Arsenal

I’ve covered the Minnesota Vikings, and Flamengo.  Now it’s time for another sports entry, this time the top tier English team, Arsenal.  I started getting into soccer in summer 2000, and began learning about the various teams and leagues around the world, starting with Brazil and going across the ocean to Europe.

 When I lived in Europe (1979-90) I didn’t pay much attention at all.  In fact, what I despised were Americans who slavishly adopted French clothing and culture and pretended to be French, and looked down on the rest of Americans as boorish, provincial redneck dolts.  And the biggest way a 10 year old – especially a boy – would do this is turning into a soccer fan.  With few exceptions, all the American soccer fans I knew were arrogant assholes.  So I was very much disinclined to follow soccer, even if we couldn’t watch NFL in Europe at the time.  The one thing I recall with any clarity is the UEFA cup showdown – I don’t even know if it was a final – between Ipswich (no longer in the Premier League) and St. Etienne (still in French First Division but long past its glory days).  The kids at my school, Marymount – this had to be around 1979-81 – were taking sides, and I didn’t really care. 

 10 years later I finally started paying attention, and chose Arsenal as my favorite English team.  Why?  I don’t think it was their track record.  At that time Manchester United were the pretty boys, especially since Beckham was still playing with them.  Mainly I liked the name, the fact they were from London – the only part of England I’m familiar with and have been to – and the whole cannon thing, perhaps somewhat Freudian.  BIG GUNS!

 They formed in 1886 from the Woolwich Arsenal, eventually changing the name simply to Arsenal in 1914.  The crest features a cannon, and the team’s nickname is the Gunners – not to be confused with a cross-town rival, West Ham (“the Hammers” – featuring marching hammers, tres Pink Floyd the Wall).  As Iron Maiden fans, we learned about Steve Harris’ preference for West Ham.  He still puts the Hammers’ crest on his basses.  The story is that he passed up a chance to play for them, choosing his band instead.  Since West Ham are scarcely known outside England – and I dare say they have very few fans outside east London, their home turf – Harris did much better to achieve World Domination with Iron Maiden over the years than he ever would have no matter how well he did with West Ham.  West Ham has never won the First Division or the Premier League.

 Another fierce rivalry is with the Tottenham Hotspurs (“the Spurs”), located very close by in North London at White Hart Lane.  When I hear “Spurs” I’m not thinking of the basketball team from Texas.

 The team colors are red and white, with alternate colors blue and yellow.  The motto, Victoria Concordia Crescit, means “victory through harmony”.  The uniforms typically featured a cannon, until the crest (with a cannon inside) took over, with a very modern makeover in 2002.  The sponsors started in the 80s: JVC, Sega, O2, and now Emirates.  By now I’m used to seeing soccer jerseys with sponsors, so the absence (rare nowadays but common from the early 80s and earlier) makes them look rather plain and boring.   I’ve accumulated a few Arsenal jerseys over the years, three away (two blue, one yellow) and several home (red with white sleeves).

 Their first run of dominance was in the 1930s under managers Herbert Chapman and George Allison.  In 1971 they won the “double” – League Cup and FA Cup.  It took them until 1989 to win the championship again, this time with yet another famous manager, George Graham.  Since the First Division (now called Premier League) formed in 1919, Arsenal has remained in the top tier, never relegated to the lesser ranks.  Since the late 1990s they have been competitive in the top of Premier League, fighting for dominance against Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United – with Arsene (!) Wenger at the helm.  They have a total of 13 league championships, although they have never won Champions League.  They are the only team in modern Premier League history to have a perfect season (2003).

 Since 1913, they had played at Highbury, an older stadium in the north-east part of London.   As with Maracana, in Rio de Janeiro, Highbury has had its capacity dramatically reduced over the years from 60,000 to 38,000.  The team now plays in Emirates Stadium, a fancy state of the art facility recently built in 2006 with a more reasonable capacity of 60,000 and all the modern bells and whistles.  I haven’t been back to London since 1985, a time at which I had zero interest in soccer and zero awareness of Arsenal.  Given that the team’s home games tend to sell out, even had I known, I might not have been able to see a game there anyway.

 Thierry Henry has been their strongest player in recent years, holding the goal scoring record.  David Seaman was their top goalie.  Fabregas (I keep thinking his name is Fiberglass), Ljungberg, Bergkamp, Ferninand, Campbell, and Walcott are other recent players of note.

 Fever Pitch.  I’ve mentioned this Colin Firth film before, in my “Pride & Prejudice” blog.  This was the original film, not that idiocy with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore about the Red Sox.  He plays a humble elementary school teacher in London who supports Arsenal, with a maniacal devotion.  Everything is about the team, even down to his cannon-festooned sleeping boxers and moving into an apartment (sorry, “flat”) just blocks away from Highbury.  The film takes place during the 1989 season, when Arsenal can finally follow up their 1971 victory – but he’s convinced the team will choke at the end expressly to disappoint him.  They need to score two goals against Liverpool – IN Liverpool! – to win the final, an extremely unlikely (but theoretically possible) outcome.  His girlfriend, another teacher, tolerates his passion and madness, absorbing some of it by osmosis – her BFF busts on her for checking the scores in his absence.   It’s a nice story with some Arsenal thrown in.