Community Shield Derby at Wembley Stadium

The previous time I was in Wembley in May, it was merely to soak in the atmosphere. The only opportunities that I could see to put myself in for a match in Wembley were two – the first being the Community Shield and the second being the friendly between England and Holland. I can’t possibly go for both because they fall one day after the other and this would have meant an expensive overnight stay in London. In the end, I picked the Community Shield match on 7^th August since it’s a very delicious derby matchup between United and City. Not only that three milestones would have been fulfilled within one swoop: Wembley match, derby match and a Community Shield match.

I had purposely renewed my United membership for another year in order to have the chance to bid for the August games in the new season.  I was quite delighted when I managed to secure a place but I suppose many English folks don’t look highly on a Community Shield match and hence, the relative easiness in getting tickets. In addition, the usual away-match ruling for tickets sale was waivered for Community Shield and this contributed to my opportunity in getting a seat at Wembley. Since it’s a Sunday, I also wanted to make time to go to church. It’s a perfect chance, and I would say, the only chance that I have in my last month in the UK to go for a service at Hillsongs London church. They have a couple of services throughout the day and the one that I am aiming for is the 11am. It would end at around 1pm and I would have just enough time of about 1hr or so to get to Wembley. To do that, I would have to hitch a ride on the 6am London bus. On the day itself, there was this fat ‘lil kid on the bus who somehow had severe motion sickness sitting on the bus and he kept running to the bus toilet to vomit.  Now, my seat is located just beside the toilet door and every time he rushes to the toilet, I’m jolted from my sleep. I have to say, I’m quite ‘disturbed’ by the poor boy’s vomiting groans. This went on for the whole journey and his mom was feeling quite helpless to do anything but to comfort him. I was quite glad to reach the London Victoria bus station and I quickly moved off to take the tube to Tottenham Court Road where the Hillsong London church is located. I arrived slightly later than expected but thankfully there were seats.  Ahhh, I can immediately spot the difference in Hillsong London where it seems that the congregation is much more multi-cultural. After a refreshing dose of worship (apparently lots of new songs from Hillsongs which I’m not familiar with) and the sermon, it’s time to head out to Wembley for the first derby match of the new season.

On the way there, I made sure that I do not make the mistake of getting into a carriage filled with City fans. Security at every station is on a high alert because of the volatile nature of the derby match where fights may erupt at anytime and any place. Once I reached the outside grounds of Wembley, I immediately went to get the match programme book. I was kinda worried at first that the match programmes will be sold out like the ones during the Champions League final but there’s actually nothing to worry about because there’s plenty to go around. The community shield match programme is priced at £5 each. Since I’ve not eaten anything yet, I grabbed some fries from the food stall and afterwards proceed to join the snaking crowd into the stadium. It was thoroughly packed at the grounds and there’s this carnival-like atmosphere and the police brought in the their horse squad for crowd control. For law and order purposes, both sets of fans were split into two lines from the start of the stadium grounds. It was obvious that the United line was more congested of the two from the ground level as I walked up the steps. It was the most apparent as I reached the stadium and had a look over the balcony at the huge amount of people still snaking in. City’s line was just a sporadic spread while United’s line is a meaty bunch. The police stood in the middle of the demilitarized strip. Occasionally, a fan or two would test the patience of the police by goading the other side with insults and fist-raising. After feeling satisfied loitering around to check out the atmosphere, I went to find the gate that I’m entering. The Wembley electronic ticketing gates are fantastic-looking – one scan and I’m in.  It took me a little while to figure out where I was sitting because my section is already quite filled up. I sat at the wrong place at first, and only realised that when someone who was supposed to sit there nudged me off. I rechecked my seat numbering again and subsequently found the correct place to sit. Upon taking my seat, I discovered that my neighbours on my left were a pair of British Chinese brothers. Ahhhhh..this is very convenient indeed for my photo-taking request later on during half-time. I took the opportunity to savour my first moments inside a Wembley football match. It’s electric and both giant screens on both ends were visibly imposing, like a giant DVD screen.

