2011 SU Update: Shenzhen Bao’an Stadium comes Alive for Women’s Football

The crowd at Shenzhen Bao’an Stadium was electric for Saturday’s women’s football match between China and Canada (Justin Fauteux/CAN)

SHENZHEN – Alyssa Lagonia has played for her country before. She’s even played in some world class facilities. But what she and her Canadian women’s football teammates experienced on Saturday night was different.

While Lagonia’s team may have fallen 1-0 to the host Chinese, the real stars of the show weren’t even on the field. It was the crowd at Shenzhen Bao’an Stadium that stole the show as the 45,000-seat stadium was almost sold out and electric the entire night.

“It was amazing. That many people, all cheering, even though it wasn’t for us it was still incredible,” said Lagonia. “That’s what you dream about when you’re little and it’s just such an honor and a privilege to play in an atmosphere like that.”

If the crowd that packed the stadium and kept it loud all game wasn’t incredible enough for the visiting Canadians, the facility itself was.

Even Lagonia, who has played for Canada’s senior national team and at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup was amazed by the brand new, 119,000 square-meter stadium, with its exterior that’s made to look like a bamboo forest and it’s interior which has all the elements of a world-class facility.

“That’s what you live for,” said Lagonia of playing in a stadium like Shenzhen Bao’an. “It reminds me of the stadiums we played in at the World Cup, just amazing. It’s always phenomenal.”

Considering most Canadian university football is played in small stadiums or on makeshift fields in the middle of a school’s campus, playing at Shenzhen Bao’an was a rare and incredible treat.

“How many times do kids from Canadian universities playing women’s football get a chance to play in front of 35,000 people,” said TeamCanadahead coach Graham Roxburgh.

For Lagonia, what both teams were treated to Saturday night was merely a continuation of the experience she’s had since arriving in Shenzhen, one that was amplified by Friday’s opening ceremonies.

“It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. So surreal,” she said of the opening ceremonies. “But since we got here everything from the way we’ve been treated to the facilities has been unbelievable…. Obviously I’ve never experienced the Olympics, but this has to be pretty close.”

(Source: Justin Fauteux, FISU Young Reporter/CAN)