After returning from Paris on Thursday after a 2 day trip with my soon I find that, naturally, most aspects of the game itself have been covered. And covered pretty well at that. However, there is nothing quite like being there to appreciate the details.
The first final I saw live was versus Leeds in the FA Cup final back in the early 70s. Of course we lost. After being unable to attend the double final the previous year I thought this was my first chance to experience glory. Boy, was I wrong. But it did help instill the notion of suffering for a greater cause. So after witnessing many other famous cup final victories I?ve (like everyone) waited another 30 odd years for a chance to see us in the major European final. So I figured this would be a good way to induct one of my sons into the pleasures of life. Turning 13 the day after this final would just serve to reinforce this right of passage.
Leaving from NYC on Tuesday I forgot how poor an Airline AA is. The seats are so smaller it?s actually more spacious and comfortable to sit in the toilet for most of the flight. There were a couple of fellow fans traveling; one brave enough to go without having tickets. It?s amazing the number of people we met who made the journey in the forlong hope of acquiring tickets. After the frauds and cheats who feed off the desperate on Ebay, I thought this was particularly noble.
Once we?d landed and unwrapped our legs at the airport we were immediately confronted by more fans looking for ?spare? tickets. Hanging out in Paris pre-match was neat. Fans of both sides had taken over the city. Everyone was sitting in cafes drinking wine and general singing and exchanging friendly banter. Though I?m sure the benefit of different languages (3 including French) helped to defuse any real discourse.
Onto the game. Brilliant stadium. Wonderful atmosphere. Great occasion. Historic. But ruined by a Norwegian dork. One bad decision ruined the entire game. A yellow card and 1-0 should have been the outcome. Dreadful judgment; killer decision. With all that pomp and ceremony what a tragedy that everyone has to travel thousands of miles for one person to wreck the spectacle.
Sure Henry should have made it 2-0. But when you have the best teams playing each other you need it to be 11 v 11. Even after Sol scored it was inevitable that the lead could not last. But a proud and defiant performance certainly raised the spirits. But again, we suffered under poor referring decisions. Some of them went in our favour but some of the tackles that went in on TH were shocking. It seemed though that this gutless ref took all the superficial, easy decisions with regard to bookings but never controlled the Barca acting, timewasting and hacking of TH.
Additional unrelated observations:
The French really do not understand commerce (now there?s a surprise). Pre and post games there were thousands of fans seeking merchandise. It was impossible to buy programs; Programs were as hard to find as intelligent Spurt fans. Ridiculous. Buying t-shirts was next to impossible. It was as though no-one had told the French or Eufa that there was match one. In the USA we would have been surrounded by rampant commercialism where you could at least buy mementos etc. Likewise in the stadium it was nearly impossible to buy any drinks or food inside the stadium. I hate to think how much money EUFA and Stade De France left in people?s pockets. And these are the dudes that run the commercial aspects of European football? No wonder the G-14 exists. If this happened in England there would be an uproar.
The fans (on both sides) were awesome. Unlike in England (or when watching the England team) there was not the slightest hint at trouble. All the singing, cheering and ribbing was in the best of spirits. Everyone crowded into the same slow, dank trains or walked out of the stadium towards Paris. Most of us did not get back to the center till 1am. Again, who knew there was a game on? ? certainly not the taxis. In the best of traditions of the French rather than earn money they were all cuddled up in bed.
Overall, I would not have missed this experience for the world. In terms of character forming this was awesome. To have my 13 year old witness this performance, this effort and this passion and to be denied the victory in the last 14 minutes will fuel him for life. How can you ask for more than that?
21 Responses to “Springtime for Wenger in Paris”
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May 26th, 2006 at 11:36 am
One thing of this CL final is - though we lost, but like Cesc said “we didn’t feel like losers”.
I feel the same way, and from the reaction of this board (usually ppl would cry out mourning after a defeat, especially such an important one), most ppl didn’t react like feeling sorry because we lost.
I guess everyone could see the team had given their all. There was nothing more we could ask for them.
May 26th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
I could not agree more about the lack of merchandising. I managed to get programs because I was in the barca end and all they had left was english versions.
up the arse
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