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My dad got tickets for the Chelsea - Stoke game next month. Neither of us are Chelsea fans but the stadium is just down the road from my sisters place. So we are gonna go when we visit her.
Nice! Too bad the So Bar is closed down...I would've recommended that. Hopefully the attitude in the stadium isn't as toxic by that point. You don't want to have to sit next to a bunch of angry, whining men all day. Let me know how you like it.
It was pretty awesome!
Heres a long ass post of what I remember if you're bored.
We started off by parking the car near my sisters old place in South Kensington. Man that place looks mad. All those multimillion pond houses and porsche's and ferrari's everywhere.
So we walked down a bit towards the ground to look for a pub. We found this place almost right next to where we parked in Kensington, so we went in there and sat down outside. Most of the time we were there my dad was joking about the type of people who live around there. Just as we sat down this group of socialites that looked straight out of that awful show Made in Chelsea sat down right next to us. The first thing one of them says is "Oh mummys starting up her own fashion line this season. Its like silk but with different colour paint splashed on it"
They kept going on about their private parties and their exclusive college courses the whole time we were there. It was all funny though, added to the experience and all that haha.
After an hour of that we walked over to Fullham Road and slowly made our way down to The Bridge. I like it how you see more and more fans the closer you get. Then when you get to where the road is shut off its just solid blue shirts.
So we found our way in after walking the wrong way around the ground to get to our gate. Our seats were just to the side of the center line. My dad tried to get tickets to be behind one of the goals where the atmosphere is best, but they were all sold out. Where we were sat was pretty much all tourists and little kids. Our view was awesome though.
I remember when all the players ran out to warm up, seeing them in person for the first time gave me the same feeling like the first and only time I have seen pro skates in person (the eS UK tour in 2001 lol).
The starting 11 were all in a circle away from us, and right in front of us were the subs in a triangle passing to each other. It was Luiz, Mata and Torres. Watching them just pass to each other was like watching Koston kickflip in person.
Also seeing Torres kick the ball about standing pretty close to me made things feel a little more human. I kinda felt bad about the things I have said about him and really wanted him to do well haha.
They passed the ball about for a few mins then Luiz walked to the side to talk to one of the staff. So Mata and Torres carried on passing to each other. Torres passed the ball pretty hard to Mata at one point and he couldn't control it. It bounced straight off his foot and shot across the ground straight towards Luiz. Luiz was looking the other way and was still having a conversation but he could still see the ball coming, and instead of stopping it and passing it back, he just casually stepped to the side and let the ball roll up to the other end of the pitch. Mata had to run up the pitch to get the ball and ran right into Luiz's back on the way there haha.
So the game kicked off and things got going. It was awesome seeing it in person, you can really appreciate how fast paced it is and how strong the players are. It was pretty slow to start and everyone was making some pretty bad passes. Meireles was fucking awful though. He kicked the ball straight off the side of the pitch like 3 times trying to pass and alot of the crowd were getting angry with him. Thankfully he got subbed and the awesome Mata came on.
I didn't see the foul where Fuller got sent off and neither did my dad. We were both following the ball which was in the other half of the pitch. Its was weird not being able to see replays of things like on TV.
The Stoke keeper was taking as long as possible to take every kick. The crowd started booing him pretty soon but he still took stupidly long to place the ball down and kick it. By the last 10 mins Drogba started picking up the ball and placing it down for him which everyone was cheering.
Drogba was funny all game though. You can see him winding other players up all the time. The way he just walks up beside them and casually says things is funny.
The best thing he did was at the very end. Everyone was in the Chelsea half and Cech had the ball. He told everyone to rush forward for a counter attack and every single player did, except for Drogba who was still standing in Cech's box. Every Stoke and Chelsea player was now standing in position deep in Stokes half, and Drogba was doing the slowest slow jog ever. Cech was furious with him and at this point Drog had only just made it out of Cech's box while everyone else was fighting for position outside the Stoke box. Cech screamed at him one last time, to which Drogba just casually turned around and waved his hand at Cech, telling him to calm down. He then turned back around and walked off even slower. Everyone in the ground thought this was great and cheered Drogba lol.
Overall Drogba was really lazy and Terry was even worse. Lampard wasn't too bad though, he works I'll give him that. Luiz is on another planet though. He'll be standing in his position at the very back, then he'll just randomly decide to sprint forward straight up through the middle right ahead of everyone, even if Chelsea didn't have the ball.
Ramires put in alot of work, I thought he was good. His movement and his attacks were great.
But it was all about Mata for me, he was awesome. His passes were always on point and the way he flicks the ball perfectly into the box every time was amazing, even when he is facing another direction. His movement was great all game and the free kick he took that hit the bar was amazing too. I was seriously impressed with him, he was easily their best player. Watching him play in person was worth going for alone.
So yeah, it was a good day out and was totally worth it. The stand where we sat was full of foreign tourists and kids, so the atmosphere was abit dull in our section. It was still sick though and the view was perfect. We are going to make it a regular thing.
One other thing I remember was a banner a group of people got out at the start and finish of the game. It was a massive sheet with black spray paint on it that read "F**K OFF RAFA, We'd rather walk alone" hahaha.
Topic: football anyone? as in soccer... (Read 463146 times)