Tag: Gabriel Magalhaes

Secret maps

Amy O1 Comment

We woke very early in Cambridge and had breakfast at a Pret a Manger in probably the fanciest building we’d ever encountered for this establishment. A man was seated nearby waiting for his friend, while a man at another table drolly asked him if he intended to attend the parade to celebrate the Battler of Agincourt’s 575th anniversary. The Battle of Agincourt was one of few battles won by the British in the 100 Years’ War with France. The man waiting for his friend responded he would not attend the fictional parade; rather he would celebrate later with a bottle of wine. “Not French wine, I hope,” quipped the historical savant.

My husband had won the aBode shower lottery for the second day running. Warm for him, lukewarm for me. We headed for hopefully greener pastures with a fairly uneventful trip from Canterbury West to Charing Cross. The train had been nearly empty leaving Canterbury but became jam-packed, stop by stop, by the time we reached London. We had been wondering how on earth the Southeastern train system is able to run with any form of profitability considering how empty almost every train we’d been on over four days had been. It appears to work similar to Christmas for retailers. All the money must be made on trains as they approach stops close to London.

By the time we arrived in London, it was raining again, but our hotel was reasonably close by way of a funny alley. Our new hotel in London, The Grand at Trafalgar Square, met the new financial criteria to which my husband and I agreed before the trip. They weren’t ready to check us in, but checked our luggage and showed us to a nice lounge where we could regroup and make a latte. The hotel seemed pretty fancy for our new price point.

We were intending to meet a friend later in the day who was coming into London from California with her adult children. Their original flight had been cancelled and their new flight would be later. So we bought tickets for the Secret Maps exhibit at the British Library to stay occupied. We’ve been to the British Library twice in the past, once for the Treasures exhibit, years ago, and once for the Medieval Women exhibit earlier this year. The British Library has super interesting documents to start with, and they pull together such interesting narrative and themes for their exhibits.

This exhibit about secret maps was the best I’ve seen there. It just never occurred to me how interesting the history of maps is and how they were used–to share information as well as to obscure, deflect, and mislead to maintain an upper hand–commercially, politically, in warfare. Also, how many different kinds of maps there have been to be used for these purposes, including maps of land masses, trade routes, the heavens, escape routes, war equipment and assets. And how maps were shared with the right people.

After viewing the exhibit, we checked into our hotel, learning that The Grand is part of the Club Quarters chain. We’ve only stayed at this chain once on one of our trips many years ago. There’s a lot of work and lounge space in the hotel and it’s quite fancy. I noted that this would have been a good hotel for the times I worked from London last year. In contrast, the rooms are pretty basic and small. But, hey, hot water both days we need it. A win.

Speaking of maps used for deception, it’s long been a thing that Mikel Arteta keeps things close to the vest in his press conferences before a match. He tells the truth and nothing but the truth, but with regard to injuries, it’s often not the whole truth. There is often someone who came off the last match limping, of whom Arteta will truthfully say in his next press conference before a match whether the player has been in practice that week. But often he’ll say they’ll evaluate them on match day and see how things stand. Then that player may show up as a starter, or as a sub, or we’ll find out after the match he’ll have surgery tomorrow and will be out for at least three months.

Gabriel Magalhaes, big Gabi, came off in the match against Atletico Madrid with about 20 minutes left to play and it looked like something was not quite right with him. Arteta had said in his pre-match press conference for Crystal Palace that he was unsure whether Gabi would play against Crystal Palace. “Let’s see how he evolves,” he said. Arsenal is having a wonderful defensive season and a lot of the reason has been the play of Big Gabi. His partnership with William Saliba is considered among the best in the Premier League. And obviously, he’s been important for delivering goals from set plays. Either he heads it in himself or places where someone else can finish up the job.

But Arsenal’s defense is not only good because of Gabriel and Saliba; the whole team contributes to Arsenal’s overall stability. Arsenal has held every team goalless since September 28, yes, but teams hadn’t even been able to register a shot on target. And we’ve seen some great play from the person who can deputize Big Gabi, Christhian Mosquera. So losing Big Gabi would not be ideal, but it’s not a horrible situation either.

Arteta also used his press conference to encourage fans to bring the noise and spirit. “Play the game with us,” he requested. “If we’re going to win the league, everybody has to turn up.”

