QWest (London)

Before Chelsea Came to Seattle, Seattle Went to Chelsea

Jenn Brotherton has grown up supporting local professional sports teams. Some of her greatest memories include attending more Sonics games with her mom than she can count, squealing with delight when her husband Mitch caught his first foul ball at a summer Mariners game, and drinking more than one hot chocolate at frigid Seahawks games.

As a child, and a fan of dry and warm activities, she found herself playing volleyball rather than following her schoolmates onto the soccer field on gray, rainy Seattle weekends. Fulfilling a lifelong dream to visit London, an unexpected passion was ignited and a new fan of the English Premier League returned home, armed with an experience almost as great as hearing Big Ben chime that first time, … almost.

While pestering Mitch, who is the Match Day Sound Controller for Sounders FC, we asked Jenn about how London changed her view of the worlds’ game.

An Unexpected London Souvenir

In a Fox Soccer Channel pre-match interview, Seattle Sounders FC co-owner Drew Carey said “Bring somebody to a live international soccer game…hooked for life…that’s the thing to see.” I could not have said it better myself.

I have never been to a Sounders FC game (my first one will be July 18). I have never played a game of soccer in my life. However, I proudly declare I am a newly oriented soccer fan for life thanks to an autumn trip to the UK and my first Premier League match.

My first international football match was in November 2008. My husband and I had planned a 10-day trip to London, and he happily agreed to all the museums, churches and shops so when he asked if I’d be interested in going to a football match, I excitedly fired up Google and Wikipedia to find out all I could. The extent of my football knowledge was of an attractive Portuguese player with a penchant for taking off his shirt during match celebrations and a highly tattooed English player known as much for his fashion as his exceptional skill. I knew this would not get me far in the land of die-hard-football-is-a-way-of-life-fans.

The only match that fit into our packed itinerary was Fulham FC v. Tottenham Hotspur FC at Craven Cottage. I will never forget that day and fondly recall it as one of the highlights of that trip to London. The fan support and energy on a football Saturday in London is palpable. Fans pour into the subway decked out in flags, team shirts and scarves. The buzz is contagious, butterflies developed in my stomach. I knew I was in for something special. The chanting, singing and shouting boiled over the moment the crowd emerged from the packed subway train and wound its way through the residential streets swollen with manic fans. And it is like this every weekend from August to May!

“You can feel the pride and history from the moment you walk through the iron gates.”

We got off the train, happily swept up into the throngs of supporters, and walked through a city park as several neighborhood pubs lured in some of the crowd for a quick pre-match pint. And then I saw it. The oldest looking sports stadium I had ever seen surrounded by narrow houses, police on horses, vendors selling nuts, hotdogs and programs. Noticeably absent was a car park or any sort of vehicle traffic; everyone was on foot. Never did I think in the heart of this quaint neighborhood would be a football stadium.

Craven Cottage was built on the River Thames in 1896 and is home to Fulham FC. The stadium is wonderful in its own right: massive wooden beams, creaky wooden stairways, old Brits in their cockney accents reminiscing on seasons past. You can feel the pride and history from the moment you walk through the iron gates.

By Premier League standards, Craven Cottage is a small stadium, yet it is consistently filled to capacity at over 25,000. We watched the match from row 14 of the Putney End (for neutral and away supporters) of the stadium. The fans are so supportive of their team, from starting kickoff to the final whistle, no matter the score. The chants still ring loud in my head anytime I hear or read a story about Tottenham. Fulham ended up winning the match and the Premier League gained a new follower that blustery November day.

Two major points of interest from my first foray into Premier League football. First, it is illegal to be in possession of or to consume alcohol within view of the pitch during the period of a football match. Now these Brits love their pints, and the stands empty out during halftime but there is no drunk and disorderly conduct to contend with during the match. Everyone is there to watch the match, and celebrate a win or loss afterward in the pubs. Second is the lack of line in the women’s restroom. Women supporters are present and vocal but the majority of the crowd is male. I’ve never been in a cleaner or more unused restroom during a sporting event in my life!

Chelsea May Not Always Win but They Never Loos

Well, that is, until this past May when my husband and I returned to London and attended the Chelsea FC v. Blackburn match at Stamford Bridge. This most recent match paled in comparison to the Fulham experience, but that was always going to be hard to beat!

Stamford Bridge is a much larger stadium, located about 10 minutes from Craven Cottage. “The Bridge” was built in 1876 but has undergone much renovation and expansion. The stadium holds on average 42,000 fans each game, and we were lucky to even get tickets. We were in the upper West End, 20 rows back, opposite the Shed End. I think we were pretty close to the top of the stadium, sitting in the American row it seemed. What a difference that made! We could faintly hear chants from the supporters below us, could not see the video screen because it was blocked by huge steel beams running the length of the stadium, and I spent the entire game getting hit in the head by a wildly gesturing Italian seated behind me. As my husband and I left the stadium, following an easy Chelsea win, we both said almost at the same time, “Next time we are going to White Hart Lane to see a Tottenham match.”

While I can’t easily identify an off-side penalty, aggregate scoring confuses me to no end, and I can’t tell you names of players not on the Sounders FC team, I can happily rattle off the highlights of the UEFA cup final, tell you who scored the goals for Chelsea in the FA cup final, which teams are relegated next season from the Premier League and who is moving up, why I think Harry Redknapp should have been manager of the year and that yes in fact, the often shirtless Portuguese player is lovely to watch.

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