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Thursday, May 8, 2014

Chelsea Football Game

Back to my awesome weekend with my brother in town...

Saturday evening, we went to a Chelsea Football game! Tickets to these games typically sell for 2-3x the face value of the tickets. Thankfully, my friend from the butcher shop, Andrew, is a die-hard Chelsea fan, and offered to find us tickets at face value. The seats were amazing, almost center field and about 20 rows up.

We watched Chelsea vs. Stoke City, and Chelsea won 3-0. It was a pretty exciting game which lead to Brett and I closely following Chelsea throughout the champions league playoffs, which they unfortunately ended up losing to Madrid in the quarterfinals.




THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT FOOTBALL BEFORE THIS GAME:

1. Don't EVER call it soccer in front of a Chelsea fan... Allen learned this really quick after he accidentally said soccer, he was interrupted by our friend Andrew with a few choice words.


(Squint much?)

2. No drinking inside the arena. Due to the intense rivalry in football (soccer), stadiums only sell alcohol to fans, 10 minutes before the game and at intermission, in an attempt to keep the crowd at bay. And you can't buy 2 beers to drink throughout each half, no drinks are allowed inside the arena, therefore you have to finish them before you go in. They really limit your ability to get wasted at the game, which was a huge disappointment for me, as the main reason I attend sporting events in the States is so that I can drink outside. Baseball is so slow, I would fall asleep without a beer and some nachos to keep myself entertained.

3. Due to #1, everyone drinks at a bar beforehand, to pre-game. Now this is not unusual to any sporting event in the States, but what was interesting was that in another attempt to keep fighting at a minimal, a lot of bars will only allow Chelsea fans to enter. Additionally, the bar we went to only allowed people who knew the owner to come in. But thankfully our trusted companion, Andrew, came through for us again and we were allowed in this particular bar.

In order to better capture the intense rivalries between these football teams, let me tell you one encounter Andrew has had while being a Chelsea fan. He said that one time he was leaving a Chelsea football game, and someone had made a shiv out of the metal end of an umbrella and stabbed him in the shoulder over an argument after the game. 

4. They had some crazy chants like the one below:


Video of a goal being scored:
 
Hope everyone had a lovely day! In two weeks Brett's parent's will be here!
 
Cheers! Mary


7 comments:

  1. We went to the Chelsea vs. West Ham match back in November, and I loved all of the chants! It was very exciting even though I know nothing about football. Thankfully the matches are only about two hours, which is short enough to deal with no alcohol :) hah!

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    1. Haha same here! It's hard to pay attention to football games when there isn't a lot of scoring. And yea! Good point on the length of the match! Thank goodness it's not the length of a baseball game! haha! I hope your summer travels are kicking off and going well, I can't wait to visit Turkey!

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  3. I love this! I'm a previous temporary expat turning to become a permanent expat in the UK this fall - I didn't make it to a football game last time, but from friends I've definitely seen how crazy those Brits can get with their sports (and their drinks!). I can't wait to finally experience it!

    Great blog!

    Caity at Adventures Abroad Blog

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    1. Hi Caity- Thanks so much for your comment! The game was so much fun, you will definitely have to see one, but that means you need to pick a team! The world cup is coming up this summer, so I am sure London will be crazy during the games!

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  4. i love this so much! europeans + their football is the best. you're darling! XO

    the well-traveled wife ♥

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Emi! I loved your post on Yosemite!

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