MARC CHOQUETTE
Staff Writer
As my time in London comes to a close (I’m packing my bags as I write this), there are many memories from the days and nights absorbing the culture here. Sure, I visited enough museums to possibly consider myself “artsy,” but the culture was not in the exhibition halls. The culture, strangely enough, was on the street corners on any given weekend or weeknight, at the local pubs: The Zetland Arms, The Wellesley Arms, The Gloucester Arms and Norfolk Bar. The list goes on.
So why is the culture there? First, smoking and drinking have to be considered a British pastime. That is another story for another time, however. Second, football is being shown on the “telly.”
No, this isn’t a game between the New England Patriots and San Diego Chargers. We’re talking football here, the sport that actually follows the root word for 90 minutes, as opposed to a few punts and kickoffs here and there. And in case you’re still not getting it, it’s called soccer in the States. Sure, you probably played when you were a kid, as did I, but what more do you know about it?
I always knew that soccer was worshiped in the United Kingdom, but I never knew the extent of it. While some may call it boring, you’d have to have a set of steel balls to say that in a pub of hard-nosed British men, kicking back the pints like there is no tomorrow, yelling and singing the team songs at the top of their lungs, as collective heads look up to the flatscreen above the bar.
Thanks to my good friend, Juan Pablo Gaya, a fellow student at the London House, my knowledge of soccer has gone from the “mentally challenged” IQ level to somewhere around the quality to get into Mensa. There’s a lot to learn about how the sport works here and how the leagues work, which I think is why it is hard to get involved with, especially coming from the States. Once that base knowledge is there and you pick your team, it becomes addicting.
Juan has ties to Barcelona, Spain, and is a close follower to one of the best Spanish League teams, and arguably one of the best teams in Europe right now, FC Barcelona. I asked him what it was like to be at Stadio Nou Camp in Barcelona, watching a match alongside 98,000 people, and he said it was almost indescribable.
“It’s like a small nation united, singing, screaming,” Gaya said. “The passion involved among players and fans alike is something no other sport can give you.”
The subject switched to English Football, and, more particularly, the Premiership which is the league containing England’s best teams. He mentions how the sport is so important within the United Kingdom that in London alone, four different clubs can stake out their own sections of the city and still sellout every game. That cannot be said for any sport anywhere in the States.
The closest team to the Pepperdine House here at 56 Prince’s Gate would be Chelsea FC, which is about a 20-minute walk from the house. Ironically, Chelsea is atop the Premiership and is widely considered the best team in the UK at the moment. Also located in London, at Highbury, are Arsenal, an intense intra-city rivalry and merely a half-hour’s ride on the underground from each other’s football grounds.
While baseball and U.S. football may be popular in the United States, soccer is the only sport that is huge worldwide.
Anyone who doubts that needs to watch the World Cup this June in Germany. It will become quite obvious very quickly.
This world popularity means that the competition is at a very high level, in that the best players in the world train from when they are very young.
Some of the best players in the Premiership right now are only 18 or 20 years-old. These guys are so good, they’re considered to have a “gift from God,” as Gaya puts it.
So while there might be an eight-hour time difference between dreary London and sunny Califor-ni-a, flip on the TV when you’re bored and check out some real football. Another plus: There are no commercials at all for the 45-minute halves. It’s straight action, baby. Or better, yet find a pub somewhere showing the game. After all, it’s part of the culture, right?
04-13-2006