Why I now have a Premier League Team to dislike
Hate might be too strong, but as a futbol-fan wannabe, I now have a team to dislike: Fulham. Not because of anything the Fullham Football Club has done to my team, but because I had tickets -- expensive tickets 2nd row up on the equivalent of the 50 yard line for me and two English buddies -- and they moved the game.
Apparently since the English Premier League has so many matches both within the league and in the various cups and other European leagues during the course of a season, they move around games that conflict or to free up crowded schedules. Fulham had several Europa league games in addition to it's EPL schedule and moved their 4/10/10 match with Stoke to May. Fine, but that was my one chance to see a match featuring teams in the Premiership.
Neither of my two buddies (one a Chelsea supporter and the other a West Ham supporter) were there to root for their teams, but both thought it a good chance for me to see my first match of any type. You don't get chances in America. And the stadium for the Cottagers is supposedly splendid, near the Thames and old-fashioned. I was excited.
I originally became a fan to have something to banter about with these friends -- coworkers actually -- and I chose Everton to support, because of an ESPN-the-Mag story about the club. One of the buds bought and shipped me an Everton top to wear around in America. The first day I wore it -- miles from Europe -- I was stopped by a Liverpool supporter in Best Buy. He was as surprised as I, but we couldn't discuss much as I had little idea what was going on with the league. In London, you can't get away from it.
The team I chose to support, Everton, baby!
Futbol in London, forgive me if I say "soccer" by accident now and then, is a supporter's dream. London area itself has and handful of teams (depending on how tight you restrict "London"). The UK, with about 50 million people, support 92 different professional futbol clubs, 20 of them in the Premier League. That's amazing. And they are nuts about it, too, supporting teams well even if they fall into a lower division due to relegation. I guess if you don't have NBA, NFL, and MLB competing for attention, it's easier (though, there is also rugby and cricket in the UK...).
So, Fulham cancels and I have my first team to, um, not like. I can't say "hate" because it seems a little strong. But most of the people in London proper will go out of their way to tell you how much they don't like certain teams, especially Liverpool, with all their bandwagon-jumping American fans. So having a team to dislike seems as important as a team to support. I guess it's like any Red Sox/Yankees rivalry or Redskins/Cowboys derby. I grew up in Montana, where there are no close-by professional sports teams, so I never latched on to one, preferring instead a good game, no matter the teams.
In the end, we saw Charlton v Colchester in League One, the 3rd of the 4 professional leagues. It was a good match and the Charlton supporters were loud and happy when their team pulled out a 1-0 full time result.
The team I saw in my first ever (live) soccer/futbol/football match of any type
Getting there was an interesting mix of buses and trains, both underground and overground. The Charlton pitch was in a residential area and at the end we followed 17,000 people out a windy residential street (that must get old if you live right there) full of cops on horses. At the train station, we made it in the first wave, before they closed the gates so no one got crowded off the platform on into an oncoming train. Across the platform, a young Colchester fan jeered the Charlton fans on this side (going the other direction) and they traded barbs. It was pretty friendly though.
On the train I sat across from my buddies and between two older gentlemen. The man on my left dug in for his phone a couple of times and when he got up, a stop before ours, his wallet dropped right on my lap! I quickly gave it to him, hoping he'd realize his mistake and not accuse me of picking his pocket. He looked at me in alarm -- realizing how close he came to losing his wallet at a bad time.
On the trip there, we were given instructions to get on the wrong train and had to get off and find a place to call a private cab to get us there. One of my buddies almost got sick in the cab partly because of a smell that I didn't detect and the crazy driver who drove like my son. Not the 17 year old, the 5 year old.
All in all, a very good experience. The lone goal was netted in a way that I saw coming (this is very rare as I've yet to understand anything beyond futbol basics) and was beautiful. Colchester didn't put up much of a fight until the final few minutes and in extra time but they made it very interesting at the end with 3 or 4 shots that came very close.