On that backdrop we arrived at the stadium the next day having spent a morning walking in the Tower Hill area and having had a nice lunch. We got to the stadium a bit late but still made time to walk through the Armoury and, as has lately been our habit, buying nothing. My husband and I were sitting apart from each other but both in the west stands. He was high up near the half way line; I was in Club near the North end. My seats were just about even with the D at the top of the penalty box. We had had a pretty easy time getting tickets for this match, none of the usual drama and not very many clicks.

I arrived at my seat with very little time to spare before the teams came out of the tunnel. There was something odd about my section that made it a little less straightforward to access from any direction and it took me some time to find the right passages. My section had quite a few human season ticket holders in it, and I’ve found that those areas of Club are almost as much fun as being in other parts of the stadium. Lots of spirit.

The whole stadium seemed to be taking Arteta’s request to heart. A lively atmosphere considering the opponent was Crystal Palace. Technically a derby, but usually one without as much of the usual rancor. This even though Crystal Palace managed to produce a tie in our last match at The Emirates.

One possible point of drama was that Eberechi Eze came to us from Crystal Palace. As I recall, he scored one of the goals in the match at the Emirates last year. The woman to the left of me wondered aloud whether Eze would celebrate if he scored a goal against Crystal Palace. There is some nonsense where players who score against their former team will not celebrate so as to be kind to their former club. To date, the Crystal Place fans have been notably classy about losing Eze to Arsenal. He did a lot for them. They appreciate that. Eze has played pretty well for Arsenal but has only scored one goal this season, in the Carabou cup. It seemed we probably would not find out the answer to that question on the day.

In contrast, Declan Rice came to Arsenal from West Ham under similar circumstances but while producing £105 million in revenue for his former club. Money that could be used to strengthen the West Ham team beyond replacing this one player. But Declan Rice gets tortured when he plays against West Ham. They do not forgive him at all. Rice didn’t score against West Ham in his first season with Arsenal. He did manage to score against them in early October at the Emirates. And while he did not celebrate the goal he scored right in front of the visiting fans, he appeared to make eye contact. A bit of a glare, I felt.

An example of a player who did celebrate against his former team: Arsenal had a player named Emmanuel Adebayor from 2006 to 2009, when he was sold to Manchester City. The first time Arsenal faced Man City at Man City’s stadium, Adebayor scored a goal against Arsenal and then ran the whole length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans, who rioted. I’m sure he was receiving a ton of schtick from the Arsenal fans before that decision. The process of losing players was so painful at that time. You felt so insulted when someone chose to leave.

I was so late to my seat I didn’t have time to check out the line-up. As soon as the players came out of the tunnel, there was Big Gabi, clearly in the starting line-up. Quite a relief. And Eze, of course.

All the usual ceremony took place. Good old Arsenal (blah), North London forever (yay) and finally the kick-off.

Many times I’ve been asked why I fell in love with Arsenal. Although I fell in love well in advance of the Premier League being picked up by NBC sports in 2013, I remember a great article in the sporting press in conjunction with the rollout campaign for NBC about how, now that everyone would be able to watch every match, someone could go about selecting a team to support. It was described as being akin to the sorting hat in Harry Potter. Just watch the soccer and a team will be magically chosen for you.

I was watching soccer with my kids and husband on Fox soccer channel well before that and had that sorting hat experience after watching Arsenal a few times. When I try to verbalize why Arsenal was chosen, I say I’m a sucker for beautiful, flowing soccer. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s manager at the time, also appeared to have a weakness for that beauty. His teams were stacked with players with technical ability. People who could complete the beautiful pass, deception with the ball, a tricky dribble, a back heal, a lovely, arcing shot. But Arsenal was also naive in spirit and porous in defense. The Arsenal of old could also not break down a low block, but it was very susceptible to counterattacks.

But now, Arsenal is not that. This is not really a pretty team. So why has the sorting hat not rethought my options?

I’ve heard it said that the reason is Arsenal fans are hypocritical. Speaking only for me, I think I’ve become more mature as an appreciator of the sport. Not just the overtly pretty things, but things that are less obvious. I have learned that what I want and what Mikel Arteta wants are often two different things. And when someone knows more than you and sees things you never could and whose job hangs in the balance, it may make sense to try to respect that. And try to learn what that person is attempting to achieve. What is the objective when working from the back? What is the objective of the horseshoe of death (as we call it when Arsenal’s defenders are passing from right to left and back to right)? Why has Arteta selected this player in this situation and a different player in another situation? What are the different ways Arsenal attacks a set piece? I’ve learned to appreciate winning a duel, laying down a great tackle, working in concert to ensure our defensive team is the last line of defense and not the first line. And, of course, all the different ways to produce a deceptive set piece.

