Tuesday, February 07, 2006

So much excitement

I went to see the Chelsea vs. Liverpool game on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, courtesy of Tish and his family (thankyousosomuch), and as a first premiership game, it was incredible. I have to admit that seeing the players in the flesh felt more 'live' than real life. I don't know if that makes sense, but they're really big, like a different species of human altogether.

Watching them warm up was surreal, and shooting practice even more so since we were seated three rows from pitchside behind the shed end goal. The atmosphere was hellishly intimidating, and I think the away supporters spent a lot of time with their backs to the pitch singing songs at the Chelsea supporters, pausing only to hurl obsceneties at any Chelsea player that came within spitting distance, the mildest curse being "fat bastard", aimed mostly at Lampard. Then the first goal was scored. Liverpool seemed to deflate slightly, and the three sides of Chelsea crowd turned towards us and sang more songs.

It was really strange watching a match without replays. You never really know what's going on or why the referee stopped play, and I completely missed the part where Robben 'won his Oscar' because it was down the other end.

Yesterday saw me in my first game since the end of November. They weren't a particularly good team, so we were quite relaxed, maybe a little too relaxed at some parts, but it was great being on the court again.

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