Author Topic: European Club Soccer Thread! (EPL, Champions League, Europa, etc... :D )  (Read 1293540 times)

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Offline MakeItRain

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Hilarious SD, love the head

Online michigancat

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guys I think it's time for my selhurst park recap!

Online michigancat

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I was staying in Central London, I think it was a noon game so I had a coffee and used google maps to navigate how to get there on trains. Selhurst Park is pretty far south. Nice thing about the UK is you can pay for everything with apple pay or google pay from your phone, including all your train fares. so you don't need to worry about tickets on different systems, you just go where google maps tells you and tag in and tag out at the fare gates. Getting to Selhurst Park requires you to get out of the underground and onto one of the suburban lines and here is where you end up



there are basically two pubs in the neighborhood and I started at the one across the street from the station. Both are home team pubs and you had to show a ticket in the home section to get in.



I got there a couple hours before the game and it was pretty empty



they had a patio







I'm not big on starting conversations in bars and everyone there seemed to be there with their buds so I left toward the stadium.



here I'm a block away



and there's the biggest "stand" for a stadium in the like richest sports league in the world.




this is the way to get to the main fan area - the team store and a "fan zone" with the DJamer and bar and stuff. (I forgot to take photos of the actual fan zone, it kinda sucked)



merch samples (I bought a scarf). I didn't get photos of them but there were a ton of unofficial vendors around the stadium selling scarves that were specifically for the day's match. (they were playing rough ridin' arsenal BTW)





right next to the team store you can see where the players park. I looked it up and the Lambo is Zaha's. When I was walking to the station to head back to central London I saw him drive past, like 30 minutes after the match.



standing from the same spot, you can see the Sainbury's grocery store that is adjacent to the stadium.


here you can kind of see how silly close they are:



here's the other CP bar, it's closer to the stadium than the first one. It was a lot more crowded. I checked out the "BBQ" and it was the most disgusting driest hamburgers I have possibly ever seen. I overheard a couple of Americans there and hated them, they seemed like finance guys.



so I left and got fish and chips, it was really popular about an hour before the game



people getting gas at Sainsbury's



I walked around the neighborhood and like a block away it was so quiet. You wouldn't know anything was going on until I saw Aresnal's bus going down a silly narrow street. Here's another shot of the stadium.


while I was away someone else showed up late. I guess this is an owner's car? because they're treating Zaha like a bum, relatively





NOW IT'S TIME TO GO INTO THE STADIUM

Online michigancat

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I think I already mentioned it, but the aftermarket of EPL games is kind of shady as the clubs really seem to want genuine fans in the seats rather than boring corporate environments like the NBA or whatever. So I became a member of the CP supporter club to get my tickets. I had to order over the phone and did it from a short work break so I was limited but would have chosen seat in one of the smaller stands or lower level if I had the choice. Here is where I was:




I still had some time before the game so I went to the bar. It was like what you see at stadiums with "clubs" but anyone could go. I didn't take many photos but it got pretty full because you can't have beer in the stands which for some reason I didn't expect. There were signs to preorder your beer and snacks for halftime.




A bird's eye view of the neighborhood:


walking around you could get pretty close to the "pitch" (it's a field)




they call it a bar but it's really a concession stand


ready for pregame festivities!

Online michigancat

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I have no idea where the dancers went after the players walked in



the fans were not pumped for native son Stormzy's pump up video but there was an eagle

https://imgur.com/sabxwnv

but they were pumped for the beatles! (I cut off the video at exactly the wrong time, "Glad all over" is what they live for)

https://imgur.com/vMjpqxu

the eagle






Online michigancat

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not too much interesting to show from the game. I hadn't been to a professional soccer game before and was just blown away by how physical they play. they are constantly shoving, grabbing, and fighting for position away from the ball constantly. Didn't realize how much the refs let slide - it's really rough. Also it's interesting with stoppage time - you only know how much time they added but they don't have a running clock after 90 minutes. I didn't realize until I watched the highlights but they added 4 minutes at the end but then played for like 7. Also interesting that at least half the fans had no visible palace gear on. granted it was cold as eff but there weren't even that many scarves.

