August 14, 2008 3:33 PM
$.73 Beer
A few final notes from that Worker's Stadium doubleheader:>The BOCOG manual says that beer will not be sold at venues. Someone at the stadium didn't get that memo. Bud, Tsingtao and Yanjing were on sale for 5 yuan ($.73). It was cold, too.
>The stadium -- where the soccer finals will be held -- has no clock. I spent much of the game squinting at the JumboTron, trying to see the same tiny clock that viewers are seeing on TV. BOCOG needs to fix this.
>While I'm on the subject: the Chinese JumboTron operator cut away whenever the official TV feed showed a replay. No replays of any of the goals or the key red card for the U.S. were shown.
>Leaving the stadium, the volunteers were lined up along the exit waving those giant orange things that they use to direct planes at the airport. Very effective.
>Chinese fans are multi-taskers. They can cheer and fan themselves at the same time. They also tend to fan in unison, so if you stand at the bottom of a section and look up, it's like watching windshield wipers move. Unusual, yes, but compared to most of what happened yesterday, it seemed fairly pedestrian.
>With the stadium lights on, the smog just got worse.>To the halftime Fuwa and cheerleader dance (at right), I say this: uncomfortable doesn't begin to describe it.
>Toughest name of the night for the Chinese PA announcer: Sacha Kljestan. I think she accidentally ordered sweet and sour donkey when she tried to introduce him.
>Argentina's Diego Buonanotte is 5'3''. I think that may be pushing it. Heck of a free kick he hit, though.
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