Blue is the Color, Football is the Game

Last Tuesday night I had the chance to see my first soccer (or football as it's called here) game (match) as Chelsea faced off against Real Sociedad at Stamford Bridge. This was their  first home match of the season, and it was really lucky that we were in London just long enough to see Chelsea live! The tube over to Fulham Station was packed, mostly with Chelsea fans, and I knew it was going to be an exciting match. We arrived early to get our duplicate tickets (since I stupidly sent the original ones to America) and welcome the players back to Stamford Bridge. Every player got his own introduction, with a walk down the blue carpet to the roaring crowd and fire blasting on the sides. The biggest cheers were for the returning Ivorian legend Didier Drogba (who unfortunately didn't appear due to injury) and the captain Cahill, as well as for the new Spanish addition, Diego Costa. You can't walk around the stadium, which was too bad, so we took our seats, 10 rows up from the field, and before we knew it the match was underway, and so was the rain. As soon as the ref blew his whistle it started pouring buckets, and while the players were soaked, we were covered and dry in our seats. One line of the Chelsea cheer actually goes, "Cheer us on through the summer rain," which suddenly made a lot of sense in the environment. We had reason to cheer almost immediately, as 57 seconds into his first match at Stamford Bridge Diego Costa knocked one in for the Blues and the crowd went crazy. Then he struck again at the 6 minute mark on a gimme rebound, and again the crowd went wild. It was such a fun start my first soccer match! Another highlight of the match was the absolutely spectacular double rainbow that formed over Stamford Bridge about 25 minutes in. The easing rain and setting sun combined to form probably the best rainbow I have ever seen! Because it was a friendly, the were unlimited subs so we got to see (and even hear we were so close) the likes of Costa, Torres, Schurrle (fresh off his World Cup win), Cahill, Oscar, and many others. The Blues won 2-nil, and while there were no more goals after the 7th minute, there was still plenty of excitement on the pitch and energy from the crowd. The best line of the night was the guy behind me saying, "Good tackle, good tack...Oh F*** OFF!" In a Classic British accent as a Chelsea footballer got called for a penalty, and my favorite cheer was were one guy just screams at the top of his lungs, clearly losing his voice, and then the crowd erupts with its response. Great fun!