Visited: Feb 10, 2019
In my never ending quest to see everything in the Universe I was able to catch a game at Wembley as Tottenham played Leicester City. If you know me, you'll know that I was 6-0 at home team games in London. Make it 7.
This shall be a shorter post, but don't let that fool you, it will be full of great content.
I am trying to see all London teams at their home stadiums (or temporary stadiums as it may be):
West Ham (at Olympic Stadium) - Currently 3-0 at those games. All EPL
Chelsea FC (at Stamford Bridge) - Currently 1-0 at SB. FA Cup game
Arsenal FC (at Emirates Stadium) - Currently 2-0 at ES. All EPL
Tottenham Hotspur (at Wembley Stadium) - Now 1-0. EPL game
I got to the stadium earlish. Around 45 minutes ahead of time. A few outside photos:
Walking up to the stadium from the bus I got dropped off at. Outside the stadium.
I wouldn't say there is anythings special about the feel of the stadium. I think the specialness would be around it being Wembley and being the national stadium of England. Aside from that it's a concrete feeling stadium, with the same crappy food and limited drink options as I've seen at the other stadiums. I must admit Stamford Bridge, even though I still think it wasn't great, was the best I've been to as it has a bit of history. Wembley, Emirates and Olympic stadium are new and sterile.
This Wembley was opened in 2007 and seats up to 90,000 depending on the configuration.
Here is the wiki entry on the old stadium which was demolished in 2003. Seems sad to lose such an icon, I'm surprised they didn't keep some or all of it. Apparently the old stadium once held up to 127,000 people!
The game!
So as I talk about in my instagram posts I should be invited for free to all EPL teams' games as I am a perfect 7-0 now. It's not a surprise the Spurs won so I won't even make it suspenseful. It was interesting the the top ring of the stadium had almost no one in it. My seats were quite good. I was at the top of the 1st level close enough to midfield to have a good view.
It will be tough to describe but it felt good to be there. The smell of the grass. Slightly warmer conditions. A loud crowd. It felt real!
The game was good. Leicester did have many chances - they are called the Foxes which is decent. Worse the the hotspur but better than the irons (bubbles). Well maybe even worse than the irons.
The Spurs scored first in the 33rd minute on a header from Davinson Sánchez. LC had quite a few chances before and after that in the 1st half, but Spurs stayed up 1-nil at HT.
2nd half - LC has a penalty kick stopped. Jaime Vardy who had just come on kicked hard to the left side but left the ball too middlish - height and width wise and the goalie stopped it. I still contend everyone should smash the ball low and down the middle - it seems to always work.
Sure enough the Spurs scored shortly after on a goal by Christian Erickson (a Greek name player) (no I'm kidding obviously he's a viking from Denmark) in the 63rd minute.
Jamie Vardy got one back in the 76th minute but Son scored in stoppage in the 91st minute to seal the deal.
As per my usual strategy I left early to avoid the crowd and rushed to Wembley Park Station, which I immediately recognized from the trip to SSE area last April with the girls.
Snapped a quick photo of Bobby Moore who's widely credited as being one of the top defenders of all time and captained England's only World Cup team in 1966 (go Lions!).
And that's it for that day.
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