Didn’t plan for it, but ended up getting front row tickets for the Scotland v Argentina Women’s World Cup Soccer game at Parc des Princes in Paris on June 19, 2019. The two teams were vying for a third place slot in their group to possibly make it to the knock out stage. Long story short, Scotland blew a 3 – 0 lead to end up tied with Argentina 3-3, ultimately neither team making it to the knock out stage.
For us it was a practice run on attending soccer matches in France. This game was at the Parc des Princes in the south western part of Paris, we had tickets reserved for the winner of group F: USA, Sweden, Chile, Thailand versus likely France in a week’s time at this same venue.
Our seats were in the front row looking down the line at the goal. The opening ceremony is always a treat as they always have children participating. Look at all the empty seats! Such a great game tho.
The first half of the game Scotland dominated 3:0.
The field gets watered at halftime. Another warm evening.
Lettie, the mascot, plays with the children during the break. They gave a bunch of tickets to school children for this game to fill the seats. A teacher saw us looking lost at the bus station and had us follow her and her group so we could find the venue. Again, a great dry run for the group winner game later on.
After halftime Argentina worked their way back from 3:0.
VAR was a huge part of Women’s World Cup 2019 in France. Not sure what FIFA was thinking. So often the games were stopped so referees could review video in the back.
Basically there was a new rule for the game that the goalies had to stand exactly on the line as the penalty kick took place. Here’s an article at CNN about Hope Solo’s take on it.
Argentina missed the first kick, VAR came back saying the goalie stepped off her line so they retook the kick.
The second penalty kick take went in, Argentina tied the game 3-3, ultimately keeping Scotland out of the knockout stage.
After the game we exited the stadium right where a Scottish bag piper was leading fans out of the stadium. This is my video of the piper, who, if you think about it, packed his bagpipes for travel from Scotland to Paris to lead a dirge of fans out of the stadium after a heartbreaking day for Scotland.
This video below is the FIFA highlight reel for the game.
Next in our travels was a train ride to Le Havre to see our first USWNT game.
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