Sports fan in London

One might not think that trading the cold and rain of South Jersey for more cold and rain in London is the brightest idea. Instead, one might choose  somewhere a little sunnier to spend a semester abroad. But I’m not going to London for sights and sun; I’m going for sports.

Great spectacles, from Brett Favre winning the Super Bowl with the Packers to Michael Jordan battling against the Monstars in Space Jam, captivated me like no other thing could. I’ve grown up living and dying with my teams and watching ESPN for six hours a day. I never thought my love of it would be as big at it is. The summer of 2006 changed everything for me.

I was never a soccer fan before the 2006 World Cup in Germany. For some reason that year, I turned it on the television and found myself being drawn in. For a month straight, I watched as much as I could. It was like I was a kid all over again; I was falling in love with a sport I knew nothing about.

The speed and sheer skill of the game amazed me. When the tournament ended and Italy was crowned as champions, I was left wondering how I would again satisfy my hunger for soccer.

Luckily, I stumbled onto the semi-finals of the Champions League. Chelsea was playing Liverpool, the team who had knocked them out of that tournament two years earlier. Chelsea played exciting soccer, but couldn’t break Liverpool’s boring, defensive play. It went into a penalty shoot-out to decide who would go on to the final. Chelsea ended up losing, but their tough play and fighting attitude made me a fan.

As I write this now, I am less than a week away from plane ride to London, capital of soccer’s homeland, England. I am going to be there for more than five months and I hope to have by biggest sporting dream, to see my beloved Chelsea play, come to life.

Ever since I began watching the sport of soccer, I have done everything I can to catch up on what I missed and find out everything about the team and the sport. I feel like I’ve been rooting for this team all my life even though it has only been a few years. I finally got to see Chelsea in person last summer when I saw them play in Baltimore as part of their preseason U.S. tour. However, I don’t believe that I can call myself a real fan until I see them play in their true home, Stamford Bridge stadium in West London.

Going to see Chelsea at the Bridge was my biggest reason for choosing London as my study abroad location. While I’m there, though, I also want to learn more about England’s sports culture.

I already read the sports pages of a couple British newspapers online, but I want to learn more about how it is covered, in print and on TV. I want to learn about the other sports they follow. I know they like rugby and cricket, but I know next to nothing about those games. I also want to know what they think about American sports. Do they really care if the NFL comes to play there once a year?

I’m going to England eager to learn.

I’m going to England to have fun.

I’m going to England to become a sports loving kid again, and that’s the experience I hope to share with you in this column each week.