Every term, IES runs sponsors (subsidizes) a trip to a Premier League football match. Typically, they get tickets to a Fulham match? Why? Well, Chelsea is actually the closer of the two southwest London clubs, but Chelsea is also top of the table. That means that Chelsea tickets are both absurdly expensive and quite difficult to come by. Fulham, on the other hand, is a middle of the road Premier League team at best. Tickets are reasonable (by Premier League standards) and readily available. Thus, booking tickets for a Fulham game was a very reasonable choice.
They made a more interesting choice in what game and section they chose. They chose the Fulham v Tottenham game and booked us in the neutral stands. Tottenham is another London club and is based on the north side of London. As one might expect, a large quantity of Tottenham fans made the short trip to southwest London and the away stands were completely full. And we were among them. The concept of neutral stands is that they are place for fans with no rooting interest in the game. IES decided that that included us. However, the truth is that there are really two sections of the stadium: Fulham fans and opposition fans. The neutral stands are tucked up against the opposition stands, which means that the neutral stands are functionally away stands. In that way, I came to attend my first Premier League match sitting in the away stands for a derby (European terminology for a crosstown rivalry). And I was rooting for Fulham.
Now, let me back up a bit. We met in the lobby of the res hall. Our group was IES Elaine, a bunch of Skidmore kids, Adam, Eugene, Dan, and Me. Dan is, of course, my roommate. Adam is a big Arsenal fan from New York City. He's really nice and generally good fun. Eugene is a Chelsea fan and is the kind of guy who makes everyone cringe when he enters the room. He single-handedly ruined the Chelsea-Liverpool match for me by asking me stupid questions about football and then not waiting for me to finish my answer before asking me another stupid question. Then, Dan walked into the room and he asked Dan the same stupid questions to which Dan gave (surprise!) the exact same answers as me.
We set off together from the Res Hall and took the District line to Putney Bridge. Some of the kids in the group had anxiety about the directions to Craven Cottage (Fulham's stadium). This anxiety was utterly unwarranted. The entire train was full of people going to the game and after getting off the tube there could be no doubt of the directions to Craven Cottage just follow the moving throng of fans towards the stadium. This is exactly what we did.
As we walked, loud, call-and-response cheers went up. At first, I couldn't make them out. Then, Dan told me what they were. Tottenham fans were yelling "YID ARMY!" and other Tottenham fans were calling back "YID ARMY!" You see, Tottenham is a historically Jewish club and many of their supporters are Jewish (many aren't). This led to other clubs' fans calling Tottenham supporters "yids". Yid is a ethnic slur against Jews. Instead of being offended, Tottenham supporters took ownership of the slur and now Tottenham supporters are known as the Yid Army.
In addition we heard some other Tottenham songs/chants. The main alternative was "We Are Tottenham". The lyrics are as follows: "We are Tottenham/We are Tottenham/Super Tottenham/From the Lane/We Are Tottenham/Super Tottenham/From the Lane". The Lane refers to Tottenham's home field, White Hart Lane. Also popular were "We Hate Chelsea". The lyrics to that would be: "We hate Chelsea/We hate Chelsea/We hate Chelsea/And we hate Chelsea/WE HATE CHELSEA!". The fact that Chelsea was not playing in the upcoming game doesn't have anything to do with anything mind you. West Ham also got the same song. Don't ask me why the didn't sing that with regards to the day's opponent Fulham. Apparently, they hate Chelsea and West Ham more. Finally, there were variations on songs about Dimitar Berbatov. Berbatov is a striker for Manchester United. However, before being transferred (sort of like traded) to Manchester in September he played for Tottenham. Word got out that he was looking to be transferred and Manchester United bit. This did not make him popular with Tottenham fans. That leads to mean songs. Most of them revolve around Berbatov's life story as a man who "played himself out of poverty." One I caught began: "Dim-it-tar Ber-ba-tov, his mother works as a window washer...".
