Two great magazines I may subscribe to...

I have noted that I am reading a lot these days. This place is Utopia for Soccer publications! The newspapers have very well written pieces on the matches, on tactical stuff, on player news everyday. Even the the free newspaper  The Metro  (same group as in US) has really good stuff on soccer.

In addition to the daily newspapers, two magazines I picked up are called "World Soccer" and "WSC" or "When Saturday comes"

The first is a broader survey of lots of International clubs and countries given the coming World Cup event. They did a very detailed report on the insanity surrounding Neymar coming to Barcelona and the Illegal money that was passed to parties in Brazil. The link is:

World Soccer magazine

The second is more timely and more editorial about past events, best soccer books out there, smaller clubs and the battle they have, and "match of the month" which was nice becasue the team they focused on was Leyton Orient (one match I attended).

This link is
 When Saturday come magazine
The cover byline says " the half decent football magazine" and it understates how good it is!

Leaving tomorrow AM

Well I am packing today and getting ready for the long flight home to the US. It  has been a great trip and all I expected. The weather was a pleasant surprise as it has actually been nice here for a few consistent days.

I saw other fans at matches seeming to wear little for the cold at matches and finally realized that they are moving so much, singing, a jumping, they keep warm. Also, I have always adjusted to being ont he sideline or stands for matches in New England.  Why do we do this? (Freeze?)  We love it, right?

I was watching a game a few weeks ago, started to rain, wind picked up, the beer I had not helping, and I think, "Why am I here doing this?".  I recalled a short time ago, my friend and soccer colleague Bob Meals attended a NSCAA Advanced National License course in Nashua New Hampshire in Mid December. Yep. Mid December.     Here is a picture:

There was a Blizzard that weekend and we fortunately could train mostly inside. But my point is, I was asking myself the same question  ("why am I here...."  I passed and we got this nice short sleeve shirt I can wear it in  a few months!    Coach Link NSCAA

 I am flying Virgin Atlantic tomorrow. I have always been a fan of Richard Branson but not quite understood how big a player he in England. There is Virgin EVERYTHING. The airline is everything that the others are not I ahev to say. I also flew the other Virgin in US a few years ago and that was head & shoulders over other airlines. Here is Mr. Branson

 I also wanted to comment on this guy below. He loves the spotlight and stirring things up. These coaches complain about having to be beholden to the press but people like Jose here really play it up. He is picking fights with all the other clubs, creating drama, getting people talking about foolishness. I cannot tell you how many people absolutely hate him!

So maybe one or two last posts when I am flying or after I get home. This process has been nice to reflect on my trip as it was going along. I appreciated how fortunate I am to be doing something like this and posting about it reminds me of that!

A cool story on Freddy Adu: remember him?

The papers ran a story on Freddy Adu who is training with Blackburn here in England. I really had to reflect that he is only 24 years old! He can still make something of himself. I think he has grown up by stating that "maybe he did not train hard enough".....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/blackpool/10640538/Freddy-Adu-once-dubbed-the-next-Pele-determined-to-get-career-back-on-track-at-Blackpool.html

West Ham Vs. Southhampton

Yesterday I saw a great match at West Ham (caleld Boleyn grounds) Southhampton is a very strong team and in the middle of the standings but have tied Chelsea an won some other big matches against top clubs.
I had really good seats again, 30-40 rows behind the home team bench and coach Sam Allardyce who is bit of a crazy guy.

In only 7 minutes, Southhampton scored. I was quietly excited as I preferred them over West Ham. I thought it would be a long day but West Ham scored 3 straight times including a final bicycle kick goal to win 3-1 and keep away from being dropped for next season. (The football leagues have an arrangement that the top 4 teams from the division move up and bottom four move down so there is tremendous pressure to not be "relegated".) 

I don't know if I have noted this, but  I have been excited about how close I can be to these matches once I get a ticket.  

The West Ham team song is about bubbles so everyone starts singing the song and the bubble machines (there are multiple ones) pump out lots of bubbles. It is, I have to say, childish in a nice way but a giant paradox to how people behave if one is not " a Hammer fan" or a "spurs fan. Ironic.

The way to the stadium and the surroundings is madness. Hundreds and Hundreds of cops, horses, singing, swearing........Imagine a Patriots game in the center of Quincy with all of the stores and shops. Add the emotion people have about their club and it can make for problems. Here is a link of essentially what I saw when I went to both West Ham and Spurs games this month. 

West Ham and Spurs Fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0kTRf0OX7o4

Exporting our US Culture:

I was shocked to see an American icon (that had fallen by the wayside due to some health momentum and fraudulent accounting)

I have to say, I was not even tempted!

Right next to the kiosk where this was taken was the e-cigarette place that offered "the cheapest prices around". Ahhhhh capitaliism.  Next door should be  take out stent and nitro pills for the poor bastards that use these..

Gambling

I think I mentioned the amount of betting places around here. They have locations right at the stadium so you can bet on the match, who might score, how many they might score, etc. Today they had odds of 40-1 that Hazard (Chelsea has a hat trick tomorrow vs. Everton.

Arsenal and Chelse stadium visits

Today I visited both stadiums of Chelsea and Arsenal. As two of the most well-known clubs and organizations in the world, it was good to see the enterprise in action. Both were quite impressive and I will eventually comment on the "better" one.

First visit was Chelsea this AM

Chelsea is right smack in the middle of a city surrounding it. The original stadium was very old as was the original Arsenal grounds. I would say that in both venues, I can see that they are made for watching soccer. The farthest seats are still pretty good compared to Gillete for example.
A interesting fact noted by the tour guide and verified right in front of us. A Falcon is brought around each day to scare (and more?) the pigeons. Pretty cool as I hate pigeons and their trappings...


Lots of winning tradition at Chelsea as seen by the museum (Better than the museum of Arsenal) Lots of trophies and emphasis/recognition that the names change but the tradition continues.



 Second was Arsenal in the afternoon

The arsenal tour is "self-guided" meaning they give you a headset and small hand held player with video that walks you through the tour and offers extra vidoes at each part.I liked it as I was not rushed and could get away from the morons I was on tour with. (I think today and my attitude about obnxious teenagers and their obnoxious parents and clueless families, implies I have had enough of tourists even I as Know I am one.   Just clueless.)


Arsenal spent a lot of time emphasizing how perfect the stadium is for football. From the shape of the roofing to allow light and air, to the irrigation system and computerized grass growing process. Everything at the place revolves around the perfect soccer experience for the players. Arsene Wengner sounds like he had an orgasmic opportunity to impact these details as coach and manager.

The locker rooms of both were nice,but the facilities at the Arsenal venue were amazing and surprisingly superior to Chelsea's.The most interesting thing to me was in interviews with the Wenger, he continued to emphasize things like the shape of locker room (to push communication between players) and the Jacuzzi being a place players could hang out after the match. The lights in the locker room, the ability for players to get in the groove however they wanted....




The fields were just amazing. During both tours they were mowing the lawns with multiple machines. Beautiful grass, worn in certain places enough to let you know it's real (Mid field and corners). It was similar to how spots at the WYS fields are worn from where the bad coach mandates the defender should stand.......