Football/soccer??? CC league 2 play off final

I've just got home from Cardiff, and i have always wondered if americans and others are really into football/soccer whatever you want to call it? So i decided to post a trip report of my trip today.

As most of you who follow football know, it was the Coca Cola league 2 play off final today at the millennium stadium in Cardiff. It was between southend (BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!) and Lincoln city (Yay, my team [:D]). For those of you who dont know, the play off final winner goes up into the next league of football, in this case the winner would go up to league 1 in the coca Cola league.

Anyway, heres my trip report:
06:30 - Got up and got ready and then set off in the car on the long journey to Cardiff in wales for the final.
I arrived in cardiff just after lunch time. The drive there should have been just over 4 hours but with all the stops and things it took a while longer. Anyway who cares about that. I walked around the city for a while, and it was at this point i noticed how many of us (Lincoln fans) there were. We were totally out numbering the Southend fans.

I made my way down to the stadium, and the roads were full of our red and white shirts, NOW this is what you call a crowd, especially for a league 2 side. There was a huge party in the road, lincoln fans shouting, chanting, blowing on horns, waving flags, painting faces etc. The atmosphere was phenomenal, under the huge shadow of the millennium stadium.

When the stadium opened we made our way in, WOW!!!!!!! Its absolutely stunning. Its huge, it makes me wonder what the hell wembleys gonna be like when its finished.
Heres some pics:



me trying to control me lincoln flag outside the stadium!



walking into the stadium. Its phenomenal. The size of this stadium is astounding.



More of the stadium. Fans had only just begun to come in.





The huge stadium



Looks empty



The lincoln imps training before the match. [:D]



The lincoln seats were slowly filling up. Wish you could say that for the southend seats



Yay, so many southend fans [sarcasm]



That is ALL the southend fans. There turn up was pretty bad, especially when you compare it to the number of our fans, and we arent a very big club:



The lincoln seats were nearly full
[:D]

Not much of the top tier was open

Anyway, the match was good. It started off well, and was still 0-0 at half time with lincoln and southend both having some good chances.

The 2nd half began, a goal has to come, surely?????? NOPE. You would have thought so with how well the 2 teams were playing. They were playing great for league 2 sides. The nerves really started to kick in here. The manager keith made a few mistakes, he made some silly substitutions, and previously we had been playing great. It really looked a if we could win, although both teams looked equal. The last 5 mins came, we've got to score! 4 mins - please score! 3mins - we can do it if we are lucky! 2mins - ARGH, score damn you. We are not going to extra time, that is too nervous. 1min - Err, I couldnt really say anything without stuttering or swearing. STILL 0-0

EXTRA TIME:
We played crap. We just couldnt get into extra time. I was just wishing the time by, as there was no way we could win if we played that crap. 15 mins, 10mins, 8mins, 7mins, 5mins, 3mins, 2mins, 1mins!!!! GOALLLLLLLLL! Butto the wrong team!!!! Southend scored. We all went quiet. There was still another 15 mins left in the next half but that really killed us. The fans went silent. I stopped waving my overly large flag, and watched to see the crappy little crowed of southend fans celebrate. 2nd half of extra time came, Please score i said to myself. Yep, someone scored alright, but it was southend again. [V][:(!]I felt the bottom fall out of me. I dreamed of a comeback. Liverpool did it, in 6mins, france did it in 2, Lincoln just failed to do it. Time crawled by, fans silent, while the southend fans celebrated. [:(]2mins to the end came, and i told myself it was still slightly possible. 1 minute, Still possible??? 0mins, IMPOSSIBLE. The whistle went and there was a roar from the litle crowd on the other side of the half empty stadium. The majority of people went quite. Faces dropped into hands, flags dropped. Th atmosphere faded. And just to rub it in, the words, "Southend win, They are promoted to league 1" came through the speakers, and the pdium was pulled out. I eagerly escaped the stadium. I couldnt bear to watch them get promoted. [:(][:(][:(] It shpould of been us. So i wen thome, and it took about 5 hours including the wait to get out of cardiff. [:(]But then i got a KFC so i felt better again. [:)]


Overall the day was okay, it was a good match, just a shame about the final score. It was no dream match like the liverpool vs AC milan one. [:D]

Obviously Hitler had brainwashed you all on the big screen

[gouldy]

@ Edge.

Still though, Jpe, bad luck ey dude. second time in 3 years you've lost in the final. I was watching and I just felt sorry for both teams ..... I mean seriously, how many people were there? it looks like a school game nah joke.

I remember the play off final that wolves won, I was there, the stadium was completely, Wolves fans had bought tickets in the Sheffield UTD end and everything, the atmosphere was amazing and we won easily. It was the best day in my life so far and I'll always remember it. I can't even desribe the emotions involved in a day like that, words don't do it justice. I bet you must be feeling pretty bad though, a whole season gone to waste seemingly ey? Still though, theres always next year [;)] hehe.

And good call on The Liverpool, AC game, that match was the reason why our sport is the best in world. Those are not my words. They are the words of an AMERICAN! on the BBC sport forum, he said he was a life long "Patriots" fan, whatever thats supposed to mean and he said he watched the Liverpool game in midweek and was honestly stumped as to the reason why football isn't popular in America. He said it was the most "thrilling" sporting event he'd ever witnessed, not bad coming from an American who claims he didn't even like "Soccer" before watching that game.

Still though, I wish I had some pictures I could put up here of the Wolves v Sheffield UTD play off final 2 years ago, so you could see the stadium full rather than a quarter full . I didn't think to take a camera with me, thiking we'd lose and I'd be to miserable to take pictures . I have a DVD with the match on though, I could take photos of my TV with it on hahahaha.

