Liverpool games and other British stuff

I am very happy today because Liverpool finally won a EPL game! Granted it was a 1-0 victory over West Brom, but I'll take it. Especially after they got slaughtered last week by Man City 3-0, which was really horrifying to watch. For some reason we keep winning the European cup games, which don't count towards our league totals, but this was the first this season. So we will finally move from 18th out of 20 to 13th. The last time they won the League Championship it was 1989-90 season, so they are well overdue for a win.

In other happy news, I'm finally getting a Liverpool t-shirt! My hubby John is getting himself the new 2010-2011 team jersey. They should come in this week. I wanted to get the goalie jersey with Reina's name on the back, but it only came in long sleeves and it was like $80 with customization.  So will wait on that one. Also, I have been craving British chocolate for weeks now and last week I finally got myself a Galaxy bar. For those who have not eaten one, it is seriously the best most creamy chocolate bar ever. The Galaxy Caramel is amazing too. Besides, how can you not love a chocolate bar that encourages you to curl up with a good book? I also got a Fry's Peppermint Creme Chocolate bar, also yummy.

Opening Game of the Season!

Sunday was Liverpool's first game of the season and as my husband said "It's feels like Christmas because you get a new season to open and enjoy!" They were playing Arsenal and it was a good game to watch, especially since we were in the Cock & Bull Pub for the first time since April, and surrounded by a roomful of fellow fans. We were at their new location and the owner Rod was showing us around and telling us all about how he plans to improve it and the new menu, which will feature a lot of curry and Shephard's Pie! Hurray!

Anyways, one of our new players Joe Cole, got thrown out in the first half for a totally crap call. The other team had been pulling similar moves before that and they didn't get thrown out. So we were down to 10 men, and yet we still scored! Unfortunately they did too, by an accident with our goalie Reina. That's okay Reina, as I pointed out to my hubby, without you last season would've totally blown as you saved our butts so many times. And he is why whenever I get a Liverpool shirt, I want one with Reina on the back (bonus that he's a cutie!).

The photo below is from last year I believe but I love it because it shows my second favorite player Fernando Torres (also from Spain like Reina and played on the Spanish National Team during the World Cup) and his daughter.

Bolton Wanderers vs Charleston Battery

So the game was a lot of fun, despite the day being so hot it was like being in a sauna in your clothes all day, we were sweating so much. The only advantage to this sticky situation is that everyone else you are with has also been sweating all day and so they don't mind the smell as much. Needless to say, I never want to experience that again. I was way too uncomfortably hot. We went to the game early and got to tailgate with The Regiment, the fan club for the Battery. We met a nice guy named Mikey who my hubby had been talking to on the Club's forums. This was the first time an English Premier League team had played in South Carolina, so we were psyched to be amongst the 5000+ fans there to watch it (luckily we had a seat, but they had so many people there, it ended up being standing room only behind the goals). We are hoping that this will encourage other EPL teams to come to South Carolina, so maybe we can see some really good clubs like Man City, Tottenham, or even Liverpool (*fingers crossed*). We watched the teams warming up before the game and I was surprised how close we were to the pitch. There were a decent amount of British fans, including those that live in the area and Bolton fans that were traveling with the team. The other big surprise was how quiet it was during the game. I guess I'm just used to watching English Premier League games which are always so noisy.That being said, it was however, a really fun game to watch. The Wanderers won 2-0, though the Battery at least were putting up a fight despite losing.

My hubby was psyched because he got to take a picture and get an autograph from Owen Coyle, the manager of Bolton (who is an ex-footballer for Republic of Ireland and Bolton). We tried to get more autographs after the game, but there were too many people and the good players left early. For me, at least, there were quite a few good looking players on the field, including a cute balding ref. This is not a prerequisite but useful when you get a boring game, at least you have someone cute to look at. One of the things we noticed was how small the Charleston players were in comparison to Bolton, who had one guy that was at least 6' 6". It literally looked like Bolton was playing against a bunch of high-schoolers with the height difference. The only really annoying thing about the game were the vuvuzelas, those horns from World Cup fame. Our friend who went with us got one and spent the rest of the game blowing it at other people and generally annoying us and everyone around us. There were a couple of times I thought people were going to beat the crap out of him and possibly us for sitting with him. Those things should seriously be banned from games.

Soccer Game tomorrow!

Tomorrow the hubby and I get to go down to Charleston and see the local amateur team, the Charleston Battery play the English Premier League team, the Bolton Wanderers. Should be an interesting game. It will be our first opportunity to see a real English-style football game and hopefully meet some new soccer fans and maybe even some players!