Chelsea in China

I went to the Barclays Asia Trophy at Hong Kong Stadium. The tournament was made up of three English teams (Chelsea, Villa and Blackburn) and a local team, Kitchee.

I’d been to watch the football a few months ago, but this was different – The ground was packed and the queues to get in were massive. For the last month or so there’s been a huge buzz about the English teams coming over to HK. It’s been all over the newspapers etc.

On entering the stadium, I was shocked by just how many Chelsea fans there where there. EVERYONE had big Chelsea flags on sticks. I thought it was a bit strange but it was about an hour later when I went to the bar at the top of the stadium and noticed that there was a Chelsea stand that was giving the flags away for free to anyone who filled in a card and gave them an email address!

I’m going to gloss over the first match because, well, it wasn’t particularly good. It was Aston Villa v Blackburn. Villa won 1-0. I missed Darren Bent’s goal early in the second half as I was still queuing to get food. A young kid called Barry Bannan was pretty good for Villa. If anyone’s doing a fantasy football team this year, my tip would be to stick him in. I’m guessing he’ll be fairly cheap. I really can’t think of anything else to say about the game, so I’ll move on to the main event… Chelsea v Kitchee.

Chelsea were… Well, they were Chelsea. Kick off was held up for five minutes whilst they did their ritual of walking round, high fiving, embracing each other, and praying like they’d just emerged from a trench, not a plush changing room, and were about to go over the frontline. No boys, it’s a meaningless match and you’re playing against some Chinese blokes in bright pink shirts.

John Terry spent the entire game being his usual bullying/whinging self and arguing every decision with the Referee… As I’ve said, it was just a friendly kick around against some Chinese blokes in bright pink shirts. Remain calm, JT, REMAIN CALM!

They put out quite a strong team. The usual wankers were in the starting XI (Terry, Cole, Drogba) and the other prick, John Obi Mikel, was on the bench. They didn’t play Petr Čech in goal. They played Ross Turnbull for the first hour and then Hilario for the last 30 minutes. They both didn’t really have a save to make. The main plus points for them over Čech is that they don’t have to wear a crash helmet when they play

Anyway, the final score… Chelsea ended up winning 4-0. Lampard scored a penalty (as always, I think his mum helped him out and he remembered to thank her after he’d scored.  Maybe she told him which way the Chinese ‘keeper was going to dive?), Drogba got two (‘a brace’, as someone I know likes saying!) and Sturridge scored the forth. He looked very good… Much better than Fernando Torres…

Torres came on for Drogba for the last half an hour. He was rubbish. He had five or six chances but couldn’t finish them. Everyone was actually willing him to score, but he didn’t. It got to the point in the last minute where he hit the post and everybody laughed!

The highlight of the evening was a bunch of Chinese fans that were sat just in front of me. Every time Florent Malouda got the ball in the second half, the group of Chinese fans shouted ‘I love you Cheryl!’ Nobody else in the stand had the heart to tell them that they were shouting at the wrong black man! Jesus. Light racism at its best/most embarrassing.

For the last few days, the Barclays Premier League Trophy Tour has been in HK. It a bit of a strange set up on the top level of a multi-storey car park in Kowloon. It was made up of four domes/tent things. The first one has a load of different trinkets from various players and then you went through to the second dome and watched a film about the history of the Premiership. It had all the classic moments – Keegan’s meltdown, the classic 4-3 matches between Newcastle and Liverpool from the mid 90s (again, Keegan having a breakdown) and Rooney’s first goal for Everton. The next dome contained the Premiership Trophy and then, in the last section, you could have your picture taken against a green screen so it looked like you were holding the trophy above your head. You were then given a code to download the picture at home.

Finally, sticking with the football theme – Locko and I have started a fantasy football league here. Come and join. The code to join the league is 893202-218888. I do shite ever season, so you’ll beat me easily.

AJG

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(*Disclaimer

1 – I’m fully aware that, if she reads this, Laura T will have something to say regarding my thoughts on her beloved Chelsea.

2 – I’m also fully aware that I’ll probably be eating my words when Torres bangs a couple past us this later this season.)

This week, I have mostly been listening to:

The Calimocho Club – Whoa Whoa, Hey Hey EP (check these boys out!)

Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys

Placebo – Black Market Music

The Cribs – Live at the Ritz, Manchester

Metronomy – The English Riviera