And when I approach a match with not just excitement, but also curiosity, a match that might have felt tedious to me feels interesting and like a learning experience. The Crystal Palace match, especially in the first half, was probably the poster child for a match I would have formerly found tedious, but at this time found fascinating. And with regard to my fellow fans at the stadium, I would say almost every time they might be starting to feel frustrated, they reacted by trying to lift up the team with chanting. Arteta’s request had clearly been heard.

Crystal Palace of course deployed a low block and Arsenal of course struggled to unlock it. I can only remember one shot on goal. And when Arsenal did unlock it, guess how?

Set piece again, olé olé. One of the Crystal Palace’s players briefly lost the plot near the end of the first half and fouled Saka, giving up a free kick, which Declan Rice took. At least 20,000 fans in the stadium picked up their phones and started taking video, including the man to my right. The ball Declan kicked naturally came to Big Gabi, who was facing Declan and away from the goal and who headed it back toward the edge of the penalty area. Eze came running in and struck the ball in a very odd way. Since the match, I’ve heard the kick he made referred to as a karate kick, a scissor kick, a hitch kick, a forward bicycle kick, and probably a few other things.

Whatever. It rocketed into the net.

Answer to the question posed at the top of the match by my seat mate: Eze did not really celebrate. He kind of also did not not celebrate.

We celebrated enough to make up for whatever it was he was doing.

At halftime I went to concessions and stood in a long line of people getting beer and ultimately picked up a cup of tea. One of the beers Arsenal is now serving at the stadium is Guinness. It takes a long time to pour a Guinness–I wonder if they regret that? The lady next to me complained fiercely to me about the inefficiency of the process of serving beer. Beer is available at no added charge to those in Club. Ergo, a lot of people want one. I appreciated her decision to read me into her frustration and nodded sympathetically, even though my empathy was not really piqued.

In the second half, Arsenal had a lot of chances right in front of me, just no success scoring. Hitting the bar, goal keeper saves, a lot of excitement, not much payout. Some set pieces that did not produce a goal.

Arsenal’s former player Eddie Nketiah was introduced late in the match to the applause of both home and away fans. Eze was withdrawn about 5 minutes from the end of normal time to the applause both home and away fans.

Toward the end, everyone seemed so tired and Crystal Palace did make some progress challenging toward the goal. I think Arteta was very willing to trust our defensive stability and not worry so much about scoring again. As much as Arteta does not worry. Whatever we are seeing on the field and however we might try to understand and appreciate it, there appears to always be something more he is looking for. I guess we are all growing up together but he’s working on it well ahead of most of us.

The match ended 1-0. The only shot registered by statisticians as being “on target” against Arsenal was this weird thing from Eddie Nketiah that David Raya easily caught. Arsenal’s six matches in October ended with no goals scored against it and only one shot taken by an opponent–Eddie Nketiah’s–being ruled “on target.”

My husband and I normally meet after the match at the Arsene Wenger statue. I got confused with the unusual set-up of my section and headed the wrong way out of the stadium. It took me forever to figure out my mistake. So long, and with crowds so thick. it just made sense to keep walking. It was raining again and when I arrived my husband was waiting under building near the statue.

We walked in the rain back to Arsenal station, 3 points in our raincoat pockets and plans for a nice dinner with our California friends.

For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve had the same problem

Amy O2 Comments

As we were on the tube from Fulham to get back to Central London earlier in the day, two young boys and their mothers entered the train at one of the stops. The boys sat in seats next to me and the mothers sat a few seats away. I took very little notice of them until, through my own reverie, I overheard one of the boys say to the other “For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve had the same problem: Impatience.”

I did a double take at the boys because my recollection had been they were very young. Too young for one to make an observation like that. Too young for impatience “as long as I’ve known you” to have been a flaw that might not ultimately be outgrown. Sure enough, they were maybe 5 years old.

The Accused boy was quite interested in understanding this fault in himself. The boys had a very reasoned discussion about why it was perceived that the problem of impatience existed in the Accused. They good naturedly turned to the question of whether it was the Accuser who never wanted to play what the Accused wanted to play or whether, in fact, it was Accused who never wanted to play what the Accuser wanted to play. In conclusion, they both delighted in looking at a cute dog on the platform at a stop.

