AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The Americans are right here.
They should still be jet-lagged, they could nonetheless be carrying sweats, and so they could have been stumbling by means of the streets of Auckland for the previous few days, however some followers of the U.S. girls’s nationwide group broke by means of with their unmistakable crimson, white and blue costumes as a part of a boisterous crowd on the opening match of the Women’s World Cup.
The factor was, the Americans weren’t even taking part in.
The U.S. girls kick off Saturday towards Vietnam. But David Tritz of Laguna Hills, California, wore a full-body, stars-and-stripes rain go well with to see co-host New Zealand upset Norway 1-0 on Thursday.
Tritz is only one of an estimated 20,000 Americans who’ve already traveled Down Under to help the reigning World Cup champions.
“We flew all this way,” Tritz mentioned at Eden Park, “you can’t not represent. You only live once.”
Tritz got here to New Zealand together with his spouse and 5 daughters, 4 of whom performed soccer and vary from 34 all the way down to 21-year-old twins. They beforehand attended the 2015 World Cup, watching the U.S. beat Japan for its third title – the Americans added one other one in 2019.
His household plans to see seven or eight video games of the event over 10 days in New Zealand and one other eight in Australia.
Of the Americans who’ve trekked to New Zealand or will achieve this quickly, roughly 9,000 of them have congregated in a Facebook group began three years in the past by Kristen Pariseau. There, they’ve deliberate post-match assembly spots, helped one another with journey questions and heard from quite a few useful Kiwis on the native scene.
“People were asking ‘Is anyone else going to go?’ long ago when people were trying to organize and make a plan,” Pariseau mentioned. “So I started it as a central place, and then it’s just been growing exponentially this last month.”
Pariseau grew up in a hockey household in Michigan, however caught soccer fever after shifting to Atlanta together with her spouse and so they grew to become Atlanta United season ticket holders. They went to the 2018 males’s World Cup in Russia as a result of her spouse, who hails from Mexico, needed to see her residence nation’s group.
They skipped out on the 2019 Women’s World Cup, however after seeing the atmosphere on-line, Pariseau mentioned she regretted the choice and instantly began saving, together with airline rewards, for the 2023 version. After 4 years, they flew first-class from Los Cabos, Mexico, to Mexico City to Los Angeles to Sydney for a quick stick with buddies in Australia.
Once in Auckland, Pariseau has a pair of banners she made which may be seen from the Eden Park stands. One reads “Win it for Becky” and the opposite “Win it for Mal,” in honor of Becky Sauerbrunn and Mallory Swanson, whose accidents held them out of the event.
Traveling to New Zealand to see the U.S. girls’s group is seemingly a household affair. Dave Perry, an 84-year-old U.S. army veteran, noticed the 2019 World Cup together with his spouse for his or her fiftieth anniversary.
This time round, he introduced his two daughters, whom he coached of their youth leagues. Liz Perry mentioned she nonetheless performs soccer recreationally. The household, from Milwaukee, will keep by means of the group stage.
There will not be many extra veteran American followers than Steff Colonna, who’s attending her third Women’s World Cup.
She performed soccer in faculty at John Carroll University and mentioned she’s intently adopted the U.S. girls’s nationwide group for 20-plus years. She typically attends occasions placed on by the American Outlaws, an unofficial help group for the American nationwide soccer groups.
Now residing in San Diego, she mentioned she retains making the funding to help the U.S. group for quite a few causes, however primarily due to the visibility it brings to girls’s soccer and ladies’s sports as a complete.
“They represent our country and they represent a sport, and what they’re doing for women’s sports is awesome,” Colonna mentioned. “You come back because you love the team. We’re spending a lot of money to come over and support them. We just love the team. It doesn’t hurt that they’re the No. 1 team in the world.”
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