Manchester United vs. Everton

We made it back from Manchester last night, and needless to say, the game was AWESOME! It was such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... I mean, how many people get to watch Manchester United, the best soccer team in the world, play at their own stadium?! 

Jordan was so excited the night before we left that he literally laid out the outfit he was wearing to the game. Just so you know, this is not a normal occurrence! :)

We took a train to Manchester, which was actually a really nice way to travel, and not to mention we got to see part of the countryside outside of London. We were pretty anxious to get to the game, so after we settled into our hotel and got all bundled up, we headed down to the stadium for some tail-gating and picture-taking.

The stadium is pretty massive, and has a lot of history behind it. I thought this statue was really cool, showing how important team unity is to Manchester United.

Yeah, we were a tad early, so there weren't very many people inside the stadium yet. Okay, we were 2 hours early, but whose counting?! It's hard to tell how big the stadium is through these pictures, especially because the other side was kind of blocked by the over-hang roof above our seats; but just to give you an idea, there were 75,399 people at the game on Saturday. I have never seen so many people in one place! It was pretty incredible.

We finally managed to get a picture of both of us! :) This is pretty much the view from our seats, which were in the second row of the top level. It seems pretty high up, but it was actually nice to be able to see the whole field and everything that was going on.

Although Manchester United ended up winning the game 1-0, they pretty much dominated the whole time. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of watching soccer, but it was so much different watching the game in person -- the game is much quicker and way more exciting when you're actually there! 

I'm not sure if you can really see it, but if you look in this picture in the top left-hand corner, there are security guards stacked between two of the sections of people. We found out later that they were in between the Manchester fans and the Everton fans. :)

Sporting events, we found, are completely different over here. Even a game as big as this one didn't have a ton of hype like the games do in the United States. There are no big introductions, no fireworks, no cheerleaders or dancers, no announcers (which I thought was crazy), no music during the game... just pure old-fashioned soccer! I actually found it refreshing, to be honest. I love that it was more about the game and less about making it a production. My absolute favorite thing was how the fans were so into the game, regardless of where their seats were. They cheer and sing the whole time! Yes, I did say SING!! And everyone (well, everyone besides us) knew the words to the songs, so the whole crowd of 75,000 people is singing, and it creates a pretty cool atmosphere.

The only drawback was when the game was over... just try and imagine 75,000 people leaving the stadium at once. A little nuts! We finally made it back to our hotel, and since we had time to kill the next day, we decided to go see Valkyrie since the tickets were literally half the price of movie tickets in London, and then Jordan turned me loose in Urban Outfitters, my all-time favorite store, while he did some studying at Starbucks. :) All-in-all, it was a great trip, and a memory we will always cherish.

It started snowing when we left Manchester, and was still snowing when we got to London. And it's STILL snowing as I type this. There is probably 3-4 inches, which is pretty much unheard of in London. Both of Jordan's classes got cancelled today because of it, so we are having a snow day. I think we are the only people who aren't excited about it after all the snow we experienced in Spokane before we left. I took this picture this morning of the courtyard behind our flat.

Here is some video we got of the big game! It cuts to a few different things: first it shows the outside of the stadium, then the inside, then it shows the one goal of the game (which we were able to catch on video because it was a penalty kick), and the last clip is of the crowd singing. Enjoy!

P.S. We want to wish Josiah, Jordan's brother, a happy birthday today!!