A Day of Protest and Victory

The march to Hyde Park

People getting ready for the speakers.

Flags make protests so much more fun.

This is how I look when I'm angry at capitalism.

Wembley, just before the sky opened up on us.

The scrappy Slovakians warming up.

The national flags.

The unveiling of the flags...Now that I think about it, I have never seen so many flags in one day in my whole life.

The national anthems.

St. George's Cross in the crowd.

Rooney and Heskey plotting just before kickoff.

Lampard taking a corner.

Warm-ups at the half.

Coming off the field after a satisfying win.

Beckham gets his 109th cap for England, still a fan favorite.

Yesterday was one of the most fun outings since coming to London. We went to a good old fashioned protest, and then headed over to Wembley for the England v Slovakia friendly. The protest was full of hippies and communists, my two favorite groups of anti-socialites. The hippies were typically protesting some sort of human rights violation (of which there are plenty to chose from), and the communists/socialist/Trotskyist/Marxist voice was the increasingly common mantra seen around London of the 'why should we bail out their mistakes?' strain. This was all related to the G-20 conference which is coming up. The largest contingent of the 35,000 or so protesters were just regular people who are fed up with the way things are going, and have been going for quite some time. This is probably the category that Kristin and I fall into, except Kristin is widely known in various violent Trotskyist movements, but that is another blog for another day. Needless to say, it was a good time and quite enlightening.

After the protest, we headed over to Wembley for the England game. Wembley is a really nice venue and I think it holds about 90,000 people so the atmosphere is amazing. We learned to sing 'Englnad till I die' amongst various other nationalist chants. Our seats were really good, we were only the 3rd row from the pitch and had a great view as you can see from the pictures. England ended up winning 4-0. Rooney scored twice, Heskey got one only 8 minutes in and, Lampard also got in on the action. England also unveiled their new kit, which I have to say is pretty slick, still not as nice as those blue ones the Italians sport, but nice nonetheless. Hope to hear from you all soon, enjoy the pics.

Here's a little 'God Save The Queen' treat.

Come On You Whites!!!

The timeless motto.

'Oh when the whites, oh when the whites, oh when the whites come marching in'

Getting ready for the 2nd half.

You can barely make out skipper Roy Hodgson belatedly making his way across the pitch.

# 23, Clint Dempsey, a fan favorite.

Pantsil trying to find an open man.

Our defense became a bit shakey.

Blackburn's free kick that eventually led to a goal.

So last night I finally went to my first Premier League game and it did not let down. I went to Craven Cottage to see Fulham play against the Blackburn Rovers. My friend Andreas has a relative that lives down in Hammersmith, only about 10 minutes from the stadium, and he has season tickets. He was out of town so we were able to go in his stead. The seats were amazing, only about 10 rows back and directly in the middle of the pitch. The Cottage is a really neat stadium, the stadium as it is seen today is over 100 years old and the grounds have been the site of different sports for over 300 years. It is a real classic and intimate sporting event. Some of the seats behind the press area are wooden and as old as the stadium itself. Fulham fans are not particularly known for their rowdy nature, but there was a lot of enthusiasm in this game. We got there right at kickoff and the only American starter left on the club, Clint Dempsey, scored within 90 seconds. That got the crowd going early, but we were plagued with some terrible officiating in the second half, and a terrible call lead to a sequence that allowed Blackburn to score, and then once again only 5 minuted before full-time. We lost 2-1, but it was still a lot of fun. After going to the Italy-Brazil game at the massive Emirates Stadium I would much rather prefer the Cottage. You can definitely tell the difference in venues if you compare the pictures here to those on the post of the Italy game. Hope you are all doing well, and hope to see you soon.