The "ultras" were down and to the right of me and sang pretty much the whole match

https://imgur.com/a/aQrBSZ4

I don't follow EPL too closely but I was amused that Palace had James Mccarthy and James Macarthur starting in the midfield. Fans clearly were frustrated with Zaha not doing more but it was clear Arsenal was going to make anyone but him beat them. After a VAR review (cousin of the ATM machine) palace fans started a "eff VAR song" (just like this one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOAZa_V-aZ0

then early in the second half after Palace tied it there was a sloppy challenge that led to a VAR and red card.

here are the extended highlights, it was really funny at the end when David Luiz didn't like where CP was taking the free kick so he just picked up the ball and moved it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xNbrrvF5VE



their favorite song was definitely glad all over but they also sang this song all the time (which I couldn't tell was to the tune of Mrs. Robinson during the game)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UTf1DN2n_Y

after the game I went to this jerk chicken place which was adjacent to the Sainsbury's parking lot




(seeing this photo gives me rona anxiety)

I went back to the hotel, rested up for a bit, went to a stand up comedy show, then a random metal bar someone recommended, tried to watch part of Liverpool/Tottenham at a bar, then went to Dishoom which was pretty overrated but I was by myself so it wasn't as good as it could have been.



the line after I left dishoom at like 9:30 or 10pm:


then I went to a bar to watch some if the Niners/Vikings game and it was kind of interesting because they don't have commercials when the US has commercials, they go to a studio with a really weird Canadian dude.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Reinebold

that's about it I think

Offline Spaces

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palace fans started a "eff VAR song"
  :love:

Offline MakeItRain

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That was worth the wait. That is very south London, especially that patio and the jerk chicken place. The fans not wearing team gear is in line with what I've seen with other clubs over there, a lot of black pea coats and bubble jackets. I think this is because they really don't wear cold weather team gear there like we do here, and the scarves are not to be worn.

What were you drinking at that bar?

Online michigancat

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That was worth the wait. That is very south London, especially that patio and the jerk chicken place. The fans not wearing team gear is in line with what I've seen with other clubs over there, a lot of black pea coats and bubble jackets. I think this is because they really don't wear cold weather team gear there like we do here, and the scarves are not to be worn.

What were you drinking at that bar?

I don't remember what I drank. I'd get something I'd never heard of everywhere I went. I think they had specials at each place and I'd try that because I'm cheap. Most non-stout English beer tastes pretty similar to me.

 I'd go back in a heartbeat. Still not corporate at all (in case it wasn't obvious). Worth the train ride and membership to get tickets from the club for sure. Most tourists don't venture too far (I certainly hadn't on past visits) so it was cool to see a regular neighborhood.

Offline mocat

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great write up

Offline Institutional Control

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Looks like it was a great time, Michcat. Reminds me of my trip to England to watch two EPL games.  My experience was a little different because I wasn't in London.  Britannia stadium was outside of town (Stoke-on-Trent) and there wasn't anything to do around the stadium.  So, we just got back on the train and headed back to Liverpool after the match.  Also, the match was at noon and we working off of about 3 hours of sleep.

The match at Anfield was incredible but our tickets were in the visitor's section (Tottenham) and we were told by the person who got us the tickets to not wear Liverpool gear or even cheer for Liverpool or we'd be removed from the stadium.  It was still so awesome to see in person.  Anfield is in a residential part of town, so afterwards we took a taxi back to our hotel near the city centre.

Offline Spaces

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Marcus Rashford btw... what an absolute hero.

Offline MakeItRain

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Yep! Such a young dude and has undoubtedly become a worldwide leader, as far as sports figures go.

Online cfbandyman

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Liverpool didn't have to wait too long to get the inevitable.
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Offline Institutional Control

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Hey guys...... pretty great feeling!


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Online michigancat

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they did my eagles dirty yesterday :frown:

but like it was all so spectacular, you can't get mad :frown:

Offline MakeItRain

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Offline MakeItRain

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they did my eagles dirty yesterday :frown:

but like it was all so spectacular, you can't get mad :frown:

Yeah, they beat the living crap out of palace

Offline Institutional Control

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ESPN is so lame. There is literally no live  sports on any of the cable channels and yet the cup games are only available on ESPN+.


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Offline DaBigTrain

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ESPN is so lame. There is literally no live  sports on any of the cable channels and yet the cup games are only available on ESPN+.


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There’s a thread for this kind of post
"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks"

https://blockstream.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f

Offline MakeItRain

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ESPN is so lame. There is literally no live  sports on any of the cable channels and yet the cup games are only available on ESPN+.


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Man U played on ESPN yesterday

Online michigancat

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not surprising given how racist euros are (and it's easy to pick up on the EPL broadcasts, even as a new casual fan)

https://twitter.com/FiveThirtyEight/status/1278312417206898689

Offline Spaces

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The VAR season. The asterisk season. Call it whatever you want. I'm scrapping it from my official record book. Sorry to any trophy winners. I hope we can go back to regular soon.

Offline MakeItRain

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Well we're winning two of those trophies, so no.

Also, spurs, woof. How many straight matches has Jose whined about abbot about VAR?

Offline steve dave

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Rus, sorry for the delay seeing your elite AF english soccer picture fest. Incredible work there.