Tag: The Hope

Where they belong

Amy OLeave a comment

“I’m in tears.” That was the text message from my former colleague at the conclusion of the Arsenal semi-final match vs. Atletico Madrid. I had not heard from him for more than two years when he left the company we both worked for. He is a huge Arsenal fan and if we have little else in common, we do have that. He even has “Arsenal” tattooed on his forearm in giant, brand-correct letters. And that tearful sensation seemed to be the feeling many Arsenal fans had, including me. You just wanted to reach out to people who can understand what we’ve all been through. And relive it. And smile for once.

What a wonderful week! It seemed everything came good. Arsenal managed to beat Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semifinal and on aggregate, putting us into the Champions League final in Budapest for only the second time in Arsenal’s history.

And Man City dropped points in the Premier League the day prior by only tying Everton. It was a mad match, with Man City scoring first near the end of the first half, then Everton scoring three unanswered goals, then (of course they did) Man City scoring two goals near the end of the match. We vowed not to watch the match on TV. It’s been established as bad luck. But we did occasionally check in on the scores.

Which means Arsenal are in the driver’s seat for the Premier League. Win the three matches remaining and we are Premier League champions. And in Champion’s League, we have to win just one more match.

I say that as if it’s easy. Only the math I employed there is easy.

My husband and I were not ultimately able to get tickets for the Atletico Madrid match, which we understood was a likely outcome at the outset. We put in the work on the exchange, but it was not to be. We ended up watching the match, somewhat coincidentally, in The Hope, the pub where we watched the Real Madrid quarter-finals when we couldn’t get tickets that time either. It’s not really an Arsenal pub and it was not packed with people but most of the people who were present were Arsenal fans. And we got a good result in that pub for Real Madrid, so it seemed like a good place to be.

I say that as if it was just fine we couldn’t be there in person. It was not fine. The atmosphere at the Emirates looked amazing. Best ever. The club encouraged fans to be on hand to greet the players’ bus as it rode into the stadium and it looked like pure pandemonium. There was a big light and cannon show before the match. A huge, new tifo. And the stadium was so loud. Definitely a good counterpoint to the first leg that was in Madrid. Which was loud and came, bizarrely, with numerous rolls of toilet paper unfurling.

Mikel Arteta surprised everyone by rewarding the starting players who had done so well in the Fulham match, contrary to the prevailing narrative that he would use players he rested for that match. He didn’t make a single change in the lineup. And they rewarded his reward by playing well and dominating most of the match. There were a few scary moments but Arsenal looked really solid.

Only one goal was scored, but it was enough. Just before halftime, William Saliba spotted Viktor Gyokeres starting a run down the right flank and made simple, long pass. Gyokeres was given some time to control the ball and loft it to Trossard on the opposite side. Trossard pushed the ball toward the goal and made a solid shot, which the goal keeper punched out. Atletico’s defenders seemed asleep at the switch, but there was Bukayo Saka to hit it past the keeper and into the net. Not beautiful in the traditional sense, but it created some beautiful feelings.

Most matches do not seem won when Arsenal are up by only one goal, but this one kind of did. Arteta was able to make earlyish subs in the second half and get some rest into players who had done heavy lifting over the week and we were able to keep Atletico under control.

The celebrations at the final whistle were incredible. Some fans were in tears, some players were in tears. There was a lot of jumping and singing. Cannons were shot off again. Even Mikel Arteta did a crazy little dance with Trossard. In a funny turnabout, instead of giving his jersey to a fan, a fan gave Saka a scarf. Declan Rice was interviewed after the match and said the dressing room was “chaos.”

We’ve been home for more than a week now and Arsenal have already played West Ham in the Premier League, a cagey 0-1 win. One of the narratives for the half week until the West Ham match was played was Arsenal haven’t won the Champions League competition, why have they celebrated so much after winning only the semi-final? Celebrate when you win something. So in the press conference before the West Ham match, Mikel Arteta was asked what he thought about that.

Arteta said he hadn’t heard that kind of talk. Ultimately, he said, “You have to respect every opinion and place them where they belong.” The reporter who asked the question followed up, asking where Arteta has placed these opinions about the over-celebration. “Where they belong,” he said, obtusely, with a smirk.