This conversation came back to me as I was watching the Atletico Madrid match because, as always, you did feel a lot of impatience inside that stadium. But as we know, sometimes patience pays off. We also know that sometimes it never does.

We had been fortunate for this match. For the first time this season, my husband and I were successful in the ballot. We had seats together and they were cool ones, row six in the southwest corner of the field. It’s been so long since we had seats together at a match I felt appreciative of how nice it was to be able to share observations without wondering if it’s weird and join together in the chanting. I honestly don’t mind sitting by myself with other fans because the stadium is welcoming; it’s unlike any other place you might attend something alone where most of the people are attending with someone. But you still feel the oddness of being one among a crowd.

Upon arriving at The Emirates we took a quick scan of The Armoury, the place where all the Arsenal Merch is sold. As we were leaving The Armoury merch-free we saw a lady holding a sign that we should download an app on your phone that was going to be used to create a light show inside the stadium before the match.

We did download the app but unfortunately the stadium’s wifi is pretty poor with so many people using it and our T-mobile signal is weak inside the stadium as well. We were not able to be part of the light show but not being part of it allowed us to enjoy it. It was cool. As music was played in the stadium, the lights from people’s phones pulsed synchronously. The video below was posted by another fan on YouTube.

The last match we attended at The Emirates was Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Manchester City, after which, among some parts of the fan base and football press, the sky was falling. Arsenal was in a much different state heading into this match with Atletico. Not only has Arsenal won every match since Man City, including a Carabou Cup match, a Champions League match, and several Premier League matches, Liverpool have fallen apart. Liverpool were in top position in the Premier League after week 5 but now, after Week 8, Arsenal is marginally at the top. The League is tight, tight tight with big position shifts every week.

Heading into this Champions League game, we have a great defensive record, with only 3 goals having been scored on us all season. And our success with set pieces continues to be a thing. The only concern is that we’ve struggled to score goals from open play, mostly because we haven’t figured out how to break down a low block where defensive congestion is near the opposing goal. When there is something you don’t do well, everyone you compete with knows to make sure you regularly have to do that thing. That contributes to feelings of impatience, because you just want things to be free flowing and productive and not a bunch of dark alleys to be tried and rejected. But a low block that Arsenal might struggle to break down also tends to produce a lot of corner kicks and free kicks due to fouls close to the goal. Being able to score from set pieces comes in handy when you get a lot of these chances and not too many other kinds of chances.

The starting line-up included a couple of choices Mikel Arteta hasn’t made much this year. Miles Lewis-Skelly was awarded a start at left back. Lewis-Skelly is a wonderful left back but Riccardo Calafiori has been too much of a beast this year to replace unless you are giving him a rest. That appeared to be the case today as Calafiori was on the bench. And Gabriel Martinelli started at left wing instead of Leandro Trossard. I have no idea what is in the mind of the brilliant Arteta, but my theory is that he prefers Martinelli to Trossard when he expects the game to be more open. Martinelli has a lot of speed. Another theory: Mikel’s noticed that Martinelli seems to be able to score in the Champions League.

Low seats like the ones we had for this match are great for experiencing stadium ambiance and seeing players up close. However, despite requests in the stadium to avoid “persistent standing,” they are seats in which you will actually never sit down. Persistent standing is the rule, not the exception. With some craning on my part around the tall folks, we had great up-close views of Bukayo Saka during the first half, for example, as he took several (sadly) unsuccessful corner kicks near us.

The game started well for Arsenal as Eberechi Eze’s deflected shot hit the post about 4 minutes in. Declan Rice’s subsequent rebounded shot was wide of the goal. But things settled in and Atletico gained some control across the half.

There was a horrifying moment at the other end about 25 minutes in where our goalkeeper, David Raya, came out of goal to deal with a ball on the North end of the field. It seemed that he thought the ball was going over the end line from a kick by Atletico but the pace of the ball dropped off while an Atletico player was bearing down on him and he had to kick it over the side line. He didn’t have time on the ensuing, very quick, throw-in to get back to his goal and none of our defenders was in position to cover. The Atletico player receiving the ball from the throw-in took a very quick and good kick toward goal that just missed. A very close call. Arsenal did score a goal in front of us late in the first half after very nice play from Martin Zubimendi and Saka. It was called back because Gabriel Martinelli, the goal scorer, was offside when Saka passed it.

