My cousin Sarah Lemon is here for a week and we are having all sorts of girly adventures. Just got back from a day shopping which neither of us could afford, and which I am going to pretend didn't happen until I get my credit card bill.
Sarah is much, much sportier than me (which isn't difficult) and a big soccer fan so it was off to the football for us yesterday. Unfortunately, as a friend pointed out, Sarah picked a ridiculous time to visit from a football point of view as she arrived on a Saturday and there are not many Sunday or weekday games. However, we did manage to find a Premier League Sunday match, and so we were off to Portsmouth yesterday afternoon to see Pompey face off against Man City.
When I was booking our tickets, I had to spend considerable time debating which stand we should sit in. Should we sit with the Away fans? I did spent the better part of 9 months in Manchester, and admit my initial sympathies lay with Man City. However, I settled for a stand that was supposedly a "mix of Home and Away supporters." When Sarah and I arrived, however, it was almost exclusively Pompey fans. Our seats were good though, and just behind the home net (wait, that's hockey terminology. What is the football equivalent?)
Not being the *most* interested spectator ever, as the players warmed up, I was more interested in who was cutest. Since the keeper was closest to us, I focused on him. I nudged Sarah. "Goalie's cute," I said. She looked and agreed wholeheartedly. We looked him up in the program, and then I dug out my Blackberry to do a little mobile Wiki'ing and discovered...keeper was Canadian! Asmir Begovic is from Edmonton! That settled it for both of us. We were now officially Pompey fans. Those Man City fans could stick their inflatable yellow bananas (what IS the point of those anyway?) up their bums. We had some nice men who were Pompey season ticket holders sitting on either side of us who were very friendly and filled us in on all the Pompey players.
The minute the game started, so did the singing, and the swearing. There was much chanting of "Blue Army," which Sarah and I could not decipher until we asked someone. There were a number of songs that had what could barely be qualified as lyrics (lots of "ay ay ay" and "oi" and the like), and "Play up, Pompey!" We also yelled "tosser" at any Man City player that came within 10 feet of our stand, and also yelled "tosser," "wanker," and "oh, you fucker" at the ref on any number of occasions. Our particular venom was reserved for Craig Bellamy, a Man City player, and we called him (due to his Welsh nationality) "sheepshagging wanker" and booed whenever he approached our stand. We stood up whenever we came close to getting a goal (we never did get one, so there was alot of sitting down in defeat). We screamed and booed whenever Man City got a penalty kick. When I say "we," I mean the entire stadium of Pompey fans, and, much to my embarassment, Sarah. I devoted myself to the role of football anthropologist and bemused spectator, and took lots of Blackberry video camera footage of fans going insane.
I have never, ever been to any sporting event in my life where every single fan was so engaged. I can't imagine what hockey games at home would be like if people were even half that interested in what was going on. Canadian fans seem reserved by comparison. All in all, despite not being a big football fan, Ienjoyed myself thoroughly, although Portsmouth as a city as absolutely *nothing* to recommend it. But for the football, I'd definitely go back again.
Sarah is much, much sportier than me (which isn't difficult) and a big soccer fan so it was off to the football for us yesterday. Unfortunately, as a friend pointed out, Sarah picked a ridiculous time to visit from a football point of view as she arrived on a Saturday and there are not many Sunday or weekday games. However, we did manage to find a Premier League Sunday match, and so we were off to Portsmouth yesterday afternoon to see Pompey face off against Man City.
When I was booking our tickets, I had to spend considerable time debating which stand we should sit in. Should we sit with the Away fans? I did spent the better part of 9 months in Manchester, and admit my initial sympathies lay with Man City. However, I settled for a stand that was supposedly a "mix of Home and Away supporters." When Sarah and I arrived, however, it was almost exclusively Pompey fans. Our seats were good though, and just behind the home net (wait, that's hockey terminology. What is the football equivalent?)
Not being the *most* interested spectator ever, as the players warmed up, I was more interested in who was cutest. Since the keeper was closest to us, I focused on him. I nudged Sarah. "Goalie's cute," I said. She looked and agreed wholeheartedly. We looked him up in the program, and then I dug out my Blackberry to do a little mobile Wiki'ing and discovered...keeper was Canadian! Asmir Begovic is from Edmonton! That settled it for both of us. We were now officially Pompey fans. Those Man City fans could stick their inflatable yellow bananas (what IS the point of those anyway?) up their bums. We had some nice men who were Pompey season ticket holders sitting on either side of us who were very friendly and filled us in on all the Pompey players.
The minute the game started, so did the singing, and the swearing. There was much chanting of "Blue Army," which Sarah and I could not decipher until we asked someone. There were a number of songs that had what could barely be qualified as lyrics (lots of "ay ay ay" and "oi" and the like), and "Play up, Pompey!" We also yelled "tosser" at any Man City player that came within 10 feet of our stand, and also yelled "tosser," "wanker," and "oh, you fucker" at the ref on any number of occasions. Our particular venom was reserved for Craig Bellamy, a Man City player, and we called him (due to his Welsh nationality) "sheepshagging wanker" and booed whenever he approached our stand. We stood up whenever we came close to getting a goal (we never did get one, so there was alot of sitting down in defeat). We screamed and booed whenever Man City got a penalty kick. When I say "we," I mean the entire stadium of Pompey fans, and, much to my embarassment, Sarah. I devoted myself to the role of football anthropologist and bemused spectator, and took lots of Blackberry video camera footage of fans going insane.
I have never, ever been to any sporting event in my life where every single fan was so engaged. I can't imagine what hockey games at home would be like if people were even half that interested in what was going on. Canadian fans seem reserved by comparison. All in all, despite not being a big football fan, Ienjoyed myself thoroughly, although Portsmouth as a city as absolutely *nothing* to recommend it. But for the football, I'd definitely go back again.