The March

I have said before that a tradition of the Outlaws is to march to the stadium. So this particular march was from the US embassy to Loftus Versfield stadium. People along the streets joined us.
You can see the Colorado flag in the background. The TX one is over my shoulders.
As we were approaching the stadium, we heard some police sirens behind us and from a the back a growing roar. We parted ways and a police escort brought in a bus which was marked clearly 'USA.' Thats right, we had accidentally chosen the route and the exact time that the US Team was driving into the stadium. We were jumping up and down, chanting USA, pounding on the sides of the buses. The boys were looking down at us with huge grins. I made eye contact with Carlos Bocanegra. We were all giddy, talking about how it was the coolest thing that has ever happened. Little did we know.
This is an edit of a picture I took right when we heard the bus coming. After the game, there was some press about this summarized here and here. The most memorable quote from coach Bob Bradley was this:

"One of the nicest things tonight was when we were coming to the stadium, the street was lined with U.S. supporters, waving flags, dressed up, chanting USA and knocking on the bus," he said, with a slight smile on his face.

"We don't always have that. To have that in the World Cup in South Africa, I think I can speak on behalf of all the players, that was a really special feeling."

Personally, I think it is rare in sports for there to simultaneously be such a moment of basking in reflected glory on the part of the fans and a genuine appreciation by the athletes. Our boys are not superstars or prima donnas. They are scrappy underdogs and they play with pride. But at the same time they don't carry themselves like they have a chip on their shoulder for being underappreciated athletes. There were no 'well its about time' comments from the boys themselves, only genuine appreciation.