Liverpool - Chelsea

It's unfortunately that time of year again where all the random 'football' competitions are nearing the end and, um, emotions run high. One of these competitions is the Champions League, which is um, either finishing up the quarter-finals or about to head into the quarter-finals. You can't expect me to keep close tabs on these things as in general I don't really care. What I do know is that the Champions League is a competition that runs across Europe and is not restricted to certain leagues as a result. Oh, and it's a tournament style competition. If you want more details on the premise, you'll have to ask Mark. Teams play each other twice, once at each home field, and the scores are added together to determine the winner. In the case of a tie, away goals count more than home goals.

As part of this competition, Liverpool and Chelsea have been matched up in one of these near-the-end rounds. This meant that last week Chelsea played at Liverpool, and last night (lucky me!), Liverpool played at Chelsea. I have decided that both of these teams have weird and over-zealous fans who in general need to take a chill-pill, get over themselves, and find another hobby. As the game was blessedly on a work-day, I had to 'deal' with the gathering fans in order to get home. Luckily starting my journey at the second station on the line assured that I got a seat for the entire journey. The very large group of 8 or so Liverpool fans who got on the same station sadly had to stand. However, you get better lung capacity when you are standing.

On Chelsea home game days, the trains get very very crowded between Earls Court and Fulham Broadway, which is luckily only two stops, but it's a difficult two stops for people who have to stand. Yesterday these two stops were made even worse when that group of Liverpool fans decided it was best to start singing and jumping up and down. Sadly, there was no wall for me to bang my head against. After the fans got off at Fulham Broadway, a middle-aged woman sat down with tears in her eyes, traumatized from being stuck in the middle of the singing-bouncing fans.

As a side note, Chelsea won. Well, the game ended in a tie, but Chelsea won the game in Liverpool last week so they had the higher cumulative score and will therefore advance to the next round. They will be playing their first game against Barcelona in two weeks, and a week after this I'm eagerly anticipating sharing my commute with a large group of singing Barcelona fans. Yay!