How it ends.

     Guess I’ll have to blog sooner or later. I haven’t written anything since Thursday, and many things have happened since, most of it dealing with FIFA, and Harry Potter. I guess I should start with the events that happened on Thursday. Right as I left the Queen Elizabeth (QE) building, a fight started between the Chile players and the Toronto Police. There isn’t much to say, because most likely you’ve read about it in the news. If not, basically a player got taser-d, and everyone got pepper sprayed. I still think that the Toronto Police overreacted. Big time.
     Well, on Friday I went down to the National Soccer Stadium (BMO Field, renamed because of sponsorship issues) to rehearse for the stage setup (stage for awards and stuff at the end of the final game). The volunteers that chose to help out are asked to put on the decorations of the stage. Which was really confusing at the beginning. Before anything got underway, the guy in charge had to instruct the union workers (the actual people who make the stage). So while that was happening, the volunteers got to go on the field (thanks Trish!), and play soccer with the game ball! (thanks Elaine and Trish!)

on the field


penalty spot


corner flag


in action, I'm second from the left

     It was my first time on BMO Field, and my first time playing soccer there. (probably the last as well). As I was walking on to the pitch for the first time, I went down to touch the artificial grass. It was basically like a soft Christmas tree, with rubber between the little pieces of “grass”. The funniest thing is, while we were walking to the field from the QE building, I was talking to Alfonso about how I never see players with some sort of rug burn. And as we were playing, Alfonso pushed me (unintentional, haha) and I got rug burnt (burned, burn). Now I have a scar that will remind me of playing soccer on BMO Field, and Alfonso (He’s a great guy!)
During the actual rehearsal for the award ceremony, I was asked to pretend to be Stephen Harper (since the VIP’s wouldn’t be there for the rehearsal). It was quite fun being Stephen Harper, aside from the fact that we had to stand on the stage for almost 45 minutes. Also during the rehearsal, they said that Austria beat Chile, and Argentina beat Czech Republic. Which made us wonder: Match fixing?! Haha.

us volunteers pretending to be VIPs

     There is a lot more to say about Friday at the stadium, but I will just sort of list it: sitting on players’ bench, pizza, unorganized panels, TFC change room, and bags of dirty towels.

sitting on the players' bench!

     This next thing, I’m not sure if I should categorize it as Friday or Saturday. I guess it would be a Saturday thing. HARRY POTTER! I went to the release party type thing at Bayview Village, and there was quite a few people. The guy handing out the books looked like Hagrid. Seriously. During the line up (I had no idea how long it took) I was reading the FIFA magazine (Quite boring, but killed time). Eventually I got the book, went home, and started reading till like 5 or 6am.

preorder lineup


lineup to BUY the book

     Originally I didn’t have to go the Accred. centre on Saturday, but I was a nice guy and took Greg’s shift because he had to go to his goddaughter’s birthday party. I totally forgot that I had to wake up early on Saturday, which is why I slept at like 5 or 6am. So I woke up at 10 (my shift started at 10), and I rushed downtown, But I was lucky that no-one cared that I was late. Not much happened on Saturday, so on we go to Sunday! (yesterday)
     Yesterday was the finals for the FIFA U20 World Cup Canada 2007. Which means that there was an award ceremony at the end! (which I am involved in :D). Since this is the game right after the Chile brawl, the police presence was crazy. There were at least 10 police on horse, 10 on motorbike, and 15 or so on bike. Not to mention the ones on feet stationed IN the stadium.      There was a lot to do yesterday, including bringing water from the storage place to the stadium (wow that was tiring). Since I was to help set up the stage at the end, the volunteers and I got to watch the last 20 minutes or so of the game. From field level, we got to see the last goal! We ran on to set up the decorations (we had a time frame of 7 minutes).

volunteer crew


in action! i'm the one holding the long logo thing on the left

     Since we had to stick around to take down the stage, we got to watch the award ceremony from the seats right behind the player’s bench. I don’t have any pictures, but I’m sure someone took some, and I’ll get my hands on those later.
After taking down the stage, we took some pictures behind the “CHAMPIONS” sign. (again no pictures, will get some soon).
     When I got back to the QE building, the sale had already started (merchandise 50% off for staff). It wasn’t really 50% off. Everything was $5, except for the puke green t-shirts that were 3 for $10. I bought 2 hats, and 3 shirts. :p
Since everything was over. I went to the drinks fridge, and took a 6 pack of powerade, and a few cokes. Which killed my back on the way home. I should of took some more, buttttt, that would of killed my back even more.

     I look back at this successful tournament, and I’m glad I was a part of it. I met many new friends, and a lot of great people. It’s sad that it is over. But this is something that all of us will be remembering for the rest of our lives. Thanks for everything, I will miss you. ACR #1!

me and nazir relaxing with the ps3


not even half of the ACR crew.

till next time~

P.S. Sorry for the crap blog, I knew that I had a lot to cover, and I got lazy at some points. I know I left out a lot, but I’ll fill the rest in later