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May 05, 2006
Happy trails
As many of you know, I'm a bit of a soccer junkie. I loves me some soccer. Granted, I am a pretty awful soccer player, but that doesn't stop me from going out and kicking a ball around with whoever will let me.
So, back in the day, we got a DirecTV satellite dish at the house, and we were able to get all kinds of sports channels from around the country. Some of these channels always aired the highlights from the Premier League in England, which many people consider the best soccer league in the whole world. It was stupendous to see what those players could do with a soccer ball, and it was even more amazing to witness the crazy and passionate fans of those teams in England.
Naturally, I started looking for a team to follow, until I finally settled on Arsenal Football Club, for a number of reasons: I liked the military-sounding name, they were first alphabetically, they had cool red uniforms, and I loved the book Fever Pitch. They played in this legendary stadium called Highbury tucked into a neighborhood on the North side of London. The stadium is even older than Wrigley Field!
Sunday they're closing that stadium, and moving to a... you guessed it, gaudy monstrosity. It was always one of my goals to witness an actual soccer game at Highbury, but I never did. When I got to spend a month in London, I made it a point to visit the stadium. It was the off-season, but the nice folks at the park let me walk around, take pictures, and even stand on the field. You may find it hard to believe, but that was one of the most impressive sights I saw when I was there. Now I can only imagine what it must be like when 38,000 people jump at once to celebrate a goal. But it must be magnificent, that's for sure.
Posted by oz115 at May 5, 2006 11:41 AM
Comments
Damned progress. Why do our so-called leaders keep doing this to our athletic shrines? Indianapolis used to have a wonderful old ballfield called Bush Stadium that they of course just had to replace with a modern monolith with skyboxes, picnic grounds, exploding scoreboard, etc. Chicago Stadium gets sacked for the UC (a suburban shopping mall of an arena), and of course Soldier Field gets attacked by a spaceship.
Posted by: Pete at May 6, 2006 07:48 AM
GOOD LUCK today with that final! YAY!
Posted by: christy at May 8, 2006 06:36 AM