In the last couple years, Nicole and I have lost count of how many times we have seen the U.S. Women’s National Team. We have seen them take on Chile, Belgium, and Canada in Los Angeles, and of course traveled to France to watch their World Cup opener. We are basically their best fans and I hope they know it. We could name them all, as well as those on the bench.

I find myself in Orlando about twice a year for a dentist appointment. I have no cavities. Thanks for asking. Conveniently, the ladies were also set to play England in Orlando for the She Believes cup. The England game was one of the most stressful games to watch of the entire World Cup because it just seemed like a lot of bad reffing was happening in front of our eyes. To further get our blood pressure up, the England coach, Phil Neville, had whipped up a lot of unnecessary drama that benefitted neither side. In the end, the U.S. prevailed due to a miraculous penalty shot save that resulted from a blown call in the first place.

Anyway . . .when the schedules were announced, I was thinking to myself, “why did it have to be England…” Not because I felt that England is a super formidable team, but there’s just something about watching them that seems a bit dodgy and shady and extremely frustrating. I would have preferred to see a match against Japan. You won’t see the Japanese players throwing themselves at the ground in hopes of picking up a foul, or tugging on an opposing player’s ponytail to slow them down.

So as we neared Exploria Stadium, our stressful journey toward the game’s outcome began. The stadium itself has somewhere around 22,000 seats, and about 22 parking spaces. While of course this is an exaggeration, Orlando really didn’t do much to accommodate people. The neighborhood surrounding the stadium leaves much to be desired, and the closest options for parking entail being waved in to someone’s driveway and being charged $20. I’m not sure if this is sanctioned by the stadium at all, but it seems to be what most people end up doing since the stadium itself does not have a dedicated parking lot. We ended up parking in a lot about half a mile away since it seemed a bit more legitimate. We made it to the stadium just in time for the start.

It was pretty crowded, which is good to see. It’s also further evidence of the need to pay the women more. It’s 2020, but we are still a long way from equality — particularly considering the the U.S. women generate more ticket sales, revenue, and merchandising than their male counterparts. And that’s not to mention that the women are more fun to watch, thanks in part to the fact that they actually win against competitive teams, whereas the men struggle against teams like Curaçao.

Anyway, back to England. After a tense and scoreless first half, the action picked up after halftime. We got to watch Carli Lloyd and Christen Press score the two goals for the U.S. These two were bench warmers in the game against Thailand that we saw during the World Cup, so it’s interesting to see their change in status since the new coach took over. After some hair pulling, flopping, and tripping, the whistle finally blew, and we could go home.

For the rest of our time in Orlando, we just relaxed. I don’t think either Nicole or I ever really adjusted to the time change, exacerbated by the onset of daylight savings, so we would wake up around 11 and go to bed at 2am. The weather was a bit schizophrenic with at one point nearly 90 degree weather, high winds, then highs in the 60s. Confusing. And while the country is panicking about this COVID-19 coronavirus thing, none of this seems to ever work to our advantage. While some flights are leaving with half of their seats open, Nicole and I got the last couple of seats on a Delta flight back to Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see what happens with all this in the coming days and weeks, and how that will affect ol’ Flyin’ Brian. Stay tuned…