Hexy 2013, Round 1: San Pedro Sula

Last week was the opening round of the 2013 Hex; with it came my first foray into the Un-Sexy Hexy. Despite my delay in posting this, I didn't have any issues during the trip; in fact, the trip went very well... well, except for the result.

I arrived in San Pedro Sula on Tuesday afternoon after having met a number of USA fans in the Atlanta airport. I sat next to someone on the flight who's been to over fifty USA games, including a number of World Cups. I caught a cab with him and Chris, my roommate for the trip into the city. The ride into the city was very interesting; rule one of driving in Honduras appears to be that lines and most signals are merely optional suggestions.

After getting checked into the hotel, we headed up to the InterContinental to try and pick up our game tickets; Chris got his from US Soccer, while I got mine from another supporter. We hung there for a while, then hit the hotel bar for drinks. Others eventually joined us in the bar, and we eventually got invited upstairs to the happy hour for hotel guests... which included free food and drinks. Yeah, that's how we roll.

We eventually headed out to a bar owned by an American living in SPS. The cab ride was again entertaining, especially since the directions we had were sketchy at best. We did eventually find the place, and headed in to enjoy $1 beers and meet more US fans.

Game Day

Wednesday was game day. Due to being overly-paranoid about the threat of malaria and other insect-borne illnesses, I was wearing jeans; by time I woke up, it was already 85 degrees F. Next time I'm faced with such a scenario, I'll at least think about track pants or some such.

Ashwin from OneGoal helped arrange a minibus for twenty of us that left from the InterCon. Our bus tagged onto the press bus's police escort to the stadium, so we rode in style. We got to the stadium at noon, three hours before the game started; that gave us plenty of time to get something to eat, check out our surroundings, and have lots of pictures and video taken of us. At around 1pm, we headed into the seats and picked out a section. We stayed on the shady side of the field, in the back of the lower bowl, under the deck above us.

As for the game... well, you've probably all seen that already. The US looked almost timid, hanging back too much. The passing was not good, and Honduras took advantage of that. Klinsmann's choice of back four still has everyone scratching their heads. This won't be good enough to make it to the World Cup; there are no teams just along for the ride this time around.

After the game, we headed out of the stands into the outer ring of the stadium area. Our bus was held up in traffic, so we hung around and had some beers while getting a lot of high-fives and other commiseration from plenty of Honduran fans. Sure, they were exceptionally happy to have won, but by-and-large the home fans were friendly to us from start to finish. I even traded my AO shirt:

Once we got back to the InterCon, we crashed the happy hour again, then went to the bar downstairs to watch the Mexico/Jamaica game. Everyone in the bar was happy with how that finished; the DJ even played a couple of Bob Marley songs after the game ended. At this point, the bar basically turned into a dance club. Drinks were imbibed, bad dancing occurred, friends were made.

The journey home was relatively uneventful, aside from another interesting cab ride back to the airport.

I did call my parents from the Atlanta airport so that they knew I made it back safely. At one point, my mom asked, "Aren't there any soccer games you can go to in the States?" Of course there are, and I'll be going to plenty; but they don't provide me the type of experience I get on the road in CONCACAF.

One down; nine to go.