It's that time of year again!

It's been a long few months for us since the MLS season ended, but last Saturday it was finally time!  It was our opening game against none other than the L.A. Galaxy. In true die-hard fan fashion, we decided to make the drive out to show our support. Ryan and I, as well as 7 of our closest friends, piled into the van on Friday afternoon. At about 3:00 a.m., we finally arrived at our destination. (Thank you, Nascar traffic for holding us up for an hour in Las Vegas!)

The game was at The Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. However, our hotel (which actually turned out to be a hostel) was a short drive away in Inglewood. Yes, you read that correctly. I stayed in Inglewood and am still alive to tell the tale! We went in with 9 of us, and surprisingly enough, all 9 of us made the trek back as well. Bullet hole free! ;) (I joke about it, but the place we stayed wasn't bad, and it was SUPER cheap for all of us to stay.)

So after a good night's rest, and the most amazing meal I've ever consumed in my life (thanks to C&O's in Venice Beach,) we were ready for a good game of soccer. Going into this, we all knew we would be entering a hostile environment. Their fans don't like us, and we are not their biggest fans either. The first game seems to set the tone for the whole season. We had some injuries that kept some our star players on the bench, so naturally, I was a little nervous. That is, until I saw that we were in attack mode, and wouldn't settle for anything less than win. And a win is exactly what we got!

After the game, exiting the stadium was purely comedic. Their fans were just generally pissed off at our existence. Understandably so, we just embarrassed them :) Add the fact that we were from Utah, and it was all over. We heard everything from, "sister wives" to "Mormons suck!" One of our friends that was with us, Shaun, actually got his sweatband stolen right off of his head by an angry game-goer. (Good for you buddy, that's a $1.71 we'll never see again. Burn!)

This win was significant for plenty of reasons. Not only did it set the tone for the rest of the season, but we got to watch our team destroy the Galaxy's unbeaten streak at home. (No losses at their home stadium since November 2010.) It was a great feeling. The Galaxy are very similar to the Lakers in that they have the most money, and they have the most expensive players therefore everyone always expects to win. NOT this year. You go ahead and pull out your checkbook, Bruce Arena, but you can't put a pricetag on the heart and drive it takes to play a respectable game of soccer.

The girls hanging out by the pool at our hostel

At C&O's taking a picture with our waiter

GO RSL! SLTID!

This is the mess of confetti we covered everyone in when we won the game!

(...in case you were wondering how 9 adults entertain themselves being in a van for 12 hours at a time, wonder no more. The answer is wasabi peas.)