One Nil to the Arsenal!

I went there. I did that. I got the T-Shirt. Well, I got a scarf. There were no Arsenal T-Shirts.

Today--a no holds barred, all out Arsenal extravaganza on "Bluegrass Meets Berlin." Ladies and Gentlemen of the blog world, I saw Arsenal yesterday, and it was wonderful. It was really an exciting time. I had a few reservations before I went because I was going alone, but it was a really great time. I saw some good football, I sang, I met some interesting characters, I drank some decent beer, and all around it was a great time.

The most difficult part of it all was Berlin, both leaving and arriving. Berlin is currently having issues with its SBahn (the intra-city train system that isn't underground) network. Apparently they do not have an SBahn director so the administration has instituted some (obnoxious) emergency system that limits the SBahn network. What does that mean for me? That I almost missed my train to Hannover. Not only is the SBahn map truncated, but also it is increasingly unreliable. I sat on the train for 20 minutes before it left. Luckily I made it to the train and headed to Hannover.

Upon arriving in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, I saw a father and son pair in Arsenal attire. I thought, "Alright! More Arsenal fans!" But we sat in different parts of the train and didn't get a chance to talk a whole lot. Do not forget these characters; they will return. It was good to see parts of Germany that weren't Berlin. And rural Germany looks surprisingly similar to Kentucky. Some flat plains, hay bales and cows. Add the occasional flock of sheep to a Kentucky landscape, and you've got Germany.

We're going to fast-forward to the AWD Arena where the match was held. It was a really nice stadium, one that had been renovated for the 2006 World Cup. It held approximately 45,000 people, and around 30,000 attended the match last night. A pretty good crowd for a friendly match, I'd say. The atmosphere was really great, and I didn't feel unsafe once. On two occasions I was heckled. The first was by a guy with a group of Hannover fans. As I walked by, me muttered, "Verlierer!" That means loser. The second was by two young boys behind a fence. They yelled at me, "Scheiße Arsenal! Scheiße Arsenal!" I'll let you translate that one on your own.

I got settled in my seat with a bratwurst and a Coke (the beers to come later), and got a chance to see the Gunners warm up. Before anyone else came out, I saw Tomas Rosicky, Abu Diaby, and Gael Clichy jogging around the pitch. Tomas Rosicky! Gael Clichy! Abu Diaby! Holy crap! Then, the rest of the team came out.

By rest of the team, I mean the Arsenal. Cesc Fabregas. Nik Bendtner. William Gallas. Andre Arshavin. And Robin van Persie. Robin FREAKIN' van Persie! (FYI--Robin van Persie is my favorite Arsenal player. I'm seriously considering naming my future dog Robin van Persie. I'd call him Rob for short. Not bad, eh?) Yea, they were just warming up, but whoa...Arsenal was right in front of me. I felt like a kid at Christmas. There were some small, British children next to me that kept yelling at the players whenever they'd turn our way. "FABREGAS!!" "VAN PERSIE!!" "ARSHAVIN!!" Deep down, I really wanted to yell with them. But I just took pictures instead. (Note about pictures--Security would not allow me to take my big camera in. They said it was "professional photography." Luckily, I had my smaller camera, but I didn't charge it. The battery barely lasted the whole night.)

The match started quickly. Cesc Fabrgas, Arsenal's captain, started his first match of the pre-season and did so by scoring a goal in the 9th minute. The assist? Robin van Persie, of course. It was a nicely worked goal. That would be the only goal of the match. I could give you a play-by-play of the action, but I'll just direct you here for a slightly biased, and probably much better written match report. The actual details of the match are less important, in my opinion, than what I actually experienced.

The atmosphere was really great, and I think the crowd is one reason why football is so great. The fans don't just cheer. Loudspeakers don't blast songs like "The Addams Family Theme" or "Louie, Louie." Certainly those songs have their place, but not here. The fans make all the music. There is your occasional chant, e.g. ROB-IN VAN PERSIE *clap, clap, clap, clap, clap* But the songs are really great. There's "We will follow the Arsenal over the land and sea! We will follow the Arsenal onto victory!" There's "And it's Arsenal, Arsenal FC! We're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen." Particularly appropriate for last night, there's "One-nil to the Arsenal!" And to the same tune, "Stand up for the Arsenal":

It was fun, it was good, old-fashioned fun. It was the most public thing that I've ever done alone. I went to the movie theater once alone, but I turned out to be the only person in the theater (I had to see The Namesake for class. I went in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday after the movie had already been out for about a month). Like I said, I had reservations about going for myself, but it really didn't matter. I sat in the Arsenal block, and everyone was there to see their team. They were there not just for the individual reasons of seeing Arsenal, but to cheer on their team with others. I experienced something communal, even though I was alone. There was an unspoken camaraderie between one another because of this bond the team created. People of all ages were interacting in this community. I'd make comments with some adults who sat in front of me about a missed through ball or a great save, and I'd laugh with the small British children next to me. Everybody was there for a cause: to see their team win. And they did. Wonderful!

The final score, 1-0. Joy was had by all. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. You might be asking youself now, "But Will, how did you get home?" Well, that is an experience that deserves an entire day of its own. So in order to find out how I got home, you'll have to tune in tomorrow for part two of "Will Sees Arsenal in Germany." Come back tomorrow to learn all about Ulle and his group of drunk English-Germans as well as Otto and his son Pascal.

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