Mission accomplished: Three humans and three felines arrive at YVR, Vancouver airport. We weren't sure what customs would be like ... none of us are very good at reading. When we were asked if were bringing any of the following into the country: Meat/meat products; dairy products; fruits; vegetables; seeds; nuts; plants and animals or their parts/products; cut flowers; soil; wood/woodproducts; birds; insects, we kind of missed the "animals" and focused on the meat, meat products, parts/products and answered no. We were kindly informed that this was wrong. Nonetheless, we would have had to go talk to the nice man at the booth anyway. He looked at the three boxes, the three rabies certificates and welcomed the felines to Canada.

As all of UBC was starting up the next day, the taxi line was LONG. We finally got to the front and the first cab to which we were directed had a driver who pleaded "cat allergy."  The next one was accommodating and we loaded three humans, three backpacks, and three felines into the car. 

The felines were clearly a bit spooked by this whole endeavor, choosing to hide in the one familiar place available ... yup, that's fuzzer hunkered down in the litter box.

Fortunately, it didn't take them long to feel at home -- they were happy not to be flying, enjoyed some catfood, and started exploring.

Happily, they seem to have settled in quite quickly.

Coffee Comes to Vancouver

Some of you may not have realized that I'd been without coffee making apparatus for quite some time. Clearly, you can't take a man's coffee machine when you move most of the house to Vancouver and equally clearly, you can't just settle for any old coffee machine. [Note, yes there are many good coffee shops around, but there is something nice about being able to get that first hit of caffeine without leaving the house.]

I thought I could take care of this relatively efficiently. I found a machine I liked, found a good deal on it (came with the grinder I liked, a set of espresso cups, etc). Their customer service was a bit confused that my shipping and billing address were different, but we resolved that and I thought I was well on my way to caffeination. Only then did they tell me it was out of stock and would be delayed two more weeks. That set it up for arrival when I was traveling (already a month after arriving), so I had to delay it yet again.

I was very excited for delivery on a Thursday they told me. Great, I'd wait at home (since it was going to require a signature). Then I got email Wednesday morning that it was going to show up that day.  Great -- only one meeting for which I had to be on campus. I wait. I wait. OK, what are the chances that it's going to arrive while I'm at the one meeting for which I need to be in my office? Yeah, you got that -- 100%. Worse yet, the people I was supposed to meet didn't show. Sad.

This meant it got taken to the post office, which is nearby for many purposes, but not for the purposes of a 60 pound box. The taxi ride was the best investment ever.

Anyway, I am now happy to report that I am regularly well caffeinated -- documentary evidence on coffee machine arrival below.

The box -- a bit worse for the wear, but relatively intact.

The beast in its box

All the goodies that cam with the coffee maker, from left to right
coffee, cups, spoons, milk pitcher, grinder

Unpacked

All installed and ready to go!

Charming Traditions

One of the fun things of moving to a new school is that you get to learn a whole new set of traditions. For example, while there are three things every Harvard student is supposed to do before graduating, there are ninety-nine that UBC undergrads are supposed to do.

Anyway, UBC is big. As in really big. As in 55,000 students (65,000 if you include our Okanagan campus). For comparison, Harvard has about 22,000 (according to here). Many of the big US schools aren't this big. University of Michigan and UCLA have 45,000, Berkeley has 43,000; but there are some that are even bigger. The University of Central Florida has 66,000 students, Texas A&M has about 65,000, and Ohio State has about 60,000.

Anyway, I digress (because I was kind of curious how big some of those schools were). One relatively new tradition is the Harvest Feastival -- yes, that's spelled correctly.  It's basically a fall celebration that started about three years ago and appears to be open to faculty, staff, and students. It's a seasonal dinner with some light programming and multiple performances around campus afterwards. The faculty and staff relocation office reserved a table for new arrivals, which is how I found out about this. Sounded like a good time and better food than my pre-kitchen-arrival self was likely to make.  I was glad I went.

Imagine almost 2000 people seated under a rather large tent (because Vancouver). It was roughly 40 tables of 24 each and our table was all relatively recently arrived faculty and staff -- I was seated across from two postdocs in CS, one a woman who got her PhD at CMU and joined UBC a year ago and the other a man who'd just arrived from his PhD in Korea about four weeks ago.

There were a pair of MCs who engaged the assembled crowd in various "games" and announcements. The meal was outstanding -- lines of servers approached each table alternating two different dishes for each course: salad, mains, and dessert. Everything served was relatively local, a lot of it from our very own UBC farm (located just a block or two from my apartment). I was somewhat stunned to imagine just how one prepares risotto for 2000, but indeed, the vegetarian main course was a butternut risotto, served in butternut halves -- very tasty!  (The non-vegetarian main was salmon, because Vancouver). The dessert courses were spectacular apple fritters and chocolate and pumpkin cake. (The fritters were vastly superior to the cake, but the cake was actually pretty darned good.)

On the tables we had menus and also a bit of an advertisement for two faculty/staff singing opportunities -- drop-in choir, and a slightly more serious choir. Kind of looked like fun. I couldn't quite figure out why the words to Mamma Mia were printed on the back, but I thought that perhaps it was just supposed to give us a sense of the kinds of stuff they sang? Not exactly...they were there so we could ALL participate in the after dinner sing-along. So yeah, we got to hear 2000 sing Mamma Mia -- it was pretty awesome.

And then, of course, we were serenaded by the UBC Thunderbird Marching Band gig band. It was a small ensemble (maybe 20), but reminded me of many a similar gig played when I was a young Harvard bandie. Best of all, they introduced the "chef's parade" whereby all the chefs who'd produced dinner for 2000 paraded around the tent to a standing ovation.  It was really lovely (and well deserved).

So, that's the Harvest Feastival UBC style -- I might have to make this an annual event.