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Published: September 17th 2007
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Only in England
I am used to hot dogs, nachos and peanuts. Not Steak and Ale pie. When in Rome, eh? Sport, for whatever reason, often defines people. The teams they support often embody their own lifestyle. If you are from Pittsburgh or Chicago, you have blue collar pride. And you want your Steelers or Bears to play with a working class attitude as well. Yet, in America, we have so many professional sports that each city always has a rallying point. If you’re from the Windy City, no matter if you like the Cubs or White Sox, you LOVE the Bears.
Imagine if America had one sport. Just baseball. Or just football. One game that defined it, and its people, to the very core. That’s English Premier League football (or soccer).
This past weekend I experienced a sporting event unequalled in America. Even if you hate soccer, which most Yanks do, you couldn’t help but to have been in awe of the passion exhibited at Stamford Bridge, home of London soccer powerhouse Chelsea FC.
If you’ve ever been to a Cubs game you know that sitting in Wrigley Field, in my opinion, is an incomparable sporting experience in America. The fans, the history, the ardent team support, and, of course, the booze all add to being at Wrigley.
Field of Dreams
I've always wanted to go to a Premier League match. Here I am. Scarf and all. Now imagine that atmosphere on steroids (which isn’t hard considering baseball’s current state).
Football in England is all they have. It’s live and die with your team. If they lose, no one goes home to watch London’s other teams play on TV. If the Cubs blow a 3-run lead on a Sunday in September, Chicagoans turn to the Bears for comfort. Not so in England.
Saturday’s game featured Chelsea vs. Blackburn Rovers who, ironically, had an American goalie. Long story short, the “match” ended in a 0-0 tie. Something that people in the States would abhor. How can you play a game for 90 minutes and have no score, no overtime and end in a tie? I know. It’s hard to stomach.
But the atmosphere of this venue was inexplicable. It wasn’t 90 minutes of slow, drawn out sport. It was 90 full minutes of singing and chanting, yelling and screaming, cussing and cajoling. It never stopped. Come to think of it, there wasn’t even a lull. It was like 90 minutes of people doing The Wave. Only better, more exciting and with an actual purpose.
At one point during the match we were sitting right
Oh, the irony!
Always wanted to do this. behind the goal when Chelsea’s Michael Essien shot a left-footed screamer towards the upper-right corner of the goal. Blackburn’s goalie made a diving save. As Essien ripped the shot the entire crowd stood. Upon witnessing the fingertip save the people surrounding me turned violent. “Bloody” and “rubbish” were the words du jour. People pounded chairs and screamed in disgust. So close.
With the outpouring of emotion, these events are wrought with security. Beer can only be consumed near the concession stands. None is allowed at your seats. None is sold in the stands. Imagine that in the Wrigley Field bleachers! I don’t think so.Ten minutes before the match ended, hundreds of security guards surrounded the perimeter of the field to quell any hooliganism or potential riots. Those using foul language and making inappropriate taunts or gestures to Blackburn fans (of which there were around 300 in a 50,000 stadium) are immediately located and told to stop. Sometimes, if the rivalry is big enough, the opposing fans are escorted into the stadium with London Metropolitan Police surrounding them. That’s the magnitude of this sport in England. Unmatched by any sporting event I have seen. And it happens every weekend from
Stamford Bridge
Home to English football power Chelsea FC. August to March here.
I did some of the basic tourist sightseeing but it paled in comparison to actually experiencing the English culture through sport.
With the Cubs in a pennant race, I can’t help but to compare the playoff atmosphere in Chicago to the one I saw on Saturday in England. Only the experience in the UK is replicated every weekend regardless of the standings. I guess the best way to sum it up is that if you are from the Northside of Chicago you have an unrelenting faith that the Cubs won’t let you down. And if, God forbid, they end up doing so…you know the neighborhood bars, and probably the Bears, will pick your spirits up.
In England, if your football side (and you can support only ONE) loses, you have nothing else.
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