The Frantic Football Match- An Experience with a Capital “E”

Thanks to Kyle, during our stay in London last week I went to my first ever professional soccer game! Oops, I mean “football match.” The original plan was to see Phantom of the Opera that night, but then he “accidentally bought the Chelsea vs. Shakhtar tickets before he checked the date of them.” (I suspect it was more than happy coincidence that this football match replaced a night of musical theater at its peak. But I digress.)

So now my options for that night were either go to the match with Kyle, or see Les Miserables with Annie and Stephanie. Being a good girlfriend, and an interested cultural observer, I decided to go see the game. I knew it was an exciting opportunity, especially because of how much Kyle loves the English Premier League. He has talked about wanting to go to a football match since before he got to London, so I was truly happy to go with him to watch it. 

The night of the match we caught the tube to the stadium. We were surrounded by all kinds of people wearing blue Chelsea jerseys, scarves, hats, etc. I was a little nervous because most of the stories I’ve heard about football matches are about the fights that occur between the opposing fans afterwards. Well, when we emerged from the tube station and there were policemen EVERYWHERE, many of them on horses, my anxiety did not improve. I mentioned something about this to Kyle and he said “Oh, it’s much safer because they have so many policemen.” Well at least one of us was confident. Also the streets were completely blocked off with barricades. And there are separate entrances for the fans of either team. We finally made it around the stadium to our entrance, and after four rows of security guards giving pat downs and doing bag checks, we made it inside.

Our tickets were in the Shakhtar section. For each match there are a certain number of tickets are allotted to the visiting side. Shakhtar is a professional team from Ukraine, and as not a lot of Ukrainian fans are present in London, these were the tickets Kyle could get. I had kind-of decided to root for Chelsea even though we weren’t sitting with those fans because I didn’t know anything about the Shakhtar team and David Beckham (my favorite player) is from England so that’s close enough! 

Once I saw the fans from Ukraine I changed my mind. 95% of them were men, many bald, average age 45, missing a few teeth, the size of wrestlers, and wearing leather jackets. If this is starting to sound like the Ukrainian mafia or something you are getting the right idea. Heck yes I was rooting for Shakhtar!

I sat pretty much on the edge of my seat clutching my purse the entire time, except for when I stood up to loudly join in the “Shakhtar, Shakhtar!” or “OO-KRA-EE-NAY” (Ukrainian for “Ukraine” apparently) cheers. I really wanted to make sure these guys knew I was rooting for their team. For much of the first half, thoughts like “Oh, it’s 7:30, Les Mis has just started” and “I have only counted 9 women in this whole section” and “Shoot, David Beckham isn’t even on this team” were passing through my head. I didn’t dare voice any of these things because Kyle was really in his element and soaking up every moment of the match, (yes I will accept the award for Girlfriend of the Year now.)

However, when I relaxed a little bit after the half time break, I did enjoy watching the game. It was exciting, and ended up tying 2-2 so we got to see lots of goals. Even though the region our seats were located in was a bit dicey, the seats themselves were awesome and we had a great view! All in all, I’m really glad I went to the match, so a big thank you to Kyle. And now that I’ve been to one, I know it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Literally.