A Post for Kathryn Kienholz !

I have shared with you before about my passion for soccer, or football, as 98% of the world calls it. What you may not know is that this passion is shared by my advisor/teacher at Emporia State University, Professor Kienholz, and his family--specifically his daughter Kathryn. I have heard that she enjoys my blog, and since she also loves football, we must be kindred spirits! So, Kathryn, here's a blog for you.

Wednesday evening one of my dreams came true. My two sisters, Joel, Hugo, Stephanie, Rick and Nicolas Kellum and I all went to a Stade Rennais football game. A couple of the players on this team play for the French national team. One player, Jonathan Pitroipa, is from  Burkina Faso. (Can I get a "what! what!" ?) This Rennais team is ranked 7th in the country and we were playing Bordeaux, which is ranked 9th...before the game. The goalie on the Bordeaux team is the third goalie for the France national team. The seats were wet and the weather was cold, but we had a super fun time! Melissa taught us all of the little chants (one of which is entirely about food) and Erika and I were able to witness firsthand what the atmosphere is like at a professional French football game. Trop cool!

Our team is red. (There was a big net in front of us which made the pictures not so great. My apologies.)

 What's a good game of football without a little injury?! Just give him about 5 minutes on the ground and he'll be good to go! The guy in white is the goalie for our team. He's very handsome! And as you can see, very nice and helpful, even when the player injured is on the opposite team.

 We were SO excited!

 The guy with the green cleats, number 7, is Pitroipa! 

 

Guess what? We won!!!!! My sister, who was kind enough to take all of the pictures allowing me to focus on the game, managed to capture the winning goal on video! You can watch it here.

Also, if you ever want to get a second opinion and hear another side to all of my stories, you can follow Melissa's blog here.

After the game, we all went back to Melissa's apartment to eat pancakes and play games. What a great night!

One last fun fact about Stade Rennais. Carlos Bocanegra, captain of the US national team, used to play on this team and my sister met him. Whaaaat?!!!

Oh, and Kathryn, if I mis-spelled your name, let me know and I will quickly edit this post!