Arsenal America

Green. Bright Green. That was the first image that struck me the most as I climbed the stairs for Block 7 of the North Bank Lower Stand. It was 7:05 pm (on Wed Nov 2) and the lights were shining down brightly onto the pitch. The lights and freshly painted white lines made the green pitch stand out even more. Of all the years of watching Highbury on tv, I had never seen the pitch as richly green as I saw it that night. I searched for my seat in Row U and after I finally sat down, it started to sink in. I am here, finally I am here! All the images that I had seen on tv, magazines and internet over the years were finally being replaced by new ones. I could clearly see the Clock that Herbert Chapman got put up at Highbury (hence the name Clock end), the West Stand, the Sparta players warming up on the field in front of me, the East Stand and ofcourse, the rest of the North Stand which was slowly starting to fill up. The two prominent Jumbo screens were busy showing football commercials, interviews with Wenger and other players (Henry, Lauren). And then around 7:15 pm, the Arsenal players took to the pitch for their warm-up. The dream was finally materializing. Yes, Henry was there. It wouldn?t have been the same without him. So was Bergkamp, Pires, Van Persie, Toure, Reyes and all the rest. They ran across the pitch and continued their warm-up routines. Toure was the first player who came closest to the North end followed by Reyes and Van Persie.

As kick off approached, the UEFA Champions League banner was brought out. The boys and girls carrying the banner rushed towards the middle of the field and started moving it up and down. You could hear the Champions League theme echoed around the stadium. The captains traded flags, the ends were switched and kick-off finally took place. What followed was an entertaining game highlighted by a beautiful Henry goal, two well taken Van Persie goals and countless other missed chances. Sure the opponents were not on the same level as Arsenal but they still managed to trouble Arsenal every now and then. Henry duly got a standing ovation when he was substituted in the 65th minute. A real nervy moment came when Sparta hit the cross-bar. Arsenal should have had the game wrapped by half-time but here they were hanging by a thread. A 1-0 score in football is never safe. And then finally, Van Persie made it safe. In fact, Van Persie looked like scoring as soon as he had come on. His body language indicated how he was aching for the ball, asking for it constantly, making clever runs into open space. He reminded me of Henry from a few years ago, a time when Henry loved having the ball at his feet constantly. No sooner had the celebrations died down after the second goal, Sparta almost got a goal. In fact, Arsenal looked most vulnerable moments after they went 2-0 up. But the third goal duly came and the crowd urged Van Persie to shoot for his hat-trick. His hat-trick didn?t arrive but it didn?t matter in the end. As the final whistle blew, the announcer confirmed Arsenal?s progress into the next round. The North Bank chanted Van Persie?s name on a few occasions and after the final whistle, he came towards the North Bank, clapped to acknowledge the support and threw his shirt into the crowd. And there was another loud cheer when the other Champions League results were displayed. Manchester?s loss was welcomed by all. A perfect night indeed! Ofcourse, I would be lying if I said Arsenal were flawless. Their midfield problems were on display as well, but I don?t want to harp on that.

There were lots of sights, sounds and experiences to take in. Here are just a few random notes:

– Since it was an evening game, there were no lineups to get inside the stadium.
– Once inside the stadium, it was easy to find the rows and seats as everything is properly labelled. If one has gone to any North American staduim (Ice Hockey, football), then it is intuitive to walk around. Plenty of food stalls present selling everything from chips, beverage of choice to balti chicken pies.
– It rained mostly during the game but it was not as bad for me as for the other Arsenal America members. Row U was covered and I only got wet when the wind kicked in and blew the rain in our direction. After a while, I didn?t even notice the rain.
– Even though Almunia didn?t have much to do, he never looked comfortable. Everytime the ball was played back to him, his first instinct was to boot it out. Even though there was no Sparta player near him, he just wanted to get rid of the ball as soon as he got it.
– Toure was really efficient in cleaning everything up. His calm control, positioning and tackles were reassuring. He made one or two errors but overall he was very effective.
– The person sitting 2 seats to my left kept shouting at Henry everytime he came over to take a corner. He kept shouting for Henry to let someone else like Reyes take the corners.
– Arsenal?s reluctance to shoot the ball at times brought lot of complaints from all sides. At times, they wanted to walk the ball into the net and those extra touches really brought some frustration.
– Lots of chants rang across the stadium and the three players whose name were heard constantly were (in order of occurrence) ? Thierry Henry, Robin Van Persie and Jose Antonio.

