My Favourite Arsenal Memories!

The countdown continues, this week Number 3 & 2.

3. Celebrating my 30th birthday watching Highbury

As many Australians do, in 97 I decided to move to London to spend a couple of years sampling whatever was on offer there, and there was plenty. While I had followed Football before this move (I have lots of fond memories watching Match of the Day on the ABC) it was not until my 2 years in London that the football bug hit hard.

The Gunners were my favourite team but the 97/98 season with us doing the double, put me on the path to the devotion I have now.

In 99 I moved on to Boston but would still follow the games over the net or watch the games at the local pub every Saturday morning, which they replayed from the Premiership games earlier in the day.

When it came to planning my 30th, as I was so far from home, I decided to spend a couple of weeks back in London visiting friends but also to catch a couple of Gunners games.

Two matches were on the cards, at home at Highbury to Everton in the League and then at home to Barcelona in the Champions League at Wembley.

For the Everton game, a work colleague from the US happened to be in London at the same time so I brought him along for his first introduction to English Football. On the way to the ground we picked up our new Gunners shirts, secured some tickets for the North End where we were introduced to how much the fans hated Tottenham. This was continually chanted but we were not even playing them, amazing. Everton scored first in front of us however we drew just before half-time as Everton outplayed us most of the first half. Second half was a different scenario with Davor Suker scoring 2 in front of the North End and then Kanu finishing the game off in the end for us to Win 4-1.

Sensational….

Not only did we hang around for a while savouring the atmosphere, we kicked on late into the night at the local pubs, can’t remember which ones but it was BIG.

For the Barca game, 73,000 fans jammed into Wembley on a cold Tuesday night.
A fantastic game of football but it was hard for me to appreciate it as we just couldn't overcome a 2 goal start handed to Barcelona by a combination of bad luck, bad refereeing and bad defending. Also Kluivert just tore us apart all night.

While not a great result the atmosphere was special.

The chanting, singing and support the fans give their teams in English football is something Australian Fans can never understand or appreciate until they have experienced it. I have been to many significant sporting events in Australia but nothing compares to the fan support in English Football and that from the Gunners Fans in particular.

Happy 30th birthday to me……

2. FA Cup 2005

Why does the FA cup hold such an affinity with the Australian football fan.
Simply, no other match gets every Football Fan, regardless of who they support along to the Pub or to a FA Cup party or just in front of the TV from 12am through 2am on a cold and usually wet night in May.

It is becoming a tradition that on this night I spend it with mates and with the Gunners being involved recently it has made it extra special. The final in 2005 was not different just bigger than usual.

The final was fought out between the Gunners and the team I hate the most, understand Tottenham but for me it is United.

As my wife and daughter were in Japan visiting family a BIG night was on the cards. A few friends from work and I decided to partake in a full night of sport. Here what was on the agenda, Melbourne Storm, Waratahs, FA Cup and to finish a bit of baseball….also thrown in was Team America

To star the night we met at Olympic Park for the Storm V Bullogs. There was Darren, Tayler, Scott, John and myself.

First game went the way of the visitors, those dirty Bulldogs from Sydney,
26-16 with Magic El Mazri having a cracker. That made it 1 nil to the bad guys.

After the game we left to head to my place at Newport to get pumped for the FA Cup Final. Matt also joined us.

While waiting for Pizza to arrive and the FA Cup to start, NSW Waratahs were playing in the semi finals of the Super 12 Rugby comp. They beat the Bulls
23-13 to get into the Final , which they would lose the following week to the Crusaders.

That makes it 1 all, can’t go for any team from South Africa, even if they are playing NSW.

After even more beers there was a gap between the rugby finishing and the FA Cup starting. We put on the movie Team America This is from the creators of South Park and features puppets. These guys have some serious issues but there has to be the best sex scene ever in this movie. Brilliant..

Finally the game is here, this will be the first time Tayler has watched a full Football match. Being from Canada, Ice Hockey is more his game.

Poor Tayler as it is a game for Football purists and Arsenal fans only. He
would have to wait till another game to see a real goal. Manchester United
dominated the 120 minutes but failed to take their chances and the game was decided by a penalty shoot-out for the first time in the Cup's history.

Have to love nil-nil at full time, nil-nil after extra time. To cap it off our Captain Patrick Vieira, put the final penalty away. This ended up being his last kick for us as he left for Juve later that summer.

Can’t remember much of the match (too many beers) but I was equally excited that we won the Cup and that United were left empty-handed after looking the more likely winner.

So the night ended up 2-1 to the good guys and for those still alive, we finished watching some baseball that was on Foxtel …..

Bring on the Number 1 Arsenal Memory.