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One Guy. One Game. One Press Pass. Once in a lifetime.

Wanting for more US MNT? Yared wrote in about his experience at the recent U.S. – Brazil Friendly, and I’m happy to share his story as part of the Diary Project. Ya know, it could be you. Send in your stories and photos for the digital time capsule.

Yared with his first ever press pass is after the jump…

Sunday, September 9th – 11 AM. Heavy sleep for a Sunday morning. My body was lazy, but my mind was active. I woke up with only one thing on my mind… BRAZIL versus USA.

After getting some food in my system, I drove with my family to Chicago’s Soldier Field around 12:30 PM. The anticipation was killing me. I couldn’t believe I was going to watch my home country play against the world’ best team in my very own hometown.

A friend of mine hooked me up with a press pass. Icing on the cake – wait, that’s an understatement. This was a whole new cake, the difference between a birthday and a wedding. Once in a lifetime for a kid like me.

My mom, dad, and younger brother – the whole family are soccer fans - managed to find tickets at the last possible moment. Ni surprise my little bro was especially jealous about my press pass. He pouted about basically the whole car ride.

We hit a bunch of traffic right as we were getting into the city of Chicago. Anxious to get to the stadium, I was thinking what on earth could be causing all the traffic? To my astonishment, almost every car on the freeway consisted of soccer fans dressed in red, white, and blue. It was pretty cool to see that there were so many people going to the game, but it was even cooler to see that out of the ten cars that I noticed around me, only one had any hint of yellow, blue, and green – Brazil’s primary colors. I knew this was going to be a tough game for our team. They would need the support, something they don’t always get even here in the Heartland. I had faith David could beat Goliath.

Focused on the people in the cars more than the cars themselves, before I knew it, we were at Soldier Field. I split ways with my family to start my search for my press pass. I noticed the faint sound of tambourines and drums in the air. From around the corner, headed in my direction were some Brazilian soccer fans, vibrant in their attire and action, a mass of yellow dancing to the rhythm of joga bonito. From the opposite direction, to my surprise, an even bigger fan base of American soccer fans came around the corner, making twice as much noise as the Brazilian fans and waving American flags. The soccer match had not even started, and I was already getting caught up in the atmosphere of the game. Chicago’s unpredictable weather had blessed us with a beautiful, sunny day. My excitement was pulsating in my chest like the drums in the soft summer air.

I checked in, got my media pass and was ushered up to the press box. The seat was amazing, but then I found out I would be allowed on the field after the game to listen in on post-match interviews. I tried to keep myself composed as they informed me of this – the thought of possibly being able to meet some the U.S.’s finest soccer players was absolutely terrifying… in a good way, of course. It just kept getting better.

I sat down in the press box and started shooting away on my camera. I could see Dempsey, Donovan, and Beasley. Kaka and Ronaldinho were wowing the crowd with their unbelievable juggling skills. Even the warm-ups were incredible! Although there was a good amount of yellow present in the stands of Soldier Field, I couldn’t help but notice that there was, in my opinion, a greater majority of fans in red, white, and blue. Non-stop chanting preceding kick-off. I got the feeling the crowd was as anxious as me for the match to start.

I won’t bore you with the game details. I think we all know how it unfolded. I’ll only note that Josh Wolff’s appeal for a penalty was definitely a turning point in the game. The following events: Ronaldinho’s game winning free kick and a converted PK - quieted the pro-American crowd. Their shirts didn’t bleed their red and white, but the mood was now only blue. The game ended 4-2 in Brazil’s favor, but the score didn’t do justice to the Americans. I am quite sure that everyone was very happy with the overall performance of the match: lots of goals, attacking soccer, and flair.

After the game, I made my way down to the field to hopefully catch a glimpse of some of the players and to listen in on some of the interviews. I listened in as Dempsey, Benny Feilhaber, and Carlos Bocanegra spoke about the game. Being so close to these players – the same stars that I see on TV all the time – was such a surreal experience. For the first time they seemed human. I’ve come to recognize these guys as such huge stars after watching them on the TV screen, reading about them in the paper, and following them on the internet, but they are all just as people, some of them still kids, really, not too different than me. It’s an obvious observation, but I guess it really hit me once I found myself in such close proximity.

Meanwhile my jealous brother had been constantly calling me on the phone, wondering when I would be done so we could all go out to eat afterwards. He was hungry. After such an amazing experience, I felt full. My brother could wait.