European Soccer Tour – Day 5: Three Games

Catching up on updates . . .

Our fifth day in England was chock full of soccer: three games – or “matches” as they are called here – including two featuring the Texans and later that night, Arsenal versus Udinese in the first leg of the Champions League Qualifier

Blake’s team had the first match at 10:00 am, against Reading FC’s Youth Academy. We parents arrived at Bradfield and headed to the soccer field, or “pitch” as it’s called here, and discovered that no one was there, except for some sheep.



They weren’t actually on the pitch, but in an adjoining field

We were wondering what to do, and I was, unsuccessfully, trying to call Austin on his cell phone (still confused about English phone numbers, country codes, etc) when Gary, our other Fantastic Scottish tour guide, came running down the path. We were in the wrong place, and the “petch is reyht down the way, to you’re reyht and past a wee dip in the groond”.

I snapped this picture of Bradfield as we were on our way over (the boys playing on the pitch in the foreground are not our boys).



Bradfield College

We hurried over and made it to the game just as the boys scored their first goal. Our Dallas Texans trainer, J.R. (who is British) told the boys that this team was going to hand it to them, but we made a good start of it and played the match well. We were a “good side” as they say here. Here are some images of the game.



Game on



Blake with the ball



More action



About to send it



Look at that scenery. It’s like playing in the Shire



Halftime



Some second half action

The Texans played tough and ended up winning 3 to 2. Blake played the whole game and did a great job at left back.



The two teams in an after-game photo

A tradition in “friendlies” like this one is for each coach to choose a “man of the match” from the opposing team. The Reading coach chose Anthony, who, as always, played some great defense at center back.



A-Train, Man of the Match

Following Blake’s game we had lunch, and then the older boys took to the field and were victorious over Reading FC’s older club, winning – if memory serves – 3 to 1. The Texans are undefeated in Britain, having won all four matches. Well done!

After the match we gathered in a clubhouse adjoining the nearby cricket field for another English tradition, afternoon tea.



Tea

Following this, we had some free time at Bradfield while the boys got out of their uniforms, or “kits”, got cleaned up, and then we all piled on the bus and headed for London to watch Arsenal take on Udinese, an Italian team.

The game was at Emirates stadium, which was the biggest stadium we’d been to thus far, seating perhaps 60,000 people. The game was a Champion’s League qualifier, to be played in two legs. This was the first leg, to be followed up with a second leg at Udinese in a few days. The team that wins the round qualifies to compete in the Champions League tournament

I need to digress a minute here to explain the concept of “legs” to American sports fans. Actually, rather than explaining, let me give an example: suppose in the NBA playoffs, Boston and the Lakers squared off, playing one game in L.A. and the other in Boston. The winner would be decided by aggregate point differential. So, if Boston beat the Lakers by 10 in L.A., and the Lakers beat Boston by 4 in Boston, the Celtics would win the overall match because their overall point differential is plus 6 versus the Laker’s point differential of -6. In the case where the overall differential matches exactly – say, for instance, L.A. beat Boston 100-98 in LA, and Boston beat the Lakers 90-88 in Boston – the team that scored the most point in the other team’s crib wins it all (again, Boston). Hopefully that makes sense, but I realize that it probably seems kind of strange to American sports sensibilities.

In any event . . . Austin passed out tickets and ten pounds to each of us, so that we could get some food at the match.



Austin, passing out tickets and pounds

Blake and I first hit Arsenal’s team store and then bought some very affordable pizza and sodas at one of the stadium eateries before taking our seats. Below are some pictures of the match.



We had good seats



The boys, before the game started



Arsenal and Udinese in action



Theo Walcott of Arsenal scored the winning goal. This was the celebration

It should be noted that this was also the only goal we saw scored by a Premier League team the entire trip.

Following the match, the boys posed by this display in Emirates stadium.



The Texans would get my vote

We then trudged a mile or two (or ten, it seemed) to our bus through the dark streets of London and headed back to our Hotel and Bradfield. We got back just before midnight, facing an early wake-up for a 7:00am departure to Luton airport and Barcelona.

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