Arsenal v. Middlesbrough
- Posted on September 11, 2006 1:46 PM
- 0 comments
David was kind enough to offer me tickets to the Arsenal match this past weekend. I decided to bring my eldest daughter, Kajsa, as she hasn't been to a football match before. I was down in Croydon at midday looking at puppies and was really rushing to get back so we could get there for the 3pm kick-off. I got back to the house at 2:30 and we ran down to Gospel Oak to catch the silverlink to Highbury. We walked down Holloway road in the crowds and Kajsa kept asking how many people would be at the match, "will it be bigger than my school?"
We got to the ground just before time and David gave us the tickets at the gate. We ran in grabbed a hotdog and drink and headed up to the seats. We got into the seats and all Kajsa could say was "wow, this IS more than my school!"
Both sides were fairly languid and most of the action took place in the Arsenal end even though they treated the goal as though it had H5N1. 'Boro scored mid-way through the first half when James Morrison was on the receiving end of a give and go, and Kajsa began to clap until she realised no one around here was clapping and asked me "it's not time to clap is it?"
I then explained that we were cheering for Red, not Blue which she connected with in a deep, tribal association. At the half, we walked around the concourse but there was really no room to see anything. The second half was equally slow and I kept telling her we could go whenever she got bored. "Nope, I want to see who wins," she told me. Shortly after that Henry scored on a penalty and the Gunners brought on new signing, Julio Baptista who tried to liven things up a bit. By the 70th minute it was pretty clear this was going to be a draw. Nonetheless, Kajsa continued to pepper me with questions about a sport that I don't know very much. I turned to an older man on my right who understood completely and suddenly I was out of the conversation, just taking up space between a five year old and her thirst for knowledge.
by Joe Cohen
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