the night hull froze over*

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
We're going to Wembley
Que sera sera!
Best. Night. Ever.

Hokay, so it wasn't exactly the most brilliant game I've ever seen. But it was my first Arsenal match--hell, it was my first football match--and it was an FA Cup quarterfinal AND WE WON after going a goal down in the first half...yeah, that all adds up to a fucking amazing time.

First off, let me say that live matches = fantastic. I don't see how anyone could make the "soccer is boring" argument after going to a professional game. I totally didn't think the whole short sleeved shirt thing through very well, so I was a little chilly during the match. But I didn't really notice it when the ball was in play because I was too engrossed in the action.

The other team's attack is so much more nerve wracking live too; every time Hull were at our end we were on the edge of our seats screaming "GET RID OF IT!" And by "we" I mean me, the guy sitting next to me, and his son, who looked to be about five or six. Baby's First Football Match or something, it was cute. The dad spent half the game explaining things to him, like "Number 23 is Arshavin, he's the best player on the field" or "Arsenal just made two substitutions. Niklas Bendtner came in for Song, although God knows why..."

Quick rundown of what I saw: Defense was very lethargic early on but picked up and did pretty well after Hull's early goal; Arshavin and Vela had a few lovely little exchanges; Walcott doesn't seem to like running down the middle of the pitch but also couldn't seem to get his crosses right as he had some surprisingly poor passes; Song had some unsurprisingly poor passes; Gibbs made a few great tackles; and Bendtner missed a shot or three. Most notably, he scuffed an easy chance where the goalkeeper wasn't even in sight. Credit to Hull's defense on that play though, they did well to clear the ball off the line. Overall, we should stop passing once in a while and actually attempt to shoot the ball. Novel idea, I know.

First glimpse of the stadium

View from my seat

The boys warming up

Gunnersaurus sighting!

Right before kickoff

New kid being awesome

Lull in the action

Arsenal attack that amounted to...zilch

I met two guys from Leicester walking back to the tube station after the match, who were very curious as to how a Yank came to be an Arsenal fan. They were also really excited when I told them I was from DC, and then they wanted to talk politics with me. And then on the train I sang "we've only come to see Eboue" with two other guys. Football is a great icebreaker; I haven't talked to this many random strangers in one day since like recruitment.

I come home to hear that apparently Cesc spit at Hull's assistant manager...? He claims he didn't (although what are you going to do, say "Actually yes, I did. Got a problem with that?"), but in that statement he also claimed he has never spit on anyone on the pitch before.

Um, Cesc? I think you may be forgetting this little encounter. And yeah, I know spitting is gross and the opposite of classy and all that, but I hate Ballack and might possibly spit on him too were I given the chance. (Ditto the whole throwing pizza at SAF thing, if that's true.) So more power to you. But I do hope this new spit-cident didn't actually happen.

Phil Brown also claimed that the only reason Hull's keeper was booked for time wasting was because the ref succumbed to pressure from the crowd and Wenger's complaints. All I have to say is, if he wasn't time wasting, then he is the slowest human being alive. But only when Hull were up a goal, of course. As soon as they started losing, every time he got the ball it was back in play immediately.

Curious...

I dunno, Brown's whole post match spiel sounded a little bitter. He was blaming everyone but his own team. But whatever, sour grapes. We won, we won, nah nah nah nah nah nah! And wow, I'm childish.


*Yeah, I know the Hull/hell pun has been beaten into the ground already. But leave me alone, it's one am and I can't think of anything wittier. Plus it was really cold at the game, so nerr.