We had some pre-match entertainment by a band and the giant screen did play a Sky Sports style pre-match video to heighten up the tension. When the players’ names were announced, their pictures were simultaneously projected on the giant screen. It was clear that by the time the first whistle was blown, the United area was pretty full while there were many pockets of empty spaces at City’s side. Our United fans were chanting,”The City is Yours, the City is yourssssss..25,000 empty seats, are you for sure?!” However, the optimistic mockery of the Blue Moon was cut short.  Lescott stunned our side at the 38^th minute by making it 1-0. And just before the end of the first half, Dzeko fired a long range shot which De Gea should have catched it easily. From our position behind him, it looked like a really weak goal to concede.

With the score at 0-2 at half-time, it was a horrendous time for any United fan at Wembley right now. For me, I just thought that “oh well, perhaps I’ll just enjoy the day out and maybe stay back after the match as one of the minority few to see Man City lift the shield.” Little did I expect what were to transpire later. While waiting at half-time, the stadium was treated to a funny sight – James Holden aka Smithy attempting to take a penalty kick. And he did score in the end and celebrated in style too! Lol. I also took the chance to ask my neighbours to take a couple of photos for me as evidence of my time at Wembley :D 

Smalling’s header puts the score at 1-2 at around the 52^nd minute. At that point of time, there was hope for an equaliser. We need not wait for long when Nani broke free of the City defence 6 minutes later to equalise 2-2. We’ve clawed backkkk! From now on, it’s a sudden death situation. Whoever scores the next goal will most probably win the match. As the clock ticks to the 90^th minute, there was still no sign of anyone having the edge to score the winner. Everyone in the stadium was prepared to sit in for a penalty shoot-out.  Out of nowhere, it’s Nani again and as the ball bobbled to past the line, the United section of Wembley erupted into an ecstacy of cheers!

The final whistle blown and yes, what a game! United overturned the 2 goal deficit to win 3-2 in the end! In your face Cityyyyyyy! You screwed up a 2-0 lead! Our side turned out to be the winner afterall..lol. Although it’s not a major competition, at least I had the opportunity to see a cup presentation ceremony in Wembley and also the cup celebration that follows afterthat. Vidic led the United up the steps of the Wembley stadium while the City side emptied themselves from their seats. It’s the first official match of the footballing season and what better way than to start the season well with a win over the noisy neighbours.

I stayed as long as possible in the stadium so as to have the opportunity to take a picture of an empty Wembley stadium. By the time I finished taking the photos that I like, the stewards were already urging everyone to go out of the stadium. I took a walk back to the Wembley Tube station and along the way, I noticed a lot of verbal sparring between both Manchesters. It was a trip back to the London city centre and since my bus will only come late at night at 9pm, I have time to enjoy what is probably my last few hours in London of my life. There’s still 3 more weeks before I leave but after today, the schedule won’t permit me to return back to London anymore. Oh well, I won’t know when I will have the chance to come to London again. With that remaining time, I went to the souvenir shop to see what kind of Britannia themed things I can get for friends back home. I took some time to enjoy Piccadilly Circus and then it’s a one-way bus trip out of London. Overall, I would say that the Hillsong service coupled with the Manchester derby at Wembley stadium makes it a great ending to my time at London.

Farewell Scholes!

 He scores goals galore, he’s Paul Scholes! He scores goals galore, he’s Paul Scholes! He scores goals galore, he’s Paul Scholes! Oh Paul Scholes he scores goalssss..

Two United players retired at the end of the season 2010/2011 and I was frustrated in May ‘cos I couldn’t be there at Old Trafford to send off Gary Neville off due to final exams. So, I made it a point that I’ll keep tabs on the Paul Scholes testimonial very closely.  The moment the sales for the testimonial match open, I quickly rushed to apply for the ticket. It seems that they are opening up the whole stadium on a free seating basis, so I can choose any seat in the stadium on a first come first serve basis. Since I’m one of the few there to purchase the tickets when sale opened, I had the opportunity to pick the VIP seats which were not available to the general public on regular match days. I reckon that this is one of the rare opportunities that I will get to obtain the best view of a match at Old Trafford without paying big bucks for it.