This all happened on just the walk up to Craven Cottage, so I knew it would be an intense experience. As we neared the stadium, mounted police (as in, on horses) were everywhere and had megaphones to control the crowd. Things bottle-necked at the gates and we had to wait quite a while to get through. Finally, we got through and we made our way to our seats having missed the first five minutes of the match. Who was my ticket next to? On one side, I had a stranger. On the other, Eugene. On Eugene's left was Dan. On his left was Adam. On his left was a Tottenham fan. There we were, the four of us sitting in between a mass of Tottenham fans. You had Adam and Dan, both Arsenal fans and thus mortal opponents of Tottenham. Arsenal is also based in north London and Tottenham is Arsenal's biggest rival. Thus, they were rooting for Fulham. I am Chelsea fan but was rooting for the home team. Besides, I have a soft spot for Fulham because my favorite player, America's Clint Dempsey, plays for them. Eugene is a Chelsea fan but was rooting for Tottenham for no apparent reason. I should say that Eugene is a Chelsea "fan" loosely. He is the kind of fan with more money than brains. He has spent absurd money on Chelsea tickets and has all manner of Chelsea paraphenalia. He also probably could not name five Chelsea players. He in fact asked me: "Is Henry Chelsea's best player?" That's an utterly confusing question. Is he referring to Thierry Henry (pronounced AWN-REE) who plays for FC Barcelona and has never played for Chelsea or does he mean John Terry, Chelsea's captain. I had no clue. It was definitely an interesting seating situation.
The game itself was tremendous. We were nearly at field level and I can assure you live Premier League football looks nothing like it does on TV. When one watches on TV, it's easy to forget how fast everything takes place, how physical the game is, and how difficult everything is. On TV, it looks so easy, so automatic. Watching it live gives a sense of the speed and chaos of the game. We were right behind the goal that Fulham attacked in the first half, so we had a great view of all the corner kicks and other attacks on goal. In fact, we had a great view of the first goal. Fulahm's Simon Davies launched an extremely speculative long range shot at Tottenham's goalkeeper, Heurelho Gomes. It should not have presented any problems and should have been handled easily by Gomes as it hit him right in the chest. Instead, Gomes fumbled it and some how directed it into his own goal. Technically, Davies got credit for the goal. In actuality, Gomes basically scored on his own team. It was hilarious.
The first half ended with the score Fulham 1 -- Tottenham 0. As the second half started, Tottenham brought on two substitutes. Luka Modric came off in favor of Aaron Lennon and Tom Huddlestone was replaced by Roman Pavlyuchenko. Apparently, our friend Eugene is Russian. Or has a man crush on Roman Pavlyuchenko. Either way, every time the ball got within two or three yards of Pavlyuchenko, we were treated to Eugene screaming "PAVLYUCHENKO!" It was a bit excessive. Thankfully, Pavlyuchenko is mainly used as a target man for service and Fulham defender Brede Hangeland used his impressive height to head any and all service away before it could even get to the Russian. Thus, he was a non factor and we were saved whatever god-awful celebration might have followed a Pavlyuchenko goal.
Fulham added another goal in the second half when Tottenham dealt poorly with a Fulham corner, allowing Fulham striker Andy Johnson to clean up the mess and slot home a goal. That put the score to 2-0 for Fulham with 20 minutes to go. Tottenham substitute Frazier Campbell pulled one back for the visitors in the 81st minute. Frazier Campbell is an interesting figure. As part of the Berbatov deal, Manchester United sent back Campbell on a full-season loan to Tottenham. Now, Campbell has became one of Tottenham's most dangerous attackers. Manchester United has accordingly decided that they may try to break their deal and take him back at mid-season. Say what you will, the Premier League is not without its intrigues. Fortunately for Fulham, it was too little to late. Final score: Fulham 2 -- Tottenham 1.
Not only did we hear songs before the game but we also heard them during. We got all the ones I mentioned previous to the game and a few more. There was "When The Spurs Go Marching In". That would be "When The Saints Go Marching In" with the lyrics changed to include Tottenham's nickname "Spurs," which derives from there full name Tottenham Hotspur. There was also "Come...On...You...Spurs!" sung slowly and repeatedly. From the Fulham side I could make out the old "Let's Go!" chant (da da da-da-da da-da-da-da LET'S GO!) with the Let's Go! replace with "Ful-Ham!" and singing of the tune to Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," which is played after the game.
Overall, it was an amazing experience that I enjoyed. It's a completely different experience from attending an NFL game or NHL game. It's slightly more like Wrestlemania (without the pyro, though) but actually the crowd is most similar to that of an indy wrestling show in terms of the involvement and the vocalness. When you combine that atmosphere with action from the world's best league of the world's most popular sport, you have special experience indeed. That's why Dan and I got tickets to Fulham's December 6 match against Manchester City (this time in the home seats). I'm very excited to go back and see what it's like to be in the midst of a home crowd.
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