Yesterday’s Colorado Rapids game was quite the way to fill your Fourth of July with some family fun, fireworks, and of course soccer. The Rapids hosted the Houston Dynamo to a near sold out crowd and finished in a 0-0 tie but still provided an action packed exciting game. After the game one of the most exciting fireworks displays in Denver kicked off a party in the park type atmosphere while spectators moved down to the field to get a better view.
Prior to the game, select fans got to experience a bit of a holiday treat by moving down to the field to sit on the player’s benches and watch the team warm up right there on the field. The activity referred to as “Benchwatchers” allows fans of the team to get some up close field side photos, hang out close to the team, and some of the players even interacted back with some hi-fives and joking around with some of the younger children. Families, first dates, and groups of friends alike got to kick off their flip flops and rub their feet through some of the nicest grass in town on one of the nicest weekends so far this year.
The soccer game started out with a lot of action including a Colorado attempted header that ricocheted off the post, back across the goal mouth, only to be cleared out by the Houston defense. The game went back and forth with both teams making solid efforts to score as well as the goalkeepers providing some great saves. The Rapids picked up the pace towards the end of the game but alas the only fireworks to been seen were indeed after the match, which ended in a 0-0 tie.
Despite the lack of goal producing frenzy, the atmosphere within Dick’s Sporting Goods Park continued to build up as most of the venue was relocated onto the vibrant green pitch to get a head on view of one of Denver’s highly touted fireworks shows while local funk sensation, Funkiphino, performed a few tunes. The crowd gathered close but with plenty of space to fill, everyone settled in for a little sis, boom, ba! The show started out big and continued to amaze with every new section of rockets and tracers, accompanied by some true blue American hits, like “Born In the U.S.A” by Bruce Springsteen, and the Blacked Eyed Peas song “I Got A Feeling”, followed up with what I consider “the” fireworks song, Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”.
After the cannons muffled and the sparks of the truly grand finale fizzled out, the lights came on and the fans stood up but didn’t leave immediately. The whistling, entertained, crowd started dancing and shaking, doing cartwheels and taking photos all over the field as if they were waiting for the lights to go down again and a disco ball was going to drop from the sky, until the ushers moved them towards the door. It was truly a great show of sportsmanship, fanfare, and family fun and entertainment that would definitely be worth experiencing again. Go Rapids!
