This is my first post on the vacation Leslie and I took in Europe.  The game at Craven Cottage was my favorite and is the one thing I’ve written about.  I’ll post more as I can in the future.

(To the tune of John Denver’s Country Road)

Take me home, Al Fayed

To a place, I belong

Craven Cottage, by the river

Take me home, Al Fayed

My wife, Leslie, and I witnessed perhaps the greatest football game of the year. A Fulham win on May 8^th over the fifth place team from Birmingham, Aston Villa, by the score of 3-1. This event was the reason why we decided to take my leave so early in the leave cycle. I’ve only been in Iraq for four months out of twelve. That’s pretty early, but someone had to go first and the football (soccer) season ends in May.

When my friend, Adrian, and I decided to start following club football after the 2006 World Cup, we took some inspiration from a Sports Guy column on picking a team. The Sports Guy won me over with Tottenham and Adrian developed a serious man-crush on Chelsea coach Jose Mourino. Developing an interest in a team is very important when it comes to following a sport with which one is fundamentally unfamiliar. In that first year, I found myself watching more and more Fulham games. They traditionally have multiple Americans on the team. I really liked their forward Brian McBride and defender Carlos Bocanegra. They are both scrappy players that play hard. Then towards the end of the year, another American, Clint Dempsey joined the team and scored the goal that gave them a 1-0 win over Liverpool to keep Fulham from going down to the league below. **Side note for those that don’t follow European soccer** Think of soccer leagues in England like a large pyramid with the Premiere League on top. The bottom three teams at the end of league play drop to the second level, called the Coca-Cola Championship, and three teams from the Championship are promoted to the Premiere League. This Wikipedia article explains it better **End of Side Note** I started following Fulham closely last year for the 2007-2008 season when they were almost relegated again, but escaped relegation by winning on the road in the last game of the year.

First I enlisted some help from my favorite Fulham FC site, www.fulhamusa.com. It was started by two Americans who love Fulham and wanted to get other Americans following the team. A fine gentleman known as AmericanMike helped me acquire tickets. He got us great seats in the Hammersmith End with the people.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

We made our way towards Craven Cottage, the home of The Fulham Football Club, around ten for a game at three in the afternoon. I wanted to make sure we knew where it was and where we could pick up our tickets. The stadium has the River Thames to the south, Bishop’s Park on the West and residences to the North and West. The closest example in the states I can think of is the Nationals Park in Washington D.C.. Craven Cottage is as much a piece of the neighborhood as the residential houses. It’s not like an American Stadium where one can see the stadium from a mile away while driving on the freeway. We were walking through a park, thinking we were going the right way when we stumbled across the stadium.  As we walked through Bishop’s Park several hours before the game, we saw several youth football matches. I saw way too many Chelsea and Arsenal shirts on these kids. I guess glory-hunting isn’t restricted to just about every Red Sox fan you’ve met after 2004, or your typical pink-shirted Dallas Mavs fan.

The atmosphere before the game was electric. Fulham was sitting seventh in the league table and in the drivers seat for a place in the Europa League. Fans were hanging out behind the stands drinking beer and making bets. They don’t allow alcohol in the stands so the fans don’t sit until the teams take the field for game time. One other fun thing is clubs have sponsorship deals with licensed bookies. This means they have kiosks in the stadium that will take legal bets. I was convinced the game would be a draw, so I put a couple of pounds on that along with the 1-1 score. I’m also a Clint Dempsey homer and put a pound on him to score first. The crowd didn’t seem to be convinced of a draw. Especially in the 13^th minute when Kemsoy Kemara was mugged in the penalty box and the ref awarded Fulham a penalty kick. That’s when the singing started to the tune of Yellow Submarine.

We’re all going on a European tour, a European tour, a European tour.

Some say the refs that Saturday were bias towards the penalty call because of a game involving Chelsea FC, a Fulham rival, midweek. Chelsea supporters feel they were robbed of a win against Barcelona because of many missed penalty kick calls by the ref from Norway. Going up 1-0 off a penalty kick gave the crowd an opportunity to chant gems like,

We are Fulham We are Fulham We are Fulham FFC, We are Fulham Super Fulham We are Fulham F*ck Chelsea

And

There’s only one Iniesta, one Iniesta, one Iniesta (he scored the goal that put Barcelona past Chelsea)

Then to the tune of London Bridge

Stamford Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down

Stamford Bridge is falling down, poooooooooorrrr Chelsea

Fill it up with balck and white, black and white, black and white

Fill it up with black and white, pooooooooorrrr Chelsea

Then came my personal favorite. This was sung when the singing was at a lull and we just needed something to sing. It’s a little chant about a Chelsea star and the England captain, John Terry’s Mother.

*clap**clap**clap**clap* John Terry’s mother is a thief AND A WH*RE.

(I know it’s a bit rude and low-class to chant that, but it’s funny and I had no idea she was a thief and a wh*re. It’s amazing the things we learn from sport).

I was in fan heaven because Leslie and I got to stand, yell and sing for the entire game. It took us about three or five times through the chants to figure out what was being said. Once I figured it out, I was loud. It was a smidge different than a TCU game.

OH, Fulham won the game 3-1. They scored two quick goals at the beginning of the second half to win comfortably. The next Saturday, they would win away at Newcastle United (a relegation candidate) 1-0. They only need to draw in their last game of the year to lock up their spot in a pan-european club competition.

He scores from his left

He scores from his right

That boy Clint Dempsey

Makes Droba look s*ite.

Update: I wrote most of this two weeks ago, Fulham locked up their spot in the Europa League today on the last day of the season. This is a big deal because the last two years they barely finished out of the relegation zone to stay in the Premier League.  Not only will they have 38 league games along with FA Cup and Carling Cup games, but their season will start at the end of July. It can be a poisoned chalice winning a spot in European Competition because of how it extends the season even more. That’s the price of winning!

This post is tagged 343rd MPAD, 34th ID, 34th Infantry Division, Al Fayed, Aston Villa, Clint Dempsey, Craven Cottage, Fulham, fulhamusa.com, Hammersmith End, Iniesta, John Terry, John Terry's Mother, R&R, Super Fulham