Man City vs Everton
So it took 2 weeks, but I finally made it to my first English Premier League Match. (pics will go up in a day or so).
Like I said before, this wasn't necessarily a classic. Everton is near the bottom of the EPL and headed towards relegation. But it is close to Manchester so there's a little rivalry.
A few interesting tidbits made this a kind of unique experience either way. First off, the match started at 11:15am, which is unusual for EPL and takes away some of the adrenalin you'd see from a fan base that hits the pub at noon for a typical 4:00pm match. Also, most of my Exchange classmates (who are NOT British) care about the EPL as much as you do. So getting them to drop £33 (about US $60) was a tough sell. So I ended up with two of my quieter Chinese classmates Song and Li. To summarize, if you're looking for a story about how me and 4 blokes sat in the pub for 4 hours before a match and then sang songs for 90 minutes in the middle of the Man City Supporter Section, you'll have to wait for another game.
BUT, it still was a blast. Some things of note:
* So I was worried about my Chinese friends wearing the wrong colors and getting heckled. Man City is blue, so I through on my navy blue shirt this morning and headed out. It was Song who wasembarrassedd for me, asking me why I was wearing Everton navy blue instead on Man City light blue.
* They have a pretty efficient system of getting everyone to key points in City centre then bussing everyone the mile or so to the stadium. Imagine an entire bus made up of Man City supporters headed to the game. Then Li, a small Chinese girl, announced very loudly to me that she loved arsenal the best and didn't really care who won between City and Everton. I think the Brits were still sleeping, because we made it off the bus unscathed.
* There's really not much of a pre-game show at these things. People wander in slowly and it wasn't really filled until kickoff.
* All Everton fans were seated in one section starting behind the goal and ending in the corner. You could tell where they were because on each end of every row, there was a stadium security person sitting there. And at the top of each staircase that led to those sections, there were 5 cops. All the potential chaos was organized into one little packet.
* American Stadium music guys have nothing on the Man City music team. They pumped out a little "What's the Story Morning Glory" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" during the pre-game. Nice choices for a 11:15am game on October 2.
* Here's something you would never see before a Mariners game. Just before player introductions, they did about a 3 minute ceremony for a long-time supporter who had passed away that week. They brought the family on the field and the crowd game them a standing ovation. It kind of gripped at the heartstrings that the team cared enough to do it and the crowd felt that they had lost one of their own.
* There are no food or drink vendors roaming the stands at anytime. Very odd.
* One of the players got hurt so I jumped out to grab a quick bite, and all but one of the stands were closed. This makes sense I guess since no one leaves their seat while the match is underway. But why not turn them into vendors? Wouldn't that make sense? What do the concessionaires do while they wait the 45 minutes for halftime?
* Here's another thing that's important to know - you can't drink any beer in the stadium part, you have to be out in the concourse. I wandered around during halftime for about 14 minutes and then grabbed a beer to take back to my seat. I got to the tunnel and only then was I told that the beer would not be joining me.
* In case you are curious, both beers and burgers are £2.75 ($5.00). So, it sounds like stadium ripoffs, but beers are usually £2.00 anyway and the burger is about £2.50 so they really don't try to screw you as much as they do in the U.S.
On to the match.....It was not unlike a Seahawks vs Arizona Cardinals game. You know the Hawks are going to win, so it's hard to get too crazy early. Then neither team scores all half, but you still know you'll win. Then about 10 minutes into the 2nd half, you get all fidgety and nervous. You start getting angry at the players for not getting on the board. Then finally in the 76th minute you get that 1st goal on a brilliant play by the person you least expected, and the place erupts into pandemonium. Then you get to celebrate the last 14 minutes (but not with a beer at your seat) - and they reward you with another goal at the very end. Everyone walks away happy and then hits parking lot gridlock. Just like the states.
In a nutshell, very comparable to a decent NFL game, but the soccer fans sing more. And they don't have as much rhythm, so when they do the classic chant "Go City, Go City, Go City" after about 3 or 4 chants it just becomes Oh ity oh ity oh ity. But there's a side subculture of pre-game bars and restaurants that I missed, but I'll try to get back down there. Who knows, maybe one weekend I'll just head down for the bars and restaurants part...Also, this wasn't City vs United or Chelsea vs Arsenal so there wasn't quite the venom. But mark it off the list - One English Premier League game in the books.
