Avoiding the Drop

Bluesfan and her dad ahead of the game

We here at Avoiding the Drop love the unique experiences that this game offers the fans. One fan, reader and commenter Bluesfan, was gracious enough to share her experience at last night’s World Football Challenge with us, much like Kevin did for the Chelsea v. Inter Milan match. What follows is her account of the evening.

Hi all. It’s the morning after the AC Milan v. Chelsea match in Baltimore. Unlike Kevin, I didn’t have a cute kid to take with me to the match, so I took my dad instead. He’s the one who got me interested in the game, so it was fitting for my first Chelsea match to have him there. In a perfect world he would be cheering on the Blues (he’s a Serie A fan and Italian) and not playing with a vuvuzela, but what can you do? We still had a great time. Here are my thoughts on Chelsea’s second match of the World Football Challenge.

"OMG ITS FRANK LAMPARD"

Driving into Baltimore, it was evident that the beautiful game had taken over the city. Everywhere you looked there were people in Chelsea and AC Milan kits. We got to the stadium early to find our seats and watch both sides warm-up. We sat to the right of the center line across the pitch from the team benches, and about 22 rows up. All of the players came out of the tunnel to large cheers for warm-ups. Ronaldinho and Pirlo seemed to get the loudest cheers from our end of the pitch. There wasn’t any fanfare when it came time for the match to start. Both sides walked out with their little kids in tow. There was a lot of atmosphere and noise at kickoff, but it died down a lot in the opening minutes. The announcer proceeded to discuss sponsors in the first five minutes after kickoff, which was really distracting. It would have been better if they saved it for half-time. It got really annoying, really fast. Thankfully, the vuvuzela playing was kept at a minimum for the entirety of the match.

We were closest to the AC Milan goal in the first half, and were in a perfect spot to see Didier’s goal in the 7^th minute. It was a complete rocket! Everyone was on their feet because of Chelsea’s persistent attacks in the opening minutes, and all hell broke loose when that shot went in. Everyone was screaming and jumping around, even the two AC Milan fans on either side of me (my dad to the right and some other guy on the left). A similar reaction occurred when Seedorf scored later on in the half. I took no part in the celebration, as you can imagine, but I had to laugh at the Gunners fan in front me. He stood up on the barrier, screaming and waving an AC Milan shirt over his head. [Editor's note: TwoYellows, was that you?]

There were a lot of loud moments during the first half, but it bothered me how quiet it got for long periods of time. The Chelsea end stood the entire match and were singing, but we couldn’t hear it down my end over the dull noise of everyone talking. And then the wave started. Not only did it go around the stadium two or three times, but there were multiple waves in the various tiers of the stadium. The sad part wasn’t that people were actually doing the wave (which was pretty ridiculous), but that the fans were louder during the wave than there were for most of the first half, apart from the goal celebrations. I knew going in that the atmosphere wasn’t going to equal the stadiums in Europe, but that disappointed me a lot.

Zhirkov made his debut for Chelsea, and following in Daniel Sturridge’s footsteps scored in his first match in a Chelsea shirt. There were moments when it was clear he wasn’t used to the tempo and style of play, but I think with more practice and getting to know the squad, he’ll do well for Chelsea. Not everyone had a good match though. As my dad put it, “What’s with Lampard? His passing has been off all match.” It’s rare that comments like that are made about Lamps, but it was true. I think all that sunning by the pool in LA with JT may have gotten to him. Shevchenko actually had a couple of decent shots on goal, which surprised me. The “we love Sheva” chants surprised me too, but the guys with Sheva painted on their chests scared me more than anything. Oh, and he really does look like Fabio running around with that blonde hair.

GOOCH!

The biggest moment of the match was definitely when Gooch took the field for Milan. There was a buzz and scatters of cheering while he waited by the sideline. When the fourth official held up the substitution board, the entire stadium started cheering. Gooch walked onto the pitch to standing ovation from 71,000 fans. It was an incredible feeling to see how much support there was for him. Lots of USA chants rang out afterwards, and the crowd went crazy again at his first touch a few minutes later.

Overall, the match was everything I hoped it would be. It was high quality, fast paced football that I hadn’t seen from the MLS and even the USMNT matches I’ve attended. It wasn’t really evident from the style and speed of play that the match was a friendly. Both sides wanted to win, and played hard. The Chelsea win was icing on the cake. Lastly, a big thanks to guys at ATD for letting me write about my thoughts on the match and for anyone who reads all the way through this.

No thank you Bluesfan