Originally posted by jpecool

For those of you who dont know, the play off final winner goes up into the next league of football, in this case the winner would go up to league 1 in the Coca Cola league.

[lol][lol][lol][lol]

I love this! Here is a statement overhead across the ocean by a classic Englishman:

"We hate America so much! But, we will use a product that is founded, based, produced, and represents the very essence of that nation in our country to sponsor our events - but we still hate them and everything they stand for."

Please, just stop now -- my side hurts too much from the laughter.

[lol][lol][lol]

Anyway, sounds like a good day for you.

Originally posted by gouldy

he said he was a life long "Patriots" fan, whatever thats supposed to mean

Oh, and Gouldy: http://www.patriots.com/

HEY, americans use many of our things. You even use our language!!!!!

I don hate americans at all, in fact im planning to go live there when im older. BUT thats only if footy gets bigger there.

Still though, Jpe, bad luck ey dude. second time in 3 years you've lost in the final. I was watching and I just felt sorry for both teams ..... I mean seriously, how many people were there? it looks like a school game nah joke.

VERY true. Although there were 19,000 people there, which is okay for two pretty small clubs. Southend only average about 6,000 people per game, and we only average around 4,000!!!! So it was pretty impressive IMO that even that many turned up. And most were lincoln fans, about 13,000 to 14,000 of us were wearing our red and white stripes. Ive never known so many lincoln fans at one game. Thats 10,000 more people than we normally average in attendance!!!

And good call on The Liverpool, AC game, that match was the reason why our sport is the best in world. Those are not my words. They are the words of an AMERICAN! on the BBC sport forum, he said he was a life long "Patriots" fan, whatever thats supposed to mean and he said he watched the Liverpool game in midweek and was honestly stumped as to the reason why football isn't popular in America. He said it was the most "thrilling" sporting event he'd ever witnessed, not bad coming from an American who claims he didn't even like "Soccer" before watching that game.

With that and the England vs USA game, americans might actually get into "soccer" a bit more! It would be nice to actually have competition with the USA when playing footy, as if they actually promoted it more, one day they could be a very good team as they would have so many people to choose from, if it got popular that is.

Obviously Hitler had brainwashed you all on the big screen

[lol][lol] I never noticed that.

[gouldy]

The reason the Americans have never really liked soccer in my opinion is because good matches aren't really shown on their TV much, this is because in a footy game there is almost no time for commercials and so theres not as much money inolved for the TV companies themselves. I really think thats the main reason that Americans have never got into footy, they've never really sampled any proper games, local derby's, Liverpool V Everton, Man U v Man City, Man U v Arsenal, Wolves v the poop (West brom), Asrenal v Tottenham ......... thats just naming a few of the big rivalries.

Heh -- nice try JPE and Gouldy to defend yourselves on this logic -- you still got owned as far as your American-bashing. And, as far as using your language, we did adapt the dialogue and dialect -- we just got rid of the damn "artsy-fartsy" accents so we could actually understand one another.

Well i wont lie to you TConwell, Coca Cola tastes like poop However Dr Pepper, which is made be the Coca Cola corporation tastes good. So they cancel each other out. Anyway i'm going for some English tea and a traditional English Sunday lunch....maybe followed by some fox hunting...at 3 o clock hmm

[gouldy]

Originally posted by TConwell

you still got owned as far as your American-bashing.

what? pardon? when? what? how?

aswell, the general public doesn't decide what companies sponsor events. If it was up to the English public, the coca cola league would still have its old sponsor, "Nationwide", which is a building society. Its sponsored by Coca Cola purely because they were the ones willing to pay the most money to sponsor it, and being American, of course they had the most money, which is why a lot of English events are sponsored by American companies, because we're sapping as much money out of you as we can muahahaha Besides Coca Cola really is a global brand now, it may have been started in America, buuuut it really is a global corp. now.

And I do believe that is the reason America isn't into "Soccer" purely because its not on your TV's. The reason its not on your TV's is because theres no time for commercials. Because stuff is actually happening in the game, they can't break away from play for 30 seconds to show a commercial, so American TV companies don't like it, because thats basically what your country is about ...... money. Americans would get into football if it was shown on their TV's as much as it is here. There has been 23 LIVE football matches on SkySports alone in the last 3 weeks and I watched about 80% of those. Thats forgetting about the skysports news channel which is all about footy anyway and forgetting all the other sports channels and the pay per view channels and the regular channels like BBC, ITV and Five, which show football from time to time. I'm sure if it was like that in your country, pretty soon you'd start liking it too.

And I'll say it again, we don't actually "hate" Americans, its just friendly banter.

Edit:
I've also found two photos that my mom took of the Wolves end at our play-off final 2 years ago (jpe, this is what it looks like full [;)]:





thats just our end, we had one of the sides filled out aswell, obviously

Originally posted by The Edge

Well i wont lie to you TConwell, Coca Cola tastes like poop However Dr Pepper, which is made be the Coca Cola corporation tastes good. So they cancel each other out. Anyway i'm going for some English tea and a traditional English Sunday lunch....maybe followed by some fox hunting...at 3 o clock hmm

[lol]
Didn't they ban fox hunting? Pass me a crumpet please ...

^^^ Yeah they did. I dont really mind, its not like i ever wanted to do it. Although it was an englis tradition and i hope it doesnt get totally forgotten.

It looks like there would be a great atmosphere when its full. It was great when we were there, and it was no way near half full.

I love dr pepper, well better than coca cola. [:D]