The opponents for the Scholes testimonial will be the New York Cosmos managed by another United legendary player, King Eric Cantona. A couple of old legends – foe and friends alike of Scholes will be playing on the NY Cosmos side.  The match is scheduled to kick-off at 7.30pm on 5^th August but I’ve arranged for an earlier bus at 2.30pm coz I wanted to settle some shirt printing business at the Nike Manchester shop. I’ve decided to pick the bus to go there since it’s comes at a super cheap price of £2.50 and the time taken for the bus journey from Leeds to Manchester is around 1hr++, not much of a difference from the train which costs almost double the price. However, the return trip would have to be by train since it is easier to connect to the national train after coming out of the Manchester train. Since the match will end late at night, I doubt that I would be able to reach the bus station in time. 

On the day itself, I reached Manchester as scheduled. I’ve finally made the decision on whose number print after deliberating for one whole season and I’ve decided that it should be Scholes since that would be the last full-season career jersey that he would be wearing. Not only that, with Scholesey retiring, there won’t be any opportunity to print his name on any future shirts anymore. So, I guess it will be a fitting tribute for me to print my shirt in honour of him. Now, one of the reasons why I’ve held out so long to print the shirt is because I’ve difficulty finding a place in Manchester that will give me the authentic player size Lextra shirt printing. Apparently all-printing  at Old Trafford is replica size..ish! And yesh, Nike Manchester has an underground level where their shirt printing facility is located and the funny thing is that they print for both City and United although City have their own merchandise shop a few blocks away. After getting my shirt printing, it’s time to make my way to the stadium.   

At Old Trafford, I had to make my way to the ticketing office to get my match ticket. This is because when I bought the match ticket, I entered the delivery address as my Uni accommodation instead of the current place I’m lodging at. I did went back to Sentinel Towers to inquire whether they kept any mail for me but apparently , the office will forward the mail back to the bank address and that could take months.  Gahhhhh, this is as good as the mail getting lost forever on a loop. I told the United customer service of my problem and they’ve arranged for me to collect it from the spot instead. Since I’ve got a little bit of time left, I went inside the megastore to purchase the new season’s kit which I kinda like because the design reminds me of the 2001 kit.

It took me quite some time to find out which entrance I should take to enter my seating area.  I went to check through all the regular entrances of the north side but none of them listed the entrance gate number on my ticket. Finally, I found my entrance to be the one located at the entrance of the museum tour, because my seating area is actually the Manchester suite! Wooootss! Ahhh, now it makes sense considering my seat is VIP and hence, I definitely have to enter through that entrance. The usherers for the Manchester suite were all suited up instead of the regular gatekeepers. I can see why anyone who goes through that entrance would feel very VIP indeed. So I took the escalators up to the suite and upon entrance - wow, the waiting area in the suite is TOTALLY different from the regular stands. It feels more like a ballroom with tables and even the Bar selling beer is a class on its own with the bartenders all dressed up too. In comparison, the Bar counters at the regular stand look like the typical movie counter selling popcorn. Scattered around the luxurious waiting area are artistic pictures of former and present United players in training. I went to check out the toilet too, and yes, it’s a class on its own compared to the ones which the regular masses use.

I’m not interested in getting any refreshments, so I’ll just head into the stadium. It seems that there’s gonna be another giant mural on display for Scholes. All the seats at my side were equipped with the plastic sheets just like the Champions League semi-final which I had attended earlier. While waiting, I used my camera to zoom in on the players and checked them out. The match programme had listed out the players that are going to turn up for New York Cosmos and it’s a very delicious bunch indeed. Most notable are the reunion of Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira on the same side. The other old fellas are Brad Friedel, Michael Salgado, Nicky Butt, Fabio Cannavaro and Dwight Yorke. The strangest inclusion is Gary Neville – who (nobody would have imagined) is playing on the same side with Vieira and against United in a rare occasion. Unfortunately, it looks like Beckham did not make an appearance for Scholes as he did for Neville. Even more legendary at the VIP stands sitting alongside King Eric is the appearance of Pele. For United, I get to have a first glimpse of the new additions to the squad – De Gea and Ashley Young at the starting line-up. Another United new boy, Jones is on the substitute bench.  

