Soccer...I Mean Football

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend I thought it would be appropriate for me to blog about my first soccer game here in the UK.  Or rather, my first football game.  Now I could get into the fact that the rest of the world calls soccer football and are annoyed that we call it soccer, but I won't.  Although I do find it interesting that the NFL is thinking about holding a Super Bowl in London.  I wonder how that will go over if it does happen.

I didn't have to travel very far for my first match.  King's Lynn has their own team.  They are the King's Lynn Town Football Club...or the Linnets. 

The Linnets are in the United Counties League Premier Division.  That basically means they are several leagues below the Premier League which is where everyone wants to end up.  The cool thing about the football system here is that the teams move around from the different leagues depending on how they do each season.  So, in theory the Linnets could one day be playing against the big boys in the Premier League. 

The stadium is adjacent to the park which makes it really easy to get to.  It is a small stadium, but nice.  It is set up in a way that you are very close to the pitch, or field.  Which makes it all the more easier for the crowd to taunt the players.

On this day the Linnets were going up against Spalding.  Going into this match the Linnets were ranked number 1 in their league. (As far I can tell, they still are which is pretty cool.) 

I have been to a lot of sporting events in my life and every one of them has started with the playing of the National Anthem.  That didn't happen here.  They introduce the teams and that was it.  Apparently that's not something they do here, at any level.  Oh...and as a side note, the drink of choice at the match was tea.  Don't know if I will ever get use to that, although I do like it!

I have been trying to get into football before I ever came over here, but wasn't having much luck.  In fact, I think I really annoyed my friend James with all my questions and arguing with him over some of the rules that I don't agree with.  But being at this match certainly helped.  While I still don't agree with all of those silly rules, it was a fun match.  It is much easier to understand a game when you are watching it live and not on TV.  The Linnets won 3 to 2!  While that sounds like a low scoring game, for football it's actually a pretty high scoring game. 

I can't wait to head into London to see the a bigger team play...and experience those crazy football fans you always hear about!