Football or Soccer?

Around this time last year, I was at a NFL American football game at Wembley Stadium with a bunch of fellow American expats. This time around, I was headed to Arsenal Stadium with a bunch of Brits, Kiwis, and Aussies to watch a different kind of football game. The times, they are a changing.

Arsenal was slated to play the Bolton Wanderers in the Carling Cup tournament, and a bunch of my work mates and I decided to check it out. The tickets were dirt cheap, and we headed there as a group after work.

There were loads of stands outside of the stadium selling all kinds of food and football gear, and we all bought a little something. I scooped up an Arsenal scarf and a korean bbq baguette. I was super surprised that they had korean food, which isn't exactly common in London, and even more surprised that they had put bulgogi in a baguette, but I wasn't complaining as I wolfed my sandwich down.

Prior to coming to the game, I had decided to cheer on Arsenal for three reasons: (1) it's a London team; (2) they have a Korean player (go Park!); and (3) their fans are referred to as gunners (pronounced gunners or gooners), which reminds me of my time in law school where overanxious students with their hands perpetually in the air were commonly referred to as gunners (J was, I wasn't).

We finally headed into the stadium, and let me tell you, those turnstiles are super narrow! I saw some larger people after I entered, and I couldn't figure out how they got through those damn turnstiles. We had a few pints and then went looking for our seats, which were pretty close to the field!

The game itself was lots of fun. The first half was quite boring, but the second half was much more exciting and had us up on our feet most of the time. My poor friend sitting next to me had to explain a lot of the rules of the game to me, but no explaining was necessary when our team scored a goal and I jumped up to cheer with the rest of the crowd.

There were a few things I noticed that were a bit different from other sporting games that I had gone to in the US:
(1) The chants and cheers - Definitely very different. I didn't know half the stuff that they were chanting, but a common one was "Who are ya? Who are ya?" hollered at the fans of the opposing team while swinging your arm and pointing at them.
(2) They applaud after their team has missed a goal. I asked why, and the response I got was that it was a good kick and it wasn't their fault that it didn't go in. Wow, talk about good sportsmanship.
(3) The game keeps on going no matter the weather. It started raining midway through the game, and the players and a lot of the fans were getting soaking wet. Nevertheless, the players kept on playing and the fans stayed resolutely in their seats. That's devotion.

All in all, it was a great game, and now there's talk about going to another one in a couple of weeks. Could this be happening? Am I turning into a football hooligan? It remains to be seen...