Fulham v. Swansea City

The Game

So I attended my first professional soccer game with a Premiership team (the other team is in the Championship league). Would have been nice to attend a game with Premiership teams battling it out, but I hear those games are expensive and hard to come by in London.

Still, it was an entertaining match despite not knowing anyone on either side except for Fulham's Dempsey (USA! USA! USA!) and Zamora (Match of the Day 2 on Sunday basically said he couldn't pull the trigger). The first half was not so entertaining for me, especially since Fulham was trying to score on our side of the pitch and were failing miserably at it. They had one nice corner, met the head of some Fulham dude and it hit the crossbar. Other than that, it was rather boring. The second half, Swansea started out strong and scored. I didn't see it because I was struggling to finish a pint of Carlsberg. Jamie said he would be devastated if they scored and he wasn't there to watch it, and then it happened. The rest of the action happened on the other end, with two lovely goals scored by Fulham. Then suddenly the game was over. I was hoping for a draw, that would lead into extra time, which would then lead to PKs since this was a replay due to a previous draw. Unfortunately, that was the game--not too shabby I suppose.

The Comparison

First off, Craven Cottage is a small stadium! I guess it is intended to be so and makes it very quaint and intimate. But I am assuming that for Premiership standards, this is as small as it gets. And being an alumna of Virginia Tech and housing the nations #2 scariest place to play (according to ESPN), I kind of hold professional stadiums to a much higher standard. And even comparing it to dilapidated old RFK, it's still missing essentials (like more than one scoreboard since it was inconveniently located above my head so I had no idea what time was left). Perhaps I'm just a spoiled American--every missed shot my head would dart around looking for the jumbo-tron for the instant replay. Sadly, no jumbo-tron or multiple score boards. But again, maybe it's just Craven Cottage that wants to give you that old school feeling since I'm assuming not much of this stadium has dramatically changed since the late 1800s.

I will say that I love the cottage! I would love having seats in that home! I guess it used to be an old hunting lodge that they didn't bother taking down. You can see Fulham fans watching from the deck. How awesome would that be? And it's the only box seat in the house since there were no such things in this stadium. And as far as box seat amenities goes, I think they only service visible was a fireplace? But who knows if that was working since I'm only judging by the visible chimney stack. Still, very very cool.

One thing that I am very saddened about was the no alcohol policy at the game. There is beer at the stadium, but they are only sold five minutes before the game starts, and then at half time till five minutes prior to second half. I guess selling alcohol at that time is better than no alcohol at all. But you are absolutely not allowed to consume your beer in the stands! There were no beer guys (and food guys) roaming the stands trying to sell you drinks. Not one soul had a beverage in their hand--no, they were too busy doing their chants. It seems to be on a stadium by stadium basis, but I sat there dead sober and anxious the first half (because no one was scoring). I almost wanted to bite off my finger nails because I had no beer to nurse.

Everything else is pretty much the same. There were a few chants Swansea had in common with DC United, but the fans on both sides were the same more or less. Well, they didn't have their Barra Brava section where madness occurs, but I think that is a Latino thing so I wasn't expecting it. Actually, I will say that I think DC United has crazier fans than both Fulham and Swansea. I do recall throwing paper streamers at line judges and the smoke bombs other fans have. But still, everything else is pretty much the same. Oh, except for the players. Skill level is definitely a bit better than any MLS team I've seen.