Reached Manchester rather early at around 6am so went to the hotel to put down my bag before walking around & finally ended up at Old Trafford at around 9am! There were lots of vendors setting up to sell scarfs, flags, merchandise of MUFC (illegal ones I guess) but I didn't buy anything from there. Everything I bought from MUFC was from the Official Megastore! :)
I took a brief walk at the stadium before heading to the Lanchashire Cricket Club for the hospitality brunch they had in place for us. It started at around 10:30 and I left at around 12pm to go to the Football Stadium to feel the atmosphere of the build-up to the game!See the slideshow of pictures....
I've to say I bought the RIGHT tickets! It was definitely a very Memorable Day at Old Trafford because it was the 50th Anniversary of the Munich Tragedy. If you are a Hard-Core ManU fan, you will know about it. Lots of people in their ManU jersey, red or black, gathered round the stadium waiting to get into the Theatre of Dreams to catch this memorable yet tensed-up Manchester Derby game! There was this wall outside the East Stand which tuned the time to 6th February 1958 3:03pm when the Munich Disaster took place and lots of people prayed there and there flowers around it.
Me at the Stadium where my seat is
Anyway, I am not sure if you guys had seen the 1-minute silence being observed before the game and why the players are wearing jerseys with no name & sponsors, but only numbers because they wanted to bring game back to 50 years ago. It was an important game not because it was a Derby game but because it was to be played in memory of the BUSBY BABES (the players who died). The moment when everyone lifted up the red,black, white(for ManU supporers) or blue,black, white(for ManC supporters) scarf to observe the 1-minute silence was definitely GRAND & if you had seen it on TV, you will be impressed too. I got that SCARF too! :)
Players coming out from the dugout
Waiting to observe the one minute of silence
The atmosphere in the stadium was definitely lively & tensed-up. You hear cheers and lots of singing throughout the game and there was this rivalry which you can feel because the ManU fans will be going "F*** Cit" all the time! I was hoping to hear the hit "Glory Glory Man United!" but i didn't get to. I guess it was due to the outcome of the game!
Though I was sitting rather far back from the pitch, I could see every movement clearly and when the ball struck the back of the net, past Edwin Van De Sar, not once but twice, my heart sank. Not just me, I guess the heart of all the people around me sank! haha... I was sitting at the end where ManC attacks during the first half so I saw clearly how both goals went into the net! I have to say ManU played rather badly that day and I was kinda disappointed.. As usual, some fans left before the game ended maybe because they feel that ManU won't be able to make a comeback in the closing minutes since they were 2 goals down. But I held high hopes! Yet with greater expectations comes greater disappointment.
The thing about watching it live is that there are no commentaries & no replay screens so people who have short-attention span may just drift away after some time. But for me, both my eyes were on the pitch every single minute except half-time break! The most exciting part of the game took place in the 2nd half for me when it was ManU's turn to attack in my direction. With every attack that came near the penalty box & each corner, everyone would just stand up hoping that the ball will get into the net. Though it was quite tiring to stand and sit every now and then, the probability of seeing ManU score just overcomes the tiredness especially when ManU was falling behind. Sometimes, I don't even feel like sitting down to be honest. Never did I wanted time to slow down so badly in my life because I wanted the outcome of the game to be triumph on ManU's side but that didn't happen.
When Carlos Tevez scored, everyone was cheering only to see it being disallowed but he was clearly offside. Even when Michael Carrick finally earned a goal for ManU, it was too late. The game was already in the closing minutes. When the final whistle blew, you could hear the CHEERS of the ManC fans LOUD & CLEAR & their players applauding their fans. What about the ManU players? Heads down, pace fast, heading back to the dressing room. But their fans ain't that bad too. They sang this song which says that No matter what the outcome of the game, we will follow you.
There's this Nigerian guy that sat 2 seats from me and like me, he came specially for the game. Both of us shared similar thoughts because this may be our only chance to be in Old Trafford to watch a game & the outcome of the game was definitely not what we desired. I lingered around the stadium as there were lots of people exiting and I don't wanna squeeze my way through. The ManC fans weren't allowed to leave until all the red fans had exited for safety reasons. After I finally made my way out, guess where I went?!
Alright, I went to the North Stand where the players leave the stadium. I was trying to catch a glimpse of C.Ronaldo! Anyway, FYI, players don't train at Old Trafford. Their training ground is at Carrington, some suburb place in Manchester. Haha.. Yeah, I saw him! He's damn cool! Actually I don't really like CR when he first came to ManU. Maybe it's because he wears the No.7 Shirt which my all-time favourite DB wears so I always feel that he took away DB's place. What's more, he kicked England out for 2 Competitions consecutively, Euro 2004 & World Cup 2008.! I watched both matches & I was super pissed! But maybe it's the influence of my brother! He's a Ronaldo fanatic, always telling me how good CR is, the tricks that he do & how he always win free-kicks, penalties, corners, fouls etc etc... Plus there's just this charismatic aura that surrounds the Portuguese! It's just Jose Mourihno.. They have got this attitude that makes you love & hate them at the same time.. I like his cheeks, especially when he smiles so now, I not only accepted him as part of ManU, I love him!
Talk about the people that I saw.. the first that came out was Nemanja Vidic with his wife and kid if I didn't see wrongly. But he got onto his car rather hastily and left. Then it was Park Ji Sung! He's nice.. He went around for autography but I didn't get it as I wasn't standing in the first row at the time & I ain't that crazy about him. Subsequently, Nani came out and he was out there signing for the fans too. I could have gotten his signature but I didn't want to. Then out came John O'Shea. He's very friendly and he kind of waved before he went into his car. The big shot CR came out but he just got on his car after waving. He drives a Bentley Convertible, with a red top! So no autography from him but I got one of his pictures. Before I left, I caught sight of Giggsy who drives an Audi! I didn't wait for all the other players to come out because you don't know how long they will take though I would have love to see Rooney or Tevez. But it's boring to wait there and a rather waste of time anyway. So I left...
Nemanja Vidic (I think that guy beside him looks like Anderson)
Park Ji Sung
Mr Nani!
Yeah CR 7 with his Bentley
John O'Shea
Took the metro to the City Centre, walked around, passed by Chinatown (rather lively but I didn't feel like walking much) and headed back to rest.. End of the Match Day!I paid 199.75 pounds for this day & this dream-----But it's worth it!
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