By halftime, Arsenal had played well and produced dangerous moments, but Atletico looked pretty solid. And also created some danger. It felt like one of those games that was going to have a lot of action while ending in a scoreless draw. Easy to feel very, very impatient. I raced off to the restroom while my husband enjoyed 15 minutes of sitting down.

The second half started with dangerous moments for each team. Now Arsenal was shooting for the goal far from us so it was harder to tell how we were doing. We had at least one chance on goal. So did they. About 10 minutes into the second half, Martinelli was judged to have been fouled about 20 yards from the goal. (I say “judged” because I’ve now watched replays of this foul. All I can say is I would be mad if this foul had been called against Arsenal.) Declan Rice stepped up to take the kick. He is so deadly in these situations. But deadly needs a partner, and everyone knows that partner is Gabriel Maglehaes. He was lined up with the other Arsenal players and somehow no one covered him as he ran toward goal after the kick came in. Glanced right off that beautiful Gabriel noggin and into the goal.

Why I know this is what happened is they showed a replay on the big TV screens. What I saw from my spot, low and far way in the stadium was Declan Rice kicked the ball and there was a pause and then all the fans in the North end jumped up in unison and said “YEAH!”

In the stadium, they announce the goal scorer and the stadium announcer usually says “The goal scorer is <first name>. And then the crowd yells: “<Last name>”! That gets repeated three times. But in the case of Gabriel, we English speakers are stupid and can’t pronounce his last name. So for Gabriel, the announcer says “the goal scorer is number 6” and the crowd yells “Gabriel!”

Almost immediately after the Arsenal goal, Atletico came very, very close to scoring in front of us. Only a deflection from Gabriel kept the shot out. Arsenal ended up defending some corner kicks from Atletico. There were also a few off-target shots. Danger, danger, danger.

Nearly 10 full minutes after the Arsenal goal, Lewis-Skelly received the ball near the half-way line and slashed his way through the center of the field, evading multiple Athletico players. As he approached the penalty area he pushed through a lovely ball to Martinelli, who was blessedly onside this time. His one-touch shot curled beyond the goal keeper and glanced in off the far post. Even where I was I could see all of it perfectly. Massive celebrations.

And everyone can pronounce his last name, so you know what we did next. 2-0.

We didn’t have to wait as long for the next one. A few minutes later Zubimendi put up a lovely long pass to Martinelli who crossed it to the goal. This I saw. Then I saw a scrum and a pause and a celebration. What I did not see until the replay is that the ball came to Eze and he passed to Viktor Gyokeres, who had his back to the goal. He was able to turn and deflect the ball off the defender’s legs, slow roller. 3-0 and a goal Gyokeres really needed. He hadn’t scored in quite a few matches.

About a minute after the re-start the ball went out for an Arsenal corner kick on the side where the kick is normally taken by Declan Rice. Declan Rice put up a beautiful kick and, inevitably, it was quickly in the back of the net amongst great celebration. Big Gabi had gotten on the end of the kick and headed across the goal at hip level, where Gyokeres was able to run it a few steps into the goal.

And here I would like to take some credit. Although I have been to a match in which Gyokeres has not scored, as of this match Gyokeres has never scored in a match I did not attend.

4-0. Fifteen very consequential minutes that we had to wait 55 minutes to start. Patience paid off.

A lot happened after that. Even though we were leading by 4, I still felt some nerves. Some players who haven’t seen much game time got into the match. There was a set piece by Arsenal on which no goal was scored. Saka had a dangerous dribble into the box. Raya had a great save but on a shot that was called back for some problem. Offside or a foul, not sure which. From my great seat, I saw Antoine Griezmann, a really wonderful French player who must be nearing the end of his career (and having a bad day, since he did not start for Atletico and they lost badly), up close and personal.

Far too early, Arsenal fans started the olés for successful Arsenal passes. Far too early, Arsenal fans asked Atletico “Who are ya?” Far too early, Arsenal fans asked Atletico “Are you Tottenham in disguise?” But karma was not in play–or at least has not yet been addressed–and no further goals were scored.

This match proved to me there is no score line that will induce me to leave the stadium before the match is over. We saw others leaving to beat the crowds, some when there was a lot of time left. Even though my husband sometimes suggests that we might leave, too, this time he did not. At the whistle, we left with a cheerful but highly belligerent crowd into the damp London night.

It was late when we got back to The Bailey’s. I was so wound up, I didn’t fall asleep for hours.