The testimonial got off to a start with the entrance by Scholes and his family. Of course, the whole stadium joined in chanting the famous Scholes chant. It did not take long for Scholes to make a statement in the match. At around the 9th minute, he pumped in his trademark rocket shot to score the 1^st goal of the match. Woahhhhhh, it’s almost as if everything is scripted for the game – Scholes bowing out of the beautiful game with the most dramatic fashion – doing what he does best. I would have thought that vital players like Rooney will sit out from this match because the Community Shield match against City is just days away but it seems that he’s joining in the fun by starting the game and scoring a penalty from the spot. At half time, Vidic, Ferdinand, De Gea, Berbatov and Rafael were removed presumably to rest them for the upcoming match. For the second half, 4 more goals were scored with 1 from Anderson, 1 from Welbeck and 2 from Mame Diouf. Scholesey himself was subbed off at the 74^th minute for the final time in his career and it was a standing ovation for the loyal servant of United as he made his way off the field for the last time. I guess after this, there’ll be no turning back to the field that he’s so familiar with. The match ended 6-0 in favour of United and Scholes did a final lap of honour around the 4 corners of Old Trafford with his family.

Well, it’s a privilege for me to have the opportunity to be there personally at Old Trafford to bid farewell to Paul Scholes. He has been such an integral part of the squad. He has occupied the major part of my years of following football and suffice to say, he’s part of my growing up years. To see him finally hang up his boots is almost like closing a mini chapter, a signal that I’m growing old too. The one thing I’ve always admired about Scholes is his humble character despite his piles of achievement as a professional football player. I can see that his family meant a lot to him, given that he has chosen to have them alongside him as he made his last round around Old Trafford. There will never be another player like him who would grace the Theatre of Dreams. You may have another star midfielder who will rise up and be a first-team member but you’ll never get the same class of style and personality like Scholes. Thanks for the memories Paul. The Ginger Prince, United Legend, Loyal Servant, England’s Midfield Maestro and Model Professional - we salute you. 

London Stadium Grounds Visit

It’s time to put another of my milestone aims to task. My trips to London have not crossed path of the football stadiums yet. I knew I had to make a stadium tour of the major clubs in London at some point of time. Of course, the two biggest ones are Chelsea and Arsenal. There are also other major ones such as Tottenham, Fulham and West Ham. I’ve decided that these are the 5 club stadiums that I would slot in for the tour since all of them are the London clubs in the previous Premier League season. West Ham is no longer in the Premier League now but nevertheless, it’ll still be worthwhile to visit because of its famed academy. There won’t be time to enter and visit every individual stadium tour so, I was thinking that I might just pick either Chelsea or Arsenal for internal scrutiny if there are extra time to waste. 2^nd August was the best date I could find after perusing through the right date in the tight schedule of remaining time left.

It was the usual bus trip to London and I reached at about late morning. I did an analysis of the route that I should be taking from the Internet, and I’ve drafted the route in such a way that I won’t have to travel double times over a certain area. To start off, the first London stadium on the list is West Ham at Upton Park since it’s located at East London. Among all the stadiums it’s the furthest away from Central London. When I came out of the Upton Park station, I was greeted by a sight that’s common in Bradistan. The place is full of Pakistani and South Asians. The West Ham stadium was not far away and I did not need to walk far from the Tube station. I would say West Ham have a fine home indeed. The West Ham Academy is prominent in England, so the first thing that visitors see as they walk through the gates is the entrance to the Academy. The stadium grounds also had a sizeable car park. I went in to check out their megastore. Lol, apparently they are getting ready to print out Championship styled numberings for their shirts. The other thing that West Ham can be proud of and highlighted in their megastore is the fact that World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore is a firm faithful player of the club. After taking the necessary photos, I left the blue and maroon ground and made my way through the Tube route to North East London.

