May the Football Odds Be Ever in Your Favor - Oxford, United Kingdom
Oxford, United Kingdom
Football (a.k.a. soccer) is the most popular sport in England. The premier league is for fans who have serious money and mean serious business. We wanted to attend a football match (match is the proper England way of saying it), but we weren't really willing to get involved with the fierce crowds of teams like Manchester United. Instead, we got tickets to the Oxford league just below the premier league. Our Oxford team is decked out in yellow and blue kits (a.k.a. jerseys) and call themselves Oxford United. If you are a proper die-hard fan, you call the Oxford team the Yellows and the other team a whole lot of swear words. The stadium was on the outskirts of town, so being savvy travelers, we decided to take the Oxford metro. Unfortunately for us, we were not savvy enough and ended up chasing buses around town for an hour. Although this may seem like a major setback, we were actually laughing the whole time. How many Americans does it take to figure out the metro? 10, after an hour and help from 3 Brits. When we finally hunted down the bus, we found that it was a red double-decker! As the cheesy tourists we are, we sat in the front of the 2nd level. It's much more frightening up there. The bus looms over unsuspecting bicyclists and narrowly brushes past buildings as the driver navigates dark streets. Multiple times we feared for a bicyclist's life when he sped out in front of our bus. After a 30 minute or so ride, we saw the stadium glowing in the distance. The whole outside was covered with big spotlights. We got off at the nearest stop and started heading towards the lights. What is interesting is that the stadium is right smack dab in the middle of a residential area. We walked through the neighborhood a block or so until we came it a small path that led right up to the stadium. I can't believe that people would want to live right across the street from a bright, loud football stadium. Maybe they are just really big fans. The stadium itself is about half inside and half outside. The ticket office was indoors, but then you had to go outside and around the stadium to the special gate for your specific seating section. After you produced the necessary documents to make it past the gate guard, you entered an indoor food and bathroom building. When you wanted to go to your seats, you exited that building and went outside to the stands. The stands were under a covering, but the actual field was open to the rain that was pouring that night. We got there around half time and the score was 0-0. We had seats in the 2nd row and had a fantastic view. We were engulfed by a sea of yelling and searing fans. England is known to very dedicated to the sport, and I can guarantee that the fans lived up to their stereotype. The fans are SO dedicated to their game, that football can sometimes get violent between the fans in the stands. To combat this, stadiums don't allow alcohol in the stands. After our strange bus adventure we had wanted to drown our sorrows in a good old fashioned pint, but were surprised when we learned we couldn't leave the food building with it. Instead, we all just got hot chocolate because we were chilly from the walk. When we got back to our seats, we were greeted by the friendly fans in our stand. Although they were cussing out the other team, they would turn to us and explain why the other team was just so awful. A favorite fan phrase? "Are you a dumby in disguise?" Or maybe, "Did you have brain surgery? It certainly didn't work!" Our team, the Yellows, ended up scoring the only goal in the game. I'm not terribly familiar with football, but I think that means it was a good game. Elliot says that one of the key moments durning the match was when the other team received a red card. I don't know why a red card is bad, but our fans booed the other team's player as he did the walk of shame off the field. Seems like he must have done something pretty horrible to get ejected. Most interestingly, when our home team scored nothing really happened other than that the fans cheered. At US hockey games (the only sport I actually follow) horns blare, music pounds and the fans scream and stomp. At this match, the fans yelled and waved a flag, but the actual stadium did nothing to celebrate the goal. I was expecting a big show from the tea. Even after the game was over, nothing really happened except that fans lined up to see the players exit the field. I thought there would be more celebration! Maybe it's more about the actual game here then the whole experience of being in the stadium. To me, I enjoy a good stadium that hypes up the audience, but that's probably because I was raised at the Xcel Center in the state of hockey.