Rail Replacement Buses and Parked Buses
Editorial note: it seems I had a bit of a drop off in deliverability on the last two dispatches, presumably because I included images. If you missed them, they had the subject lines “I was there” and “What a peach of a goal.” They’re also linked at the bottom of this dispatch.
My second full day in England came with a few more trains, my third match, and my third hotel. I woke up in Stoke to catch an early train south to London with a slightly heavier pack. Why did I do my Stoke souvenir shopping now? I’ll be back next week. Poor planning. I did buy a Mainoo scarf in Manchester for the first match, but I left it at the hotel. I don’t need that in my life, it was just for the moment. Now that the match is concluded, I’m done being a United fan.
My coach on the first train, again Avanti West Coast line, in the opposite direction from my first day, was completely empty for the first leg, a lovely and somewhat eerie treat.
Then came the rail replacement bus, which I’ll get to ride again tomorrow. All the other replacement buses we passed on the way were proper coaches, akin to a Greyhound bus, but ours was inexplicably the type of bus normally used as a rental car shuttle, with space for a couple of bags and not much else. To make it more fun, every time the bus idled at a stop, it shook like an unevenly loaded washing machine on the spin cycle.
The next train, a Thameslink train, was delayed for unknown reasons, and to balance out my empty coach on the first train, this one filled to near capacity while we waited to depart the station, and filled up completely by the time we got to the last stop before London.
I was nervous about getting to my next match on time (read: early) but it ended up being a breeze. My hotel was right across the street from St. Pancras, where I was able to check in early and drop my bag, then back across the street to St. Pancras underground station where I caught the Piccadilly line to Arsenal station where I was going to see Arsenal WFC take on Lyon Féminin. The tube was full of Arsenal fans, men and women, boys and girls. For my first women’s match of the trip, it was lovely to see the crowd.
The walk to the Emirates Stadium was lovely, with a good crowd and again, I was pleased to see vendors selling scarves with the women’s names and faces, same as the men’s matches. I overheard a few fans talking about how pleased they were with the growth in the WSL fan base. When I got to my seat, I ended up in a row with a few men with their sons. I know the bar is low, but I’m pleased to see a women’s match getting attention from a variety of demographics.
This match is another two-legged tie, this time for the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) but this time it’s the first leg of the tie. Arsenal are normally pretty strong at home, so I went in confident in the potential for a win, and excited to see the team live.
My seat was about midway between the halfway line and one of the goals, a dozen rows back, on the end where the visiting team was warming up. Ironically, two of the three European matches I’m attending on this trip have Lyon as the opponent, but this time it was Lyon Féminin. A bit unfortunate because I don’t care for Lyon, and they have one of my least favorite USWNT players. Meanwhile, Arsenal has some of my favorite footballers in the sport. I would have loved to be on the side where they were warming up, but alas. At least I was there.
It was a thrill to be there during the build up to the match, after several years of watching the Arsenal women’s team from afar. Hearing the sounds and seeing the sights first hand, not shipped out through microphones and cameras across an ocean. Also, I finally got to hear the UWCL anthem. Not that I care about it, but the DAZN feed where I watch the matches always plays one bar of the anthem out of context and now I finally have context.
The match kicked off to a barrage of crowd noise and Arsenal was strong for the first ten minutes, with a few good chances at the goal near my seats. But after the first quarter hour, Lyon readjusted and had the answers for every question Arsenal asked the rest of the match.
I’m not tactically minded enough to say what was wrong, but it didn’t feel like the Arsenal team I watch most weekends. It likely didn’t help that the match officiating was pretty suspect and inconsistent. Lyon scored once on a breakaway in the first half, which looked suspiciously offside, but apparently VAR disagreed. I’ve yet to see any clips that show the run fully, so I’ll confidently maintain here that VAR was wrong.
At the second half, Arsenal again came out with some tactical changes, but again, Lyon adjusted quickly, and that was the end of Arsenal looking at all promising. It didn’t help that, as they say in the sport, Lyon parked the bus, meaning they locked down their defense, once they had the lead. Better to take a slim lead back to France for the second leg than risk opening up and making a mistake that might let Arsenal take over.
There was a little bit of hope when Arsenal won a penalty, which was taken and scored by Mariona Caldentey. Ironically, I actually saw Caldentey score a penalty in her final home match for FC Barcelona Femení, last spring in Spain. I think this makes her the first player I’ve seen score in two different matches.
In the end, Lyon scored again and won the match by two goals to one, and they looked the better team. Begrudgingly, I’ll admit they deserved the win. The brightest player for Arsenal, in my opinion, was USWNT’s Emily Fox. She had a few good tackles on her USWNT teammate Lindsey Heaps, which was fun for me, and she created many opportunities, none of which came to any good.
The Arsenal underground stop was closed following the match and I had the choice of trying for a different stop, or just walking back to my hotel. It was a 45 minute walk, and the weather was beautiful, so I joined the crowd heading south and made my way through London. I ended up with a touch of color on my cheeks, which is how I learned that my new moisturizer doesn’t include any SPF. (Don’t worry, mom, I bought some with SPF this morning.)
After I got back to my hotel, I took an hour and a half long power nap, and woke up famished. So far on the trip, I’ve not had a lot of time to look for where to eat, so there hasn’t been a lot of great eating, mostly just Snickers bars and the sausage rolls, so I was due for something with vegetables. I spent a little time looking around me and I found a promising looking Greek restaurant around the corner from my hotel. After a big salad, and chicken kabob, I finally felt human. I wandered around for a while after, then back to my hotel for an early bedtime before my next train.