Tottenham upsets Liverpool 2-1

English Premiership Football Match Jan. 17, 2004

January 17: My first free day in London, and the day I am assigned for my webpage. At the beginning of the trip I had grand plans of touring London and making a very educational website, but as fate would have it, my friend Caity and I were able to buy two football tickets for an English Premiership game instead. I am a huge soccer fan, but soccer in the United States is nothing compared to the football leagues in Europe. I spent the morning anxiously trying to waste time until we had to start getting ready for the game. I was very excited to get to the game, but was also a little apprehensive. For one we didn't have any idea who the Tottenham Spurs were, or in what part of town the stadium was even located. We asked the concierge at our hotel, and with a big smile on his face he gave us directions using the tube, and then told us to just follow the crowds (I think to him the answer was very obvious). We rode the tube and had no idea where we were or how to get to the stadium, but it was soon very obvoius based on the flood of people walking down the street(the concierge's face when we asked for directions now had a reason behind it!). After a long 20 minute walk we finally arrived at the stadium. Caity and I stuck out in the crowd, we were the only girls walking around, and the only fans with no team gear on. We decided to buy t-shirts before the game and we got some quick information about the team from the vendor, we learned that the Spurs greatest rival was Aresenal and that #10 for Tottenham was their best player.

We then went in rushing through the crowds up the stairs, and entered through Gate H, the view was unreal (go to stadium plan)

We were standing at the top, left hand corner of the field, and we could see everything! We ran down to our row and had to walk past a number of men already in their seats. As we apologized and excused ourselves, one of the men picked up on our American accents and said "whoa, they are oftly brave!" For the entire game I sat in my seat with a smile glued to my face. The match was exciting and the teams were both really talented, but the fans were what made the experience so memorable. From the second we got there the crowd of 36,000 fans were all going nuts! They were chanting, clapping, singing, booing the other team and yelling at the referee. The man sitting behind me loved to yell, "oh that's rubbish!" whenever the referee made a bad call. The stadium would also chant "FOUL he says!" whenever the ref made calls. I couldn't understand many of the chants, but it was still a lot of fun.

The home team was the Tottenham Hotspurs wearing navy blue and white uniforms and we luckily got seats in their section. We sat down, put on our new t-shirts to blend in with all the other Tottenham fans and starting cheering. About 20 minutes into the game #10 Keane scored for the Spurs on a penalty kick. The crowd went absolutely nuts, and so did Caity because she bought a Keane shirt just before the game.

Keane's goal celebration from bbc article

As the night got darker and evening set in, the field lights turned on, we starting getting really cold and the crowd got even louder. At about 73 minutes #8 Postiga scored giving the Spurs a 2-1 lead, and the crowd erupted into a chant just for him(which they chanted whenever he did something good as well)
Postiga's Chant:

oooh Postiga, oooh Postiga,
He comes from Portugal,
He hate the Arsenal
Postiga, oooh Postiga, oooh

Near the end of the game there were two minutes of stoppage time, and the fans were all getting anxious for the game to be called. All the fans starting whistling at the referee to relay their message for him to blow his whistle, the stadium was deafening with a loud, shrill whistle. Finally the referee called the game, I couldn't even hear his whistle, I just heard everyone cheer!
Picture to right: Tottenham celebrates Postiga's game winning goal (bbc article)

After the game Caity and I decided that we would be be life long Tottenham fans. I made a point of letting everyone know this as I ran through our Hotel Lobby and up the stairs with my new t-shirt on over all my warm layers yelling, "we won, we won, the spurs won!!" We ate dinner at a cozy Italian restaraunt around the corner from our hotel, but even pasta and dessert didn't fill me up after all this excitement! We tried to retell how exciting everything was, but I think to fully appreciate this popular past-time you had to be there. While my day in London may not have been my most educaional, I definetly think it was a cultural experience thathas taught me a greater appreciation for the sport and its fans. After this experience I don't think anything else I did in London will come close to how awesome this was!