I headed back straight to the hotel after the game because I was exhausted (my flight had only gotten into London that same day at 2 pm). After the game, it didn?t take long for the post-game crowds to clear up. The lineups from the Arsenal train station reached all the way back to Avenell Road but in under 15 minutes, it was all cleared up.

So just like that, game One was in the book!

The Highbury tour on Friday morning was quite a treat. With the exception of the players locker rooms, we got a chance to see the grounds up close, dug outs, press room for after game interviews, trophy cabinet, museum, director?s section at the stadium and the cocktail lounge. We got to see a brief film showing Arsenal?s history from humble beginnings to the modern day team. Also, we were given some tidbits about the upcoming stadium as well. For example, it was still unclear as to when Dennis Bergkamp?s testimonial match was to be played in the new Stadium. Apparently, due to safety and security concerns, crowds have to eased into the new stadium. Meaning, Arsenal have to first play a game with only 10,000 people, then 20,000 people and then 60,000 people before they can open in the league. A Dennis Bergkamp testominal should easily get 60,000 people but when that game will be played is anyone?s guess. As we were walking about, the pitch was being worked on, examined and prepared for Saturday?s game. Also, the advertising boards were being changed. As it turns out that the advertising boards for the Premier League are much smaller in height and width than Champions League games. Because of the high advertising boards for the Champs League, Arsenal lose about 3000 seats for their European games. The high Champs League boards block the front row seats. No wonder, the attendance for Sparta Prague was just a shade above 35,000 and for the Sunderland game was above 38,000. After the tour, everyone walked over to the merchandise shop and got a whopping 20% discount on all merchandise thanks to Arsenal America. After that we headed over to the Arsenal Fish and Chips place. It is a great feeling to talk about the team and tactics with fellow Arsenal supporters while you can actually see the stadium in the background. Dave and I walked over to the new stadium afterwards and it looks amazing. You can now make out the overall design as shown by the pictures on the Arsenal.com website and it indeed looks like a World Class stadium which will surely be one of the best stadiums in Europe.

Game 2, Saturday, Nov 5. Most people arrived early to the T-Bird (just before 1 pm) for the 3 pm kick-off. The basement was packed with Sunderland fans so all the Arsenal America supporters made their way upstairs and some spilled out on the streets. A few of us once again walked over early to the stadium (2:15 pm). The atmosphere and crowd felt a lot more different from the Wednesday game. You saw a lot more children in the audience and you could see even three family generations together (grandfather, father and son). These Saturday afternoon (or even Sunday) games give you a real sense of community before the games. Standing outside the stadium, you really understand what the team and stadium mean to the nearby people ? the stadium is an integral part of the everyday life of people around the area and as they say, a lot of people are born with a love for the team built-in. Booths are setup in the front lawn of the nearby houses selling everything Arsenal that you can think of ? past programmes, shirts, caps, scarfs, teddy bears, pins, posters, signed pictures, etc. Ofcourse, all these are open during the Champions League games but everything looks more noticeable in the daylight. The different shirt colours are more visible and prominent than in the night-time. Once inside the stadium, the noise and excitement was much more than evident than on Wedneday as well. Sure, there were 3000 more people but it also because of the large number of excited children in the stadium. People were here a lot more earlier to watch their heroes train. I was lucky to get a seat behind the goal on the North Bank Lower, Row A, seat 133. The seat was half-way in between the left hand goal post and the corner flag. Jens Lehmann and Almunia were practicising directly in front of me with a temporary second goal. Almunia kept testing Lehmann. One of the blocked shots rebounded off Lehmann and landed in the row behind me. A little boy threw the ball over the goal and into Lehmann?s arms. Lehmann came closer to the seats, looked at the boy in the eye, gave him a smile, a wink and a thumbs up. The little boy was obviously thrilled. I was beginning to like Lehmann a bit too. While reading the Arsenal handbook, I noticed that Lehmann and I shared the same birthday (I was a few years younger though) and his birth sign explained his behavior to me. He was a scorpio and that explained his short fuse. I wondered why I never bothered looking that up before?

