I admit that the title of this post may be hard for some of you to believe. Trust me on this one though. Football (soccer) matches out here are intense. I have been to a few games in Brazil and I would venture to say that the atmosphere was on par with some games that I attended there.
PRE-GAME ACTIVITIES
The day started off at 11:30am with me meeting my old roommate from San Francisco at a pub near Baker Street to catch the 1st half of the Liverpool vs. Arsenal game. This is a BIG game in England. I noticed that perhaps I did not quite grasp the intensity of this rivalry when I walked out of the tube station and there were around 10
police officers standing outside of the pub. Mind you this was a pub on a fairly busy street in London and nowhere near the stadium. Upon entering, I was greeted by a guy wailing away on his bagpipes. Next, a guy whose picture could appear next to the term 'hooligan' in the dictionary,started a chant in the bar. The great thing about the chants are that most of the melodies are based on old songs so they are pretty easy to learn. After a pint of Guinness Extra Cold (which is like regular cold in the US) we headed to catch the train to Watford. We arrived in Watford around 1:30 and headed straight to the bar. All football matches in England are like Senior Prom. You cannot drink inside, but everyone shows up drunk. Again, outside the bar there were about 8-10 cops who would occasionally walking to the bar and restore order. At around 4:45, everyone started emptying out of the bar and walking towards the stadium.THE STADIUM:
Watford, which was owned by Elton John in the 80s, plays its home matches at Vicarage Road. The stadium is small, seating around 20,000 fans. This is a pretty small stadium for England, but Watford is one of the smaller teams in the Premiership. Away fans are housed in the Vicarage Road Stand at one end of the ground. This stand is shared with home supporters sand has the obligatory 'no-mans land' in between the fans. AT THE GAME:
In brief, lots of chanting (mostly by Chelsea fans), lots of missed chances, and a lone goal in the 93rd minute. Overall it was a blast.
The season is winding down so there are not too many games left, but they start back up again in August.
6 comments:
why does the bobby on the left not look excited to be in your picture? i, on the other hand, am excited to see riot gear on the horses! extra cold guiness? sounds like london lacks more than dryer sheets and gotorade. how 'bout some ice?
are you referring to the overall atmosphere? I can certainly understand that, but if you are saying there are more felons or future felons at that game than a Raiders game....well that is just something I am going to have to see for myself.
Fala primo!! tranquilo?
Que bacana que voce foi ver 'soccer" aí..mas não ha nada como o palestra lotado vendo a seleção em campo....hehehe.
pena que na reta final o verdão ta patinando um pouco..mas tenho fé que vamos pra libertadores no ano que vem.
Seu pai esteve aqui no fim de semana e foi muito legal tê-lo aqui. Bom que ele nos ajudou na ardua tarefa de livrar espaço na adega do pai.
tudo de bom pra voce ai
abraço
Marcelo Zardo
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very good and cool,thank you for your sharing.
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