Last night I celebrated English FA Cup Round 4 Day (known by most folks as Valentine's Day) by sliding into my local around 8.30pm to watch a few minutes of pre-game before Arsenal played Bolton.
One slight problem, which again comes down to my failure to check the other football competitions scheduled; a couple of German teams were playing some UEFA Cup matches. Since we're in Germany, my local always will always put a German match on before any other.
Fortunately, there are two televisions in the bar, and I was just fine watching my match on the smaller set. I just needed to see the game.
As wonderful as Arsenal play, for the past two seasons, I've hardly been able to develop a confidence level that gives me any comfort that a victory won't be snatched from us in the 91st or 92nd minute. Too many times in recent months the team have had to come from behind; something they've almost never had to do in the entire history of the club. I've been an Arsenal fan plenty long enough to know that the "stomachdoingcartwheelsnonstoplegbouncingohgoshi
hopetheydon'tgiveupacheapgoaloffacornerkickagain" emotions really just come from supporting the club.
Needless to say, I was a bit of a nervous wreck, especially since the opponent was Bolton; one of about three teams in the league that seem to have no problem dealing with the flash and style of Arsenal. Bolton play straightforward football and tend to hold a respectable place in the table season after season.
Of course, this was FA Cup, which isn't quite the same. FA Cup is like March Madness for college basketball fans, but instead of cramming the tournament into 8 or 9 days, the FA Cup begins in August and runs until May. Every month or so during autumn, there's one Saturday afternoon packed full of FA Cup action, where many of the clubs from lower divisions have the opportunity to play for glory.
Obviously, as the tournament continues, more and more teams are eliminated, leaving mostly Premiership clubs to finish out the competition. Last evening, Arsenal needed to get through round 4. If through, they will play round 5 this coming Saturday, and if they win that match, they're through to the Quarter-Finals. Zippy.
I expected a good match but was really thinking that we'd be going home with a loss, which would basically mean that I wouldn't have any matches to watch this Saturday.
Arsenal basically controlled the entire match, and looked fairly sharp doing so. Bolton are a decent side, but they weren't seeing all that much of the ball. True, Arsenal weren't totally threatening to score, but I was starting to think that they were the more likely of the two teams to advance.
1-0 came to Arsenal about 15 minutes into the first half. Not a bad shot which took an unfortunate deflection off a defender.
The second half was again controlled by Arsenal, but I pessimistically expected an equalizer to come at any time, especially after watching Arsenal fail to convert two penalties along with an empty net opportunity (a striker was in front of the open goal and failed to put the ball in). Instead of 4-0, though, the score remained 1-0 with me fully expecting horrible things.
The equalizer came right at the last of full time, off a freaking set piece. I can't tell you how tired I am of Arsenal conceding goals in this manner. I've played defensive back too much in my own footballing experiences to know the importance of defending the box.
With the score tied at 1-1, the game went into extra time, which is only used during a replay in a tournament. 30 minutes more to break the empate. Then, if the score was still tied, then penalties. Oh goody.
One of the not so good things about extra time is that you suddenly have to have another beer. Normally I try to time my consumption so that I'm not sitting there with a full beer at full time, especially on a school night. Additionally, and this might be a bit more positive, the additional beer will help calm the nerves, with the basic idea being that if your team goes on to win, you're in extra fine spirits. If your team loses, you can mope home in a drunken state and try to sleep the pain away. More on the finer points of alcohol abuse will be detailed in a future post, quite likely titled, "How to Win a Kegstand Contest at a Crawfish Boil."
At the end of the first half of injury time, the score had not changed. I was not feeling particularly confident about anything (see comments above about being an Arsenal fan), and furthermore, it was karaoke night at the pub, so people were belting out Michael Jackson, Bonnie Tyler, and Olivia Newton John. Not surprisingly, I looked down to see that my glass was about to crack from the pressure of my squeeze.
I recognized another Arsenal fan in the bar; just the one. Everyone else was not even remotely interested, but I hardly noticed. I had 15 minutes in which it was vital that we scored a winning goal. Under no circumstances could we go to penalty kicks on this evening, since two players had already shanked penalties during the match. Almost unheard of, but typical Arsenal: always make it as hard as possible to win the match.
When Freddie Ljungberg coolly slotted the goal in the 109th minute, I went nuts (while still feeling that somehow we'd give up another equalizer).
Bolton threw everyone forward, including the keeper, and tried to blast the box. Arsenal held on, and didn't even look like they were that tired.
With less than a minute left, I began to relax, then became jubilant as Arsenal scored a third goal right as the game ended.
Who needs expensive illegal drugs when you can just watch an Arsenal match? The rush will completely fuck you up.
A quick "holy crap did you see that!?!" conversation with Chris, and then I was home in bed.
Can't wait for Saturday. Arsenal at home to Blackburn. FA Cup Round 5.
Rock it up.
bryan
soundtrack
New Order - Temptation
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