Man oh man, I love this guy. I love this team.

Paris Saint-Germain won their second leg against Bayern Munich in the other semi-final a day later, so Arsenal will face PSG in Budapest at the end of May. PSG was chill about the win that placed them in the final. In one form of celebration, their fans lit cars on fire in the streets of Paris.

PSG are certainly favorites to win the competition, but I’m counting on Arsenal to give it a go.

And, naturally, hoping to be able to complete at least one sanctioned celebration this month.

You get what you need

Amy OLeave a comment

Declan Rice was preparing to take a long free kick following a foul on Bukayo Saka in front of Real Madrid’s goal when a fan near me asked derisively, “How long has it been since he scored from a free kick?” It was an easy question. As good as Arsenal were scoring on corner kicks earlier this season, I can’t remember a free kick ending in anything except disappointment in recent years. And at 0-0 with only about 30 minutes remaining in the second half, I didn’t have my hopes up.

What happened next seemed like a miracle. Rice hit the ball, it swerved around the wall of Real Madrid players and into the net with one of the best goal keepers in the world, Thibaut Courtois, at full 6′ 7″ stretch, unable to reach it. We were thrilled, and relieved. Arsenal had looked good all match but it still had seemed conceivable up to that point that the match would end at 0-0 and we’d have to meet Real Madrid on their home turf next week with the wind in our faces.

We learned after the match Declan Rice had never scored such a goal.

As you know if you are a regular reader (I see you, fam), I only write while I’m in London. There are two home Arsenal matches this week and although we had tickets for neither when we scheduled our trip we felt that our best chance of scoring tickets for both was to be in London. We were VERY confident we’d be able to get tickets for the Brentford match over the weekend and significantly less confident about getting tickets for the Champions League match against Real Madrid on Tuesday. But still, a little confident.

As small our confidence was, it can now be classified as overconfidence. I must have clicked more than a thousand times for tickets the last week alone. Maybe a thousand in the several weeks before that. Nothing. On the day of the match we hedged our bets by reserving a space at a pub where we could watch the match on TV, hoping fervently we’d be able to cancel it in the end. That did not come to pass. We found ourselves watching from The Hope with other fans who also could not manage to get tickets.

About 10 minutes after Declan Rice scored that beautiful goal, Arsenal found itself again with a long free kick, again following a foul on Bukayo Saka. Declan Rice again teed it up and stroked it through the hole in the stretch of the wall created by Arsenal shirts parting like the red sea. Real Madrid keeper Courtois again stretched across his goal, missing the ball as it struck the top corner of the net.

Having never scored even one such goal, Declan Rice scored two in one night.

I’ve never experienced a celebration anywhere like what happened at The Hope. The goal was so unexpected, maybe even more unexpected than the first goal. There was no “Yeah!” or jumping around or cheering. Everyone just laughed.

We waited only a few minutes more before youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly put a cross in toward our makeshift striker Mikel Merino. There was nothing easy about the shot he had to make but he made it beautiful. In another time and place it would have been the best goal we’d seen in ages.

We ended up beating last year’s Champions League winners 3-0. To prove that there is no team good enough not to be trash-talked while also trashing our fiercest rivals, through the TV we could hear the Arsenal fans singing, “Are you Tottenham? Are you Tottenham? Are you Tottenham in disguise?”

It was hard not to be at The Emirates. The place seemed to be rocking all match and for good reason. We tried to console ourselves that it was just a short walk to our hotel and wasn’t it nice that we didn’t have to wait in a crowd to get on the Tube? But the reality was harder to take. Probably the most exciting match of the season. We were so close, but so far away.

And it makes the away match next week in Madrid even more important to give best efforts to. The match over the weekend against Brentford for which we do now have tickets is likely to be one for which Mikel Arteta keeps our best players on ice. We must take as few chances as possible for additional injuries.

In the end we accept all of it, from a glorious win we could not be present for, to a possibly tedious loss or tie in the Premier League at home over the weekend. If next week’s match against Real Madrid ends the way we want, I lean on brother Mick. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you might find you get what you need.