Of course, going to Old Trafford to catch a ManU game will mean wearing the jersey at least, duh!
Arrived at Picadilly Circus where we had the english breakfast in a cafe! Authentic English Breakfast in England, complete with tea!
Despite the fact that transport and accomodation are obscenely expensive, some stuff, sportswear in particular are cheap! All EPL team short sleeve jerseys go for 25 pounds, and England jerseys go for 4.49 pounds! Yes 10SGD for an official England jersey, even cheaper than in Pasar Malam!
However I did not buy any, this was why.
Either English people are too horizontally developed, or Umbro got it wrong when it manufactured these shirts.
Since the match was to kick off at half past 5, we ate lunch shortly after breakfast, at this English pub. Pubs here double up as restaurants before 9pm, and its very common to sell their food as a bundle of 2 lunches at 5 pounds.
Beef Lasasgna for lunch. Sad to say, the presentation was better than the taste.
Anyway, I was probably too excited to want to hang out in the pub for much longer, and we reached the stadium 3 hours in advance! Kiasu Singaporean me is! And of course a lot of photos taken in front of OT.
Shortly after, I went to collect my ticket at the ticketing office while the other 3 waited for Wanteng's friend, Grismond who's a student at Manchester University and helped them buy their tickets.
My ticket!
We walked around abit more before going into the stadium at around 430, but not before we saw Anderson!
The first sight of Old Trafford's interior!
I was sitting in the opposite side from the rest, and I had one of the stewarts take a photo for me at where I sat!
Before long, the Blackburn Rovers team was warming up on the field, of course they weren't given the kind of reception when the United team made their way onto the field!
The team of the day!
Giggs, Evra, Tevez!
Rooney, Scholes and Ronaldo!
Welback, Berbatov, Carrick, Nani, Ferdinand and Vidic!
Kickoff was timely at 530, but I realised people who watch on tv miss out on a lot of fan-fare things, such as the very cool introduction of all the players of the match, it was similar to the announcement of how wrestlers go into the ring, and 75000 (ok maybe 74000 corrected for Blackburn supporters) cheers as each name made the round!
The stadium wasn't packed to its full capacity of 76212, but 75000 for this match was still an awesome sight to behold. That's 1.6% of Singapore's population squeezed into OT! Coincidentally, OT's record attendance was also this fixture against Blackburn 2 seasons earlier!
Without a shadow of a doubt the maestro of english football. Sir Alex Ferguson! liverpool fans will have no more say about the record number of league titles they have won come May! Muahaha.
The match wasn't the best by Man Utd standards, miscommunication caused the goal which prevented 14 successive cleansheets, but to catch a Ronaldo free-kick goal made up for the below par performance! Coupled with liverpool dropping another 2 points, I really can't see how Man Utd will lose this title man. Hahaha.
Anyway after the match, I met Grismond at the West entrance of OT, where he told me that players will come out from there after the match, and if we hang around long enough, we could possibly get some autographs! So we just stood there for a while, a crowd gathered and security guards appeared very soon after! Initially I thought I was behind the queue, with the security guard right behind me, but then all of a sudden they stopped the crowd, and everyone turned around! I realised the position where the guards were was actually the place where they will place the barriers! Suddenly I'm in the front of the queue! Of course had to act as if I waited very long already, and thanks to late comers who tried to squeeze into the queue, and English people being brutally blunt people that they are, were busy telling off the rest they didn't realise I kind-of cut queue as well! But who cares! Hahaha.
And yes presenting the stars who signed on my scarf, which has now become a prized possession..
Seriously awesome lah!!! Catching the match was a dream-come-true. Getting autographs was a bonus!
All of us with our autographs. Seb got Giggs since Giggs only signed for a group of fans who were standing at somewhere else 20 metres away, Meiyee managed to get Rooney's, since Rooney walked to the other side too. I think I know how they judge the fan-favourites, players like Tevez really make the effort to sign for every fan!
Right before we left, we were taking some last photos before some really friendly English people just spontaneously joined us in our photos! If you tried to do that in Singapore, those people intended in the photo will probably think you are crazy and run off before you could do anything else!
A last photo at Old Trafford. For now! Frankly speaking, AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME. Man Utd fans must all come to Old Trafford to watch a live game. From the streets packed with red shirts around Old Trafford and even in Picadilly Circus; the sight of 70000+ people right before your eyes; the 'i-thought-he-looked-quiet-but-couldn't-stop-shouting-fuck/asshole/cunt/shit' english supporters; the players you see on tv week-in week-out but now are all taller than you; to the roars and cheers so loud when Rooney or Ronaldo scored which threatened to bring the house down... everything was just amazing. Yes I sound like I blew the loudest trumpet, especially in the face of fans from rival teams, but yea you will no doubt be feeling something similiar when you visit the club you support too.
Day 26 to follow soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment