Copa America Centenario
Group A
Saturday 11th June 2016
Kick off 19.00 Actual 19.08
U.S.A. 1 Paraguay 0, attendance 51,041
27′ 1-0 C. Dempsey
@ Lincoln Financial Field
1, Lincoln Financial Field Way
Philadelphia, PA 19147
Admission $60 + $12.90 fees, Print at home ticket
No programme.
My original plan had been to fly into Philadelphia, pick up a hire car and drive to East Rutherford the following day, then fly back from New York. Ridiculous quotes of around $140 extra for dropping the car at a different location to the pick up point meant a different plan of action and today would be done by using Uber rides instead.
Lincoln Financial Field is home to Philadelphia Eagles of the N.F.L. as well as playing host to Temple University Owls American Football team. It was opened in 2003 and has a capacity of 69,176 which certainly wasn’t going to be tested today in a very poor turnout for the host team.
This was the last round of the group matches, with U.S.A. needing a win to guarantee at least second place in the group and progress to the quarter finals. In the end they finished top, as Colombia were surprisingly beaten 3-2 by Costa Rica in their final match. The U.S.A. were already 1-0 up when DeAndre Yedlin was sent off three minutes into the second half, having only received his first yellow card a minute before his second. They were never in danger of being pegged back though as Paraguay never had an attempt on goal that I can remember.
What should have been a routine flight home turned out to be anything but. Firstly, we left 20 minutes late, then en route we were told that as Dallas Love Airport had been closed for two hours due to thunderstorms, causing flight backlogs, that we would be held until we had a landing slot. Unfortunately, we were then told we hadn’t got enough fuel to do that, so were having to divert to Oklahoma City to refuel. Fianally arrived in Dallas over 6 hours after leaving Philadelphia, even taking the time difference into account. Pretty poor service from Southwest Airlines !
