Looking back over 90 minutes it’s amazing how much emotions can go through your mind during a game of football.
Last night’s game was really the biggest, to me, since the Champions League final back in 2008. The fact that it was against Jose Mourinho made it even more than just a normal game. Sometimes I get text messages from my father saying things like
“Your mum won’t let me watch the game”
“I’m being told off for shouting too much”
I totally sympathise where he is coming from. It’s hard to describe what it feels like at times when watching your football team in such a high pressured game. You’re not just a partial fan or a spectator; you become part of a crowd, a tribe or clan. The colours that you wear are not just clothes; they become your battle dress. The songs that echo from the terraces become the battle chants. It’s no longer a game.
It is human nature to raise your voice in times of excitement or frustration and certainly last nights game was full of drama. Inter scoring after just three minutes, the frustration then elation at the performance of Kalou. Drogba thumping his free kick against the bar, the goal, then going 2-1 down and the injury to Cech did not help matters much.
For all the shouting that took place in the pub last night the group of people who were there for a business meeting should not have made such a fuss as they did. Not only did they yell at the barman to turn the television off but that they “Could not hear themselves for all the yobs shouting”
Well excuse us, it is a pub that we drink in most nights and this is the first time that you have ever been in there. The sign outside clearly said “LIVE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE”. The pub is full of bankers, lawyers, firemen, police, doctors, builders, plumbers, IT workers and even a judge. Just because we don’t wear our work attire into the pub does not give you the right to tag us as “Yobs”.
When it comes to football this is our night, this is our pub and if you don’t like it you know exactly what you can do.