It was a clear day before the kick-off but as the Weather reports indictated, the first drops of rain started to fall down just a few minutes before kick-off. This time however, I got no protection from the roof and it really started to pour half-way through the first half. The first ten minutes went by quickly with no noticeable chances. It was apparent that Sunderland were here to prevent a heavy defeat. A long ball and a Van Persie goal. He raced in front of me before leading to the corner flag. More chances game and it was only a matter of time before it was 2-0. The crowd was more vocal than on Wednesday. An incident just before half-time stood out. As Henry took the corner in the 43rd minute, someone must have said something to him. He turned his back towards the far corner of the first row and put his finger to his lips to tell the person to be quiet. Who was it? And what did they say? The crew in front of the alleged area looked at each other in surprize and shrugged their shoulders to each other. Less than a minute later, Arsenal were in the penalty box but the chance went away. As Henry walked back, he glared in anger towards that far corner again. Someone really must have angered him.

The rain had stopped in the second half but a chilly wind didn?t help matters. And the game had developed into a dull lull as well. The West Stand and North Stand were busy out singing each other and no matter how loud we were in the North Stand, the West Stand upstaged us (all those children in the West Stand contributed quite a bit). Lehmann too was getting bored with not having to do anything and he had to stay warm. So he started by moving his arms, then kicking his legs up in the air and followed that with a strange routine ? a semi-jumping jack routine that cheered people behind him. As soon as he had started the routine, he stopped. He brought both his arms close to his torso, clinched his fists, and slowly started marching forwards. His eyes had a stern mean look, it was clear he was pyching himself out, but who was he directing his stare to? He left his box for a while and when nothing seemed to be happenning, he quietly returned back.

Sunderland?s goal was a soft goal which seemed to wake everyone else up. The crowds were getting quiet by that point and all of a sudden, there was a nervous anticipation in the air. Could Arsenal throw away a clear win? That never looked likely to happen but over the next few minutes, Sunderland kept everyone on their toes. Henry?s second goal finished the game off and the crowd found its voice again. In the end, it was 3 very easy points but Arsenal had really taken their foot off the pedal a bit in the second half. The Clock End were treated to another vintage Henry display. On Wednesday, he scored a beautiful goal, and today his attempted bicycle kick grazed the post and his second goal was delightful. My Highbury experience had come to an end. I tried to stay as long as possible to absorb eveything in but the security personnel started to usher everyone out. It was quite a treat and afterwards, we all met up at the basement of the T-Bird to talk about our experiences. There was a live-dj there spinning records, more food (like there had been on Wednesday) and plenty of pints to drink down. The atmosphere was amazing and there was plenty of singing to be done. I left around 7 pm or so and was amazed to see how quiet everything was. Most places were closed and the streets around Avenell Road were quiet. You had no indication that a match took place here less than a few hours ago and almost 38,000 people were present on the streets.

In the end, it was a truly memorable experience and I have many people to thank for that — all the Arsenal America people who made this trip & tour possible and all the website members and local Arsenal supporters that were present at T-Bird. I am eternly grateful for such a great time. Thank you

I have so many songs/chants burned in my head, but I want to share two of them.

1) Chant in the North Bank on Wed, Nov 2:

?There is only one Arsene Wenger. Shut up Mourinho??

After Arsenal?s 3rd goal, the last part was changed to ?F*** off Mourinho.? This same chant was repeated in the second half of the Sunderland game as well.

2) Song heard in the T-Bird after the Sunderland game. For full instructions on how to properly execute this song, please ask Kelvin

When we going, I don’t know,
How we’ll get there, I don’t care,
All I know is, we are on our way
We’re on our way, we’re on way
We’re going to Paris, we’re on our way