North East London houses two rivals in the premier league – Tottenham and Arsenal. Spurs’ White Hart Lane is second on my list and this is followed by Arsenal in no.3. But alas, White Hart Lane is not connected directly by the Tube and it would require an interchange to the national rail track. Ahhhh, at first I was ok with that interchange but after having trouble finding the exchanging station, I decided to just walk to White Hart Lane since there are signboards pointing that direction. I was starving by then, so I popped into Tesco to grab some potato chips and drinks. It’s a long walk, so I munched along the way. From my observation, North East London is another world on its own - this time populated by British African and Caribbean folks. When I reach WHL’s area, I did not spot the stadium right away but only the Spurs merchandise shop. As I went nearer, I spotted the towering stadium over the other smaller buildings. It took me quite a while before spotting the main entrance to WHL and it seems that if one wants to go to the stadium compound, he would have to sign up at the guard house at the gate. There seems to be no other way in and that kinda put me off in entering. WHL is probably the most unfriendly stadium since visitors can’t get to have a free look without going through the guarded gate. The only thing I did was to walk a full circumference around the stadium and there ain’t much to see. I managed to find the national rail station on the way back and I took a train to the nearest Tube station to save time.

For the Gooners, I stopped at the Arsenal tube station, obviously named after the club. It was stated at the station that the old name was Gillespie Road in the 1930s. I used to think that the Emirates is very far away from the old Highbury site but apparently they are very near, just different directions to start off from the station. Of course, I grew up knowing about Highbury, so it’s only proper to pay a visit to Arsenal’s original home. A quick swing to the left and some walking distance among a squeezy housing area lies Highbury. The entire stadium is demolished for a new block of apartments but the East Stand of Highbury is retained. After exploring what remains of Highbury, I walked towards the Emirates which is located at the right hand side of the station. Since the stadium is located across some railway tracks, I needed to cross a bridge to reach it. I have to say, the Emirates is a fantastic-looking stadium. There’s a massive amount of space surrounding the stadium and on the stadium walls are giant murals of legendary Gooners. I was actually thinking of paying to enter the stadium and have a look inside the museum and interior of the Emirates but after considering, I didn’t go in the end because I may not have enough time to settle the last 2 on my list. Before I leave Ashburton Grove, I quickly went into the Arsenal megastore before it closes for the day to grab a souvenir for chippy Alvin since he’s a massive Gooner fan.

Chelsea and Fulham are located at the South West section of London. I picked to visit Fulham first since it’s another stadium which is not located near the Tube station. I had to make the long walk for almost 15 minutes before I managed to reach Craven Cottage which is nestled in among some nice-looking housing area. Ah, the irony of life. Anfield, such a massive historical venue is surrounded by council houses while Craven Cottage, a much more humble above is located in a rather affluent area in London. The interesting part of Craven Cottage which I did not realise until I’m there is that it’s actually located beside the Thames River. Something not to be missed when one is at Craven Cottage is the Michael Jackson statue. I was surprised not to find it at the front section of the stadium. Instead, I had to walk towards the Thames River side and peered through the gaps of the gate and find it facing the river..lol.

It was another lengthy walk back to the Fulham Broadway station, the place where I started from and my last stop of the day is Stamford Bridge. Thankfully, it’s only 5 minutes away from the station and yes, I would say that Stamford Bridge is another admirable structure. It is also of no coincidence that I discovered Chelsea to be located in an ‘atas’ area. The stadium compound houses several other club buildings. By the time I reached the Bridge, it was almost 6pm+, so the official store is closed and so is their museum. What I did was just to scout the various parts of the stadium compound. As I was walking, I can’t help chuckling at giant advert posters of Torres with his Chelski team-mates. He was the same dude who once adorned the walks of Anfield..hahahaha.

Ahhhhhh, that concludes my personal tour of the London stadiums. All 5 covered just in time before the sun sets. I was super thirsty by the time I went to the Fulham Broadway Tube Station, so I popped inside Sainsburry to buy some fruit juices. The bus was only due at 9pm, so I had a long wait at the bus station and suffice to say, it was 1am in the morning when I reach Leeds. No problem on the late hours, since it’s a free and easy time and I've got nothing on.