Like I said before, this wasn't necessarily a classic. Everton is near the bottom of the EPL and headed towards relegation. But it is close to Manchester so there's a little rivalry.
A few interesting tidbits made this a kind of unique experience either way. First off, the match started at 11:15am, which is unusual for EPL and takes away some of the adrenalin you'd see from a fan base that hits the pub at noon for a typical 4:00pm match. Also, most of my Exchange classmates (who are NOT British) care about the EPL as much as you do. So getting them to drop £33 (about US $60) was a tough sell. So I ended up with two of my quieter Chinese classmates Song and Li. To summarize, if you're looking for a story about how me and 4 blokes sat in the pub for 4 hours before a match and then sang songs for 90 minutes in the middle of the Man City Supporter Section, you'll have to wait for another game.
BUT, it still was a blast. Some things of note:
* So I was worried about my Chinese friends wearing the wrong colors and getting heckled. Man City is blue, so I through on my navy blue shirt this morning and headed out. It was Song who wasembarrassedd for me, asking me why I was wearing Everton navy blue instead on Man City light blue.
* They have a pretty efficient system of getting everyone to key points in City centre then bussing everyone the mile or so to the stadium. Imagine an entire bus made up of Man City supporters headed to the game. Then Li, a small Chinese girl, announced very loudly to me that she loved arsenal the best and didn't really care who won between City and Everton. I think the Brits were still sleeping, because we made it off the bus unscathed.
* There's really not much of a pre-game show at these things. People wander in slowly and it wasn't really filled until kickoff.
* All Everton fans were seated in one section starting behind the goal and ending in the corner. You could tell where they were because on each end of every row, there was a stadium security person sitting there. And at the top of each staircase that led to those sections, there were 5 cops. All the potential chaos was organized into one little packet.
* American Stadium music guys have nothing on the Man City music team. They pumped out a little "What's the Story Morning Glory" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" during the pre-game. Nice choices for a 11:15am game on October 2.
* Here's something you would never see before a Mariners game. Just before player introductions, they did about a 3 minute ceremony for a long-time supporter who had passed away that week. They brought the family on the field and the crowd game them a standing ovation. It kind of gripped at the heartstrings that the team cared enough to do it and the crowd felt that they had lost one of their own.
* There are no food or drink vendors roaming the stands at anytime. Very odd.
* One of the players got hurt so I jumped out to grab a quick bite, and all but one of the stands were closed. This makes sense I guess since no one leaves their seat while the match is underway. But why not turn them into vendors? Wouldn't that make sense? What do the concessionaires do while they wait the 45 minutes for halftime?
* Here's another thing that's important to know - you can't drink any beer in the stadium part, you have to be out in the concourse. I wandered around during halftime for about 14 minutes and then grabbed a beer to take back to my seat. I got to the tunnel and only then was I told that the beer would not be joining me.
* In case you are curious, both beers and burgers are £2.75 ($5.00). So, it sounds like stadium ripoffs, but beers are usually £2.00 anyway and the burger is about £2.50 so they really don't try to screw you as much as they do in the U.S.
On to the match.....It was not unlike a Seahawks vs Arizona Cardinals game. You know the Hawks are going to win, so it's hard to get too crazy early. Then neither team scores all half, but you still know you'll win. Then about 10 minutes into the 2nd half, you get all fidgety and nervous. You start getting angry at the players for not getting on the board. Then finally in the 76th minute you get that 1st goal on a brilliant play by the person you least expected, and the place erupts into pandemonium. Then you get to celebrate the last 14 minutes (but not with a beer at your seat) - and they reward you with another goal at the very end. Everyone walks away happy and then hits parking lot gridlock. Just like the states.
In a nutshell, very comparable to a decent NFL game, but the soccer fans sing more. And they don't have as much rhythm, so when they do the classic chant "Go City, Go City, Go City" after about 3 or 4 chants it just becomes Oh ity oh ity oh ity. But there's a side subculture of pre-game bars and restaurants that I missed, but I'll try to get back down there. Who knows, maybe one weekend I'll just head down for the bars and restaurants part...Also, this wasn't City vs United or Chelsea vs Arsenal so there wasn't quite the venom. But mark it off the list - One English Premier League game in the books.
posted by ABoyer at
6:59 AM
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