The Beautiful Game

Kevin here.

OK, we overplanned our time in London.  There.  I said it.  There was more there to do than we really had time for, much less blog about it in a timely manner.  So, now that we are resting comfortably in Chipping Campden, we have some time to catch up.  So, for the next week or so, expect quite a few remembrances and reflections on our 3 weeks in the capital of Great Britain.  We've got some interesting posts planned, so stay tuned.  First up:  our trip to Craven Cottage to see an English Premier League soccer game.

Warning:  this post is about soccer.  But stick through to the end and you'll be rewarded with a "There & Back Again" blog first:  video!

FFC = Fulham Football Club.

I grew up playing soccer.  I tried other sports.  Basketball for example.  Despite my height, I wasn't any good at basketball.  So I began to loathe it and did not play for long.  I don't know that I loathe basketball any more.  But it's not a sport that holds any interest for me.  I never play basketball.  I never watch basketball.

I also tried baseball when I was young.  I did show some talent as a pitcher, but it was mostly because I could throw with pretty good accuracy.   My pitches were s-l-o-w.  But they were on target.  And because they were slow, lots of other kids swung at the ball WAY before it actually got over the plate.  I struck a lot of kids out. But, nevertheless, I didn't really enjoy it and stopped playing after a few seasons.

Then my parents introduced me to soccer.  Oh, man.  This was it.  I loved it.  I played for many years.  All of my closest friends played too.  My dad did some coaching, my Mom yelled on the sidelines, I played on some really good teams, and I got pretty good.  Now, I was never quite as good as Barrett and Dwayne -- two of my closest friends.  But I did my best to emulate whatever they did on the field -- especially Dwayne (who went on to play at the collegiate level and tried out for the US Olympic team) -- and it was enough to be one of the better players.

I went to see some Atlanta Chiefs games.  They were a professional team in the old NASL (North American Soccer League) and even got to see them play great teams like the New York Cosmos (with Pele) and Tampa Bay Rowdies (with Englishman Rodney Marsh).  I played a lot of indoor soccer during those years too and increased my skill level at the Mike Balson Soccer Academy (Balson was a long-time Chiefs player).

At some point during these years, I found a glorious TV show on PBS:  Soccer Made in Germany.  I don't know where this show had been all of my life, but I was hooked.  Guys like Franz Beckenbauer were burning up the field (ahem...the pitch).  And I began to learn this great truth:  the best soccer in the world was played in Europe.  They called it football there (which makes total sense).  And so I began to learn the names and come up with favorites like any kid does.  Mine were guys like Beckenbauer, Kevin Keegan, Johan Cruyff, and Pele of course.  And the teams too.  English teams like Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, and Manchester United.  Spanish teams in La Liga like Real Madrid.  German teams in their league (Budesliga) like Bayern Munich.

These names, these teams, these experiences were a huge part of growing up for me.  And my kids have played soccer and enjoyed it as well.  So -- while planning this trip to Europe -- it was with great excitement that I realized: hey, we can go to a European football game!

But where?  Well, the English Premier league has some of the best football in the world.  Sure, there's Barcelona in Spain and whatnot.  But -- pound-for-pound -- it's hard to beat the English football clubs.

A short digression: there are 4 things in every London newspaper's sports section:  football, cricket, rugby, and... cycling!  I gather Britain has a great cycling program -- particularly track cycling in a velodrome -- and interest is high leading up to the Olympics.

Uh, where was I?  Anway, London has 5 Premier League teams (Arsenal, Tottenham, Queens Park, Chelsea, and Fulham).  I thought seriously about heading out of London to Liverpool or maybe Manchester to see United play.  But we wanted to take the kids and travel costs made the expense more than we could spare.  So, we decided to stick to a London team.

But, even in London, it's a tough decision.  Arsenal would be fun to see in their giant Emirates Stadium that seats 60,000.  But -- get this -- tickets for the 5 of us would cost close to $2500.  Yep.  Arsenal is a top-tier team with a big payroll to meet.  Plus it's really hard to get tickets.  So, that wasn't going to happen.  In the end, we settled on Fulham.  Now Fulham is what's called a "mid-table" team.  If you look at all of the EPL teams on a table from top (good) to bottom (not so good)... well, they're in the middle:  neither particularly bad (which means they might get relegated to a lower league next season) nor particularly good (like Manchester United or Arsenal, both perennial top-table teams).  But, it's all relative.  This is the Premier League after all.  So... Fulham was it.  This was partly because tickets for kids were a cheap 10 GBP.  But also because Fulham is the club where American Clint Dempsey plays.  Clint's a great player and is Fulham's leading scorer with 16 goals this season.  He's 4th in goal-scoring in the Premier League this season.  Impressive.  It's great to see an American go overseas and perform so well.  So I was excited to go to Fulham and root on a homeboy.

So... off we went on the tube (man, the kids loved the tube. I need to write a post about the tube) to the suburb of Fulham to see Fulham take on Norwich City, another mid-table team.  Once we got off the tube at Putney Bridge, we joined thousands of people streaming towards the stadium to see the game.

People streaming towards the Fulham game

And I'm one of them, full of anticipation.

Fulham's stadium is called Craven Cottage, seats almost 30,000 people, and sits on the bank of the Thames River in southwest London.  It's a great spot for soccer, although the riverside location is not well used (you can hardly see the river). They have plans for an enhanced facility on the same sight that should change all that.  I look forward to going back in a few years to see.

The front of Craven Cottage.

We settled into our seats with a few minutes to spare before game time.  Even though I purchased these seats months in advance, getting five of them together was still difficult.  In fact, a couple of our seats were immediately behind a metal stadium support/post.  But, not too bad really.  The kids seemed pretty excited.  Although, to be honest, it was probably mostly due to the thought of getting some stadium food.  They don't seem to do popcorn over here in the U.K.  But I guess everybody likes nachos.  So the kids got nachos.  And, yes, nachos at a sports stadium in the U.K. taste just as bad as they do at a stadium in the U.S.  Glow-orange cheese product: it's international.

But, once everyone was settled, then the game started and it was showtime!

Wow, what a ride.  There's nothing like being at a football game in Europe.  The crowd was rocking, yelling, cheering, chanting.  The home crowd would often yell "C'mon Fulham! C'mon Fulham!" to encourage the team.  We joined in, of course.

One great moment was getting to watch Clint Dempsey score the first goal early in the game.  Dempsey -- one of Fulham's top players -- is a crowd favorite, so the place went nuts.

Clint Dempsey is on the left in his trademark orange cleats

Fulham's is the oldest professional football team in London - 130 years old.  Their team name is the "Whites". Regardless, I don't think this sign would fly in the U.S.

I'll spare you the play-by-play.  Suffice it to say that Fulham defeated Norwich 2-1.  And may it further suffice to say that it was a blast.  Attending a professional soccer game in Europe was on my bucket list and it did not disappoint.  And I was glad to share that moment with Kelly and the kids since soccer was a such a big part of growing up for me.  Kelly and the kids all seemed to enjoy the experience.  And I was energized.

OK, I decided to try and put together a short video.  It's my first shot at video creation, so forgive the rough edges (too small, not enough good footage, etc.).  But I learned a lot and may try to do a couple of more.  This one is only about 60 seconds long, so it shouldn't kill your day.  But I hope it gives you a sense of what it's like to be there: the crowd, the game, the chanting.  A great day at Craven Cottage.  Enjoy!