Birthday Football

We decided we couldn’t live in England and not see a premiership football match, so for Nick’s birthday we got tickets to see our local Birmingham team Aston Villa play London’s Arsenal at home. We got the tickets to go with BJ and Katrina when they were here but, disappointingly, the game was postponed and we couldn't go then. We decided to keep the tickets and use them with our next guests...the advantage of having so many visitors!

At the game we found it hard (though extremely necessary to avoid physical assault) to support Villa too much since we knew they weren’t going to win, and Arsenal plays ‘the most technically accurate and graceful football of any team in England’ (this right out of the home program). In the end, we found the loud chanting and singing from the Villa fans very entertaining, and though we didn’t know what we were singing (which is probably good…) we clapped and mumbled along. It was a really exciting game, and I don’t think you can call live football boring…it was incredible to see the players pretty much run all-out for the whole game and nearly kill each other for the ball. I think much like in American football, the career of these guys can’t be too long.

It was an awesome birthday present and a unique cultural night out, and as you can see from the photos, we had great seats and a great time. We even avoided any threats of physical violence, other then when we came in a bit late. After Arsenal fans, Philadelphia actually does look like a city of brotherly love.